Much to the chagrin of my family I have been living now in Asia for more than 15 years. Most of that time I lived in Japan, ten plus years and China over one and a half years. Currently I am living in Indonesia, on the island of Bali.

I got my first taste of Asia when I did a homestay in Japan for six weeks after my first year of university. Everything about that trip was so different to what I was used to, the food, people, language and customs. It made me want to go back for more. I experienced great kindness from my host family, the only problem was that I could not communicate with them, except for a few words.

One day when I was out on my own, I got completely lost. Nothing was familiar but everything looked the same – every person I tried to ask for directions ran away from me. It was the first time to really feel such helplessness and it was the first time in my life, I realized the difficultly people had when they migrated to Australia.

More to come…