Do you dream about moving abroad? YEAH THAT'S ME
For the last few months I’ve been a glorified English babysitter for two Chinese five-year-olds. I’d like to say I’ve done a pretty decent job. I taught them the basics like numbers, colors, the alphabet and how to write their names. While the writing is still a bit iffy (for some reason “a”s are a […]
I’ve been studying at the University of Nottingham in China for about two months now, so I thought it was about time I talk about the dorm I’ll be living in for a year. If you remember my story about my first week of grad school, originally, I was supposed to live in building 18, […]
It’s official: next year I’ll be attending The University of Nottingham for my Master’s in International Communications! The University of Nottingham is a world top 75 university based in Nottingham England, with campuses in China and Malaysia. I opted to complete my degree in China so that I can work on my Chinese language, make […]
Last Thursday I received a text from Lynn: “(101) 7:55-8:35, (109) 9:40-10:20, (103) 10:30-11:10. The time for class has been changed tomorrow because of the celebrating activity.” “Celebrating activity?” I replied. “Will you meet us at the front gate of the school after class about 11:15 so that we can go to the buffet together.” […]
I thought I was immune to culture shock. I studied abroad in China for seven months and I speak Chinese almost fluently. I’ve been jostled in China’s largest cities, and stranded in some of China’s smallest towns. I’ve traveled to Tibet and Xinjiang and I’ve eaten fried scorpions in Beijing. One time I accidentally signed […]
In my last post, I talked about my experience giving final exams and grades to almost 1,000 students. I also mentioned that I had to fail 2/900 of my students. This is the story of the student who earned a 14%. I have a student in Senior 2 who can’t speak English. He has been […]
Young Chinese women are under immense pressure to have a baby the moment they get married. For many, the pressure comes from the grandparents who are only allowed one grandchild under the One Child Policy. Society also plays a role with constant questions and comparisons. I joke that a few of the English teachers at my […]
After my bout of Christmas food poisoning, I started to feel a little better on Monday, so I taught my afternoon classes. While my voice was still pretty much gone, I was at least able to show the first third of Elf, which the students really enjoyed! In the afternoon, I stopped by the office […]
For some reason Chinese people believe that Christmas Eve is a big deal. Maybe they think it’s like New Years Eve or something, I’m not quite sure. Regardless, all of the English teachers wanted to celebrate with me on Christmas Eve. The school planned a giant banquet for all of the English teachers, and they […]
This week Ningbo and the rest of Eastern China have been hit with what I can only describe as “apocalyptic pollution”. I thought this kind of stuff only happened near Beijing?! On Wednesday, the pollution AQI (air quality index) was at 350 which was considered Hazardous. Tonight it’s at 592?!!! I didn’t even know that […]
Hi I'm Richelle! I'm the founder of the Freedom Life and I've been living abroad since 2013. For the last eight years, I've been helping hundreds of adventurous people just like you move abroad, and I can't wait to help you get started on this incredible adventure!
