Living in China - an unexpected lesson in appreciation

Distance makes the heart grow fonder.  Or put another way, a close family need not be together.  Back in London, I never did live with my sister, despite her being in the same city (our personalities don't suit each other well for extended periods of time).  When we told people that we lived separately, I think they would think it odd, and think that it meant we weren't close as a family.  Actually I'm very close to my sister.  And to my mother.  And to my brother too, though I speak to him less often.

 

Being so far away as China, I have a sense of family closeness that I didn't really notice before.  Because I'm lonely, so far away from home and with only new friends here, I'm that much more appreciative of my ties around the world, be they direct family, cousins, aunts, uncles, or close friends.  They keep an interest in my life, I keep an interest in theirs, and therefore I don't feel so alone out here.

 

It's perhaps one of the many things I took for granted back in the UK, along with clean roads, meat in restaurants, being able to speak and read and the value of money.  Being able to visit my grandfather when in Birmingham is a luxury that I appreciate all the more now.  That he came to our family house for a meal when I was visiting Birmingham last week made me very happy.

 

Being in a place where so many things are different to those that I have grown accustomed to, I am learning again to appreciate the value of such simple things in life. 

 

To give you another example, I used to have the attitude that the 70 odd pence of change I would bring home each day was a right pain in the behind.  My attitude was that earning in the hundreds and thousands of pounds, what did 70 pence matter.  Now I appreciate that most people out here spend as much on lunch.  Numerous people carry out labour intensive and demeaning jobs through the night, such as foraging through rubbish bins for recyclable materials - in hope of earning small amounts of money to provide for their families.  Others such as girls wind up debasing themselves themselves as skimpily clad barmaids, hostesses or ladies of the night.

 

You'd think that such an experience would turn me into a tight fisted scrooge of sorts, terrified to ever spend money.  However, my earning out here is sufficient to afford a high level of lifestyle here though, which I do appreciate.  Much of my additional spending relates to time, convenience, style, environment, experience, company, quality, health and safety.  Funnily enough, as well as being mindful of the small change, I am also learning to enjoy and appreciate the times that I spend more money.  It took me a few months to get used to since arriving, but now I am comfortable to save money on some days, and spend larger sums of money on other days.

 

If I'm going to go to a bar and spend money, it costs me a relative fortune, and so when I do so, it's special.  Similarly if someone treats me to a meal, or even a coffee, I'm that much more appreciative of the gesture.  Actually, even KFC and Pizza Hut here cost a fortune.  Who'd have thought one could learn to truly appreciate pizza, or Macdonalds eh?