How old are you, where are you from, where are you living now and what took you there?
I’m in my 40s and moved to Beijing, China from San Francisco. I love San Francisco and hope to live there again someday. But still, my daily life there had begun to bore me. I was dreaming all the time of traveling, experiencing new challenges, and just having a bigger and more exciting life in general.
So I had a plan to quit my job, travel in Tibet, Nepal, and SE Asia, then return to SF and get a new job. But first, I took a trip through China with my dad. And along the way I met my wife-to-be in Dali, in Yunnan province. She was in-between jobs and traveling by herself. We met in a bar on St. Patrick’s Day, how corny is that?
How long have you lived there and how long will you stay? What keeps you there?
I’ve been living in Beijing since September 2008. We’ll be here for at least another year and a half. The city can be frustrating, crowded, and polluted – but it’s also got a lot going on. There are so many people doing interesting things.
And it’s a good place to be while the American economy is in the doldrums. Cost of living is low, and you can have a really nice lifestyle for much less than you can in California.
The opportunities keep me here, definitely, as well as all the interesting people I meet. China is attracting very successful and interesting people from around the world and it’s easier to meet them and get to know them here than it would be back in the states.
There are several things I’m going to have a hard time dealing with when we move to the US: not having an ayi (maid), tipping, and the high cost of taking a taxi.
What do you do to make a living?
I’m a freelance copywriter, work part time for a private business incubator, and am starting a business to provide WordPress consulting and website copywriting.
One of the great things about being here, for me, is that I’m rare. For example, I’ve gotten to work for one of the world’s largest branding agencies and write taglines for major international brands. It’s not that I couldn’t have done this in the US, it’s just that back in the US there are so many other copywriters who are just as good (if not better) than me, so there’s a lot of competition.
Describe your average weekday and weekend day.
To be honest, my typical day is often like it was in the US. Stuff like commuting, working, hanging out with friends. If I’m not going into the office, I often work at Starbucks in the afternoon.
What skills have you learned while living abroad?
Bargaining, speaking basic Chinese, learning how to shove my way out of a crowded subway car.
The mental skills I’ve learned are more important, though: Learning how to work with people from very different cultures, being more flexible, not being so attached to my personal assumptions.
What are you missing (professionally) by not being in your home country?
Long periods of anguishing unemployment, mostly. My old company is gone and all my coworkers seem to be just plugging along, trying to get contract work. I’m lucky I got away.
If you could live anywhere, where would that be and why?
At the moment, I’m in love with Bali. My wife and I talk about living in South America sometime; we’d both like to learn Spanish. I’m thinking Chile since I have connections there, but have heard a lot about Uruguay and want to look into it. But I think my wife’s first choice is Argentina, so that’s probably where we’ll go!
Being in the same time zone as in the US would be very nice, and I’d like to be closer to family.
What is your favorite gadget that makes your work life abroad better?
My laptop (an old 17-inch PowerBook G4) comes with me just about everywhere. A necessity for me is the VPN, because of the annoying Great Firewall.
I love my iPod Touch, too, which I use at breakfast to read the New York Times and Daily Kos.
Do you have a favorite book that inspired you to travel or consider a different way of living?
I’m a voracious reader and love books, so I’m not sure I can answer this. Steve Hagen’s Buddhism Plain and Simple has had a major effect on me. I also love Montaigne’s essays. His grounded, thoughtful, humane, and cosmopolitan viewpoint is something we should all aspire to, I think.
Other than yours, do you have a favorite expat blog?
Other than Expat Alley, I don’t have a favorite – at least not yet. I like WorldHum and Vagablogging as travel sites.
I recently decided to start Expat American because most expat sites don’t seem helpful to me, or provide the news and updates I’d like to be getting. Also, some of the older ones look like they were designed by colorblind schizophrenics back in the very first days of the web. They really need to hire DomainWerx to do a major redesign and put them back in the game!
Not sure if I can make Expat American into the ideal site that I’d like it to be – a go-to source for current information that helps Americans living overseas – but I’m giving it a try. If anyone has any tips or advice they’d like to share, or if they’d like to write guest posts for me, I would love it if they would get in touch with me using the contact form on the site.
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