- Danielle Marcano was bored with her life in Philadelphia and applied for a job in northern China.
- After two years of teaching English, she wanted to change careers but stay in China.
- She struggles with dating and loneliness but has no plans to return to the US.
Five years ago, my typical day consisted of work in Downtown Philly at my regular retail job, lunch, and then clocking out to ride the SEPTA to South Philly to take on the evening shift at my seasonal retail job. When I got home, I would shower, go to bed, and do the same thing again the next morning. It was a wash, rinse, repeat routine fueled by my motivation not to return to my hometown in LA.
But something had to give, and one day, while looking through job listings on Indeed, I stumbled across a teaching opportunity in China . In bold letters, the listing read: “No experience needed to apply!” My first thought was, this is a scam. So I did the one thing any “reasonable” person would do: I submitted my application, résumé, and cover letter, thinking they’d never reply.