Transition, Transition, Transit....ion

Have you ever seen "Fiddler on the Roof?" Ok so you know his song Tradition... You know Tradition, Tradition, Traditioooon. Well that song has been stuck in my head the last few weeks except instead of singing Tradition; I'm singing Transition. Transition, Transition, Transition because well thats a lot of what my life has looked like the last few months.

ILP closing dinner

my sweet tutor and friend Gloria (middle) and friend Li Jun at Korean Hot Pot the day before I left Nanjing

Somewhere between packing in Nanjing, working this summer in Hong Kong, making a quick trip to the States (Colorado) for training, sleeping in my (wonderful fluffy) bed for 4 days in Memphis, another 36 hour airport adventure between Memphis and Beijing, another class in Beijing, and making a final landing in Nanchang I've said good bye to teammates, classmates, and friends; made new friends and invested in a new team, said goodbye again, made new friends, met my new teammates, said see you soon to new friends, saw family and long time friends and said good bye again, reconnected with new friends and meet the rest of my new team, said see you in Feb to new friends, and landed somewhere in the East side of a river to live life.

my awesome Engage team #QESOSASS

ice-cream with some students after school one day

Hong Kong 

got to be in Memphis for my Little Laura's wedding... seriously only the Father could have planned that one

love these sweet Memphis ladies 

Having landed in Nanchang looking forward to teaching, new students and friends, and settling into a new place and team life despite the smog (both figurative and literally: oh how you have to love China). That being said have I loved every moment of it no not really, honestly it's been a rough few weeks. Living out of a suitcase, saying goodbyes, and constantly in the state of go is pretty draining and to say I'm looking forward to a sense of routine and to settle would be an understatement. Learning how to navigate a new city, where to find food, where to get things, and trying to make sense of some Nanchang hua (its Mandarin but a regional dialect and oh its so different to my foreign ears), and changing roles from a language student to a language teacher are at times challenging but challenges I enjoy figuring out and gaining some independence as to not feel like a 3 year old. So stay tuned for some crazy adventure stories in the Chang, hopefully I have a goal to blog pretty much weekly this semester so we shall see how it goes. I want to keep you all updated, but I'm not naturally a writer so y'all please keep accountable to it.

part of my new team on the Great Wall

funny faces in CO training