Lu-Hai Liang

This is my third summer in Beijing, and the first one where I want to work.

Looking back to last summer, I spent 20 days in Thailand, and I wrote a post in June entitled “What should a freelance journalist do in the summer?”

In that post I said it should be the season to unwind and get rid of stresses, but this year I feel differently.

I want to work and do productive things. And this isn’t about money. Yes, I don’t have enough of it to travel. And I still feel the urge to go somewhere where I can swim and frolic.

But I wouldn’t want to do that for an extended amount of time; a weekend would suffice.

Why this might be, I am not sure. Perhaps it is natural that appetites change and the propensity to knuckle down and set to should swing by at different life-stages.

Current days

I have various approaching deadlines and quite a lot to do. And new opportunities have cropped up.

Friends of friends have started up a food company that is doing very well, and they invited me to come up with an advertising campaign. This is a fun challenge.

I am also in the process of designing a course on journalism skills and better writing, which I will be delivering to a multinational company’s Beijing office. This is well paid.

I need this money, it will pay for the next three month’s rent, which I have to pay in a lump sum, and the money from freelanced articles will contribute to food and other living expenses.

The plan is that I will hopefully have enough to do something travel-related in September.

A few weeks ago I had a very hard time — I was not in a good place. But everything has perked up again. Living abroad is often about overcoming those dark days, and trusting in the eventual good times. Optimism must sustain you.