To this point I have worked much less than I had expected and I have been paid the full salary for it. So that's a big plus. The accommodation is a bit more pricey than expected and I am confined mostly to the smallest room in the apartment due to mosquitoes, but it's way cheaper and WAAAAY more comfortable than living in Beijing! Cold beverages, air conditioning, hot meals and even barbecue now! So that's a definite plus too. And Faith. We'll get to her later.
Those are the only pluses. Three. Now the list of things that are both plus and minus. There are quite a few. Friends. I have met a few nice folks here. Mostly co-workers. Well, ALL co-workers. And one by one, they all quit. Every teacher or HR worker for the company I work for has quit. Some of the HR workers have been replaced, but not yet the teachers. This is not a comfortable feeling for me half way through my contract and just starting a 3-month period without pay. The plan is to start work again at the beginning of September. With the two week salary withholding policy here, I'm going from mid July to mid October with almost no pay. That'll head up the minus column.
Taiyuan. The city has it's good points and bad points. I have walked for hours and hours and have come across one, place where I can play a sport or exercise. One. And I tried to find it a second time and couldn't. I think there's a pool and maybe a gym, but I haven't been inside. I have found no driving ranges, batting cages, gyms, hiking trails, walking paths or anything promoting fitness. But, most Mondays, because there's no KBO to watch, I walk to the one park I have found. I just walk around or sit and watch people usually but if I wanted a sport, I guess I could buy a kite. There is some SERIOUS kite flying going on at that park at all times! I'm talking about guys using this kind of equipment!
I've taken pics of them but on the camera that isn't recognized by my computer. The poop phone. There are also paddle boats so I guess I could get some exercise THAT way. So most of my exercise has consisted of just walking around town. In the polluted air. I'm not sure if I'm not doing more harm than good. And often, when I walk around, I go past a McDonald's. Or I DON'T go past it. So that kills the walk too. But my plan was to be antisocial for a while and save money. So in that way, Taiyuan has been perfect. Just recently I've noticed some of the folks in my neighbourhood talking to me. Like just blathering away in Chinese. I think they are trying to be friendly but I don't know jack for Chinese yet and it's making me nervous. I'm going to sound like a dick here but, have you ever given a few coins to a beggar or a homeless person and they started talking to you? Even FOLLOWING you? It's like, "put money into the cup. Don't make eye contact or encourage socialization in any way. Now back away slowly as if from a wild grizzly bear." That's me at my usual stores nowadays.
Yesterday I went to the place where I pay my electric bill every month. The lady just started blabbing away. I guess since I've been here a few months she reckons I have a firm grasp of the Chinese language now. I'm just shaking my head saying, "Wuh bu je dao. Wuh bu je dao." Which means I don't know. I don't even know enough Chinese to say I can't speak Chinese. So she just lets me pay the usual 85 quai and shushes me away. Then I go to my milk place. The Niu Jiu Private Ranch. It's a bakery but I bought bread there once and it was more like cake a la Korean bakeries. But they have good milk. Which is hard to find here. I'll never forget the day when one of the girls was wearing a t-shirt, for an entire 8 or 10 or 18 hour shift, that said, "Fuck you, asshole!" There are 3 or 4 of them and they know me and they know I know that milk is exactly 13.5 quai. It's usually hi, thank you, bye bye. But yesterday it was horrifyingly more! She just wouldn't stop talking to me! I scurried out of the bakery in fear! I had Faith and Mr. Li, her husband, over for a barbecue a few days ago. That's enough socializing for the summer.
Mr. Liu. He's the second in command here. Diana is the owner and she seems nice but we can't really communicate because of a language barrier. I don't speak Chinese and she doesn't speak English. Mr. Liu is the voice of business for the school. So far my dealings with him have been strong minuses. During the brutally expensive first 2.5 months here I was trying to impress upon him how I was paying to move here, rent an apartment, pay the bills AND make visa runs with no help from the school. I said that was unreasonable and asked for an advance and was refused. I had to borrow money from Faith. Also unreasonable. I didn't meet him face to face until the very end of the semester. At that meeting he said he'd find lots of work for me during the summer. Debates, nature hikes, even golf teaching were mentioned. "Don't worry, don't worry." he said. A lot. Then, not much time later he informed me that there was nothing.
At that same meeting I mentioned my rent and that the third three months of it would soon be due. Since our September semester will be at the new school, I will have to move and won't need the apartment for the whole three months or the next three. But I told Mr. Liu that the landlord was pretty adamant about my staying for an entire year. He said he'd be able to talk the landlord into letting me pay only two more month's rent. That way, Sept. 1 I could be at the new school. Again with the don't worry don't worry. Well, a little time later the landlord called the school and asked for the next three months of rent. I texted Mr. Liu and said, "Go ahead. Work your magic." Within a few minutes I got a text back from him saying, "I guess you will have to pay the next three months of rent." That means either I'll be living here for all of September and half of October and somehow commuting the 30 or 40 minutes to and from the school every day, or I'll be paying for this apt. and not living in it. Neither is a plus.
We are 40 days from the start of the semester and I have heard from the teachers who quit that they don't have any students yet, never mind teachers. No concrete plans for housing, never mind classes or schedules. For all I know my employers could be slowly drifting into insolvency and taking me with them. But, he took me to the driving range room. That was cool. And I'm going again tonight. Whack a few balls and hopefully get a few answers to some of these questions. Even if it's the dreaded, "Sorry, but there isn't going to be a September semester," at least I'll know. I've already started looking for jobs. Sigh. Again. Plus he sweats! It sounds strange but I've seen so many Asians who don't seem to have pores. Hiking on a hot humid day, my third shirt soaked right through with sweat and I look around to see Asian hikers with not a drop of perspiration on them. It's a sort of envious hatred I've developed over the years. But at the driving range he sweats as much as or MORE than me! Probably because he insists on drinking hot tea to cool himself down. For that I gotta like him. Not the tea, but the sweating.
The camps. I did a 10-hour, mini camp here in which I taught 8 kids who were going to be participating in the camps in late July and August. These camps will be all over the U.S. In L.A., San Francisco, Idaho, Washington... and they'll be expensive. I was told that these are the children of rich parents. The teachers who work these camps are basically making nothing because they are responsible for their own flights. That's a rip-off. I know how much people pay for camps like this and those teachers deserve more than just a look at America for their efforts. I was asked to do the camps but I can't afford to. However, with the money the company makes from these camps, there should be no trouble paying my salary for the new semester and the new school even if there aren't very many students. That's the way things were in the first semester and I got paid.
And now to Faith. If my employer goes tits up, and that is looking more and more likely to me, Faith assures me that I can work for the place she's working. She even said she'd try to get me more money. And they will get me a place close to the school and get me out of the contract I have at my apartment. And with the Z visa due to arrive in early August, it'll be pretty easy just to change the employer. I don't think I'd have to go through the entire ordeal a second time. However, the hours are long and the students are young. Not the job I am looking for. So there's another plus/minus.
The new school. This is hard to gauge right now. I went there to look around and took pics, (on the poop phone), and it looks like a decent campus. The air is cleaner than right in Taiyuan. The faint smell of cattle came up now and then as I walked the campus with Mr. Jung, the company driver. I don't yet know how large my room will be; if it will have air conditioning; if it will have a fridge and stove; if it will have a sit-down or a squat toilet; if it will have furniture like a desk, wardrobe, etc.; if it will have fast, slow or ANY wifi, and I ask Mr. Liu and guess what he says: "Don't worry, don't worry." I also didn't think to check a classroom and see if there's air conditioning. But this will be the fall semester so we won't need air con for long if at all. There are plenty of facilities for sports on campus like basketball hoops, ping pong tables, soccer field etc. I will probably be forced to hang out with students a lot more and this will improve their English and my Chinese without question. Also, there IS civilization not far away. About a 5 minute drive away I can buy groceries, beer, maybe pizza, who knows? I was worried that the nearest facilities were in Taiyuan, 30-40 minutes away by car. I ALSO found out that during September and half of October, when I'm working there and living here in my Taiyuan apartment, transpo will be arranged for me. Probably Mr. Jung will drive me. Then when the renovations to the teachers' dorms are done, I'll have first choice. They will even help me with the move. Not financially, I don't expect, but like finding me a mover and translation and such. So it's a bit of a mystery, but I'm kind of excited about it. So it's actually more plus than minus for me. One other thing: I asked Mr. Liu if the room on campus will be included as part of my pay or if I will have to pay for it and if so, how much and for THAT too he gave his usual answer. So maybe I'll get free accommodation out of this deal.
On the negative list, this 3 month stretch without pay is for the birds. It wasn't hidden from me. I knew there could be down time. But there was talk of summer programs. Also, I actually HAD a whole month of work planned in Korea. But that had to be cancelled because I was still working a few hours in July plus I have no passport for most of the month. 21 days they take it from you in order to do the residence permit part of the Z visa. I hate surrendering my passport! And from the checking I've done, there doesn't seem to be any camps that start and end in August. They all start in late July and end in August. Then again, the camp idea would probably have had to be under the table work, and that's even harder to find. So it looks like I'm left picking up little bits of work here in Taiyuan while I wait for the new semester to start. And the government knows I've been here 10 months, they know where I live and they're watching me. This is all a big minus.
For a good example of minus number two, just let me refer you to my last post. Bureaucracy. It has been the worst part of every single ESL job I've had and this one has added expense to the frustration. Not only do I have to plow through mountains of paperwork and do the harrowing visa runs and tell white lies to civil servants, it is costing me a lot of money! Which makes it much harder to manage the above 3 month stretch without pay.
Banks. Can you say ANYthing positive about banks? Certainly not! But here, they seem to be even worse than normal. I may have trouble doing simple things like sending money home so I can pay my bills. I also have one more debtor to pay and I don't even know if it's possible to transfer money to her account in Korea. In the two month period during which I was working and getting my head above water I have put away money in what I call the amber fund. It's going to pay off my debts that are still outstanding from the Indonesia fiasco, but since I don't know how to transfer the money to my debtor yet, it is also going to be used as and emergency fund just in case I can't manage to get any work in August. And if I get a camp in Korea, easy peasy, I just bring the money and give it to her in cash. No transfer needed. Friggin banks!
The weather. I've been at this post for a few days and today, July 25, is the first day in quite some time that has been bearable to me. I mean I am sitting here at my computer NOT sweating. There is a little bit of humidity slime but not enough to complain about. Why, I reckon I could work today without bringing 5 shirts to the jobsite. It's 22 degrees and it feels downright cool to me. I know it's too much to ask for the next 9 months to be like this or colder but if it came to pass, I'd upgrade the weather to plus/minus. No, the main reason it's in the minus column is because of the air quality. That's not exactly weather, but the weather website is where I check the air quality. The relatively frigid air evokes in me the spirit of Hal and Joanne. I want to get up and get moving like the letter A trying to turn itself into the letter I. But then I check the AQI and it reads 57. This is what they call "moderate," here. I've heard from the long term breathers of Chinese air that the AQI is, like many things in China, sprinkled with a communal dose of optimistic escapism. So it makes me stay indoors and stay an A.
What? You're not old enough or Canadian enough to know about Participaction? You don't know Hal and Joanne? You've never seen the fatness to fitness Claymation poem? Well here ya go:
So I guess my overall evaluation of the present situation is more positive than negative. If I can manage to find enough work in August, (and don't get my arse busted for doing it), I think I'll have enough money to get through this slow patch. I may need to dip into the amber fund for the move to the new school, but by mid October I'll be rolling again and I will finally be out of Indonesia debt by Christmas.
If not, I may have to blow the whole amber fund on a move to another job, maybe in another country. I have some bona fide (looking) offers in Viet Nam. The one country I haven't explored over here that I want to.
Time will tell....
No comments:
Post a Comment