Almost immediately after having returned from my semester in Rome (oh look... I blogged about that too...) an ad popped up in my Gmail for an opportunity to teach abroad. As a History major constantly presented with the question, "So what, you'll end up teaching?" and a girl perpetually plagued by wanderlust, this seemed like a potentially ideal preliminary career path. When my good friend Laura MacKinnon from our 7th-9th grade years in the Netherlands coincidentally approached me with similar post-graduation plans and the suggestion that we take the adventure together, it was pretty much a no-brainer.
I can't speak for Laura, but in my experience such plans met a variety of reactions. Some were excited, some confused, some skeptical, some shocked. But in each case, there were many questions. Where would we be? When would we get there? For how long? What age would the students be? How much would we make? What kind of living situation would be available? And for the longest time there weren't any answers; we had to get certified, we had to graduate, and then we had to play the waiting game to hear back from recruiters after our materials were submitted. One of the reasons we chose China was because placement was guaranteed upon certification, so we weren't concerned about whether we'd get a job or not, but there was what felt like a long period of time when we were anxious to know just what that job would be.
And now I have answers! Laura and I will be teaching Young Learners in an English First school in Jiaxing, which lies in East China almost directly between Shanghai and Hangzhou.
As a small town of just 3.5 million people, Jiaxing doesn't usually show up on maps, but you can see the marker on this one courtesy of Google Maps. And yeah, you read that correctly. To quote one of my future coworkers (many of which have already contacted us with encouragement and advice, which has been comforting): "The city itself is not very large - 3.5 million give or take (big for Canada, small for China) so it really does have a small town feel to it, but with everything that you could want and need at the same time." The guy I was subletting with over the summer, who taught in China for a year, tried to get it through my head that "there is no such thing as small in China," but wow.
I'm excited about Jiaxing's proximity to Shanghai (it will make it easy to retrieve visitors!) and Hangzhou, and the town itself sounds like it is aesthetic and interesting. It has the slight historical significance of being the town in which the Communist Party of China was established in 1921, and according to Wikipedia is also credited as the birthplace of silk. These are some pictures the Director of Studies sent to give us a feel for our future home:
When applying, Laura and I initially asked to be placed in August and I planned my housing accordingly. I found a sublet (Just upstairs! With someone who had taught in China! So convenient!) through the month of July and expected to be crossing the Pacific soon after. But like I said, placement went slowly and we were told September or October were more realistic as start dates. Friends from the wine bar in which I work generously offered me a room in their home (which I have dubbed the Siips Orphanage, as another homeless coworker temporarily occupies the couch), and I had just settled in when I received the news that the departure date would be earlier than expected.
Two Young Learners teachers in Jiaxing are leaving mid-August, and Laura and I have been requested to arrive by the end of the month. After a summer of slow movement concerning the China process this feels a little sudden, especially considering I just moved for the second time in two months. All things considered though, it's mostly exciting that things are really happening.
So the plan as of now is to leave dear old Charlottesville around the 23rd, spend a week with my family in Northern Virginia, and depart for Shanghai via Canada (hopefully to meet up with Laura en route) on or around the 30th of August. It is a year-long assignment, and it sounds like our accommodations will be more than adequate so if China is on your list of places to see before you die, please come by! I've enjoyed my time in Charlottesville so much and have so many great friends (not to mention my family and friends in other parts of the country) I will be sad to leave behind, but I can't even express the excitement I have concerning this journey. Hopefully this blog can serve to make the distance seem less vast between us, and my experiences can be yours as well.
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