The Beginning of our Great Adventure

Well here we are with our visas and plane tickets all ready to go.... but wait, let's start at the beginning.

Several years ago Bob wanted to go to teach university in the People's Republic of China, and I said I would never go anywhere in Asia. Well, never say never! Having a lapse of memory this past December I relented and said I would go.

The applications had to be into the David Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU in January and our applications were there early in the month. Then the waiting began. February was the month set aside for interviews and when we hadn't been called for an interview late in February we figured we wouldn't be going. However, we came home from a vacation in Fernie on the 28th February and there was an email saying our forms had been sent to the University of Nanjing.

We again waited until the 22nd April when we received word that we were accepted by the University. Now we had to get medicals and have them sent to China after which they would issue us an invitation to work from the university and a document from the Chinese government.
These came in July, but when we went to Calgary to get our Visa there was a problem with my passport number so we were unable to obtain visas.

At the beginning of August we had to attend a one hundred hour intensive training course at BYU. We had classes in Survival Chinese, Chinese History, Chinese Culture, teaching English as a foreign language and whatever else was deemed necessary for our stay. Needless to say I was very tired after a day or so, but we managed to survive. While at BYU the Kennedy Center sent off our visa applicatons to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. My application was accepted but they wouldn't give Bob a visa. However when we got back to Alberta Bob was able to go to the Chinese consulate in Calgary and he now has his visa.

We leave Calgary on August 28th at noon.