The title of this entry is taken from Alain de Botton’s “The Art of Travel”, which in true de Botton fashion, allows us to reflect on the personal philosophical journey of traversing through foreign lands and civilisations.

It’s been exactly one year since I attended the Broad Advantage in NYC, where I marvelled, mouth-gapping open, at the monster-paradigm that is “New York”, with all that it promises. I knew I will come back to this place, because in a strange way it felt like home. I’d like to think it’s because my birthplace of Xi’an, China, was also the “New York” of the world during the Tang Dynasty, a glorious period in the Middle Ages where merchants and scholars from all corners of the Earth came to pay homage to the vast, glorious metropolis.

Immediately following Broad Advantage, I headed off to Peking University for a semester’s exchange – something I’ve dreamt about since the first year of college. I knew it would change me, what I didn’t know was how. Indeed, it turned out to be nothing short of a Kafka-esque metamorphosis.

For the first time since high school, I again fell into the spell of the Arts, inspired by my modern Chinese lit teacher, a modern poet whose casual and careless ways exuded charisma. Peking University draws students of Chinese history, literature & language from all over the world, and friendships blossomed in the most unexpected places. I became the best of friends with people whom I have nothing in common with, from France, Germany, the Netherlands, New York…, yet we found in each other an understanding that is not easily repeated in life.

One day, under the glaring summer sun, I was sitting idly by the Unnamed Lake, and was struck by a sudden compulsion to write. What flowed through was a little poem, a kind of tribute to my relationship with the lake at that moment in time. It didn’t matter that my little poem was a piece of childish scribble, because through a rare window of enlightenment, I became a momentary medium between Nature and my sub-consciousness. Friends mockingly labelled my experiences as an "artistic renaissance”. While I discovered the films of Bergman, Lynch and Fellini, became captivated by Van Gogh’s burning devotion to life, even driven by a compulsion to re-write an entire poetry essay at 2am, I knew there were deeper changes.

Fast forward half a year, I am now a new entrant to the world management consulting, back in the not-so-homely home of Sydney. With some luck and hardwork, I’m now working on a high profile global project, and getting a taste of travelling, to Melbourne, Singapore & Kuala Lumpur. While my life has really taken off, I’ve set myself a goal of moving to New York or London by 2010. There is so much in the world I haven’t experienced, seen or even heard of that it makes me thirsty.

Upon reflection, I believe what I gained from a semester’s study abroad is a renewed sense of who I am. Or rather, a re-discovery of who I always was. Now all I have to do is BE that person. I hope Alain de Botton’s next book is on “The Art of Being.”