Changing

Never assume that you know what will happen tomorrow or next year because things can change so quickly – whether you like it or not. In the past couple years I’ve gotten a travel bug. It’s a neat little bug because it makes me go places that my better judgment would never let me go to. Like Beijing. Nutty.

I remember calling my friend Emily from Rimouski last year about my weekend in Tadoussac, QC. It was a spontaneous trip to a little tourist town on the other side of the St.Lawrence to go whale-watching. It was something I’d always wanted to do and I got to do it. 

But a simple 3 ½ hour drive turned into 9 hours each way because the ferry was closed so we had to drive all the way around the River. We ended up staying in a youth hostel in a basement room that wasn’t really a room. They were overbooked so we were on mattresses on the floor in a storage room in the basement with strangers. Trust was required. If you followed my other blog while I was in Quebec for a year, you may remember this post. 

Anyway, when I called Em to tell her about it she was amazed. She said “The Becca I used to know would never have done that.” I thought it was funny because I hadn’t given the situation a second thought. I had changed in just a few months away from home in a different province. Similar to how I’d changed when I moved to Moncton for university. 

Travelling and moving changes you exponentially. I can’t even imagine how living in Beijing will change me.

On Thursday of last week, everything became so much more real for me. We booked our flights and now we leave on August 14^th. What am I thinking?! J I was sitting on a curb outside on my lunch break and made the call. Since that call, things have been spiralling into place as I make list after list (you know how much I love lists) of things I need to do. I ended up designating a notebook as my China notebook for planning.

I have also found out which subjects I’m teaching. The internet searching has begun. The curriculum perusing, the idea-jotting, the pre-planning for things I probably can’t even prepare for. I love it. I’m such a nerd but that’s okay with me if it’s okay with you (actually, even if it’s not okay with you I’m still okay with it). I’m teaching high school drama and English tentatively but I likely won’t know all the details until I’m there.

Any of you have pieces of advice? Lesson plans that you think would be good? Travel advice? OR, if you have a story about your own changes through travelling, please throw them at me!

Excited for Pollution

I've been taking the time lately to enjoy the beautiful blue skies of my not-so-polluted home in Canada. I've been wondering which is the best way to prepare myself for dealing with living in Beijing: you know, regularly breathing in some toxins or something. In case you don't know, Beijing is the most polluted city in the world and in 2008, it was actually said that a third of California's air pollution was due to China, the country that is an entire Pacific Ocean away. How does this even happen?

Anyway, I've resigned to the fact that not only will be be the redheaded, freckled, tall, Westerner stumbling through a city of 20+ million people speaking Mandarin, but I will also occasionally don a hideous surgical mask. Why not add to the oddity that I already will be there?

I've been asked by several people over the past couple months this question essentially: "Why in the world would you ever want to teach in China?" I've been tempted to sarcastically respond something like: "Well, I relish the thought of destroying my lungs, being tossed around like a rag doll, regularly being a spectacle, not being able to communicate with a single human being outside of my school, and eating dog or scorpion." But then I think I better not. The real answer is that for some unknown reason, I feel drawn to China. I feel drawn to Asia. Not because it's somewhere I've always wanted to go to (if that were the case, I'd be traipsing across the U.K.), but because I feel like this is somewhere God has called me.

Now, it may sound like I am not excited about this adventure. This isn't true though.

I am quite excited to experience this crazy foreign culture. It will be a whole other world compared to Belfast or Moncton. I've been doing lots of reading and research to prepare myself for the culture shock that I'm bound to experience. Currently, I'm reading this book to your left. It is so INTERESTING. I'm surprised over and over by the things that have happened in China and what the country is like. If you are at all curious about travelling to China or just learning authentically what China is like from a Westerner's eyes, you should check it out.

I'm prepared to just take every day at a time and remember that I am there to teach, experience a new culture, and have my eyes opened (hopefully I can still do this after exposing them to the pollution after four months in the country).

I've already started looking into visiting cities where I'll be able to see sunshine and blue skies again. My friend Alicia (one of my co-travellers) and I have talked about going to Thailand or Qingdao at some point which I'm really excited about.

Oh! Here is the school I'll be at in case you are wondering.

77 days until I leave!! (approx.)