Jason Odell (pseudonym) moved to China in 2010 to work as a university English teacher. Over the next ten years he lived and worked in cities in the northeast, central, and southwest regions of China. The COVID-19 pandemic displaced his family and him back to the United States. They do not know if they will ever return.
[T]he Almighty invites us to trust and remember that he appoints the when and where of our life. We struggle in faith to respond as Job did in the face of his own adversity: You brought us into China, and you brought us out of China.
A train trip from Lhasa to Chengdu.
My good friend and former student's father drove. The dirt road, only forged in the last year or so, made the ride tremendously bumpy and kept travel slow. The road wound through scores of vast, grassy valleys, each curve bringing my wife, me, and our friend to an area that looked so similar to the last we wondered if we were driving in circles.
If you ever move to a major city in Southwest China to study an obscure language at a Chinese university, perhaps the following insights from our first thirteen days will aid your transition.