alexifer

I'm a twenty-three year old Australian, currently living in Sydney. I've just finished a Bachelor of Arts (Languages) at the University of Sydney, studying Chinese, and I'm hoping to move to Shanghai after saving up some money here in Australia first. Things are always unclear after finishing any era of your life, but I know that the next five years will be a fun and eventful period of my life.

I've spent some time in many different places in the world - I was born and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts for seven years. I've also lived in Xi'an, China for a total of ten months, though seven years apart. I've traveled to many different places within the three countries I've lived, and also a little bit around Europe (England, Ireland, Holland, and France).

I've been writing ever since I was little, but it has always been and, I feel, is destined to remain merely a hobby. I tend to write about characters, rather than plot lines, so anything with a story that has to go longer than a few pages tends to trip me up - I will never be a novelist. I've also never been a big reader, either, though I've soaked up everything by Douglas Adams, Nick Hornby, David Sedaris, and Bill Bryson. I like my wit just a little bit dry and more than a little bit sarcastic, and I think that humor is the most important ingredient in life.

My passion, though, is the study of China. History and language, mainly, though I'm trying to get better about reading current affairs. I don't fancy myself a scholar, by any means, but I've been interested in China's social history for a long time, and I hope to eventually find my way into a job which works with the changing elements of Chinese society. They are tricky waters to navigate, but I'm not phased by any means.

I'm also a big music fan, though my collection is woeful. I like music from all over the spectrum - you'll even find the occasional rap or heavy metal song in those I have loved throughout my life. I've been compiling my Five Desert Island Albums list for a while, but have finally decided on them: The Strokes "Is This It", Ben Kweller "On My Way", The Big Chill soundtrack, Garden State soundtrack, and Sigur Ros "()". There is some contention as to whether soundtracks are allowed, but I hope so. My desert island list is also different from my Greatest Albums of All Time list, which definitely doesn't include soundtracks. My favorite bands are too many to be counted, but in addition to the three desert island bands, I'm also a big fan of The Fratellis, Willy Mason, Joel Plaskett, The Shins, Modest Mouse, Patrick Wolf, Maxïmo Park, and The Mountain Goats. I'm not really kidding when I say it pains me to truncate my favorite bands list that much.

I'm not a very arts-and-crafty person, though I've always wanted to be. My sister (who introduced me to Swap-Bot) is the artist of the family, even though she might not tell you that for herself. I haven't done much visual arts things in the last, say, ten years, but it's something I've wanted to get back into. I feel like it would be a good outlet, outside of words, which are often pretty inferior, and other people's music.

My favorite shows at the moment don't even play on Australian television, and I am very lucky my parents download them all for me. Here are my top five current favorites:

1. Doctor Who
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Survivor
4. House, MD
5. Psyche

Top five all-time favorites:

1. Jeeves & Wooster
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. Firefly
4. The Apprentice (though currently, the UK series has been awesome)
5. Growing Pains

Top five of 2006:

1. The Departed
2. Children of Men
3. V for Vendetta
4. A World Without Thieves (天下无贼)
5. Little Miss Sunshine

Top five recent favorites:

1. Donnie Darko
2. Garden State
3. Galaxy Quest
4. Pirates of the Carribbean
5. Nightmare Before Christmas

Top five childhood favorites:

1. The Labyrinth
2. The Neverending Story
3. Pirates of Penzance
4. Strictly Ballroom
5. Much Ado About Nothing

Top five books NOT by Nick Hornby, Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, or Douglas Adams:

1. Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
2. Moab is My Washpot, Stephen Fry
3. Watching The Tree, Adeline Yen Mah
4. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
5. Feel: Robbie Williams, Chris Heath

And here is a crazy list of all those bands I felt bad about cutting. :(

Gotye, Whitley, Cold War Kids, The Kooks, Gabriel Rios, The Decemberists, Barenaked Ladies, Mika, Teitur, Travis, The Killers, Björk, Dispatch, Ben Folds, Elliott Smith, Robbie Williams, The Vasco Era, Albert Hammond Jr., Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Nick Cave, Ben Lee, Smog, New Radicals, Panic! At The Disco, We Are Scientists, Bloc Party, The Redwalls, Of Montreal, Supergrass, Third Eye Blind, Bob Evans, Devendra Banhart, Damien Rice, Howie Day, I Am Kloot, The Ramones, Evermore, Josh Rouse, Jay Chou, Richie Ren, Jack Johnson, Badly Drawn Boy, José González, Interpol, Matchbox Twenty, The Postal Service, T. Rex, Hanson, Sparklehorse, Clem Snide, Coldplay, Counting Crows, Justin Timberlake, Wons Phreely, Beck, Eve 6