It’s official

This past week a lot of pre-departure planning things finally fell into place.  My flight to China is now officially booked.  I’m leaving on July 12^th with my friend Fran who is doing Teach For China.  I’m super excited to travel with my friend.  I think it will make the travel anxiety a little easier to deal with.  I also got my visa!  Another piece of good news is that my partner for my work in Guizhou is set.  She’s from Sydney and has some experience teaching in China.  From our skype conversations, it looks like we’ll get along really well, and I’m excited to work with her.

I also had a really nice graduation party this past weekend.  It was lovely to spend time with my close friends and see some of my family.  I also got to witness my cousin’s daughter Veronica crawl for the very first time! 

The feeling that I’m a Fulbright scholar is also finally starting to sink in.  That’s why I’m in Washington, DC, by the way.  I’m here for 3 days for a preorientation program.  Looking at the schedule we don’t have much free time… I wish there was some time to go out and see all the famous things here, but I don’t think I’ll even leave the hotel much.  *sigh*  It’s ok though.  It’s great to hear from past and future Fulbrighters and I’m learning a lot by just talking to the people here.  We’ve also gotten to hear from people like Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, and I just got back from a dinner reception at the personal residence of China’s Minister Councilor of Education, Professor Maotian Fang.  I feel so honored to hear these wonderful and important people and to hear them speak personally about issues they feel strongly about.  It’s all a bit overwhelming, but at the same time, meeting all these people has filled me with new energy and enthusiasm to face the challenges to come!

Days left in the states: 14 (that’s a scarily low number…)

Back to the Future

Hello new reader!  To old readers, welcome back. ^_^  This is a blog I started for my first visit to China back in the beginning of 2011, and now that I’m going back, it seems appropriate to me to continue chronicling my adventures here rather than starting a new blog.  However, if you ARE reading for the first time (or have simply forgotten), I would like to provide a short explanation of the title of my blog, as it is of significance to me.  Here’s a quote from my very first post:

“The title of my blog requires a bit of explanation (and foreign language experience).  When I was in high school, I went to a Hebrew immersion camp for a summer.  They told us to speak רק עברית (rough transliteration: rock ivrit), only Hebrew.  I really liked this phrase, and thought about using רק סינית (rock sinit), only Chinese, as the blog title... but it seemed a bit counter intuitive to give my blog (about Chinese) a Hebrew title. However, the same title in Chinese (只说中文) didn't have the same oomph as the Hebrew.  Thus, רק Chinese becomes Rock Chinese... a funny Hebrew-English mix, which also manages to encompass how awesome I think Mandarin is (and how amazing I hope to become at speaking it).  =]”

I believe my Chinese has improved immensely since this blog’s beginnings when I studied abroad at Minzu University of China in Beijing.  Minzu University is not as well known or prestigious as other universities such as Beida or Qinghua, but it is special in that many of its students belong to ethnic minorities.  I learned a TON with the ACC program, hopefully enough to make my upcoming adventures a bit easier.

Which leads us to what exactly I will be doing… I have been awarded a Fulbright Full Grant to go to China and study both Chinese and Psychology, my two majors in undergrad.  Before this starts, I will also be going to southern China (Guiyang, Guizhou) to host an English teaching convention for Chinese elementary and middle school English teachers.  It looks to be a very challenging and exciting year, and I hope that you will stay along for the ride!

As for the title of this post, I was recently having a discussion with close friends about the time difference between the US and China so that we could stay in touch.  One friend was particularly tickled by the fact that I would be speaking to her “from the future” as China is currently 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.  Also, because this will be my second time going to China, I am essentially going back to the future.

For legal purposes…..

I hereby acknowledge that this blog is not an official Department of State website.  The views and information presented here are my own and in no way represent the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.