China's Absurdities AKA The Differences that exist in China (more PC) #1

One thing I really dislike, or perhaps abhor would be more appropriate, is the bureaucracy in this school. I know this is not the US and I do not expect things to unfold in the same manner, but can I just that some of the things they do are absurd. This is not me being ethnocentric or falling victim to cultural superiority. The administration favors going around their elbows to get to the tush!

Here is an example:

Administration: "We ordered the wrong books for your class and we don't have enough money to buy more, so just make copies."

Me: "Oh...ok...I think that will be ok"

Copyman: "how many? double sided?" "don't forget to sign" [we have to sign a clipboard with how many copies we make]

Me: "Oh, sure, sorry about that."

*A few days pass and I still make about 40-50 copies a day*

Copyman: "more copies?!"


Me: [thinks to self] "Why is the copyman upset about making copies? Maybe this isn't the copyman's job. hmmmm...."


Administration: "We need to limit how many copies we make. Too much money."


Does anyone see the absurdities in this? Too much money?! Then buy the McFriggin' books! Parents pay about 80,000RMB per head. I think they can buy a few books off of that. I considered figuring out how much money they spend versus how much they could save if they did things "differently." Another thing that is absurd. We have one ink jet for all the teachers to use for printing. It is the same type of printer we used to use at the hotel. Can anyone guess why this is absurd? Well, they have to call someone to replace the ink. Why in the holy underworld would they need to call someone to replace a simple toner?! This is a point of contention for me.

It is absurd to me, but maybe it is just a simple difference.

再见！！！

What! Who called? Oh, that's right...WORK!

Mid-Autumn Festival is now over and I am back at work on Saturday. In China many of the holidays are on the lunar calendar and not like the US where it may be the second Sunday of the month. Due to this fun factoid I had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, but now I must make up the days. I am working today and tomorrow. Can I get a "boo" from the crowd?!

Lucky for me today we are on Friday's schedule and I only teach one class. It helped to ease me back into the work week. I taught parts of speech to my ESL Writing class. I think they were bored out of their mind because no one talked. Actually, three people fell asleep. These students are amazing in their unique ways. Some of them are extremely studious and then there are those who simply do not care about what is going on in the class. I played MadLibs with them, but that really did not excite them as much as I thought it would. I think some of the students got a kick out of it.

再见！！！

Jenny's Birthday (Occurred this past Saturday)

This is an event that already occurred, but I figured I would share the pictures. Went to ktv (karaoke) for Jenny's birthday. This place is in Thumb Plaza 大拇指广场 which is right across the street from where we live. We had a great time.

Jenny singing

Jessica having fun on the floor

Sue and Jenny

Chris singing

Ellyse jammin' out with the tambourine

More to come later.

再见！！！

Mid-Autumn Festival

It is now Mid-Autumn Festival. We had a luncheon in Hangzhou, so we all headed down their Tuesday night after work. The metro was ridiculous. Again, the metro was RIDICULOUS. We took a train to Hangzhou and it only took about an hour and a half.

When we arrived it was a mad house at the train station. I think we over payed for a taxi, but I think by that time we did not care how much we payed because we were tired. Sue, Jenny, and I spent the night at Tia's. The MAIS students are more or less split half and half between Shanghai and Hangzhou.

beautiful view from the market

 I must say that I was very shock upon arrival in Hangzhou. I think I have grown very accustomed to my lofty life in Shanghai. I live in Pudong, which is a new area of Shanghai and I think it could easily be argued that my neighborhood is the west LA of Shanghai. Hangzhou is developed, but it isn't Shanghai. It is much more "China". There are less affluent people and much more of the city seems like what you would imagine China to be. In no way does this take away from the city, but it was a shock to me. I think I would have culture shock very bad if I were to live in Hangzhou.

one of the dishes at Grandma's Kitchen

Wednesday, we had a luncheon at a place called Grandma's Kitchen. It was a very nice restaurant and Dr. Kim and Professor Wyman were there to greet us. It was great to see them. They gave us hugs and poured us pijiu 啤酒 or Chinese beer. Professor Wyman sat next to me and we had a long talk about some of the issues I have been having at Jin Cai. It was great to talk to him as it was good to release my frustrations. Our meal was a typical Chinese meal with many dishes. 


After lunch we headed to the West Lake area and shopped. We faced endless stares and even had our picture taken by a few people. We even took a picture with someone who thought they were being slick in taking our picture. A few people said "hi" to us in order to show their English abilities. It was a rainy day, which was nice. Typically the rain would be hot, but it was really cold the last two days. It seems that it might finally be transitioning to fall/winter. 

Overall, I had a great time in Hangzhou, but I do not foresee myself returning anytime soon. The city does not have a metro system like Shanghai, so transportation becomes expensive with each cab riding being 40 kuai or more. 

Sorry for the delays in my postings. Stay tuned for more


再见！！！

 

It's a bug's life...no, really!

Bugs are EVERYWHERE. I have no idea why there are so many in my room. I have now killed, two centipede-looking critters, several rollie pollie bugs, a few caterpillars, numerous mosquitoes, and then miscellaneous bugs. I think because there is a river only a few yards from my room. I was being bitten non-stop, but I think I found a cure. I bought bug off and I apply that every night before I go to bed. This seems to be fairly effective. I also bought a Raid bug repellent that seems to help keep the mosquitoes from coming around my bed.

I am not sure if this has been working, but I can say with concrete certainty that I have not been eaten alive since I have started using bug off. Mocha sexiness is even hard for the bugs to resist! I may develop skin cancer  or some mutation from all of the bug off, but I think I am willing to accept that fate if that means the bugs are no longer attracted to my blood.

Winter cannot come fast enough! Hopefully, that will limit the amount of bugs that come into my room. Okem dokem folks, that's all he wrote.

Bonne nuit!

Teacher's Day Banquet

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been extremely busy with work and school.  I guess I will begin with the last major event. Last Friday, September 10, was Teacher’s Day. The school held a banquet for all of the teachers of Jin Cai at the Eton Hotel www.theetonhotel.com over in Lujiazui (area in pudong). This included the teachers at Jin Cai International Division and the teachers from the local Jin Cai schools.

 The hotel was quite amazing. Very beautiful and the banquet room was on one of the upper floors. It seemed like there were 300-400 people there. The banquet began with a long speech in Chinese from the principal over all Jin Cai campuses. Then the foreign teachers had to go on stage. A few more people went on stage and so on. Nothing too amazing there. Every table had a lazy susan. We began our meal with jelly fish, chopped chicken and beans, mushrooms, and some other things but I was not too sure what they were. Each time the water came to our table he brought a new dish.  A few of the dishes served were pork with tons of fat, chicken with the head, beef, broccoli, salad, fruit, and tons of other stuff. I am now forgetting what we were served.

fat with a little pork

chicken head

yummy fish

The most memorable…or not so memorable…part of the night was the wine. We drank so much! I think my table must have had close to 8 bottles of wine. We went to tables and said “ganbe!” The banquet ended around 8:30 and then others went to the bars to drink some more. I went home and just relaxed. I was a bit tipsy when I left the hotel. Overall it was a good night.

A few glasses of wine later

 再见！！！

First day of teaching

Today was my first day of teaching. I did not cover much, but this was a stressful day. I am temporarily on overload. I teach 7 subjects, which require a lot of preparation. I am exhausted today. i only went over rules. I am a bit worried because I began my own course work today and it seems like it is going to be a stressful and busy 10 months. I am almost wondering how am I going to fit in any cultural exploits. I am sure I will figure it out. I think I will head to bed early tonight. I need to recharge for tomorrow.

First week of work: Completed

The emblem you see upon walking into the school

I made it through my first week of work. I am exhausted. I have been going to bed later and it is taking a toll on me. Work has not been overly demanding, but it did cause stress for all of us in the international division at Jin Cai or  JCID (Jin Cai International Division). I have completed most of my general outlines for the subjects that I will be teaching. I stayed two hours late on Thursday and I am going to go in tomorrow (Saturday) for a few hours. I was able to take a few pictures of the school, but nothing amazing. I will try to take more. I do not have much more to report as this has been a busy week of just work. Today was registration and English testing. One would think being busy today would cause time to fly, but it seemed like the day would never end. Well folks, that's all I wrote. Stay tuned. I think I am going to head over to Puxi tonight to hang out with coworkers.

Front of the school but my camera could not capture it all

Our track

Chinese heritage room

Building across from my cubicle

more Chinese heritage room

Buildings around the school

Our school symbol that is all over the campus

 I will take more pictures of my school once I have a moment to actually walk around and not worry about the principal seeing me.

再见！！！