I'm less than 3 weeks away for going away for 3 months.. It's getting hard to wrap my head around it. I got accepted for an internship in China to teach English to elementary school children, what more could I dream of?! I'll be living an hour or two outside of Shanghai (pronounced, shonghai) in a city called Wuxi (pronounced wooshi). I'm staying in an apartment in one of the experimental bilingual schools and teaching in the classroom as well as workshops afterschool and on some weekends. There will be a lot of opportunity for travel and learning from my experiences. I do have to admit, I was hoping for a more rural place for my internship. When they said Wuxi was a small city, I figured that's what I would be getting. I guess I need to start realigning myself with Chinese thoughts on what constitutes a small city, 4.6 million people! The only thought that came to my head when I heard that is how much I'm going to get lost. I am getting nervous, about the language barrier. The internship didn't require interns to know Chinese, they just wanted native English speakers to be able to teach. I got a little book to carry around with me to help, but I have a strange feeling I'm going to order my food wrong, a lot.
I had a dream last night that I was leaving for the airport, getting ready to board the plane, and forgot my camera. Some people may not think that's a big deal, but I LOVE taking pictures and would be so sad if I wasn't able to document this wonderful internship I'm about to experience. That will be the first thing I pack now!
On another note, I got asked to shoot my first wedding! It happens to be going on the day before I leave for my internship, but hey, what's a little stress to add to the excitement? I just got a new camera and I'm really happy with it. I've been shooting a lot and I love that I can actually see what I'm shooting because the review screen is so much bigger and clearer than my last one. I'm hoping that for the wedding it will be good conditions, but I'll just take it as it comes. I did the engagement shoots for the couple who is getting married and they were absolutely wonderful in front of the camera. They were cute and cuddly as though I wasn't even there. Hopefully the wedding day goes just as well!
