Staging

We received the email about staging today! Nothing too terribly exciting, but it's nice to finally have some concrete details about going to China. I called to make my plane reservations, and I have a 8am flight out of Atlanta. We have a four-hour orientation that day in San Francisco, then we leave at 5 am the next morning for Beijing, have a short layover, then fly to Chengdu. Whew! That's 20 hours in the air of 48 on three flights!

I'm a little surprised that the orientation/staging thing is actually only four hours. It used to be a couple days, but they're cutting everything down to conserve funds, or so I hear. Anyhow, I'm sure it will be fine, and I'm looking forward to visiting San Francisco--I've heard it's lovely.

Chengdu video and Reading Period

Here is a great video about the continuing aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, one year later. It follows two musicians who travel to a school for students relocated away from their families after their schools were destroyed. They recorded the students' songs then visited their families and showed them. There is some footage of Chengdu, where I'll be training in a little over a month (!). Also, it was cool to hear the language as its spoken there- the accent was pretty intelligible to me, which is heartening.
Afterquake

I'm currently in the throes of my last reading and exam period ever. Here is my anthem for this reading period. Jon Schmidt

TEFL Manual

I received an email today from the country desk with a manual to help us prepare for teaching English in China. I look forward to reading it and posting the gist of it here.

Also, the email reminded us that we will need diploma copies for our visas. I'm not sure if I will receive my actual diploma on graduation day or if it will be a dummy with the real thing to follow. I should check into that. I've done way too much paperwork to hit a snag in the visa process now!

Pre-Service Training Questionnaire

This evening, I attended the year-end fête of the public service organization that has been the backbone of my college experience. Many of my friends received awards for their contributions to the organization, and the speeches were reflective, leading to an evening in pleasant conversation about social justice, the work we've done, and the work that has yet to be realized. (Of particular note was the discussion of radicals vs. liberals. I am firmly of the opinion that both are vital to the social justice movement. One needs the fist pounding on the wall to rouse the hearts of the oppressed, but one also needs a mason to chip away the key stones. A fist alone soon grows tired and bruised, and simply plucking away stones only makes tiny holes. But together they can topple the wall.)

Anyhow, after this therapeutic ending ritual, I was delighted to find one of the first concrete signs of the new chapter in life in my inbox- the Pre-Service Training Questionnaire. It was pretty straightforward- smoking, drinking, and other host family preferences as well as a condensed work history and language learning history. It makes me happy to see that they really do customize training for each group.

A couple of the questions were a little stickier- "What is the most important factor we should consider in your site placement?"- was the most interesting. I finally deciding on answering with my preference for teaching low-level students. I'm much better at that than fine tuning the skills of advanced students. We'll see how that goes.

Staging information should come soon! It's exciting to see the growing crowd of 15's on the facebook group. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.

Visa Medical Info- fin

I collected my forms and reports from the doctor today. After a last minute flurry tracking down the nurse regarding some fields left blank, I double-checked everything and packed it into the FedEx envelope conveniently provided by the PC. I even found a super convenient FedEx drop box that I didn't know existed. Bonus, I suppose.

It's all out of my hands now. Barring any issues, that should have been the last paperwork before staging. Not much longer now.

Last Doctor's Appointment (?)

I went in for my visa physical today--it was blessedly quick and painless and involved minimal poking and prodding. My doctor was thoroughly amused by many of the questions, including "Neck?" [to which she answered "present and accounted for"] and "Toxicoparanoia?" [which she hadn't heard of].

I also had to get more bloodwork, which was rather embarrassing because the only things I needed were HIV and syphilis tests. The phlebotomy techs gave me a knowing/pitying look that made me feel very awkward. I also had chest x-rays and asked for them on a CD as required by the PRC government. After I got home, I realized that they had also included my toe x-rays from the summer. I hope it seriously confuses some bureaucrat in the future, as a small form of payback for this whole mess of red tape.

Hoorah for the last of the med stuff!

Foolishness

Happy April Fool's Day! The post below, however, is entirely true.

I finally phoned the Country Desk yesterday because they never answered my email about receiving my staging documents. (I'll be traveling close to departure and wanted to see what address I should list.) The very helpful fellow at the desk said that they had never gotten that email, nor had they gotten the resume and aspiration statement that I sent in February or so.

Turns out, I had been using the wrong email address! The invitation kit says to send things to [countryname]@XXXXXX I was using prc@XXXX and apparently it is actually china@XXXX. In retrospect, I should have known, but it never occurred to me... Shame on me for being an East Asian Studies major.

Anyhow, no harm done, and I've resent the documents to the proper address and received confirmation. And I noted the email address.