Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The story so far ...




In August 1972,  four friends from Ottawa set out on an adventure.  Pam,  Jay, David and Elizabeth took the train to Nova Scotia, rode their definitely not efficient bikes around Cape Breton Island then sent the bikes home and hitchhiked in PEI.  Then they went to university.




Fast forward forty years.  In December 2012 David and Elizabeth met again, fell in love and started to learn about each other and themselves. This is the story of their next big adventure.


Elizabeth: In June while walking near Long Island Locks, we were talking about where to go on holidays in the future, China was at the top of the list, but that would be an expensive trip. I mentioned that right after retiring I had taken the Oxford Seminars TESL course which qualified me to teach English overseas.  Eureka moment:  two teachers with lots of experience and the freedom to travel. Maybe we could teach in China!

Things moved quickly from there.  A good friend suggested that we talk to Dr. Carol Kirby who had taught in China with her husband Roy for about eight years. Carol was the Principal of Connaught Public School when I taught there in the early 1990's.  Carol, Roy, David and I met for lunch at a restaurant overlooking Dow's Lake in Ottawa on July 5 and the Kirbys talked about their work at Jilin University-Lambton College in Changchun, Jilin province in northern China. They encouraged us to apply to work there. Resumes. Cover letter.

After correspondence with Lily (Li Yanli), the director of the Foreign Affairs Office, and a Skype interview with the Director of Academic English, Kieran Forde, we were offered positions for the fall term, starting on August 26!

The summer then filled in quickly.  We spent a lovely weekend with song circle friends (including Jay from that long ago trip) in Mattawa , then a quiet and reflective week at a cottage on Crow Lake.  Then the whirlwind began:  combining our two households, getting medical checks, visas, travel plans, packing and saying goodbye to friends and  family.  Thanks to the help of Sybil at Javis Travel in Toronto, we have Chinese visas and tickets to fly to Beijing and Changchun this morning.

The waiting is over.

2 comments:

  1. Just noticed on re-reading my blog that I posted that at 2:30 am on the night before we flew to China. We were excited.

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