I'd rather have a passport full of stamps than a house full of stuff.

I was really looking forward to meeting Christine, a Taiwanese blogger and a local tour guide based in Austria who I had invited to one of my early podcasts to talk about intercultural relationships. I have been following Christine on social media ever since the podcast episode was first released seven years ago. Although I had never met Christine in person, throughout the podcast interview, I felt she was really outgoing and seemed happy in her marriage with her Austrian husband and family. So I was really surprised to learn that her divorce was finalized soon after the podcast episode, although my marriage with a British-born Chinese man didn’t last long either. I wanted to meet up with her to chat about intercultural relationships and to finally catch up in person.

我非常期待见到Christine，她是来自台湾的博主，同时也是定居在奥地利的当地导游。她是我在早期播客中邀请来聊跨文化恋情的来宾之一。自从几年前播客播出那个时候开始，我在社交媒体上一直关注她。虽然我从来没有见过Christine本人，但是从播客的访谈中，我感觉她非常外向，而且和她与奥地利的家人相处融洽并且和老公的婚姻十分幸福。所以当我知道，他们在播客那集播出之后，很快就离婚了，我真的好惊讶，然而我自己和英国出生的华人老公也没有持续很久，我还是很想要见见她本人来叙叙旧并且聊聊跨文化的恋情。

Christine was petite though her energy could light up the coffee shop where we met in downtown Salzburg. She told me about her new life, new man and work she’s been doing and she was very content with her life in Austria. It looked like Christine had moved on a long time ago and was enjoying her freedom.

She volunteered to be my tour guide the next day and showed me around in Salzburg the next day. This was really nice and we had a walk-around, lunch and drinks. This time we even recorded a new episode for my podcast and Christine and I gave new advice on love and marriage, in which we both shared how important it is for women to have their financial independence and self-care.

Salzburg was even more beautiful because now I had learnt from Christine’s positivity and outlook on life. It was really nice to meet up with her and I wish all the best for her life in Austria.

Stay tuned...there’s much more to come!

In the next episode I’ll be sharing stories that occured in Munich, Germany.

****本系列会将中英的版本分开录制，想要进行更深入的英语听力学习或训练，可以听伴随在中文版本的下一集。

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