Landed

A couple of pictures from my trip to Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires – Law School

Buenos Aires – La Boca

It’s been over 3 months since I last wrote something here. The previous post of “Up in the Air” was actually not supposed to appear here. It was just a title, a thought, that was inspired by the movie of the same name.

I feel that I’ve been travelling constantly for the past 2 years. I’ve been always literally “up in the air” since April 2008, and sometimes I also feel that everything is “up in the air” as well. After April 10, 2010, I’ve formally graduated. I got asked about what I’m doing, where I’m working, and where I’ll be staying. None of these questions is easy to answer. Well, I’m sort of freelancing now, preparing for a project that will probably last for 5 months. The topic is quite interesting – related to the fragrance market in China. Do Chinese use fragrance (perfume)? etc. Where is my office? It’s totally flexible, but I will stay in Shanghai during this period of time. I know this route is quite different from what a normal MBA would take, but I just like the flexibility and the uncertainty (actually it’s more like a love and hate feeling). I want to settle in a place to concentrate on whatever I’m doing, but at the same time, I hate falling into the routines. Guess I’m always walking on the thin line, trying to balance these two types of tendencies/preferences. Some people say I don’t know what I want, but I feel I do know what I want, it’s just it may be a bit idealistic. Do what I love to do, and have a bit from both sides of the world. I’d rather be a generalist than a specialist.

In the past two-year time period, I’ve been to the most places, and exposed to the most different people and things. The intensity of it may be only comparable to 2000-01. It seems that every 7-8 years, I’ll make some radical decisions that feels kinda like jumping off the cliff. From other people and all sorts of tests that I’ve done, I’ve also learned about different facades of myself. I’ve also realized in order to move on to the next steps, there is still a lot for me to work on from inside.

From May 2010 and on, I believe it’ll be a different stage of life for me. I’d like to explore Shanghai (and China) a bit more. My love-hate relationship with China is a tough one. Sometimes I wonder why I came to China. Was in Beijing last week. Looking at the grey miserable sky, feeling all the pushing, rushing and shouting of People, I couldn’t hate this country more. But it is such a dynamic place that I wants to be part of it, and learn more about it.

One more week, the long distance will start. I will not use “up in the air” to describe relationship although it will be a tough challenge. At least now I’m landed in Shanghai. Just need to find a place to live, and set up the work station. As a warm-up, and due to the limited time I have, I restarted the food blog in a different way – if you can read Chinese, feel free to check this out.