Yep. I'm going back! In like 2 weeks! Holy! I didn't really think it was going to be possible for me to go back to China...especially so soon, but here I am! It's not like I didn't WANT to go back...but I thought I would be a responsible young adult and maybe go back to school or something...well, nothing really worked out for the fall or spring, so I was just living and working in Sparwood....dying a little bit more each day, haha. Then I received an email from ILP near the end of November asking for alumni to go back to China because they were short teachers for the next semester, and offered us a sweet deal - $500! (rather than the usual $2520) That would cover our flights, Chinese visas, apartment, and food for the whole semester. My immediate reaction was "Heck yes I'm doing this!". After speaking with my dad I had to take a step back and really make sure that it was really something I should be doing, but after thinking it over, I decided to go ahead and do another semester in China.
I went down to Utah at the beginning of January for training (and visited some friends I made last year during my semester in China), but at the time still wasn't sure exactly where in China I would be teaching. I had asked to go back to Guzhen, Zhongshan, because I LOVE it there...but was told that Guzhen was full. They said there were other spots in Zhongshan open, so I would at least be close enough to visit. A couple days after training I got assigned to teach in Kaiyin! I was familiar with the school and area, because we would go there every week to meet with the other ILP teachers in Zhongshan and have church there, and while I was still sad I wouldn't be in Guzhen, I was glad to know where I was going!
A few days after getting my school assignment, I got a call from Casey, one of the directors at ILP. He told me that one of the head teachers had dropped out, and they were wondering if I would be willing to go back to China as a head teacher, rather than just a regular teacher. (Head teachers help the teachers out with getting to know the teaching program, do workshops with them, do some reports, travel with the group, etc. and for this they don't have to pay the program fee, plus ILP gives them a bit of a stipend to offset some of the travel expenses and such). I said yes right away. It actually kinda surprised me how fast I said yes, because I had really been looking forward to having my own homeroom of kids and just teaching. Right after saying yes, I had to just take a second to go through everything in my mind, but then it was a definite yes. While there is more responsibility, it was going to be a big blessing money-wise, what with me having just applied to go to school in the fall. (And then I found out a few days after this phone call that I was accepted to BYU-Hawaii!!) A couple weeks later I found out I was going to Nanlang, Zhongshan! They opened ILP to the school there in the fall of 2011, so it's fairly new to the ILP program, and we have a smaller class and group (3 teachers plus me, rather than 6 plus a head teacher like it had been for me in Guzhen), but I am looking forward to it all!!! I finally found out my flight itinerary too and I fly out from Calgary early on the 21st! (With a 15 1/2 hour layover in Seoul, South Korean...woot woot? We'll see.)
