Digital Nomad

In Central Citibank Tower Pacific Coffee. Dressing formally drinking a cup of coffee nearby my old work place like in the old days. I was there after an interview for the US visa. The first time in almost a year to wear heels again.

I am excited my visa got approved. My plan is feasible. I am going to the U.S. and South America!!

I have researched on all those questions and cases where the visa was declined for single young women. The more I researched the more stress I had and I pictured all those scenarios that I was being challenged and declined. I even brought my Invisalign braces to prove that I was going back to my country to see my dentist for sure! Haha! I thought of as many points as I could to defend myself that I was not going to stay in America. I was lucky anyway my visa got approved in just 5 mins. Thanks god thanks visa officer thanks everything.

I have got two projects on hand with a crowdsourcing company. One for Cantonese transcription and one for website rating. Hopefully I could pass the qualification test and start working on them. Then I would have good income while at the same time freedom of location! Though it may not be a stable job/career but in the meantime it really fits my needs. I could be anywhere not necessarily traveling volunteering or studying!

Being at home is more pressured than traveling. I feel my choices are more limited as when people around me are all talking about the importance of money and marriage. These thoughts grow stronger when at times I am not sure of what's next. Perhaps it's better I stay somewhere else to clear my thoughts since now I'm locationally independent in terms of work:)

Hong Kong, in between the east and west

I was often asked how it is like in Hong Kong. And some are surprised of how different I am from their Chinese friends.

When I was with westerners I could see many differences between both cultures. The way we think, habits, interpersonal relationships etc. but it is with Asians that I realized Hong Kong is much more international (or should I say westernized) than other Asian countries (China, Korea and Japan). Interesting facts like:

We all have our own English names

Everyone can read, write, speak English at varying degrees

Some of us can't even speak Chinese

We listen to western music, and dramas and movies

We have so many western brands

We have the same shoe size measurement as Europe and US (or maybe it's Japan who is different)

Our official language is English and Chinese and everyone learns English from kindergarten (and shamefully not speaking well)

We have lots of expats from around the world

And many of us studied or lived abroad for some time

We have restaurants of all kinds of cuisines

And (maybe) our media reports from the western point of view

Etc etc.

Other interesting things:

Our trees never turn yellow in autumn

It never snows

It never had earthquakes (Japanese thought it happens everywhere)

We don't need visa for Russia and Europe

We speak Cantonese, not Mandarin

I begin to feel it is such a comfortable place to live in. Everything close at hand. Convenient, fast, efficient. But sometimes we Hong Kong people lose our strength and instinct with the nature by being too comfortable in the city. Bad times may not come in our lifetime. But who knows? Sometimes it is saddening to know young kids kill themselves for just minor failures. Strange world.