My name is Mark and I currently live in Maffra, Australia (population 4,000) and I work as an assistant manager for a Harvey Norman Bedding and Furniture shop FOR NOW.

My girlfriend Rebecca (she will have her own blog sometime in the future) are planning on moving to China in late February or March to teach English.

I first heard about teaching in China through an article in the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper in about March of this year and was very keen to do it as I have travelled in Europe before, always wanted to live overseas and since I was already 30 there were no opportunities to get a work visa for any countries in Europe. I have already had a work visa for England but that's a whole other entry for another date.

Rebecca and I went to Melbourne (capital of Victoria, population 3.5 million, and the sporting capital of the world) 220 kilometers away down Highway 1 (Princess Highway) to sit in a seminar by global Tesol about a course they offer and teaching jobs worldwide. I left feeling confident that it was something I wanted to do but not so sure about paying the $1500 each they wanted to do the course and gain employement.

I came home and started reading everything I could about China. I bought a copy of lonely Planet and Rough Guides China, also used Lonely Planet's thorn tree on their web site for great information as well as some blogs (will post links later) by people already in China teaching to gain information about it.

We decided against the Global Tesol course and have instead started doing an Ical tefl course via the internet for only $365 each which is a good saving on $1500 and I have since started enquiring about jobs starting February, March next year with some positive results.

I have been in touch with Chris at teach in china who are Australian based in Wuhan, China, population 12 million - a bit more than the 4 thousand in little Maffra. I have have been asked to send Rebecca's and my resume, passport photo's, school certificates and a medical to them and there will be a job in February for us. My problem is I can not afford to go till March so hopefully Chris will be able to find us a job then, still waiting to hear back from him at this stage.

So that completes my first entry of many more to come.