I moved to China six months ago. That’s something I never thought I’d say. I had never really given much thought into visiting China, let alone living here.

If you, much like every other person I’ve met in the last six months, are wondering, ‘so why did you move?’ the answer unfortunately isn’t the most exciting one. Basically, what happened is, I graduated university in August with not a clue what to do with myself. I applied for teaching assistant jobs, knowing that wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I needed a year to figure my life out. I received an email about teaching English in China, I replied because ‘why not?’ and just over a month later I was on a flight to Hong Kong.

To be honest, since moving here I’ve felt at somewhat of a loose end. I originally started writing this four months ago, but not much has really happened, and thus I have just not been feeling compelled to write.

I mean, I say not much has happened, but when most days are the same it seems that way, however that’s not entirely true. In January I travelled for a month from Indonesia, to Malaysia, to Thailand. I had always dreamed of visiting Thailand, so I feel extremely blessed that I was able to experience that in this lifetime. I promise, the entire trip was just as amazing as you would expect, but I feel as though it requires its own piece, so I’ll come back to that another time.

That’s one of the main things I love about China. At 23 I have the freedom to travel to places that once seemed so far out of reach. In May I am visiting Tokyo, another of my bucket list destinations, and somewhere I didn’t think I’d get to see anytime soon.

I’m currently working as an English as a foreign language teacher for primary school kids in a Tier 1 city. While this has offered me some degree of financial stability for the first time in my life and I have a free teacher flat only minutes away from the city centre, this isn’t really what I want to be doing with my life. I don’t want to be ungrateful, and I recognise it as an amazing opportunity, but my day-to-day life is so mundane that often I regret ever even replying to that initial email.

For starters, I can’t speak Chinese. I don’t know if you’re aware, but it’s pretty hard to get by, even in a Tier 1 city, without being able to speak Chinese. And trust me, I’m trying to learn, but shocker, it’s not easy. I miss London. I miss my friends. I miss going to the shop and asking if they have bread without having to use a translator.

I really am trying to make the most of my time here, but for now I’m still stuck wallowing in self-pity. It’s certainly not all bad, but sometimes it’s hard to see the silver lining. There’s not much I can do about it now, and Momma didn’t raise no quitter, so I take each day as it comes, and always try to look on the Brightside, as hard as it seems.