Ask any ESL teacher that has taught abroad and they’ll tell you that their first few months, heck the first year, is rife with challenges. What happens, though, when the country that you’ve moved to suddenly experiences a health epidemic, like SARS or Avian flu, Here’s what happened to me during the 2003 SARS epidemic in Mainland China.
It’s a scary thing to pick up and move your life to the other side of the world. I got my first taste of that when I was 27 and on my way to Changchun, China on March 23rd, 2003. I was going to spend a year abroad teaching English in China.
This is a list of common things and occurrences that you might encounter while living in China. Don’t freak out in China when these things happen to you.
Changbaishan is a mountain range on the Chinese-Korean border in Northeast China. Heavenly Lake sits in a volcanic crater at the top of a mountain.
An account of my first few months teaching in northern China in 2003.
An account of my first week in Northern China in March 2003.
A short story about an evening adventure and a short birthday celebration in the middle of the night in northeast China. Written by Carrie Kellenberger.