LOTS of firsts were achieved in 2011:

• First foreign working visa
• First time surviving completely independently
• First credit card
• First smartphone
• First visit to Macau (2 visits to date)
• First time on the China MTR
• First try at dragon boating; First dragon-boat tournament
• First time attending the Sevens
• First costume party (5 to date)
• First lease, and first time buying my own furniture and household appliances
• First music festival (Clockenflap, stayed and danced till 11pm to the crazy and delightful Santigold)
• First surprise birthday party (okay it was a birthday lunch, but it was still awesome)
• First time on a private boat (5 junk trips to date)
• First time wakeboarding (2 tries to date)
• First attempt at surfing (where I managed to stand in a half-squat for all of 3 seconds before wiping out)

This is the year I left behind my screaming, irate quarter-life crisis and got the fresh new start in Hong Kong I’d been praying for. Even after my visa was minted, I waited with bated breath for months, skeptical and hopeful, that I hadn’t been too naive to believe things would really be different here, that I would find out it was just the same shit in a different city.

It wasn’t.

To a 2012 filled with many more firsts, and less ‘what if’s.