In July 2010, I arrived in a (relatively) small city called Xichang, situated in the Sichuan Province.
Via completing a short TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course, I ended up getting a job as an English teacher easily enough. I often get asked: Why choose Xichang? Well, I didn't really - It chose me! Basically I enquired about some advertised jobs, and within a day a very eager consultant named Jerry had contacted me urging me to come teach in this city called Xichang. It sounded nice enough - surrounded by mountains, a big lake, and largely dominated by an ethnic minority group (called the Yi minority). So, here I came.
To say it's been challenging living here would be an understatement, but actually, It's often overcoming the challenges that makes life all the more rewarding. I came here all by myself not knowing a soul, didn't even know how to say hello in Chinese, got thrown in the deep end in regards to teaching, and of course not to mention the endless variety of cultural differences in general.
In reflection of after more than 2 years of being here, I feeI as though I have learnt and achieved a lot. Awkward dialogue with friends in the beginning has become somewhat fluent (key word being "somewhat") conversation, actually got monetary payment to sing, used more initiative to cook sans oven and many other ingredients we take for granted in the western world, and probably one of the best things is shifting a massive amount of weight (15kg roughly in total).
Everyday, I mean EVERYDAY, there is something of interest that happens with/to me - whether it be exciting, terrible, awkward, strange or mundane. Too many times to count, I've experienced such overwhelming situations, but within a week or a day or sometimes even 10 minutes the situation can do a complete 360 and you realise you are still here and OK and actually life is good... :D
To say it's been challenging living here would be an understatement, but actually, It's often overcoming the challenges that makes life all the more rewarding. I came here all by myself not knowing a soul, didn't even know how to say hello in Chinese, got thrown in the deep end in regards to teaching, and of course not to mention the endless variety of cultural differences in general.
In reflection of after more than 2 years of being here, I feeI as though I have learnt and achieved a lot. Awkward dialogue with friends in the beginning has become somewhat fluent (key word being "somewhat") conversation, actually got monetary payment to sing, used more initiative to cook sans oven and many other ingredients we take for granted in the western world, and probably one of the best things is shifting a massive amount of weight (15kg roughly in total).
Everyday, I mean EVERYDAY, there is something of interest that happens with/to me - whether it be exciting, terrible, awkward, strange or mundane. Too many times to count, I've experienced such overwhelming situations, but within a week or a day or sometimes even 10 minutes the situation can do a complete 360 and you realise you are still here and OK and actually life is good... :D