Tuesday 1 April 2008

Adapting to different cities/countries

This is a sort of continuation from this post

From speaking to people and thinking about events in my life I've come to the conclusion that there are those people who love change and those who hate it.

I used to think I hated change but I think that part of the reason why I like Shanghai is because it is so different to Sydney. Totally different. There are many people like me who like different places to the ones they grew up in. Then, of course, there are those can only deal with the types of places they grew up in.

My parents are a perfect example. They both grew up in Taiwan and left in their late 20s. My father loves living in Australia and really doesn't like Asia at all. He did a 1 year stint in Germany and really liked that too (apart from the cold weather). He really looks up to Western people, culture, on the most part. Maybe it's because he suffers from this 'reverse racism' thing where he believes that everything in the West is better, white people are better, etc etc. My mother, on the other hand, although she lives in Sydney too, is always yearning to go back to Taiwan (or Hong Kong or China) and visit. She loves the hustle and bustle, the crowdedness, the cheap food stalls on the street, the great shopping the nightlife... My stepmother moved to Sydney a couple a years ago and is always complaining about it. She can't seem to see any positives about living there (despite the fact that there are millions of people around the world who would kill to live there, I'm sure). She is constantly whinging and complaining about how crap Sydney is and how great Taiwan is. ARGH. It's so frustrating. I guess age has a lot to do with it too as the older you are, the less malleable you are to change.

Then, of course, I think that the longer you stay in a place, the more it loses its 'lustre'. What seems like a great place for a vacation may actually be a shitty place to live! It got me thinking that it's like a relationship with a person ;) at first it's fun and interesting, then as time goes on more and more problems arise and you have to try harder to rekindle the interestingness that was there at the beginning!

Just a pointless post that doesn't really mean much to anyone except me.

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