Details for anyone anticipating the China internship

Greetings from Shangnan, Shaanxi, China!

This is the city in which I have been placed for my internship though i-to-i, with Teach and Travel China (TTC) under the Shangnan Senior School.  All that to say that by the time you get out here you can feel as though you've passed through many hands.  :)  

Not everyone's experience is the same, in fact I would venture to say that there are barely two alike!  So the best I can do is share my own journey, what I've learned along the way, and answer some of those "I really want to know but I can't find out!" questions.  

I remember the days leading up to the internship feeling as though I knew nothing.  All I knew was that I was going to Beijing, that I was going to teach English in a school somewhere in North China, somewhere between the ages of 6 and adults.  Unfortunately if you want clarification on that I can't help much.  :(

The way it works is that you arrive in Beijing and get picked up at the airport.  At the hotel you need to hand in your passport (either to reserve your room, or to have your visa processed or both - if you don't get it back before you leave Beijing they will give you a photocopy and send it to you when it has the right visa - I got mine before I left though).  Plan on paying the RMB 2950.  Even if you get a 180 day visa.  We all thought the fee was for getting a visa extension from our communication, and then were informed that it was for the invitation letter.  It's best to not worry about what it is for, or hope to avoid it, just plan to pay it - it will save you heartache and headache.  If your visa is not for long enough they will get you an extension.  

At orientation information comes around slowly.  I don't remember the exact night, but our placements came out around 10:30 pm.  This is toward the end of orientation.  You could be placed with anyone.  And you need to realize that you could be placed anywhere, and with any age group.  Just because you listed preferences does not mean you will get them.  During my application process I never inquired as to whether the placements were gender specific.  I think I would have felt very uncomfortable had I been made to share an apartment with someone of the opposite gender, even if I had my own room.  Fortunately this was not my circumstance, though I have seen it happen.  

There are no guarantees about curriculum.  It is up to the school.  You may have a representative from your school come and meet you giving you that GREATLY desired heads up.  Or you may not meet anyone until you get to your destination.  You will be placed with at least one other intern, but sometimes things happen.  Understand that though you sign a contract you will probably have to, to some degree fight to defend it.  Whether that means making phone calls to your school or representative or to TTC.  

All that being said, I have a very good placement.  I work in an office of about 12-15 English teachers.  They are all very friendly and love to help out.  They want to learn about our culture and tell us about theirs.  They are eager to take us to see things, or buy us a meal.  I work with High School Students.  There are about 5000 students in the school and somewhere between 55-75 students in each class.  It's not as intimidating as I would have imagined though.  Since I teach 10 classes of grade 1 the first week and 10 classes of grade 2 the second week I don't have to do a lot of lesson prep.  I just have to prepare a lesson and then I can revamp it if needed.  However I do have a text book that I am to go through, and some of the English in the book has incorrect grammar.  Which is going to make things interesting.  

I love my students and they seem to love me too.  There are so many of them, but they are all so nice!  At least so far.  :)  

I would say the biggest things needed for the China internship are:

Extreme flexibility - be prepared to have anything thrown at you.  

An attitude to make the most of everything -  if you don't like something chalk it up to experience and be thankful for what you have.

Now for my part, it's been wonderful.  There were lots of good cultural experiences in Beijing, great hotel food, and I would recommend the tour.  Now that I'm at my placement, I love the food, the teachers, the feel of being in a foreign country, and doing pantomimes for everything from ordering food to buying supplies.  The umbrellas are colorful, my students love to laugh, and the person I've been placed with is wonderful!  And there's plenty of out of the ordinary things to see.  Like the bulldozer in the riverbed attempting multiple times to pick up a boulder.  For what purpose we will never know!  And watch out for unmarked holes in the sidewalk.  One rather dangerous drop off was marked with a cone but the cone was to the side and quite out of the way.  Once the hole was filled in, and the concrete was poured, then they had four cones and caution tape.  I guess they care more that you stay off their wet cement than that you break a leg by falling in a hole!  

It's hard to describe anything well on a piece of paper.  I think if you're adventurous and flexible and ready to see what happens you'll at least come home with stories to tell and a mind full of memories!