WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

It was the year 2018, sunny South Africa a beautiful country I call home, my safe place, I traveled locally, experienced our beautiful culture, amazing cities, and most importantly our enormous amounts of nature, but something was missing. I craved the unknown, the unexpected, and since I was a little girl I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to experience something other than my everyday routine. And that's when it all changed, they always say there's a time and place for everything,

I found myself in a serious conversation with my mom, about life, and my past, my present and my future, and where everyone else was at, there were tears, laughter, and jokes. as time went by I found myself in bed, knowing that I have just been told I had another sibling, with tons of emotions running through me. I immediately started contacting my siblings, bombarding them all with questions, who, how, why. In short, I tried to wrap my head around the idea and came to an understanding that at the point in their lives when they knew I was too young to understand a single thing, so instead of anger I grew this strong curiosity

A few days later I eventually got her contacts from my older sibling and we immediately began chatting away, both beyond ecstatic and very much emotional, it was then that I found she no longer lived in South Africa and she was halfway across the world all the way in China and that's when my opportunities never ended, she told me she was working as a teacher in China and referred me to her company and not only was I lucky enough to have met my sister but I have the worlds best job ever.

After a year of living and working in China, there is not a moment of regret, in the beginning, I was absolutely terrified not of china but meeting my sister, the fear of the unknown really got to me as I was beyond afraid of rejection, I was afraid she wouldn't approve of who I was but that was all just my mind playing tricks on me. shes is honestly the kindest and most helpful and humble person I know and still to this day we are in contact seeing and speaking to each other every day as if she's been in my life forever, on February the 12th 2019 I said goodbye to my friends and family, definitely one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. I was beyond terrified to be doing this all on my own but I spread my wings and started to fly.

36 hours later I finally arrived in China, after a 16-hour layover in Hong Kong, I know right 16 hours that's absolutely insane, I arrived in this beautiful city called Chengdu, not being as prepared as I thought I was. I arrived in the middle of winter, freezing, improvising with everything I had. I was that foreigner walking around with socks on my hands! yes, you heard me socks. What an adventure it's been so far, meeting my long lost sister for the first time, getting to know foreigners from all around the world as well as being in something we call "culture shock" WOW what an experience its been so far,

I got to my hotel with the greetings of my new boss, not knowing exactly what he had planned for me. We went from the hotel to the office to meet my new colleagues and from there we went to a restaurant called “Mojar” where I experienced my first “eastern toilet.” I had the full package tour of China all in one night from restaurants to restaurants, to clubs and pubs, to 6 am fish markets with only 2 hours of sleep from those 36 hours. I was a walking zombie after that, hello jet lag!

Oh boy, this is where things got a little messy, I woke up in such a shock realizing its 11 am and im 3 hours late for my TEFL course ( Teach English as a foreign language), my phone has died ive woken up in my bosses spare bedroom, and it's only my first day, after hours of finally getting my boss up and heading back to my hotel to freshen up we headed off to the office not realizing what I was about to walk into, By the time we arrive it was already 1:30, I got there and everyone immediatly started bitting at my head, "where were you" "how could you" "you had us worried sick" "your sister is stressed" and thats all I need to hear, keep in mind at this piont I still havent met my sister so you could imagine what she was thinking of me, not only that everyone else already knew who my sister was and it felt weird hearing stories of someone that your related to but dont even know yet everyone else does. And that's when she walked in...

And as always stay strong keep smiling much love Eve.