To Start at the Beginning

I guess I should probably begin with how I got to China in the first place. I suppose it is not too terribly complicated, but like most things in my life, I am going to make it sound a little bit more complicated than it needs to be.

First, I think that you should know that I never had any intention of ever traveling, much less working, abroad for the majority of my life.  In fact, when I was the young, sheltered age of 18, my biggest ambition was to finish college as quickly as possible (graduate school was an unfortunate must-do, being a teacher) and then get a good job, make enough money, save, so that I could eventually buy my parents house and essentially never leave the place I had lived for all but the first 3 weeks of those 18 years.  (Since being a wizard or a dragon rider was out—hey, I read a lot of fantasy as a kid (still do!)—this was the next best option).

My now wizened and experienced 25 year old self winces at this 18 year old shadow, but this was my ambition at 18.  Then I went to college.  And I am sure this story is familiar.  I learned new ideas, and about different places, and my head was filled with all this new and different and exciting information.  And my brain was shaped in new and different ways and when I came back home after 4 years, I barely recognized myself (I was sure shocking to my family). And then I went to graduate school and learned even more!

 

But the motivating factor in what opened my eyes to travel was living in a very particular dormitory, and then working as a graduate student in that same dormitory, for all 6 years at a state school in New York.   The focus of the academic program in this particular dormitory was on international awareness and interaction.  The majority of international students who attended this school were placed in this building, with a mix of American students from around New York State (and a few out of state students).  Instead of having undergraduate RA’s, we had 8 full time graduate students living in the building.  We also had 8 full time faculty members living in the building as resources for students.  Students were required to attend a certain number of programs with an international focus each semester and write a brief reflection on them.  I started attending all these programs, and meeting all these people from around the world.

And here, I think, is where my life really started to switch tracks.  One of those faculty members is one of the most amazing people I have ever met.  I do not have words to fully describe her level of awesome, but I started working with her when I was a junior, helping her put on programs, assisting her with the annual conference that she was all but single handedly responsible for putting together each year, and in general just hanging out with her.  And it is from working with her and working in this building that I learned more about the rest of the world, and was filled with a desire to see more of it. I could go on, but I think we have digressed enough for one blog post.

So when I hit graduate school, one of my teachers was from China, originally, but had been living and working in the United States for years.  At the end of our class with her, she announced that she would be returning to China, to Hangzhou specifically, because her parents were getting older and she wanted to be closer to her family.  She then invited us to contact her if we were interested in teaching in China.  Now, even with all these years of cultural and worldly influence mentioned above, I still did not jump on this, not immediately.  But as graduation was encroaching and the employment for Social Studies or Literacy teachers in NYS remained bleak, and the prospect of using 2 degrees to serve fast food and live in my parents’ house became more and more likely, I thought, why not China?  So I sent this professor an email in October of 2010.  And then again in February…and then again in April.  And I had given up hope on hearing back about this when the day after graduation, I received an email saying that the school was going to hire me (yay) and could I please send a list of all these documents.

Well, at this point, I did not have a passport, so I hightailed it to the post office, got that taken care of and then preceded through the emotional turmoil of sending data internationally, getting a work visa, and booking a flight (and packing, convincing my cold-war era parents that China was not a communist prison, being maid-of-honor in my best friend’s wedding, and saying zaijian to friends and family).  After a hectic summer, I had a visa, a flight, and very little idea about what, who, or where I would be teaching (so terrified, but I was trying to play it cool).   And that is how I got to China.

My much-awaited Visa

Official Documents from the school inviting me to work in China

Overall, I do not recommend it. Find a reliable program that will send you to China with the full support of an organization behind you.  But if all else fails, knowing someone who knows someone is how the world turns here in China, so if you don’t mind the frustration and panic, feel free to try that route.