To me, China was always this place on my had-to-see list. Since I was little boy, I was fascinated and intrigued by this magical place with its rich culture and many different dishes that I only saw on TV. My dad and I used to watch all the kung-fu and Bruce Lee movies over and over again.中国一直是我一定要去的地方。我从小便向往这个神奇的国度，对其丰富的文化和各色佳肴感到好奇，而这些我只能从电视上看到。我和父亲会不断回看所有功夫片和李小龙的电影。

My Name is Bode, I’m an artist, a creative in the sports industry and a former UK National Champion in track & field. Over the past 22 years I have been fortunate to have a career in merging both of my life passions together. Moving to China 12 years ago has been one of the greatest decisions I have made, and I would like to share my story with you.我叫 Bode，我是一名艺术家，也是体育产业创意师，还曾是英国国家田径冠军。在过去 22 年里，我很幸运，能将我生命中所热衷的两种事情融入我的职业生涯。12 年前移居中国是我所做的最伟大的决定之一，现在我要与你们分享我的故事。

Hello! My name is Joyce and I come from Belgium. I’ve been living in China now for about 4 years. In the beginning, I got a job as an English teacher and at the moment I am trying to start my own business in fashion and writing a book in my spare time. They’re both a risk and I’m not sure if things are going to work out in the end, but I find enormous joy in doing those tasks and that’s what matters, right? 大家好！我叫 Joyce，来自比利时。我已经在中国生活 4 年了。一开始，我的工作是一名英语老师，目前我正试图从事时尚相关的工作，并用业余时间写一本书。这毕竟是一次冒险，我不确定最后是否会成功，但我能从中获得巨大的乐趣，这才是最重要的，不是吗？

Like many people, I came here to study the language. However, whenever people ask me why I started studying Chinese, I suddenly find myself unable to simply explain it. Chinese language was an easy way for me to divert my attention for a while when I was hospitalized. I was “the sick kid” ever since I turned 16, and as the nerd I have always been, I was genuinely worried about my brain getting mushy so I started studying the allegedly most complicated language in the world. I would spend most of my days on that hospital bed just reading, watching YouTube videos about science and languages, and you know, the occasional travel vlogs, but mostly just thinking about how beautiful life could be if I ever had the chance to travel around the world. Whenever I wasn’t in the hospital, I was enrolling in different language courses in my hometown, and my parents thought that since I couldn’t properly study a bachelors at the time, I might as well study Chinese at my university’s Confucius Institute.像许多人一样，我来到中国是为了学习中文。然而，每当人们问我为什么学习中文时，我发现自己无法用简单的言语解释清楚。我住院的时候，我通过学习中文来转移注意力。从 16 岁开始，我就变得非常容易生病。而且我是“书呆子”，我真的很担心我的大脑会变得不灵光，所以我就开始学习这个传说中世界上最难的语言。我在医院病床上的大部分时间都是在阅读，看 YouTube 上关于科学和语言的视频，偶尔也看旅行视频。我当时在想，如果我有机会环游世界，生活会是多么美好。每当我不用住院的时候，我就报名参加不同的语言课程。我的父母觉得，既然我当时不能好好地学习本科课程，不妨让我在大学的孔子学院学习中文。

I never thought I would go to China, let alone live here for so long. In 2016, I was invited by Xi’an Jiao Tong University to study Chinese for a month in the winter semester. Luckily, at that time I had a friend who was in Xi’an and when I received the news in the summer, my friend there suggested to me that I should visit Xi’an to experience the city first hand. Of course I agreed and came here for the first time!  We travelled to other cities besides Xi’an, such as Changsha, Luoyang, and Zhengzhou. From the very first day, I felt like I fit even, I adored the food here and the climate was extremely suitable in my opinion. My Chinese friend was surprised because he had never seen a foreigner eat duck blood, 皮蛋, durian, 毛肚, hen’s paw, pig’s leg and so on. I was in China for five weeks and then came back home. After I went back to St. Petersburg, I felt like a foreigner in Russia because China felt more like home than my actual place of birth. 我从未想过会来中国，更不用说在这里生活这么久了。2016 年，西安交通大学邀请我在冬季学期学习一个月的中文。幸运的是，当时我有一个朋友在西安，我在夏天收到这个消息的时候，朋友就建议我应该来西安看看，亲身体验这个城市的风采。我当然答应了，这是我第一次来到这里！除了西安，我们还去了其他城市，比如长沙、洛阳和郑州。自打第一天起，我就觉得自己很适合住在这里，我很喜欢这里的食物，气候也非常宜人。我的中国朋友很惊讶，因为他从来没有见过一个外国人吃鸭血、皮蛋、榴莲、毛肚、鸡爪、猪蹄等等。我在中国呆了五个星期，然后就回国了。回到圣彼得堡后，我觉得虽身在祖国，却似在他乡，因为中国比俄罗斯更像我的家乡。

I planned most of my life, however China was never on my radar. Living and working in China was totally unplanned but incredibly fascinating and worthwhile in every sense.我会规划人生，但是中国从来没有出现在我的视线中。来中国工作生活是完全出于偶然，但这一切都值得且令人神往。