Healthcare worker Lan Li hails from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in southwestern China. She arrived in Ireland in June 2006 after three years working at a hospital in Singapore.
“I got a job offer,” she explains of what brought her to the Emerald Isle. “It was a good opportunity because I wanted to travel in Ireland and in Europe.”
Just two days after her arrival from Asia, she started work as a nurse for a charitable organisation in south Dublin for people with learning disabilities.
“It wasn’t easy at the beginning,” she says. “My job was quite different to what I used to do in a general hospital.”
Li’s parents were against her moving to Ireland at first. “They didn’t really agree with it because they need somebody to take care of them. But I really wanted to go.”
She returns twice a year to China to visit them. “I like my job in Ireland, but at the same time I miss my family,” she says. “It’s not easy because we’re separated by a 14-hour plane ride.”
For the first two years of her stay in Ireland she shared a house with four other young women. “I had a good time with them. One was French, one Filipino, there was an Argentine and a Latvian – it was like a small United Nations!” she laughs.
Li has had to get used to some differences in cultural and social life. “For example, in China when people have free time, they go to a teahouse to chat, whereas here you go to the pub and have a beer. I was also very surprised that many women and teenagers smoke in Ireland.”
She feels that her different background makes it harder for her to make Irish friends. Sometimes she even hears some bad jokes, about Chinese people liking rice a lot. “I just reply it’s not funny,” she says. But overall Li thinks the Irish people are friendly and like helping others.
And there are other aspects about life in Ireland that Li doesn’t find so hard. For one, she defines herself as a shopaholic. “I came with two bags, but now I need a van if I want to move,” she smiles, adding that she’s trying to be more reasonable about her shopping habits.
She also goes to the gym regularly to keep fit, and she previously attended a Chinese language and cultural meet-up twice a month. “It is nice to meet people and speak your own language,” she says.
But what Li loves above all is travelling. Since her arrival three years ago, she’s visited almost every single county and witnessed such unique sights as the Cliff of Moher and the Giant’s Causeway.
“You cannot find that kind of countryside in Singapore or China,” she observes.
And her exploring isn’t just limited to Ireland. Li has also visited Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, France and United Kingdom. However, the paperwork involved in crossing the borders is tiresome.
“You need to plan a long time before your trip because of the visa,” she says. “It takes a lot of effort, and you have to give a lot of documentation like certificates from your employer or tax records.”
But she hasn’t grown discouraged, and her next trip should be to Italy with a friend. “I think countries in Europe look like provinces in China, with her own languages and culture,” which she compares to the different regional dialects in her homeland.
