The Story of How We Decided to Go to China

Like, for real.

Once upon a time, Ben and I were killing time on campus. I grabbed a newspaper and started browsing. (On a completely unrelated side note-Rexburg has got to be one of the most boring cities as far as news goes. I read a 3 page article about college age men creating a club to watch My Little Ponies together. Not kidding. Another favorite was the woman who called the cops because her 3 year old was missing. Cops arrived and found the kid fast asleep underneath some pillows. Sheesh.)

Anyhow...

The newspaper had an insert advertising a FREE five dollar bill AND dinner. The catch? You had to come listen to a 15 minute spiel on the International Language Program.

Who doesn't want free money? We were in.

So we went and listened. Basically, the International Language Program (or ILP) sends its volunteers to several different countries (although, they only send married couples to China). The volunteers work at schools and teach English for a couple hours every day. When they're not teaching, they can travel and experience the culture. Cool, right? Honestly, it's pretty affordable, as far as a study abroad type program goes.

And as we left ($10 richer between the two of us, mind you) we felt like crazies because we were like, "What if...?"

And let's be real. It was a huge "What if...?" I mean, both of us are currently unemployed and have been for 3 months. Unfortunately, that doesn't usually equate to gobs of money to spend on flippant travel.

But the more we thought about it, the more we realized that not only could we make this a reality, it would actually be beneficial too. We realized it would help Ben's schooling in so many ways.

Problem: Ben has always wanted to become multilingual. However, he's always told me that he wouldn't be able to call himself fluent in another language unless he lived in the country where they spoke that language.
Solution: The cost of ILP includes language and cultural classes. Ben would be able to learn Chinese and then go right out and practice it. (I'm not as ambitious, so I'll probably just stick to learning tai chi and call it good).

Problem: Ben has been looking at a master's program (called Master of Second Language Teaching--how appropriate is that??) that he's really interested in. However, the program requires all applicants to have taught in a classroom setting for 6 months.
Solution: Teaching in China will totally count for that! He'll get 3 months from student teaching (someday) and 3 months from ILP.

Problem: Before I went to college, I always wanted to do some sort of study abroad. But I didn't because I'm too darn focused. I graduated and got married...so....
Solution: ILP actually gives a discount to married couples. Cha-ching!

So we have been going forward with this, and with all crazy set aside, we have really felt like this is the right thing to do. It seems like the Lord has got our back on this one-what with how everything has worked out (we've even found a way to pay for it!).

China has always been the last place on my To Travel list. Mostly because the culture is so incredibly foreign to me. But I have been getting so excited for this little adventure that we're going to go on.

Especially because I heard the shopping in China is super cheap.