Back To The Future

Date: July 1st 2010.

So, I'm about to go on this huge, life-changing adventure, right? Right. Only one week to go before I leave my country & my comfort zone for an entire year. A dream come true, I’ve got so many different thoughts on what to expect of the future.

We’ve all had those times when we imagine what an event or place or experience is going to be like, then when it happens, it’s completely different to what we expected. I’m certain that this experience is going to be awesome, but I know it won’t be what I’m expecting. Hence, this first blog post. I want to start this travelblog by documenting who I am before this adventure. I want to write down all my hopes, fears, dreams & concerns for future reference. Not only will this allow me to see how accurate (or inaccurate, as the case may be), my expectations are, but I think it will prove to be a valuable resource through which I can compare my present, pre-China Jen to my future, post-China Jen. I will be able to see how far I’ve come & how much I will have grown, learnt, & experienced as a result of such an awesome adventure.

But what are my hopes, fears, dreams & expectations of this adventure? Well, to start with, I expect it to be awesome. I think I can already tick that off the list for future Jen.

Next, I expect it to be extremely freeing, mind-blowing & exhilarating. The sudden culture change will be pretty daunting, but one of the reasons I’m going is to shock myself & feel the excitement that only comes with travelling. Besides that, I believe that I am capable of adjusting to life in China quite well.

I expect to make some awesome friends, travel to amazing places & really immerse myself in the Chinese culture.

In regards to my inner experiences, I think I will change a lot over the next year. I will be overcoming many fears, challenges & constantly pushing the limits on what I think I am capable of.

I’m pretty sure I am going to be terrified of walking into a classroom to teach for the first few classes, but I’m also pretty sure that I will get used to it & even excel at teaching over time. I think I could very easily love being a teacher, especially if most of my students are cute little kindergartners.

I’m also expecting a few rough bouts of homesickness. That’s definitely something I’m not looking forward to. I’m already sick at the thought of saying goodbye to my beautiful cat, Juno. In regards to family & friends, I’m hoping that regular Skype video calls will be enough to stop me from missing them too much.

I expect to continue with my vegetarian diet, & probably even make the final steps towards becoming vegan. This should be pretty easy, as vegetables are pretty common in every meal in China, & dairy isn’t easy to find. I’m hoping I don’t put on too much weight, though! With such cheap & yummy food combined with such cold weather, it will be easy to gain back some of the weight I’ve lost since becoming vegetarian. But that’s future Jens’ problem, hahaha!

I’m also hoping to save a lot of money. With great pay, no rent or bills, & an extremely low cost of living, I figure it is plausible for us to save enough money to pay for our honeymoon after our year is completed :)

I’m hoping to learn a lot of Mandarin while I’m there, too. I won’t really have a choice, seeing as no-one really speaks English except for the other foreign teachers & staff at the school.

Another hope of mine is that I keep writing blogs. It would be so great to be able to look back on this adventure & have heaps of blog posts to remind me of the little things & fun times, but I might be having so much fun that I only write four or five posts. Time will tell, I guess.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to is a white Christmas. Snow at Christmas time has always seemed so beautiful to me, & is something I’ve always wanted to experience ever since I was little. Ice-skating is another thing I’m planning on doing a lot of.

I guess my main goal is to just have fun, learn a helluva lot & make the absolute most of this amazing opportunity that has been given to me. I’m sure there’s heaps more things I want to achieve while I’m in China, & many more expectations that I might not even realise I have until I get there. I am just so excited & eager for this awesome adventure to begin! :D