I sat on a large stone waiting. In the pre-dawn hour the air was cold and crisp. Below me on one side were the green grasslands and above me to the other side was a large snow caped mountain range. It was an ideal place for them to have built the city, whose ruins I sat among. It was so early that no one was there and I had the place to myself. I was there to take sun rise photos in the ruins of the “Stone City” in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang Province, People’s Republic of China. This is China’s westernmost town and it was the last stop on my 8 day tour of the ancient Silk Road.
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近日我看了《责任：一个战时国防部长的回忆录》 ，作者是罗伯特盖茨，2006 – 2011年间乔治布什继而奥巴马在位时任命美国国防部长。此书主要讲述了伊拉克和阿富汗战争，而以盖茨这样高层的美国政治家作为内部人士的视角去看待这些战事实在饶有兴味。然而，我觉得最有趣的也是这篇博客要讲的其实是他对领导力以及管理冲突的见解。
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我居住在中国并且经常问自己“怎样才能在这里成功呢”？总结出的结论是，假如一个人身处异乡，尤其是异国，你需要懂得聆听，学习并且适应新的文化环境，当地的文化环境。需要持续的时间，不懈的努力以及对细节的关注。有时候文化差异可以体现在极其细微的事情上。昨天我领带的颜色就引起了一段文化差异小插曲。
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二月十六日，一个周日，我参加了香港半程马拉松。这是我第一次半程马拉松，我已经训练了将近五个月。我的目标只是完成比赛，所以我很高兴在两个小时二十九分钟内完成比赛。
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上周，在泰国南部苏梅岛的一处瑜伽与排毒会所，我有了一次奇妙的体验。这些年间，我曾多次来到泰国，并十分享受在这里度过的时光：美丽的风光，可口的食物，还有友善的泰国居民。这次来到泰国，我更有机会用了整整一周时间，在一个美丽的度假村练习瑜伽和冥想。约半年前在一个偶然的机缘下，我开始练习瑜伽，并且发现自己很喜欢这项运动。而这次泰国的经历则是我第一次拿出整块的时间持续练习。在这里，我尝试了各种类型的瑜伽，如Asatanga ，核心瑜伽，舒缓流瑜伽，哈达瑜伽，排毒瑜伽，阴瑜伽和舒缓瑜伽，每种都各有其不同功效。
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Learning any language is a journey and like all journeys there are milestones that represent progress.  On my journey to be fluent in Mandarin I feel that I have reached a milestone, the time has come for me to start reading books with Chinese characters.  As of the date of this blog, I know about 400 Chinese characters, but to be considered literate one must to know at least 1,000 characters.

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Recently I attended a presentation given by a Chinese government official regarding interpreting the Summit in California between President Obama and President Xi.  Normally I try to avoid making comments about politics in general but the presentation I attended gave such fascinating insights, from the Chinese perspective, that I felt compelled to write this blog.

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One of the things I liked the most about the Kantar Media World Audiences Summit is that each Kantar office is asked to invite one of their clients to join the conference.  This made for a very informative and interactive experience because there was a unique opportunity to listen and learn from Kantar Media clients from around the world, in addition to Kantar Media internal colleagues.

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Kantar Media is one of the largest and most trusted global research companies.  They are the joint venture company of the company I work for, CSM Media Research, and I was invited to attend their annual conference that was held in Barcelona, Spain.  Delegates have come from all over the Kantar Media world and the insights presented have been a great learning experience.

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For many years I have resided outside my county of origin and for that I am called an Expatriate or Expat for short.  I have always wondered why this term is used because most of the Expats I know, including myself, are very patriotic.

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