Well, preschooler to be precise. After an excruciating month and a half waiting for visas, and a frustrating 3 days and 4 travel agents (VERY hard to find one with half a clue!) we finally have flights organised from Australia to Ningbo, China next week!

We just spent 2 weeks in NZ to "practice" travelling (our first big adventure) and although there were lots of hiccups (dodgy hostel shut early on us so we were without a bed at 10pm at night & had to stay in a creepy place down the road, silly mummy booking bus for wrong day & throwing itinerary) we had fun.

China will be different - very different - and we are planning to be there for around 10 months as I will be teaching in an international school. Love to hear any advice or tips from other families who have been to China???

One tip: Finding underwear that is appropriately sized for Western women is difficult. A friend of mine (who is an average size, if not petite for an American) lost some from a clothesline and searched for days to replace it. The only panties available were way too small. Bring plenty. Or be prepared to go commando.

eek! I'd heard that bras and shoes should be top of my list but will now make sure I'm sorted for pants as well! At least that's a nice, small + light Christmas present for my family to send over if need be!!

I will be very interested to learn about how it is for you to teach in the schools there. I am considering this as a possible career shift for a few years from now.

What subject will you be teaching? How did you find out about the position? What type of certification did they require?

Have a great trip.

I'm finding the work aspect great - I'm at an international school who follow Australian curriculum, so day-to-day is pretty familiar. It's a new, smaller school and things are pretty laid back but everyone is still very professional and committed to making a great school.

Re: getting jobs - some people go to job fairs (not really available in Australia), others use recruiters, there is also TES Jobs (UK site), or you can try googling schools and checking out their info.

On recruiters: I signed up with Teach Anywhere but did not find them particularly helpful. My local recruiter was hopeless at responding to email, kept trying to "steer" me into jobs that were clearly outside my preferences (including setting up interviews then not telling the school I was not interested - very embarrassing) and was generally really negative about my chances.

I got frantic when I did not have a job by July and started googling "international schools + asia" and reading newsletters/scouring websites for jobs...and found my current job. I read it in a school newsletter, emailed the principal, met him in Australia during the hols and arrived in China a few weeks ago.

Incidentally, the job was advertised with TeachAnywhere (I saw it just after I'd applied). Despite fitting my requirements and qualifications perfectly, my recruiter did not mention it to me OR tell the school that I was available - so I'd probably say it's worth signing up with recruiters to get a general intro on working overseas and for job lists, but don't forget to do some searching yourself!

Thanks for that advice. I'm still a few years from making that leap, but I figure I need to start thinking about it way in advance.