It's fair to say that 2012 - 2013 was a year of rapid and sizeable change. By the end of my contract and an extended trip through China, I was ready for a rest; to take some time to decompress, breathe, and reacquaint myself with my friends, family and home country. This coincided nicely with the start of my next contract. For various reasons related to horribly adult-sounding things like 'five-year plan' and 'career trajectory' I'd decided some time ago to set ...

One of the most difficult conversations I had in China happened at the first party I went to, one week in. A Canadian man introduced me to his Chinese girlfriend, whose opening gambit was 'you have nice eyes, but I think foreigner is more hard than Chinese.' Like an idiot, I thought she must have meant something like 'tougher' or 'more resilient', and tried to say I thought Chinese women had these qualities in spades, but she quickly cut me off - 'oh no', she sai...

It may have been mooted that I am not one for dithering about with half measures, but the move to China has been quick-sharp even by my standards. Turns out, when your Chinese contact says the turnaround from interview to start date is swift, what they actually mean is something along the lines of 'pack yer bags Laowai, you leave in two weeks'. As a result, the last fortnight has consisted chiefly of packing everything I own into two suitcases, photocopying ever...