Hello :) I grew up in China and moved to Australia when I was 18. Now I live in Brisbane. I am a qualified high school and language ( Mandarin & English) teacher, I have taught in Australian high schools in the past and now I mainly work with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. I am a vicarious reader, I am open minded and friendly. I am good at being curious, I love learning - learning languages ( fascinated by how our brain works), learning about other cultures, learning about the mother planet we all inhabit in. I value kindness, warmheartedness, authenticity, simplicity, respect and honesty.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I enjoy solitary while I am on the road and as the same time I have a deep yearning for connecting with like - minded people. I get a real buzz from meeting new friends.

Interests

Reading ( literature, philosophy, psychology, popular science, prose and poetry) art, theatre, music, cooking ( vegetarian), spirituality, gardening ( once in a while), hiking, travelling

• arts
• books
• literature
• poetry
• perfumes
• cooking
• vegetarian
• gardening
• flowers
• reading
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• teaching
• languages
• psychology
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy Leonard Cohen, Jose Gonzalez, Kings of convenience, Gorillaz just to name a few. I appreciate classical music too. I like Wes Anderson, Woody Allen ( Anne hall is one of my favourite), Ang Lee, Lars Von Trier, Baz Luhrmann etc. Many writers and thinkers have influenced me - I enjoy reading D.H. Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, Yann Martel, Jeanette Winterson, Alice Walker, Elizabeth Gilbert, Margaret Atwood, Steven Pinker, Rumi, Michel de Montaigne, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mary Oliver, Nadine Gordimer, Alain de Botton, Bertrand Russell and the list can go on and on :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Helping African, Afgani, Pakistani, Irani and Burmese refugees to start a new life in Australia.

Teach, Learn, Share

“It seemed an advantage to be traveling alone. Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others...Being closely observed by a companion can also inhibit our observation of others; then, too, we may become caught up in adjusting ourselves to the companion's questions and remarks, or feel the need to make ourselves seem more normal than is good for our curiosity.” ― Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

“If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.” ― Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

''All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving, it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt, without it, no species would survive. '' - Yann Martel, Life of Pi

''The most valuable thing a teacher can impact to children is not knowledge and understanding per se, but a longing for knowledge and understanding, and an appreciation for intellectual values, whether they be artistic, scientific, or moral.'' - A. Einstein

''Learning how to live takes a whole life, and, which may surprise you more, it takes a whole life to learn to die.'' - Seneca

“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success.” - Henry David Thoreau

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style” ― Maya Angelou

“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.” ― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you...it means that you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. It means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind. It means being able to say, with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: "I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.

Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions--predigested books and ideas...marrying early as an escape from real decisions, getting pregnant as an evasion of already existing problems. It means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short...and this, in turn, means resisting the forces in society which say that women should be nice, play safe, have low professional expectations, drown in love and forget about work, live through others, and stay in the places assigned to us. It means that we insist on a life of meaningful work, insist that work be as meaningful as love and friendship in our lives. It means, therefore, the courage to be "different"...The difference between a life lived actively, and a life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference. Once we begin to feel committed to our lives, responsible to ourselves, we can never again be satisfied with the old, passive way.” ― Adrienne Rich

What I Can Share with Hosts

Cooking, stories, I can teach my hosts some Chinese, share books and things I find interesting in life :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China