Welcome to Brazen Careerist!

About Me

I had ten days to leave China. In June 2008, as Beijing made its
last-stitch efforts to prepare for the Olympics, the laws changed. My work permit was no longer valid unless I had at least two years experience at my company's headquarters, and this was my first year on the job. I could not secure my work visa, I could not change to a tourist visa, I had to purchase an "exit visa" just to leave, and so, after two years in China, I left.

I grew up in Wilmette, IL and Haifa, Israel. My father grew up in New York and my mother in the Caribbean. I traveled a bit of the world with them. I finished high school in 2001 and spent the next year volunteering in a school and at a small publishing trust in Niamey, Niger before starting university in New York.

I graduated from Barnard College in 2006 and soon left for China. I spent a year studying Mandarin in Xi'an and then worked in Beijing at a small non-profit focuseds on rural educational development. Before I started the job, I published a feature article on sustainable development in Xi'an in a small magazine. I always wanted to write, but I was also fascinated by China, so I focused my efforts on finding a job that would let me learn more about that country. Now that I am out, it is time to write.

I began my blog as way to exercise that muscle and to chronicle past experiences before I forget. It is also a means towards sanity in a crazy search for jobs, graduate schools, and a true calling.