I am often asked by people to give them my reasons for coming to live and work in China. I never fail to hesitate and give them some lame answer to their question. I usually end up telling them them I'm not sure or that I believed China would be a really different place than my home, or that I just wanted the travel experience. All of that is true. However, when I ponder the motivations that compelled me to seek out a means for being able to live in China, I come across deeper meanings than what I can just list off the top of my head. I will attempt to give a  list of the reasons why I chose to come to China in the most articulate way possible. Not just for you, the readers, but also for me. Perhaps the next time I'm asked why I came to China, I'll be able to say more than, "Because I wanted to".

Long before I dreamt of coming to China, I always held a fascination for the country. It wasn't an obsession, as in I didn't constantly think about it the way I did for the year or so before I left, but when I would read a magazine or watch a television program about China, I'd always wish that I could someday visit. The pictures of red cheeked little girls, incredibly dense population and beautiful natural scenery  led me into a healthy desire to see the country. I always felt that China was a bit mysterious. The striking pagodas with their Qing dynasty architecture attracted my whims. Pictures of  Chinese men and women with round grass hats working in rice fields and of beautiful women in traditional dress invoked in me a curiousity of the Orient. I have always been curious about Asia and it's people. Picking up what little I could from TV and books about China I was intrigued. Little children scooping rice in their mouths with chopsticks. Chopsticks to me were something I got to use a couple times a year when we'd go to a Chinese restaurant that was remotely authentic, and it'd take me all night to eat my meal due to my ineptness with chopsticks. I'd hear the sountrack of a movie that featured traditional Chinese music and my mind would be taken away....

My fascination with China culminated about a year before I came to live here. During that year I spent countless hours researching China and looking for ways to visit. I soon began to realize that I wanted to live and work there as well. Much of my spare time was dedicated to this arduous seeking of information. Looking at the images on my computer screen and reading the stories that had been written by people who had been to China filled me even more with the desire to cross the ocean and enter what I would soon find out to be a new world. I guess I can only say that the country, it's people and way of life propelled me to want to see and feel China.

The country was a big reason for me wanting to embark on adventure, but there were also personal reasons at work. I had come to a point in my life where I felt as if I was stagnating. I had developed a craving for life experiences that I felt I just couldn't attain at home, or grasp from the television or glean from words on a page. I wanted to travel. I wanted to travel to China. For some reason, I felt like the more different from my home the country I was that I went to, the better. My life in the States had become a life of daily routine that failed to stimulate my mind in any way, shape or form. I wanted a break from my family and from familiarity. I wanted a change.

China with it's fascinating culture and completely different way of life fit the bill. It had the adventure I was seeking, and I knew that I would gain the life experience I wanted as well. Although I haven't been ready for everything that has come my way, I feel as if I've adjusted moderately well. My foray into China  has deepened to include many personal facets that are *usually* a pleasant surprise.

So, you wanna know why I came to China? To be honest, I don't know.