146 Days to Go

I received my contract, both in English and Chinese. Good thing, too, because I can only recognize the numbers 1-10 in Chinese so far. I signed in about a dozen places and scanned and emailed it back to the school. March is almost over and then the last two months of school will breeze by. Soon it will be June and I will only have about 2 and a half months until I move. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit scared. But that feeling is being balanced by excitement. I am proud of myself that I am taking this giant step. I want to get as much out of the experience as possible. It would be a shame if I didn't.

I am trying to learn some Mandarin before I leave. One of the teachers at my current school is fluent in Cantonese and has said that she can read my Chinese characters (apparently written the same in both languages as well as others in China, just pronounced very differently) and she will be able to see if she understands anything I try to say. Once in China, I plan on hiring a tutor to help me and maybe tagging along with my students to their Mandarin classes.

Keep the comments coming! For those of you who need a little guidance:
Click on 'comments' at the bottom of the post. Type your comment in the comment box. Then, if you do not have a gmail account, click on Name/URL. Type in your name so I know who is leaving the comment. Finally, click on 'Publish your comment'. Yea!

--Sarah--

Ticketed.......And Housed!!!!

I tried to post this earlier and was unsuccessful. Bummer since it was very eloquent and informative and now I just don't have it in me to try as hard. Okay, I'll give it another go and this time I will Ctrl C before I try to publish.

Well, I have my one-way, non-stop ticket to Beijing! I leave on August 14th. The school is providing an apartment for me at Beijing Riviera in Maple Place. The school where I will be working is huge and has so many resources for the students. These kids have all sorts of activities such as aeronautics, swimming, rock climbing, etc. The teachers all run these activities after school and I will be in charge of an arts & crafts group. I guess that gives me an excuse to bring my arty stuff with me to China!

--Sarah--

To Help With Sarah Withdrawals

I know you all will miss me when I move to China. Here is something you can get to help cope and perhaps find others going through the same difficult time:

Click here.

Or there is also this.

--Sarah--