Into China, that is. That’s right — I’m writing to y’all straight from behind the Great Firewall of China and things are absolutely splendid here.

I do intend to catch up on my posts from the UK (we’ve still got Dusseldorf, Luxembourg City, Paris and more London to talk about, among other cities) but I thought I’d update you dear readers with our location.

Currently Jack and I have moved into interior China as teachers at a Canadian-run school. We’re living in a fairly rural-suburban area, right on the edges of a town called Dagang, in Jiangsu Province. Every morning we wake up to views like this:

Here in Dagang the industrial concrete buildings clash with the lush farmland. The area of town that we live in is inhabited largely by elderly people who stare at everything strange (non-Chinese people, English-speakers, English-speaking-Chinese-looking people, etc). Staring aside though, once they realize we’re not locals, most people are quite friendly and helpful despite the language barrier.

We’ve also now finished our week of orientation at the school and are preparing to teach starting on Monday. I’ll be looking forward to teaching business (economics and marketing) and Jack will be teaching math. Already we have been welcomed with other new teachers into the small staff at our school and I’m anticipating a year of good friends and hard work! The school at first glance also looks like something straight out of a boarding school anime.

Hopefully in all the buzz we’ll still be able to keep up the blog! For now though, Saturday will be a morning of rest and Starbucks (only in the nearby city, Zhenjiang) and work with friends. Stay tuned!