the post-grad life, take one

I drove to the library today after work to get a new library card. It's been so long since I checked a book out of a non-school library, and when I walked in, it was a beautiful feeling. I actually miss GCC's library, because having so many books at my disposal 2 minutes walking distance away was pretty wonderful. Over the last week, I kept on thinking of books on my Amazon wishlist that I have time now to read, and then remembering that I need to go to the library since I can't fork over all the cash I need to buy books right now. When I move out and get another job a year from now, I feel bad for whoever has to help me move, because I have accumulated so many books. Moving people with books is the worst.

No, moving people with pianos is the worst.

The Brothers Karamazov is on my desk now, waiting to be read. I'm pretty excited about this one, because so many people have told me to read it and I wanted to before I read Notes from Underground.

Most nights this week I've been reading Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but I must still be sleep-deprived because I give up and go to sleep after 10 minutes, so it's either boring or I just need more sleep. Yeah, it's not boring. I just checked.

I've also been applying for my work visa this week, which seems really complicated, but it should end up fine. I just hate paperwork. My employer sent me the contract to sign, but as my parents pointed out to me, it would be dumb to sign it yet because the part that details my salary and the dates I will be there wasn't filled out yet. So I'm waiting for them to send me a legit contract, and then I will sign my life over to the PRC.

The Bronx, and beyond

While I'm in a blogging mood, maybe I should share more about what I'm doing this summer, besides reading and babysitting. Halfway through June, I'm moving up to the Bronx for a month to live. I'll be taking a course at a university in Manhattan that will certify me to teach English as a second language to adults. I'm so excited about it, but I'm starting to get a little nervous about it too. Mostly because I've never been to NYC, much less lived in a city before. I'm used to the South and smallish towns, so I am probably going to stick out like a sore thumb. Overall though, even if I'm nervous about it once in awhile, I think it will be a good time, and I'm really looking forward to meeting the ladies that I will be living with. I never expected this summer to look so exciting to me...I think that I use that word (exciting) all the time, which is probably driving everyone nuts, but I haven't been this excited in awhile. It's going to be a great summer.

I'm envisioning days spent babysitting, and then coming home and reading or working in the garden, or riding my bike. Just familiar, relaxing things. I'll do that for two months. And then the month inbetween will be kind of the opposite, fast-paced and new. And then at the end of summer, I'm hoping to go with my current roommate Heidi to a good friend's wedding, and then a few days after that I'll take the longest flight of my life to China. So it looks like I only have two solid months of familiarity and home left before I expatriate myself and see what that's like.

I wonder what home will be after that.

China blog?

I need to decide whether I should use this blog in China, use a different one, or not use one at all. So, here are my reasons for each choice.

I could use this blog in China, because that would be super easy and some people already know about this one. It could just morph into a adventures in China blog. The downside is, I'm not sure how much about Christianity I would be able to post at all. Which is okay, but that might mean I'd have to delete or censor stuff I've already written.

Second option, I could use a different blog because then I could make that solely my China censored blog, starting from scratch. It might be more fun too, because it would have more purpose than this one.

Or I could just not blog at all, because it might be more meaningful to tell about different experiences and stories through personal emails and letters.

Well, those are my three choices. I'll think about it more after I graduate in a week (!!).

confirmed

I am officially moving to China for 10 months to teach English, starting September 1st. Wow.

This summer will go by so fast...one month home to work, one month in NYC for the ESL certification course, one more month at home to work, and then China. I am so excited.

China!

Last week, I was offered a job...in CHINA! My Chinese teacher asked me if I would like her to give my name to her friend in China, who is the director of a pretty large language school near Beijing, so I agreed and within a couple days this director had asked for my resume and offered me a job. I can hardly believe it happened that quickly. I am so used to applying for half a dozen summer jobs in the US, hearing back from none of them, and not getting definite answers even after calling in to inquire. It feels so strange that this is happening so fast, but I am excited about the possibility! I haven't accepted the job yet, but I am talking to my family about it and asking as many questions about it as I can think of. Two girls who live on my hall are going to teach in China with New Day, so they would be pretty near by. Who would have thought I'd have to move to China to hang out with college friends?

So, I am excited about graduating now for several reasons:

1. Being finished with final exams. Forever.

2. Living in New York this summer to get the ESL Certificate.

3. Going to China to teach English to 6-12 year-olds.

I can hardly believe how fast this is all happening. Hopefully by the end of this week, I will know for sure whether I will accept the job, and then start planning from there. I think it would be a really wonderful experience, and I am excited that I would be able to keep learning Chinese after college--the school provides three hours of Mandarin lessons per week for the foreign teachers there. I would be living in an apartment building with teachers from the UK, Australia, Ukraine, USA, and Japan. I have no idea what that would be like, but I am kind of beside myself with excitement thinking about it.

Usually I would be worried and frantically trying to plan how things will work out, but I'm not anxious about it at all. If God is taking me there, He's going to take me there, and I am just going to go one day at a time and trust that He knows what He's doing. It's nice not being in control, when I actually realize that I'm not.

Here is a little Chinglish, just for fun:

the heron

The water sifts through it,

That wild beak laid open

For fish in the hollows;

One of them rests in dark water

Beneath his feet.

I wake in my unease and

Envy his patience, his

Absence of forethought at night,

The time where I lie awake,

The least of my thoughts great in my mind.

I lie down again, and

He makes no sound;

The fish go calmly by.

saundy

Last night, I drove down to the Pittsburgh airport to pick up my really good friend Saundy, who's been in Costa Rica teaching for the past two months. She's there on a tourist visa, so she has to come back every 90 days...which makes me happy, because next time she comes back, I'll have graduated and left. :( Her mom, Louise, rode with me, and we passed the hour and a half talking and trying to see through the snowy windshield. Yes. It snowed again...just as I was getting fully convinced that spring was here.

It was a good adventure though, and I had fun talking with Louise on the way down and then to Saundy on the way back up. Her flight came in after 12 am, and I didn't really feel like driving around for half an hour waiting for her to come outside, so I sat by the terminal in my car waiting. There were no parking signs everywhere, so I tried to look inconspicuous...however you do that. But, it didn't really work, because an airport cop came up to me and told me to shove along, and then looked suspiciously at my Virginia license plates. So I shoved along so that I could loop back around, and of course that's when Saundy called me. The poor girl was wearing capris, sandals, and a short sleeve shirt, because it was 95 degrees when she left Costa Rica this morning!

I am so glad that I got to see her, because I'm going home on Easter break tomorrow morning. Saundy's spending the night in my room, because my dear roommate (who I already miss) is in Florida for softball spring training. This roommate also forgot to sign the checklist on our door that verifies we do not have illegal things in our room, because they will check and fine us for them over Easter break, if we happen to have any. So, I will have to figure out how to forge her signature. Shh.