360-something days on...

I had my one year anniversary at work on Tuesday (and hence one year and 2 days since I arrived in China), and it passed without note, except that I had a coincidental enforced day off.  While it is nice to have a weekday off, I have to make this up on Saturday, with no opt-out or alternative way of working off a break that I had no choice about.  Oh well.  Nobody complained, either (I voiced my displeasure to HR, but they were overruled by the CEO).  Thanks, Chinese mentality.

I don't really have much time for a self-reflection right now, but hopefully I will be able to manage something in the future.  All I know is that this is the longest I've ever stayed in a full-time job (it was already the only permanent position I have ever taken), so that's somewhat of an achievement. 

It took me a good 6 months to feel like I'd settled in here, develop a few worthwhile friendships, and get to know the city.  Some of the friends have moved on, but I am still enjoying the city.  I've been lucky to have friends visit me here, and hope more will do so in the near future.  I've met some great people here, too, sometimes in unexpected places.  I have an apartment that I love, and great flatmates (although that wasn't always the case).  That situation may be changing, but, as always, I'll roll with it.

At the moment I feel like I have a fair amount going on, but that I'm not really achieving anything.  I've always had a bit of a lack of motivation (slash direction), and at the moment that tiny amount is being stretched out towards disparate, often vague goals (although reading about the Mosaic approach yesterday makes me feel a little more positive about it!).  My Chinese has improved somewhat, despite me not paying much attention to it.  Despite (or including) all the distractions, there are a couple of things in my life that make me really happy, and I can't really complain too much about the other stuff.  It's all balanced out by positives and side benefits. 

An upcoming trip home is also distracting me, and I can't wait to catch up with friends and eat a bunch of things that I can't get here.  I will probably come back to China with a lactose intolerancy from the copious amounts of dairy I am likely to consume.  Hopefully it will be balanced out by the meats and seafoods.  I haven't been out of Asia for over two years, so I hope that there's no reverse culture shock.  I may be able to ask for exactly what I want, and then receive it.  Amazing.  Perhaps I'll experience some kind of overload because I'll actually be able to understand everything that's on TV, in advertising, and in the conversations of strangers (although those strangers probably won't be standing quite so close to me as they would be on, say, any of the trains going through People's Square).

In light of a few recent developments, and of course the upcoming Expo 2010 (which probably nobody outside of China has even heard of), I'm feeling pretty positive about the next year.  I hope it pans out even better than I envision it...

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