Destination Shanghai: 28 Days Away

---

This is a test and a warning all wrapped into one!

As most of you are aware, I am China-bound in just under a month. Details to follow! However, I wanted to give out a head's up that I am going to kick-start the old blog again. At this point, if you would like to unsubscribe, please feel free to do so! Otherwise, if you could send me a note - either to my email, or via this blog post - letting me know that I have the correct email address for you, that would be much appreciated!

If you would like to know more, by all means - feel free to keep reading!!

On December 12, 2012 (as a student that I work with so elatedly announced today: "Oh my goodness! That will be 12/12/12!!”) I will be boarding a plane bound for Shanghai, China. I am traveling to China with DisneyEnglish (www.disneyenglish.com) – a Disney Corporation-led program designed to teach English to children aged 2-12 all over China. Their model falls under their “Edutainment” concept, and is therefore modeled around storytelling, acting and other very hands-on approaches. No, I will not be wearing any giant chipmunk heads, nor princess dresses… well… not for work anyway haha! But, this will be a very, very high energy placement! At this point, I am scheduled to return on (of course…) January 5, 2014. Happy Birthday, me... as always!

As for the FAQs:

Yes, I will be paid! Well paid, in fact… but who’s counting? Disney will pay me a salary, as well as a housing stipend, travel allowance, and will cover my insurance needs.

Yes, I have to find my own housing. That process will start soon, and will continue once I get there. I’m hoping to find a good person in my training group to room with and share costs. Fingers crossed.

Nope, I don’t know a lick of Chinese. In fact, they don’t really want me to know Chinese. They want to keep my teaching English-only, so they really don’t want us to be even tempted to explain things in Chinese, etc. Instead, I will have a classroom assistant (has a nice ring to it!) who will help with that piece, as well as with my general navigation of the Chinese world as I settle in.

Disney does have an offered benefit of Rosetta Stone which I can begin using next week. Yep, I will certainly use it, but will not be anywhere near fluent by December.

Believe it or not, yes – I do know some people in China. But, I didn’t know that at the time that I accepted this position. As it turns out, some good friends of my brother live and work out there. By some stroke of luck, one of them even works at the Embassy.

Nope, I’m going alone. We’ve talked about this at length as a couple, and both of us are excited for me, and for the possibilities this amazing opportunity holds. We see it as a positive no matter what, and look forward to whatever life brings next knowing full well that we made the right choice for what is in front of us in this moment.

Anyway, I look forward to writing to all of you again – I look forward to sharing my thoughts, but mostly look forward to hearing yours.



Talk to you soon!



Jessi

---