Beginning My Adventure

Hey friends! I frequently get asked how all of this came about, so I thought my first post about the trip would be how it came to be that I’m on my way to China in just a few short days…

My school district, Logansport Community School Corporation, is sister schools with Jinhua, China’s school corporation. For the first exchange earlier this year, I believe in January, the principals of the schools in Jinhua came to Logansport and toured our schools. Then, in early March, one of our assistant principals Lindsey Hagerty came to an English department meeting and asked us to think about an opportunity to teach in China for a month during the summer at our sister school in Jinhua.

I talked to Mike about the opportunity and asked him what he thought because I was on the fence. It would be an amazing opportunity, but on the other hand, I live at Camp Tecumseh YMCA, where summer is A BIG DEAL. It’s our first summer being full-time, so we have an adorable little house on the river and all the staff comes in and… it’s wonderful. Also, Mike and I have spent A LOT of our marriage living in two different places because of school and work situations, so I was concerned about that. I asked Mike, and, without a moment’s hesitation, he encouraged me to throw my name in, saying the opportunity was once in a lifetime.

So, Beth Myers, Jitka Nelsonova, and myself all (separately) put our names in. Jitka and Beth are both veteran teachers (teacher—lǎoshī) of many years, and wonderful educators, but I thought my youth and enthusiasm might add something. I honestly then forgot about it, because I was so focused on grad school and the upcoming ECA (end of course assessments) which my students would soon take in English. Then, Lindsey and Matt Jones, our principal, called the three of us down to the office. Lindsey launched into a big speech about how she didn’t want to have to make a decision, and neither did Michele Starkey, our superintendent… How we were all qualified and could make LHS proud, etc. Then, she said “SO… YOU’RE ALL GOING TO CHINA.”

Wait, what?
Beth: YEAH, WE’RE ALL GOING!
Me: To China? In less than three months?
Lindsey: Yes. So you need to get a passport.

Wait, what? 

So I did. I got a passport. I did an insane medical exam which included an EKG, chest x-ray, AIDS, etc etc tests. (Once, I got slightly frustrated with the process. “I just don’t understand. I mean, I’m not going to bring something INTO to their country. I’m probably going to get sick, there are SO MANY PEOPLE.” And Mike just looked at me. “Uh, Mel. That’s why they want you to do it. So if you get sick they have a form in Chinese telling them how to take care of you best.” Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense China 1, Melanie 0.) We got med packs and medications we might need. We got travel insurance and tickets for a 16 hour plane flight directly from Chicago to Shanghai, which is exactly 12 hours ahead of Indiana. Mike and I set up a VPN connection so I could communicate with friends and family back home. I bought clothes that are summer appropriate… Probably too many. I justified this with Mike by saying that I only had clothes for inside teaching, like cardigans, etc. Mike rolled his eyes and was too good to me. I made a baby blanket for my host family, a gift for the principal of my school, gifts for students, etc. We had many meetings discussing the trip.

Myself, Beth, Larry (one of our tour guides), and Jitka

Two weeks ago, a whole class of thirty students visited Logansport and attended school for a week. They went to Franklin Elementary. I lucked out because they were from the school I will be teaching at, Yongkang Renmin Primary. We sat down to have a meeting with two of the Vice Principals at my school and asked them a lot of questions. They were 1) ADORABLE 2) so excited to meet me 3) super kind, flexible people. They asked (through an interpreter, as my Chinese is not so great. I think I said to them three times “I’m an English teacher!” because that’s the only phrase I could seem to remember) what I would like to teach, and we agreed that I would teach four grades for one week each.

So I will teach 3^rd grade one week, 4^th one week, 5^th, and 6^th. However, the ages are equivalent to 5^th—8^th grade students in America. I will teach one or two classes a day, with 55 students in each class. YUP. I’m going to teach 55 kids at ONE TIME. Like some sort of teacher superhero. SUPERLANG. I asked who I was staying with, and I get to stay with the English teacher from my school. They said she had spent time in England and just had a baby (hence my decision for my gift to be a homemade baby blanket J). They said I will be about 45 minutes-1 hour from Jitka and Beth’s schools. I am alright with that distance, because I know we’ll see each other at some point, and I want an adventure!

I left that meeting on cloud nine because they were just so wonderful and so supportive of anything I needed. I clicked with the whole trip. I bought in. Bought in with leaving at the end of my exhausting school year to teach on the other side of the world. Bought in to a new experience. Bought in to sacrificing time from summer at the greatest place on earth to make a positive difference in lives. Bought in to an adventure.

I have finished the school year with my 9/10^th grade angels. I have said farewell (or zài jiàn in Chinese) to many friends in America. I’m spending the weekend with family to enjoy Memorial Day. Wednesday we leave at 3:00 from LHS. Therefore the only thing that stands between me and my Chinese adventure (Màoxiǎn) are two grad projects.

Look out projects. I want my adventure. Here we go!