No kissing chickens and try not to let one sneeze on you either…

Only one day left of training for teaching in China and I’m sure that’s the best advice I’ve received in the past two weeks. Well, not really, it has been a lot better than that. So to back up a few weeks to my last entry, since then, I’ve said good bye to Madison and all my friends there, packed up my apartment and moved out. That was a Sunday night. I spent a couple crazy days at home getting ready for China and unpacking and repacking my stuff from Madison. On Wednesday evening, I left Neenah for training in the Twin Cities. Thursday morning I met the other new teachers. There are 13 newbies: 3 others going to Beijing with me, 4 going to Wuhan, 5 to the Ningxia province. Overall, there will be 28 of us in China with FOC.

That weekend after class on Saturday, some of us went to the Mall of America. We girls did some shopping for teacher clothes while enjoying no sales tax on clothes in MN! The guys, well, they were good shoppers too. The next day I went to Chinese church. It good to get a taste of what it’s going to be like in China: everyone speaking Chinese! They were all very friendly. Sarah and I got some Mandarin lessons after the service, too.

The first week of training we focused mostly on teaching English as a foreign language. We learned about the phonetics and linguistics and grammar of English. It was similar to my Spanish class this past semester except in and about English! Much of it was a review for me but brand new for the other teachers. But they knew a lot more about the teaching side since most of them are actual teachers (as opposed to Spanish and zoology majors). On Thursday, we went to one of the teacher’s host family’s home for a get together that included a swimming pool, hot tub, air hockey table and lots of good food. It was great to have social time with the other teachers and really get to talk to them. We spend all day together in class but have very few chances to get to know each other.

Last weekend I went home to say good bye to all my relatives and actually, sort of, semi-pack for China. And I did more shopping. On the insistence of my parents, I now have “teacher shoes,” ie the kind that cost more than $10 a pair. On Saturday, I saw my mom’s side of the family at a reunion and on Sunday my dad’s family stopped by. Sunday afternoon, I finished shoving clothes and other random miscellaneous items in my suitcases (which will have to be repacked again this weekend, I can’t wait to actually stay put in one place for ten whole months!). Then I said good bye to my dogs and my house and my parents (but I’ll see them this weekend). It’s hard to believe that I won’t be back until July.

This past week in training we worked on learning key Mandarin phases and the basics of the (spoken) language. We also talked about culture and culture shock and living in a foreign country. I think we’ve talked enough and just all want to go there and see and experience China for ourselves. Tomorrow is the last day of training, Saturday is a picnic for the teachers and our families and on Monday, I finally get to leave!