About Me

My name is Jenn.

Welcome to my site that I've designed to keep people informed about my life in China. Hope you enjoy it and gain some insight into life in this country.

My story (aka how I got here):
I went to college at the University of Delaware, where I double majored in Spanish and Psychology. As part of my Spanish program, I spent the Spring '04 semester in Costa Rica. It was my first trip abroad and I loved it, but after a while I began to feel the itch to go someplace new and learn a new language. My host mom mentioned studying Chinese in passing, which planted a seed in my head. When I returned to Delaware, I signed up for a semester of Mandarin Chinese and fell in love with the language. I had the opportunity to study abroad in Beijing for a month in the winter of 2006, and I loved it. One month wasn't enough time for me to learn all I wanted to know about the language and culture. At that point, I was unsure of what to do after college graduation, but I knew it didn't involve graduate school right away. I toyed with the idea of doing volunteer service somewhere, and a swift Google search lead me to opportunities teaching English in China.

I began teaching at a small foreign language college in Changchun, a city in the northeast of China, in Fall 2006. Although I'd never been a teacher before, I fell in love with the profession, and fell even more in love with my students. I initially planned to stay in China for only one year, but I felt the call to stay and study language. I spent the 2007-2008 school year studying Mandarin at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, southern China. While I never was fully fluent, I learned to communicate well, and became even more immersed in the culture. I've been back in the US this past year, teaching at a local college, doing odd jobs, and spending time with family. I'm currently getting ready to return to China. This coming school year I'll be teaching at a university in Hengyang, Hunan province.

If you had asked me 5 years ago if this was how I saw my life unfolding, the answer would have been a resounding "NO!" But this is how things have happened, and I wouldn't have it any other way.