Kiwi Emma Phillips, 22, has well and truly run away with the circus.
Over oceans in fact - the former Whangarei Girls' High student is now based in the small rural Chinese town Wuqiao - which was the birthplace of Chinese acrobatics over 2000 years ago.
Ms Phillips is training 8.5 hours a day, six days a week at the Wuqiao Acrobatics School in the Hebei Province of China, with her specialties being juggling Chinese parasols, spinning carpets, contortion combined with carpet spinning and aerial hoop.
"Not only am I the only international student alongside 180 Chinese children, but I am also the only foreigner in the whole county which is over 280,000 people," she said.
"My only interaction in English is speaking to my friends and family on Skype. As I am the only international student at the school they are unable to provide me with a Chinese language teacher so my only option is to teach myself Mandarin from books and computer programmes."