A splatter of background

Its a tradition for students in the UK, at least for the more adventurous ones, to take a little time out after a degree, and go see something. So they pack their backpacks, put on a nice pair of boots, and wander off for a year. Usually they come back after a few months, when either the money or the ability to cope with sleeping on trains runs out, with longer hair, dirty boots and a thick photo album (or a few Gig of photo's).
The problem is - they had a great time, and a lot of memories. But when they talk estatically about, for example, their time in Japan - you realise that actually they were only there for a week, which was spent mostly on a train. In fact, they've travelled through 36 countries in 4 months without getting to know much about any of them. Then they get an office job in Sheffield and spend the next 40 years there.

No thanks.
Not to mention not having the money.

What I needed was a job. On the other hand, I hated Sheffield (I lived nowhere near there, but many of my friends seemed to get jobs there, in the end). So I had a plan (another late-night one) to look for work in other countries, spend a few years working 1-2 years in each, and actually get to know something a bit different.
After some filtering, it came down to New Zealand, Israel or Antartica. All cool places, but in the end I headed off to Israel for a year.
Which became 3. Which became 5. Which suddendly (in what seemed like a week) because 9 years, and I see the rest of my life here in a comfortable job, with comfortable pay and a comfortable house, being well - comfortable. But that's not the same as happy.

So I'm off again, this time to China. I just got held up for 8 years.

DaBai