Was it a dream or am I dreaming right now?

Logistically, moving back went smoothly.  However, psychologically I think it will take a while to adjust.  The first week, perhaps was a combination of my cold, 3 hours time difference, and the resistance to accept the fact that i moved back home and have to leave my friends in Toronto, it felt so surreal.  the feeling is like I was either dreaming right now or it has been a dream.


I thought moving back would be simple and easy as I'm from here and familiar with here.  Opposite to what I have expected, everything seems familiar but is so unfamiliar.  I felt like a human who lived in another planet with Aliens and now come back to Earth.


There's a unique flow of each city.  Now after a year and a half in Toronto, I adapted the flow of Toronto.  Though I'm from Vancouver, I've disconnected from the flow here.  It will take a while to pick it up.  I guess you can't switch from one flow to another just like that.


It took me 1/2 year to pick up the flow in Toronto enduring the torture of feeling not belonged.  Hopefully, it will take shorter time to get through coming back.

Lessons Learned

Over a year has zoomed by.  I've moved back to Vancouver after spending a year and a half living and working in Toronto.  It felt like I woke up from a dream.


It has been an amazing experience.  From my move, I expected to gain only work experience and to move on from my long-dragged on past relationship.  A year and a half later, looking back, I found I've learned much more.   


I have learned

• what friendship truly is
• that I cannot do everything myself and it is OK to accept others' help
• family should not be taken for granted
• when you open your heart up, you will find you are being loved more than you allow yourself to see
• what does my mom mean by using my heart to treat others (because I've met so many friends who treated me with their heart)
• life is too short to not live it to the fullest
• life is not fair but still beautiful
• what is support
• being able to give is a blessing
• that you can get a lot of things done but not get stressed
• what I want and what I think is important too
• the breeze that carry the smell of the sea makes me smile
• you need to being at the right place, at the right time to meet the people you know and become friends is not an easy thing.  This deserve you to treasure and cherish.
• there are places where weather determine how human live

To my surprise, I've learned much more life lessons just moving to another city within Canada than travelling to the other side of the world.  I'm so glad I have this opportunity to experience temporarily loosing something I took for granted in Vancouver.  This experience made me realize how fortunate I'm to have so much in my life.  I learned to appreciate and cherish people and things around me.

Happiness is not a thing that you have or you don't.  If you are not happy, perhaps, try to change your perception and attitude.  You may find happiness has always been around you.  It is only you never notice it here.

Tips for moving to another city

Moving to an unfamiliar city with no family and friends is tough.  I'm not going to lie.  Here's a few tips to meet people:

• Live with roommates will help expand your social network fast.
• Join a few sport league is one of the best ways to meet people.
• Why not volunteer?
• Find a book club to join
  
• Talk to random people at coffee shop
• Try meetup.com
  
• Crash parties
• Plenty of fish might be my last resort
  

Why backpacking?

Time to think and meet a vast mix of people you will never meet at home.  Backpacking usually is longer in duration.  Depending on what time of backpacker you are, usually you will have more time to stay in a city, to interact with people, and to explore the city yourself.

After every trip, I learned something different.  During your normal day-to-day life at home, there's just no time and space for me to think about important but not urgent matters.  Being in a totally unfamiliar environment, having the luxry of time, and hearing thoughts and stories from other backpackers with different background and history breed the perfect environment to think.  The feeling is like someone open up the box that I was in.  All of a sudden, I have a lot more space and options.  

Stereotypically, my first trip was in 2005 when I was in my third year going to Europe.  It was a threesome girlfriends trip.  The trip opened my eyes up that there's so much more out there than I realized.  I learned there're different ways people can live their lives and that I have choice to choose what suit me most.

My second trip was in 2006.  It was a girlfriend-boyfriend trip to Thailand and China.  I realized and finally admit what works for me in a relationship was not what I was getting.  I learned to let go when you tried and things didn't work out.

Solo to Eastern Australia in 2007 was my third trip. I met so many solo backpackers from all over the world.  Solo backpacking is one of the most amazing thing I discovered.  You don't have anyone to social with so you are forced to meet and talk to people.  From this trip, I learned that everyone has a story behind them.  All of us are trying hard to live our lives to the fullest.  There's always a reaons behind people's action that make perfect sense to them.  Be open and listen.  There's more than one way of living and thinking.  Yours might not necessary be the best way.

My recent trip to South America was by far the best ever.  Life just keep getting better and more adventurous.  It was a threesome co-ed trip with 2 other a friend of a friend of a friend friends.  Random, exciting and totally AWESOME.  Backpacking gives me a strong feeling of "I'm alive".  This trip helped me put my life into perspective.  I learned to live in the moment - not the past or the future.  Life is to be enjoyed and should be filled with passion.  There's always a trade off - what will you get and what are you willing to give up.  My priority became a lot clearer after this amazing trip.

That's why I love backpacking....

Where I Have Been?

What are my Fav Advertisements?!

What commercials do people still talk about it after.....20+ years?

• Apple 1984 - One and only one time aired & people still talk about it. Who beats that?

Cool Stuff

• Tourism Queensland Australia Best Job in the World - Pretty damn good when you get loads of free PR, 19,900 YouTube about it, 35,000 applicants, 400,000 new visitors to your website and worldwide people are talking about it. Best value tourism campaign perhaps, agreed? Viral campaign hitting the right spot.

Can Women Have It All?

"It is so much harder to achieve what you want once you have kids." Sounds familiar?  I hear that a lot at work.  It is inevitable as a young women to wonder how difficult it is to start a family while still want to achieve something big in their career.  It was horrifying to hear your mentor telling you, "you can't have it all kiddo."  Does it mean that you can't have a family if you want to climb up that corporate ladder?  Even when I do have a family, does it make me a bad mother when I choose to put more focus in my career?  How would being away for 9-months to have my baby impact my caeer?  Do I have to find a partner who is willing to be a stay-at-home dad?