Funny. One morning we were in a rural part of Zheijiang, where roosters crow and dart across roads that, these days, have become clogged with the newfound gasoline guzzling fortunes of the Chinese townspeople. And then later that night, we were having my birthday dinner up on Victoria Peak, looking over the harbour, the bright lights and the soaring office towers.

Two worlds.

I went home to Canada for Christmas break and despite the cold temperatures, it was a joy to be at home with my family. We had a lot of good food and a lot of down time. We are very much a modern family, each of us with our own PCs (or a Mac and iPad in my case, thanks to the bf for a great birthday present!) and too many television sets spread out around the house. But over the holidays, knowing that being together in the same place is so rare these days, we all gathered in the family room and watched the same HD channels. I may have been on the iPad, my brother on his iTouch, my mother on her laptop, and my Dad fiddling with his new Kindle, but we were in the same room. And that’s what really mattered.

I cried at the airport in Toronto. I was happy to return to Hong Kong for New Years. But somehow leaving family has become just a little harder these days. Must be my old(er) age.

2010 has been a most lovely year. I left New York City and moved to Hong Kong. I was reunited with the boyfriend. We had been doing the long distance thing for nearly 2 years and we had enough. I became a freelancer and managed to write for three outlets: I reported for the National Post about the masked man who boarded a flight in Hong Kong bound for Vancouver, I wrote a series of China health stories for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and there are a couple of travel pieces I did for the Associated Press.

I became a regular volunteer with the Hong Kong Council for Early Childhood Education. I taught English phonics and reading to young children in the city’s public schools.

I made full use of our kitchen here, cooking up my Mom’s classic Cantonese recipes. (Thank very much to her for answering all my emails promptly and fielding Skype calls when I needed guidance!)

I continued with my Mandarin Chinese learning and I’m able to read and write just a little bit more. 加油！

And, there’s been a lot of traveling. I was in Holland for a dear friend’s wedding, I saw the Expo in Shanghai, climbed Mount Huangshan with my parents and ate my way through Taipei’s night markets.

2011 brings more change. As soon as I’m settled into my new life, I’ll blog about it. Thanks for reading.

Coming up: A culinary tour of Taipei’s Shilin Night Market

An interesting report from TIME.com: