Friday, July 6, 2007

Preparing for a Big Change

We've been mentally and physically preparing for our life in China for over a year. It was in Spring 2006 that we decided to go with the Colorado China Council to place us as teachers somewhere in China. It was the best decision! Alice at CCC is an amazing woman - for 30 years she has been working/living/placing English teachers in universities throughout China. She responds to every endless email with patience and joy. Her knowledge of the country and its' people is mind-boggling. What a terrific resource! The paperwork seems endless, but we finally got word in May 2007 about our placement. Kunming is in Yunnán Province in southwest China - near Vietnam. There will be much more about Kunming in future posts. I'll be teaching English at Kunming University Science and Technology (KMUST), Gustavo hopefully will be able to tutor/teach English or Spanish and Carlos and Elena will be attending Chinese Kindergarten.
Physical preparation has been in the form of downsizing. We had 3 big yard sales, several calls to Purple Heart, give-aways to anyone who'll take, and weekly throw-outs galore. Gone are ALL the baby items, boxes of books and teaching materials (that was hard), lawn and garden gizmos and many more nameless, forgotten STUFF. And we still have stuff.... And now we need to decide which "important stuff" to take with us!

Ann

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