Traveling the World

Last night was an executive business party shindig where New Oriental invited VIPs from all the largest companies, some people coming from Britain and Spain but mostly from within China. The foreigners were asked to do nothing but dress in formal attire and mingle. We weren’t being paid for our time and our time was being wasted. We asked to leave early since our presence was merely symbolic, yet they refused to allow us to go. So we drank the wine and ate the food and hit the rock on the ground with our hands in our pockets.

After work I met a friend and we hung out til about 1… and then I woke up sick this morning.

We finally got a new apartment but are meeting the landlord tomorrow to sign the lease. It’s 1800rmb a month, which is 500rmb cheaper than what my school was paying for the SAME place (yes, they AGAIN screwed Mark and I over by telling us they wouldn’t continue renting that apartment after Matt and Nick left.. so I got the landlord to deal with me directly and as a result I’m now saving myself money, 100rmb a month, to be exact. The school will be paying mark and I each 1000rmb a month for rent towards this apartment, but since it only costs 1800 and not 2000, Mark and I each get to keep 100rmb for ourselves. Talk about good times.

In other news, I gave in and finally bought a new cell phone. It’s a Sony Ericsson (only brand I’ll ever buy) K530i, and I paid 950rmb for it (it came with a 256mb Micro2 memory card, a USB connector for the PC, and a cellphone charger), which is about $130. I checked and it’s $50-$75 cheaper than in America. The reason I bought it is because it has Chinese language support on it, so I can finally get text messages in Chinese.. also it was time for a new one. RIP, my beautiful T610, sleep well.

Go Gators!

Snake: “okay, I need you to take over Matt and Nick’s responsibilities for the Halloween party.”
Me: “um… what? why?”
Snake: “They are no longer employees at New Oriental, so I need you to do their job.”
Me: “Wait. what happened? Was this because of the contract negotiation not being completed yet?”
Snake: “No. Ｉ can’t tell you, suffice it to say they don’t work here anymore.”
Me: “Well, damn.”

It goes on from there, but the rest is boring. Let’s just say I was really angry and confused that all this work was being dumped on MY lap, and only because Snake hates my guts because she’s a spineless wench with no ability to see reality.

So I call Nick to confirm the story, and he told me that yes, the school basically told them to go to hell, because my friends asked for pay raises during their contract renegotiations. They had the highest marks (our students grade us from 1-5 at the end of a course) of all the teachers, which means they were the best teachers at the school.

So now all the other foreign teachers are concerned, because if the school doesn’t mind firing 2 of their best teachers over a measly amount of RMB extra every month, then that means they could fire me for nothing (which they’ve already threatened to do). None of us feel safe, and some of us might consider leaving if the school doesn’t re-think it’s attitude towards us. I’ve already made that idea damn clear to my other boss, who we’ll name Chalex. He said he knows the school is operating very poorly right now, and I said this: “You guys better fix it now, cuz if you don’t, you might find yourself having a very high turnover rate for your teachers. I’m not saying I spoke to anyone specifically, but trust me it’s on our minds.” I bet he freaked out and called Snake. I hope he did.

So after the conversation with Snake I immediately called Chalex and said “hey, since Matt and Nick are gone, I want their apartment.” Their apartment is a 2 bedroom apartment in the same building as Alex, Zahra, and Mike, which is where I was looking for apartments to begin with. It’s about 1200sq. ft for $200 a month. Chalex told me this is the most expensive apartment and it’s not possible to continue renting. Well, I have been looking in that building for a few weeks now, so I KNOW what the real prices are, and I know damn well that the school is paying 2300rmb a month for the place, not 3000 like he told me. So I’m going to call that landlord myself and get her to deal with me directly. So now the school will be losing money by giving me the money to rent the apartment, rather than saving money by paying for it directly themselves (they can either pay for the apartment, or give me 1350rmb a month to rent one that I find suitable).

I was woken up this morning at 8am by my landlord and some engineer guy who’s going to fix the gas leak that’s been in my apartment for the last 4 months. Fingers crossed.

I’ve been keeping very active by going to the gym, walking, and I semi-played like 10 minutes of basketball yesterday. Me, Mark, and Canadian Alex went out to our Xinjiang friend’s university to play basketball (his name is Ali; Xinjiang is in the northwest part of China.. if you want to learn more about it, search East Turkistan on Wikipedia).

Things are better at work. I’ve calmed down a lot and talk to them very nicely and all is well. The school finally produced pay stubs in English for us, and we’ll see them next month when we get paid. The foreign teachers (we’re from America, Canada, Britain, and Australia) are putting together a Halloween party (even though it seems only the Americans celebrate it) for all of the students at New Oriental. I’m going to be Death and it’s my job to attack the students and whatnot. Good times.

It’s finally getting a bit colder.. the average high is about 75 degrees and the average low is about 55. In the next week or two it’ll dip down to the 60s. I’ve been buying a lot of warm clothes because it normally goes below 0 and stays very cold until May. Awesome.

Nothing else new to report other than that I’ve begun dancing Salsa again (even though it’s just me and a Chinese friend).