Censorship...

So I had the highest of hopes for last year with my informative and ever so witty blog, but as you can tell that quickly failed. You see China has this little thing called censorship...after a couple months of living in China, the country decided to block access to blogspot.com. I could no longer post or even read postings from the website. Sometimes these things come and go, but I have been in China for a year and a half now with no returned access to blogspot.

Insane you might shout! Why?! How could they? It's easy, I live in a Communist country. The only reason why I am able to write on the website now is because I am home for a short bit in the USA. The land of freedom and internet access all over the place. However, there are ways to get around The Great Firewall of China. I have just decided to really live in China which means I haven't paid for another VPN. This also means that I have no access to facebook, youtube, and twitter (not that I really ever got the point of the latter). To be honest, it's quite freeing.


Most of the time that is...

The Move to Ningbo

Getting ready to move here was quite the adventure/pain in the butt in terms of actual preparation. I have been living in Pittsburgh for the past 6 years; four years for undergrad, 1 year for graduate school, and 1 year spent working at Shaler Area High School in the North Hills. Even though I loved working at Shaler I knew that no long term positions would be opening up any time soon so I decided to try my hand at teaching English, as a second language, overseas...

In order to move overseas I had to take care of what seemed like an endless list in a fairly short period of time. I'm taking a moment to mention this aspect in case any of you adventersome folk out there want to give it a whirl some day. Here is just the short list of things that need to get in order before you go:

1. update passport
2. necessary visa
3. contact all banks
4. contact all credit cards
5. make arrangements with cell phone provider
6. make arrangements with insurance company
7. figure out what to do with your mode transportation aka car for me
8. move all your belongings to one location for storage
9. get all necessary shots/innoculations
10. pay off any debts, return any cds, you know...the simple stuff
11. read up on the culture and language of your new home
12. buy the appropriate phrase books and materials for the move
13. if you have student loans...figure out what to do with those (I still haven't and believe me it is a pain to accomplish overseas)
14. make a plan to keep in contact with friends and loved ones (I started this blog, have an email list, and also downloaded skype)
15. pack wisely...trust me it's difficult

After having a great bon voyage party, moving my brother down to college, and kissing the family good bye Matt and I were on our way. About 20 hours from my initial leave time I arrived in Shanghai, China. I was tired, dehydrated, jet lagged, and completely pumped. Notice the sleep deprived faces of those you see before you...

My Contract

A couple days ago I posted my contract out of interest for the world, since then I have determined that might have been a breech of contract so in an effort to not start out on the wrong foot I have decided to remove the information. Instead here is a little summary of what I will be doing in the upcoming year...

I will be teaching English as a second language to secondary students at the Huizhen Academy in Ningbo, China from August 18th 2009 to August 17 2010. According to the contract, I am going to be helping upgrade the English proficiency of students of Huizhen Academy, who opt for additional training on top of their normal schooling, by providing part-time, short-cycled English courses, in particular in oral and communicative English. How I am going to do that...I'm still trying to figure that all out.

Here is some information taken off of the school's website (http://fantrusttest.com/Huizhen.aspx) which mentions the development of the secondary school, but it appears that the website hasn't been updated for a couple years. The secondary school was developed in 2007 and from my understanding this is its second year of operation. So I'm going to be working at a school during the development stage which is pretty exciting.

Here is some more information about Huizhen Academy:

"Huizhen Academy, founded in 1996, was jointly financed by The Fan Family Charitable Trust and the Ningbo Municipality Government. It is situated in the northern district of the Ningbo city, adjacent to the Ningbo Television University, with a gross area of 40 acres and a built-up area of about 16 thousand square metres.

Huizhen Academy at present offers 9 years education comprising primary and junior middle sections at a 5 + 4 structure. It presently houses about 1,900 students and 124 teaching staff, divided into 21 primary classes and 19 junior middle classes. It is due to start a 3-year senior middle section after the summer of 2007 by yearly progression. Upon completion of the expansion into the higher middle section, Huizhen Academy will become a full-fledged, typical primary come secondary school with 48 classes.

Huizhen Academy is well-equipped with educational amenities including language laboratories, multi-media classrooms, and integrated TV classrooms etc. The campus is beautifully decorated in Oriental garden style, dotted by classical pavilions and corridors. All these are conducive to an atmosphere most suited to learning.

Focusing on student development, the mission of Huizhen Academy is to provide an all-round training that partakes the virtues of both Eastern and Western education. Since operational, Huizhen Academy has gone a long way in attaining this goal, as a result of relentless efforts made by different quarters and has subsequently earned numerous awards and honors. In terms of student performance, Huizhen Academy students have been topping the list in the Ningbo Municipality. In recent years, Huizhen Academy has made special effort in perfecting its teaching and learning software. In this regard, Huizhen Academy is among the first batch of schools chosen in 2002 by the Government to experiment with the new curriculum reform.

Inspired by the reform agenda, Huizhen Academy has further placed emphasis on two special areas, namely, the creation of a unique school culture and the professionalization of its teaching staff. With these two objectives in mind, a lot of effort has been given to reforming the institutional framework, the teaching/learning process, the development of curriculum and so on. As a result of such incessant effort, Huizhen Academy has not only greatly improved its overall quality, but has also gained an ascending reputation and widespread popularity among the Ningbo public.

Huizhen Academy is also the first in Ningbo to provide the opportunity for its students to study in Years 10 through 12 in the renowned St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, USA, under the sponsorship of The Fan Family Charitable Trust. There are also student exchange programs with schools in Hong Kong and Japan aimed at broadening the scope of experience of Huizhen students by giving them the chance to meet and interact with foreign students, thereby fostering not only cross-cultural friendships but also an international outlook through the understanding of different cultures."

The school has had a lot of experience working with native-speaking English Teaching Interns which should be really great. As I have mentioned before, my good friends (now husband and wife!) Jeff and Jen were there a couple years and have suggested multiple friends to work there since, myself included. I know NO Chinese so I am happy to hear stories of those who successfully survived a year abroad. Here is a link to a video on the school that includes Jeff and Jen. Who knows, in a year I may be able to understand the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEtJAV1XFkU

I think that is enough for one blog post. I'm getting ready to leave the USA on August 16th, 2009 from the Philadelphia Airport and I have a wide range of emotions going on. I'll be writing more soon about how I have prepared for this crazy adventure Matt and I are about to embark on in the next few weeks.

And I Ask Myself Why?

I might as well start at the beginning to get this story started...

When I was in college at the University of Pittsburgh I went on this program called Semester at Sea (SAS) in the Spring of 2005. SAS was an academic sea voyage that took students from all over the country to travel all over the world. In that semester I had the absolute good fortune to travel to eight different countries; China, Hong Kong (we'll count it separately for the purpose of listing), Vietnam, India, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Venezuela. As you can imagine this experience not only changed my life, but it gave me a serious case of "the travel bug."

Since the Spring of 2005 I have been able to travel to many more countries on a variety of excursions. My friends from that voyage just happened to have been bitten by the same bug and many of them have left to travel and, more importantly for the purpose of this story, work in other parts of the world. Hearing their stories, reading their emails, and seeing their pictures triggered a insurmountable desire to have a similar experience...living abroad started to sound really good.

I feel as if I have to say this now to get it out in the open...Please don't get me wrong, I really do love the United States. This is not a moment of weak escapism. For me it is purely a deeply rooted curiosity and a sincere love of travel...I just want to have that experience of living somewhere completely different before I settle down. I know myself well enough that if I don't do it now, I know that I would regret it later. I am a firm believer in the fact that you only live once. You must be practical, but you must also do the things you desire to do.

Fast forward to this year...I am now a college graduate with a BA in History and Film Studies and a Masters in the Art of Teaching who doesn't necessarily want to start teaching right away after the most stressful year of her life. I decide to substitute teach at the school where I completed my internship (Shaler Area High School) and I looked into other options. I starting looking into teaching literally all over the world and checked out a ton of countries. The plan for China developed after "The Great Recession." I was going to move to Ireland, but countries that are economically hurting don't give out work visas that readily. I needed a change of plans.

I was visiting one of these good ole Semester at Sea friends (Jeff), looking at some pictures albums from when him and his fiance (Jen) taught English in China, the Steelers had just won the playoff game to get into the 2009 Superbowl, and I was feeling pretty good. That night my decision was made, Jeff emailed his friends and coworkers in China, I called my friend Matt that night to see if he wanted to come, Matt said ok, an interview was set and the rest is history...