The expat experience can be interesting because every expat brings their own unique lens to life in a new place.  Recently, I’ve really enjoyed reading entires from my friend Peter.  Peter was born in Guandong, China and moved to the United States, giving him a lengthy grounding in US culture.  Beginning in the early 1990s, Peter started working overseas with stints in Bangkok, Singapore and a pair in Japan.  Last year he headed on another overseas assignment, this time in Suzhou, China – located between Shanghai and Nanjing on the lower stretches of the Yangtze River.

His writings are fascinating because he balances a mixture of insider knowledge – he is native Chinese, after all – with outsider distance.  Recently, his writings have covered a wide range of topics: 

• He’s wondered why Japanese words seem to get adopted into English (we all know yakitori, gyoza, udon, tempura, sushi and sake) but Chinese words do not.  Quick, what’s the Chinese name for sweet-and-sour pork?
• He’s compared the successful attempts by citizens of Austin, Texas (his last home in the US) to keep Wal-Mart out, with the scramble by developers to build luxury condominia within sight of the newest Suzhou Wal-Mart.
• He’s mused on why the guards at his complex give him luxury treatment when arriving by sedan but ignore him when he passes through the gates on foot.

I invite you to visit his website and share in his adventures.  Additionally, Peter has been joined in Suzhou by his 27-year old friend Jason, an Ohio native who had never previously traveled abroad.  Jason has his own website up and running and is documenting his own experiences as an expat.  Between the two, it makes for a fascinating read.