Oh wow~ There is a Women of Colour survey that has been placed on the home of our work website today.
I filled it out immediately because, 
I see so much problem with lack of diversity and appreciation of women of colour in my work place.

If you look across the floor - on our floor alone,
there is not a SINGLE woman of colour who is in the leadership role.

And I certainly don't feel appreciated as a woman of colour and a woman of a very deep cvivilisational culture in my own team.
And that is a massive problem in itself.

The above is some of what I filled out.

As a person who values different cultures and wisdom of different cultures,
I always make sure to get to know and consult those who are of a different culture.
They always have so much to offer, so much more than those of the European races. 
Yet that is definitely not evident at any of the places I worked in New Zealand.

Never have I ever felt appreciated and valued or approached for my unique perspectives based on my culture and my background.
New Zealand - Wellington in particular - a melting pot of a city - has never felt to ME that it wants to learn from the cultural others, 
except the Maori and the Pasifika - the more dominating regional groups that have first migrated to Aotearoa.  
But even if you traveled to more Pacific Island countries, 
you'll even recognise the distinctness of each race.
They're all so different from each other.

Then you have the East Asian and South Asian populations, 
and perhaps some Central Asian, Central American and South American presence.
These all are people who brought with them strong cultural ways of doing things.
These are valuable to a workplace,
and need to be appreciated far more by kiwi.

I myself know how MUCH a Chinese person can offer to others,
we have 5000 years of civilisation and cultural wisdom to bring to anyone we meet.
This is WHY i seek out others and want to hear out and absorb others.
But those who might not have been endowed with deep history and cultures with their cultural backgrounds might not have the instinct to want to learn from others.
And that's a shame for them, because they're the ones that are missing out big time.

I personally just want to at least see more non-white women being in leadership roles.
That's the least I'd ask for.

​I was organising travel videos today and came across this. 

Over the last month,
I wanted to take a break from posting things
(which I will maintain until my actual day of departure),
I was also just living life to the moment
instead of snapping pics and sharing random daily things,
and just focusing on immersing myself in the new language,
and working on all the admin tasks for the next trip.

I mentioned when I put out the polls for selecting the destination-regions,
for me, I want to not cut into my savings this year,
and just go where it’s the least costly.
It doesn’t mean I will keep a low budget and stay in backpackers.
I will still stay in hotels and spend without thinking twice
just as I always do on a trip,
I never budget my trip's spending,
it's not worth  limiting the budget when it's the most important time of my life.
I know for sure that this region -
that my friends have all helped me pick using Polls on Instagram Stories -
is definitely gonna be the cheapest region on earth.

Although, unlike what I had thought,
the preliminary costs before I even leave home is already amounting to a large sum/

After some inquiries with each embassy,
it did prove better for me to apply for visas for the countries I'm visiting in this region early on
instead of going by the Visa-on-Arrival option - which is the standard choice for Chinese Tourists.
I chose to apply for the visas now,
to save me the time and pain from having to do them at the borders.
And the visa application process is not at all tedious and dehumanizing like the ones for Europe.

I thought it’d be interesting for me to share
the existing costs that already incurred,
just so you know -
the pains a visa-applicant passport-holder like myself has to go through,
when you yourself may be able to save all that money and effort.
There's no equity or justice to this at all.

Part 1
Visas Applications (3 in total):
Visa 1 - $300
photos for visa - $25
courier bag x 2 - $15.40
Visa 2 - $60.29
Visa 3 - $83.21
Travel Insurance (as required by the visa application) - $323.23

Total for Visas alone = $807.13 - $323.23 for Insurance = $483.9


Next are the unavoidable -
Costs for flights:
Outbound flights to Country 1 - $1091.60
Inbound flights - $1315.54
Domestic Flight for country 1 - $28.6
Return Flights for Country 2 - $239.40
Return Flights for Country 3 - $306.63

Total for Flights = $2982.03

Finally these are my selected accommodations cost:
Accommodation 1 - $1374
Accommodation 2 - $153
Accommodation 3 - $697 (USD $432)
Accommodation 4 - $207
Accommodation 2 - $65 (same place, just for 1 night)
Accommodation 5 - $726 (USD $450)
Accommodation 2 - $134 (same place, for 2 nights)

Total for Accommodations = $2159

Sum for the whole trip (daily expenses not included of course) = $6337.77 

That's a whopping large sum already.
And that's for the cheapest region in the world that I can think of.
My spending in Europe is at least triple that.
​
It's crazy how expensive traveling from NZ as a Chinese passport holder is.
I cannot wait for the day when I'm living in the northern hemisphere, 
and not having to apply for visas for most places in the world.
I fully believe that the Chinese passport will reach that stage
One day.