Another episode in one week! :D

Today, this episode was recorded remotely with Nelli who just got married and started with her new job. Congratulations Nelli! We're so happy for you! <3

The title of this episode stemmed from a quote Nelli shared with me during the conversation: "At work, everybody's darling is everybody's a**hole", with which, we entered a talk about our jobs.

I landed a new job starting from 2024, and with extreme reluctance, I resigned from my current job. And I ugly cried on camera, while telling my boss about this. This has been 2 years where I found myself, recognized myself, and loved myself as a human being. I truly felt seen. Yet, all good things come to an end.

No specific topics were chosen for this episode, but we have a great talk, spontaneously.

Get well soon with the finger, Nelli! Keep up the good work!


Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• Celtic Folk Song - Caffeine_Creek_Band
• Hopeful Piano 2 - Music_For_Videos
• French Jazz Music - William_King
• Romance - Music_For_Videos
• Storytelling - Music_For_Videos

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So yeah, after 3.5 years, I was finally able to go back to China at the end of August 2023.

Before I got on the plane, I had pictured this trip in my head thousands of times: how I'd react when I'd get to see my mom again, my cousins, and my friends. I was feeling excited, anxious, nervous, and even a bit scared all at the same time.

Well, there were indeed moments which I enjoyed a lot while being back in my hometown again after such a long time. However, after all, the entire stay was not as good as I had expected. There were multiple reasons, and one of them hit me hard, feeling that that placed I once called home for over 20 years is no longer "my home", but rather "my parents' place". It feels really subtle but somehow also weird in my head.

Vivienne joined me in this latest episode to hear my thoughts and reflections regarding this long overdue trip. And she stayed for dinner of course, which was also why she came here in the first place XD

Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• Rumba - Lesfm
• Orange Juice on the Table - MondayHopes
• Home Logo - MondayHopes
• Start slowly - Darockart
• City Traffic (Outdoor) - Pixabay

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Today, I had the pleasure of having a new guest, Mei, join me in this episode, sharing her own first-hand experience of being a mother.

And what a coincidence! It's mother's day today! Perfect timing for a perfect topic!

Along with her husband, Mei was introduced to us back in early 2017 by Nelli. Over the years, we somehow managed to stay in touch and maintain a "visit frequency" of at least once a year. Each time we met, we seemed to have something new to share with each other, witnessing the process of growing up on both sides. And this time, Mei brought her story of spending 4 months with her baby back in China, while the quarantine policy there was still not lifted in December 2022.

When I was younger, I always thought I'd also have to have children, because that's the idea and the "plan" we were raised with. However, over the years, I learned the fact that one could actually choose, whether they want to have children, or not. After all, it's no longer a path that everyone has to go down.

However, we're happy for Mei and her husband for becoming parents. because that's what they both want, and we're firmly convinced that they'll do a great job at it! <3

Happy mother's day, Mei! And happy mother's day to all the mothers, including my own!

It's mother's day today, and it's mother's day every day!

Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• Mother - Music_For_Videos
• Cartoon Intro - Muzaproduction

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Anyone who has watched "Mean Girls" must have recognized the line in the title of this episode. :D

Yes, I'm late to the "big party" after 3 years: COVID has finally caught me. Unfortunately, we both are not one of those who don't show any symptoms. Instead, we've suffered from pretty severe chest pain, coughing, headache, and fever (only me).

Obviously, I'm not fit to work at the moment, and I had to take sick leave. All of a sudden, it occurred to me that after having worked for over 6 years in Germany, this is my very first time of taking sick leave. Why is that?

Then I got triggered to have a discussion with Nelli on the differences of "sick leave culture" between Germany and China, hence this episode.

My head still hurts. Get well soon.

Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• I am sad and melancholic (IG version Loop 02) - Lesfm
• Who are you - MondayHopes
• Where the light is - lemonmusicstudio

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Currently, the weather in Germany has been a bit of everything: sunny, rainy, snowy (?!) and of course for the most part, cloudy.

Vivienne joined me in today's episode. Just like the weather, we shifted from one topic to another, covering my most recent trip to Liechtenstein, to her upcoming trip to the Netherlands, and then to anxiety, etc.

Do we have to have a fixed topic for each episode? No, we don't. :)

The first quarter of 2023 is almost over! Hope you guys have made it worth your while so far. Take care!

Cheers.

Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• Be Free - Vladislav Kurnikov

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Time always seems to go by faster than you might think.

In a blink of an eye, I've been in Germany for 10 full years already.... What a ride it has been! Damn, 10 years? And just like that? Sometimes, it does feel like as if I had been here for my whole life, but when you look back, it's been "only" a decade. Not sure how exactly I should feel...?

10 years are enough to shape someone into a new person, yet something also has never changed. Looking back, I absolutely had no idea how my life would turn out, where I'd be, what I'd be doing, and what kind of life I'd be living. Sometimes I think, maybe it's easier to move forward when one doesn't set a specific goal and just go wherever life might take you. Nahhh, that's probably something one only dares to do when they're still young.

10 years are a short period of time when compared to one's whole life. I'm only glad and grateful for the old me in 2013 for having made the boldest decision to come to Germany, paving the way for many decades to come. These past 10 years have witnessed the entire process of me growing, maturing and also countless struggles. During these 10 years, I went from a more or less lost undergraduate to a Master graduate in Germany, and then to an employee here, and then went on to become a husband of a not perfect but great man, building own own family with 2 cats and a dog (as of today). Would I be living the same life, if I did stay in China instead of going abroad? Unfortunately, there's no way to find out, and there's no "if". What I do know is, I've earned what I have today, and I cherish that.

I've done pretty well during this first 10 years! And I know it's a cliché to say I can't wait to see what the next 10 years have in store for me, but I am indeed looking forward to that! :D
Here's to the 10th year anniversary in Germany to myself and also to those who have loved and supported me all this way with their faith in me. Cheers!

With love.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2023 everyone! :) New year and new style of this podcast! Some of you might have noticed that there's now even a new intro in the beginning. I recorded 13 different versions and finally decided on this one. I think it sounds kinda cool. :D

It's crazy how fast time always goes by. Due to the pandemic and everything else going on in the world, I haven't been able to celebrate the CNY with my parents and the rest of the family for over 3 years. This year, though I'm still not physically yet, my spirits are with them. Hence this episode together with Vivienne and Paul, celebrating this biggest tradition for all Chinese in our own way.

Vivienne went to Portugal with her boyfriend to brace the advent of 2023 not long ago, during which they had a serious car accident. Fortunately, they both were safe and sound and returned to Germany without a glitch. This experience of hers basically kicked off our episode today, and then it also "resonated" with me and I shared an incident I had when I was much younger. It's so sad but at the same time also funny, because we're talking about such horrible experiences on such a festive day. But why not? Who said one cannot talk about unfortunate encounters on a festive day? :D

Quoting Vivienne, "It doesn't matter whether your memories of the past are good or bad, you're now writing your new memories for tomorrow."

Wishing you all a happy, prosperous and healthy year in the year of the rabbit! Cheers!

Music source: https://pixabay.com/

• At the side of an RPG village - Katzen Tupas
• LoFi Acoustic Guitar with HipHop Beat 0133 - TuesdayNight
• Little Break / LoFi Beat - SoulProdMusic
• Chinese Music - Traditional, New Year Celebration - SoundGalleryByDmitryTaras

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Today is December 31st, 2022. It's the last day of the year.

I always believe that, to be able to brace the future, one has to bid farewell properly to the past first. It also applies to the soon-to-end 2022 and the upcoming 2023. Hence this episode to wrap up 2022 just for the sake of having to wrap it up. :)

This past year, the launch of this podcast brought me a great deal of joy and satisfaction, even though there is just a very small audience. Monetizing this channel was never my intention anyway.

Lots of crazy things have happened in the past 3 years. Physically, we've never been so far away from each other. However, we've also never been so close to each other at heart.

Right now, wherever you might be, whatever you might be doing, or however your 2022 might have been, I'd like to wish you a happy new year 2023.

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Surprise surprise! This weekend is a double-episode feast, simply because we want to spoil our amazing audience! (What audience...? :D)

My podcast-launch guest Nelli and I are trying something new with this episode by recording today's session remotely, because it is just not always practical for my friends to come over to my place to do the recording face-to-face. Not to mention that even when we record on site, still, the audio quality can be very poor, see the S01E06 with Fei, though we enjoyed the content greatly. And to our surprise, the audio from this remote recording is incredibly good! That means in the future, I can do remote sessions with my guests more often regardless of the physical distance.

In terms of the content for this episode, Nelli goes down a "dark" path (that's what she called it) to share her personal experience of being a German but at the same time not feeling like a German at all. She says she needs to get it off her chest. So, if a German finds it already difficult when it comes to self-identity and integration in Germany, what are we complete foreigners supposed to do? I assume everyone might have their own answers to this question.

In any case, this remote recording experiment has opened new doors for my podcast, where I am more than happy to provide a platform for my guests and friends to express themselves and share our memories, personal stories as well as their ups and downs in Germany. With that being said, that's what makes this podcast meaningful, extremely so.

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Fei was probably the first person I had discussed the idea of launching my podcast with earlier this year. I believe I sent her a voice message about this, but she never responded to that one...awkward...

We started our friendship as classmates in our master program back in 2013, and my first impression of her was horrible. However, over the past years, our friendship evolved to what it is today, somehow. She has been one of those who have witnessed my ups and downs as well as my growth along the entire journey in Germany since the very beginning. It was great to travel back to the past with her in this episode, while she came with her husband to visit us (and eat with us).

Last but not least, I am, again, disappointed in the audio quality of this episode. Having two mics is not working so well as expected. The voice is not clear at all compared to the past episodes where I only used one mic and recorded directly on my phone. In addition to that, there's a whole lot more echo. Maybe from the next episode on, I will simply go back to the way I started for a better audio experience. In any case, I wouldn't want to toss this 2-hour episode away, because we really enjoyed the content.

In the end, I don't want to jinx it, but I do want to say that December 2022 in Germany does not seem as difficult for me as it was in the past. I hope this positivity will stick around as long as it can. Peace.

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