This past year I was blessed with the opportunity to live in China teach English through the company ILP (International Language Program). Choosing to live abroad and teach was easily one of the greatest decisions that I have made in my life. The impact that my students and fellow teachers had on my life is unsurpassable, and the friendships and adventures I got to experience are priceless. Since being home I have taken the opportunity to share with as many people my experiences as well as answer questions for those deciding to take the trip themselves. Here are some answers to some of my most frequently questions as well as some advice that I wish I had before I left!

1. Congrats on your decision and your assignment!! You’re going to have so much fun!
2. Before you go, invest in a good camera. Or at least make sure you have a way to take great quality pictures, whether it be on your phone or whatever. You are going to see some amazing things and you’re going to want pictures to remember everything.
3. Don’t overpack! One cool thing about being abroad is no one cares if you wear the same thing a hundred times. Bring clothes that can easily mix and match and that you’ll be able to layer once it gets to the colder months. Also stick to clothes that are comfortable and that can be dressed up or down.
4. Don’t forget some nicer clothes for nights out or weddings, or other somewhat formal events you might be invited to.
5. When packing be sure to pack travel size everything! One of my biggest regrets was not having travel size shampoo, soap, and a towel for trips. It weighed down my backpack and took up so much extra space.
6. Invest in a good backpack!!! Your backpack is your best friend abroad. You will take it on every trip and it will need to hold up being fully packed with souvenirs and food. Also make sure it is super comfortable to wear because there will be days when you will have it on for hours, fully weighed down.
7. Don’t go crazy on packing shoes. All I brought was a pair of sandals, flats, running shoes, and boots. If you end up wanting more, you can always buy some there.
8. When packing I used one of my large suitcases for clothes and personal items and my other one for teaching supplies and American food. That way at the end of the semester, I left the remainder of my teaching supplies at the school and used the empty suitcase for souvenirs.
9. Bring so many American snacks!! The things that I ate/craved the most was easy mac, oatmeal, just add water muffin mixes, goldfish and cheezits, granola bars!!!, popcorn, and American candy. In China they don’t really have dairy products so you will miss cheese so much. At our school easy mac was hailed as gold.
10. Pre-download movies on your laptop or a tablet if you have one. The wifi is so slow that Netflix is non existent otherwise.
11. Bring a hard drive or flash drive or something to save memory on your phone and laptop as well. You are going to have so many pictures, videos, and movies so this is so important.
12. Download a VPN before you leave. I got Vyper before I left and honest it was kinda mediocre. I heard Expressnet was good, but I didn’t use it personally. Halfway through the semester I deleted Vyper and downloaded Betternet, which worked so much better and was free! However it only works for your phone.
13. Download QQ, WeChat, and WhatsApp before you leave. QQ is the Chinese equivalent to Facebook, and everyone uses WeChat to communicate. Instead of “Hey what’s your number?” it’s “Hey what’s your WeChat?” And I used WhatsApp to help communicate with people from back home. It’s a messaging app that works solely on wifi. You can also use Facebook Messenger but that was always spotty for me.
14. I didn’t get any vaccines before I left, and I survived which was cool. But I would definitely recommend doing your research and talking with your doctor about what they suggest.
15. Bring medication! Bring stuff for stomach aches, headaches, the flu, colds, Melatonin, painkillers, medication for motion sickness, Midol and whatever else you may need. YOU WILL GET SICK.
16. Girls bring all the tampons you think you’ll need for the whole time you’re gone. All they have there are mini pads that don’t do anything.
17. Bring a journal and write down everything when you’re there. Its so nice to read back on later and keep up with it as much as you can!
18. Bring pictures and small things to help decorate your room and make it feel more homey will your gone.
19. I would bring a small jacket or hoodie with you from home, but I wouldn’t worry about a big one for winter. You will be able to buy one there for super cheap, so save the room in your suitcase.
20. For teaching, pack things that are comfortable and easy to move around in. I stuck with black pants or leggings, as well as shirts that could be dress up or down. Also casual dresses were fine too, although I did hear that some kids liked lifting skirts although that never happened to me.
21. Makeup wise, just bring the basics. Honestly most days I didn’t wear any at all, however some days we were asked to dress up by the Chinese and to them that means a full face of makeup including lipstick. So that’s something to consider.
22. Don’t forget to call your bank and tell them that you will be traveling, and to where and for how long. Include any layovers you may have! I just brought my debit card with me and pulled cash out of the ATMs there. I would however, bring some cash to exchange there just in case of an emergency (in case your card freezes, or you lose your card or anything like that).
23. I didn’t get any sort of special cell phone plan or anything like that, I just put my phone in airplane mode the whole time depended on wifi when it was available. There was a few girls in my group who had small plans which were nice to have, so if that’s something you might be interested in talk to your cell phone provider about temporary plans.
24. While you’re gone focus your money on experiences rather than things. Do as much as you can, because you’ll only be in China once!
25. For any other questions, check out the ILP blogs and also the Facebook alumni page.
26. And most important don’t forget to make the most of your time there!