One year ago today, I boarded a plane from Detroit, Michigan to Beijing, China. Prior to flying out of the country, I had to fly to Detroit two days in advance to get a COVID test done at an approved facility. Then I had to submit my documents online to the Chinese government’s health website and *hope* everything was negative and approved in time for my flight. It was a stressful few days. It’s hard to believe that was one year ago today. If only I knew what 2022 would bring.
Why would you want to go to China?
This question was asked repeatedly when I first started announcing that I had accepted a job teaching English in Beijing. I was met with questions, comments, and many disapprovals. Truth is, China wasn’t my first choice.
I have long dreamed of one day teaching overseas. I’ve applied to schools around the world in the past, I’ve applied to teach in the Department of Defense schools on our military bases…but nothing ever worked out. I love to travel and see the world. And when I completed my second practicum (a practicum is kind of like student teaching, but comes earlier in the program) in Greece in 2009, I knew from that moment that I would do everything I could to one day teach overseas.
My dream has always been to teach somewhere in Europe. The cost of traveling between the countries in Europe is so affordable, and I wanted to be able to take advantage of living close to travel more. But I knew that schools in Europe would be harder to find a job. Europe isn’t just my dream, it’s a dream of many. So I figured that would come eventually, but maybe I’d need to start elsewhere and work towards Europe.
I was always waiting for the right time to start this massive undertaking of a job search. But when really is the right time for something like this. Then, COVID hit and I wondered if I would ever be able to live this dream of mine.
At the end of Summer in 2020, I applied for a job teaching with EF in their training centers around China. EF is an educational tour company that has many outlets for teenagers and adults wanting to work and travel abroad. I traveled with them in high school when I took my first overseas trip to Paris with the French Club. I love the company and I thought this could be a fun way to come full circle with them. I was invited to interview with them and they offered me a job working at an English training center in Shanghai right about the time the school year was to start. Their training centers are popular in China. Children and adults alike come to the centers multiple times a week after school and work to learn English. I wanted to take this job so bad. It was my first ever offer to work abroad. But the more I thought about it and did some research, I just decided that job wasn’t the best fit for me personally. Plus, it was not the best timing as I would have to get out of my current contract with school starting in just days. So, I contacted the lady who interviewed me and thanked her for the offer, but that I had to say no. She was a little surprised, I think, but I was told to reach out to her if I ever changed my mind.
Fast forward a few months later, and I decided that it was now or never. I was going to get a job overseas for the next school year no matter how hard it might prove to become. I signed up with a reputable teacher job search company that partners with schools around the globe, and started applying any and everywhere that had jobs posted. I got many declines, which was hard. But I had to keep trusting that something would happen.
Then I was contacted for some interviews. I had interviews at schools in Morocco, Lithuania, India, and Italy. Based on discussions we had and things that were said, I felt really good about many of these interviews and was honestly surprised when nothing materialized following my discussions with the schools. I knew when the hiring season for international schools typically ends and my last interview – Italy – was right about that time. I thought I was finished.
Then, I got a message from a lady in China. She messaged me from a school that, upon my research, looked to be only high school. I reached out and questioned this, as high school is not something I’m qualified for, nor would ever consider. As it turned out, this high school is a parent school to some other campuses and they were starting their first ever Elementary School in the fall. They didn’t have an account set up on the job search site yet, so they were just using this school to reach out to teachers. I accepted her invitation for an interview. China wasn’t on my radar AT ALL, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have more interview practice for the future.
The day of the interview came and 10-15 minutes in, I lost power at my house. I had to message the principal quickly to tell her what had happened and she set a new date to finish our discussion. Within days, I was offered the job. Since receiving that first message with the offer for the interview, I had done a lot of research on China. It was totally foreign to me, but the more I read, the more I loved. The country is so diverse and so beautiful. It was a place I would probably never be able to travel to on my own, so having the opportunity to live there and explore the country would be amazing. COVID added some understandable concerns, but at the time, they were maintaining numbers very well, and they hadn’t had a big outbreak since the initial outbreak in 2020. After more research and lots of discussions with others, I decided to make the leap and accept the job. I was officially the new English teacher at the school. What I would soon learn is that I was actually the only international English teacher at the school (alongside my Chinese co-teacher). Since the school was new, they were starting small. They had first grade that year, and the next year they would expand to first and second grade. It was finally time for me to live out my dream of international teaching.
What was the process of getting to China like?
Getting to China was a long process. I started teaching online for the school in the fall of 2021 while I was waiting for my visa and other documents to be approved and processed. I finally got everything I needed by the end of December, so I was ready to get a flight out to China. Flights were limited (and expensive) but the school was working with a travel agent and they secured my ticket for me. I was all set to fly out to China on January 3, 2022, by way of Detroit (with a quick layover/crew change in Seoul, South Korea).
When I arrived in China, I first had to quarantine in a Shanghai hotel chosen for me upon arrival. I got off the plane, was ushered through multiple testing spots in the airport, then I had to get my bags and get on a bus. There were only 6 or 7 other Americans on my flight, and none of them made it on the same bus as me. I was the only non-Chinese person on this bus, in a country I didn’t know anything about, where I couldn’t speak the language, and I had no access to phone service at the time. Talk about being out of my comfort zone!
I arrived at the hotel around 30 minutes later and after a frustrating time filling out the paperwork (which was in English but didn’t make much sense) they finally sent me to a room where I would live for two weeks. I wasn’t looking forward to finally being in a new country and not being able to leave the room at all, but I was very thankful for the room I ended up with. It was a relatively spacious room and I had a great view. I was close to the outskirts of Shanghai, and it was a very surreal feeling to look out the window and see CHINA! The two pictures below show the view from two different angles outside my window, an end/corner room on the 13th floor of the hotel.
After my time at this hotel was finished, I had to move to another hotel for a week of “community monitoring.” They continued to come up and take my temperature every day, but it wasn’t supposed to be the strict quarantine that I had just finished. Except that week, the numbers had spiked in Shanghai so I wasn’t allowed to leave the hotel like I had hoped. So I now had another week in a new hotel where I couldn’t leave.
At least I had a great view from this hotel. If only I had the chance to explore the city.
When this week was over, it was finally time to fly to Beijing! My school bought me the plane ticket and ordered a taxi to go to the airport and off I went! The flight was in the evening and I was welcomed with some stunning views as I approached Beijing.
So why did I come back early?
I knew that COVID was still a thing, but numbers were down when I made the decision to go. When I first arrived, things were okay. Then about halfway through the second semester of the school year, things started getting worse. Stores and restaurants were having to close, fewer taxis and transportation were on the road, school was closed which forced us to learn virtually, it was not possible to leave the city, and we were having to get COVID tested at community testing centers every other day or so. I started to worry about what would happen if/when I was to get COVID myself. Would they send me to a quarantine center? How would I communicate with them? I couldn’t stop questioning things.
And then one day, after venturing out to a park and spending all day in the heat, I came home and shortly starting having some issues. Looking back, I think it was just a bad case of dehydration that hit me after being in the heat all day. But for two days, I panicked thinking I had COVID and I was terrified to go to the testing center for fear of what the results would be.
Thankfully, I didn’t have COVID, but the concerns didn’t stop. It was at that point that I knew I needed to change. I talked to my school, and while they weren’t super willing at the beginning, they finally agreed to let me come home until December. They were hopeful that things would change in a few months and we could reevaluate things at that time.
But coming home was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.
I worked so hard and dreamed for so long about teaching overseas, and going home made me feel like a failure. If I came home, would I ever get the opportunity to live and work abroad again? It was so hard to just give up on this dream opportunity that I had received.
What was China like?
Honestly, more amazing than I ever would have thought. I had the opportunity to take part in a few group trips around Beijing, as well as some visits to places around the city on my own. Figuring out the subway system was pretty easy and it’ll take you almost anywhere you want to go.
I got to see some incredible places in Beijing. Check out the blog posts I wrote about the following locations:
And I had the opportunity take a dumpling making class
I also had the opportunity to meet some great people from all over the globe. The other international teachers at my school were from the United States, Columbia, Finland and Germany.
What’s next?
If it wasn’t for COVID, I would still be in China today. I hope to one day go back and visit the rest of the country. As thankful as I am for the opportunity, I’m sad to not have had the opportunity to travel outside of Beijing. Though Beijing is huge and you’ll never run out of things to see and do there, the country as a whole has so much to offer. I want to see it all. I want to go back and travel the country.
As for now, I’ve made the decision to not return at this time. My contract will be finished in July, so I’m teaching online until the end of the year. It’s not ideal, and it’s not easy. But I’m thankful for the school to afford me this opportunity, and that they were understanding of my situation. I’ll be looking for a new job later this year, though I don’t plan on returning to the classroom. But I’m extremely grateful I had the opportunity to live in China for seven months and I don’t regret a thing.
Glad you got to go but so glad that you are back home. You will be amazing at whatever you do.
You can travel with this virus thing settles down