[chinese blood, irish heart] - DEFUNCT

Just wanted to point out that it's one month to go before I leave Beijing. I thought I could recap my experiences so far these three months but they've honestly flew by. It feels like I've been on a personal retreat. I initially wanted to get away so much I was willing to do anything to get posted here, even though I couldn't give a toss about sports and the Games itself. Oh yes, and not to mention having to shaft for my own rent while my colleagues live it up at the 'company apartment'. Hah, but I'm over that really. It's been hard but fun so far. Come to think of it also feels like it's been a journalistic boot camp! Running a one-man operation in a foreign environment during the biggest media event in the world has its rewards, though. Experience. And that's how I've always wanted to work anyway, being my own boss and picking the stories I want.

Met a lot of interesting people along the way, especially some veteran foreign journalists. I don't tend to meet them much on the job in HK since we don't do hard news or go to pressers a lot. I listen attentively to their anecdotes and pompous stories because despite some of these guys' arrogance, they've got experience. And that's what separates us. Ironically however, but not in a negative sense, the two most interesting and like-minded people I've met so far are Hong Kongers. One's a newly-arrived who's a pseudo-journalist and multimedia practitioner like myself with an affinity for travelling to far-out places. Sounds exactly like me!
The other I'm surprised I had never met before in HK despite our mutual friends. A good photog and she's really lovely though - free-spirited and just purely amiable. *sigh*