Ok, so I bet you are just dying to know how everything ended with Morgan and Morgan Rothschild Academy. Sit back and let me tell you the final tale…
This last two weeks has been so bitter-sweet. We had a Preschool Graduation “ceremony” for my class and a family potluck. It was really nice having all the families come in, enjoy great food and reminisce about the time at MRA. Many of my children are moving on to other schools, or moving to other countries, so it was a really important time. It was kind of stressful and a huge headache to get everything together and ready but in the end, it all worked out well!
This week we decided to have a really fun and relaxed week. We had an ice cream social one day, muffin treats another day, and today we had a messy art day (Morgan just loved it)! The kids were so excited and had so much. I was trying to soak up all the time I could with my kids! As much as I did not like Morgan, I love my children ten times more, and I would have done anything for them. It broke my heart having to say goodbye to them all today knowing that I would never see the majority of them ever again… but I don’t want to think about that right now.
Anyway, when I wrote my last update, we were feuding with Morgan about some unsettled tax issues. Long story, short - he was trying to tell us all that we owed him a bunch of money for back taxes, yet we were refusing to pay them because it was bullshit. After that happened, I was furious! I went home and did my research and even talked to a lawyer out here in China in regards to the issue. I also talked to other friends that I have who work at other schools. All my information was conclusive and supported my decision to not give him a dime of my money. I had come up with quiet the defense and I was mentally prepared for a full on brawl when it came time for me to get my money from him. I had predicted everything that he was going to say, and I had scripted all of my rebuttals so that I could not lose. I mean, let’s be realistic here, nothing about what he was trying to do made sense or was logical, but I was prepared nonetheless. When Morgan gets into one of those my way or the highway moods, he absolutely cannot be reasoned with, so I figured that it would be a fight-to-the-death match.
So school finally ended and all of the children were sadly piling out the door heading for home. Morgan called me into his office to get paid… this was it! I went up to my classroom and gathered all of the materials that I had to return to Morgan – some books that I had borrowed, work shirts, etc – and headed to his office. When I sat down, he was talking on the phone. I could see on his computer screen that he had some information about the taxes already waiting at his fingertips for a defense – yup, there was going to be a fight! He slid me a piece of paper that I began reading. It was my Acceptance of Resignation letter. I read it and signed it. Then he gave me a few other things to look over while he finished up his phone conversation – standard stuff. When he got off the phone, we started discussing my pay - the standard pay rate, the half day that I took off, the final utilities that he was deducting, and finally the taxes based on the 4,800 RMB monthly deductable instead of the 5,200 RMB monthly deductable (the root of the conflict). However, he dropped it at that, and never mentioned the “back taxes” that I owed him for the discrepancy for the other months… interesting. So anyway, he gave me my money and I made a couple copies of the documents.
When I returned to his office, he began saying, “I want to show you this information…” pointing to the series of Chinese characters on the computer screen that I clearly could not read, and the small chart which read the monthly deductable as 4,800 RMB. “I decided to not charge you all for the taxes you owe me, but I want to show you that I was right.”
Inside, I was still raging and I wanted to throw the computer and scream, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT THE MONTHLY DEDUCTABLE RATE Is, YOU DON’T PAY TAXES ON YOUR ILLEGAL FOREIGN EMPLOYEES! Instead, I took the professional route and said, OK! Then I stood, thanked him for the opportunity to teach at MRA and I wished him the best of luck with his school. In return, he thanked me for my time and wished me luck with my next job, and I walked out of his office for the last time!
In all honesty, I know that I could have fought with him to get the money that I deserved based on my contract and purely based on the fact that I was working there illegally, but in reality, I just wanted to be done – done with him and done with his school! I will donate a couple bucks (hoping that it benefits the kids in some way) if it means that I never have to encounter than man again! I just can’t believe that I am done. It feels like I just got here like a week ago!
So now it is time to pack… ugh I HATE packing! Thankfully I am able to store the majority of my stuff here at Courtney’s apartment for the summer so I don’t have to take it home, but I still hate packing up my apartment and everything! You wouldn’t believe how much stuff a person can accumulate in only 5 months. Anyway… I will see everyone in only 3 days! I will be boarding a plane in only 48 hours to begin my 32 hour journey back to reality!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Finale
So we have been up to a lot in our last two weeks here in Shanghai all together. Sure, Courtney Harp and I will be staying in Shanghai, but let’s be realistic… she is moving to PuDong with Leonardo and I will be staying in PuXi, so we might as well be in different countries (not to mention that she never leaves Leo’s side these days). Courtney Leedy will be leaving China for good in August to “settle down” in the US, and Shannon and her husband Brett (the other English teacher at MRA) are also heading back to the US for good at the end of this week. So we have been relishing our last moments together in Shanghai.
So last weekend we went out to ILS (I Love Shanghai Bar) – our favorite go-to bar and met up with some other friends. It was a rather interesting night. Nothing good ever happens at ILS, especially on Saturday nights when they have 100 RMB open bar from 7 to midnight. So we drank a little, played some darts and Courtney, Shannon and Brett all did absinth shots. I opted out of the absinth seeing how I nearly died the last time I touched absinth at ILS. It turned out to be a not-so-great night for Courtney and Shannon following the shots who blacked out and ended up puking in the taxi on the way home (thank goodness I opted out).
Then on Monday, after we turned in all of our portfolios and got into a fight with Morgan about the taxing and what not, we needed a girl’s night out. The four of us headed to Hung Qao and went to Golden Jaguar – the most amazing restaurant that I have been to in China. It was incredible! For 238 RMB we enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet of seafood, traditional Chinese dishes, sushi, pastas, veggies, soups, fresh cut meats, pizza, fresh fruit, chocolate fondue fountain, Hogan daz (sp?) ice cream, cocktails, beer, wine, coffee, soda, etc. There were rows and rows and rows and rows of food, and each time that we went to get more food, the dishes changed and there was new stuff. We stayed there for several hours. We would eat a little, then talk, then eat some more, then talk and eat and talk and eat. After we left, I felt like I had eaten a baby dinosaur, but it was worth every bit because it was that delicious.
The other night, we went to get facials. China has done quite a number on my skin, unfortunately and so I was trying to help it out a little bit before going back to the US. The facial and the massage was pretty amazing. However, for some reason, my facial lady took it upon herself to shave my eyebrows. I don’t really understand why, no one else got their eyebrows shaved and I definitely did not ask. I was pretty relaxed and out of it, and when I realized what she was doing, it was too late to stop her. Of course I had to let her finish and do the other side too. I hate it when people touch my eyebrows because I have very finicky eyebrows, and she really messed them up. Not to mention that shaving around the edges was just weird because now I have stubble. I know that from a distance they look fine, I am sure, but I am just angry about it.
Then this weekend was our finale. Shannon and Brett leave in just a couple days, so we went all out and went to the places that we always talked about going but never made it to. We got all dressed up and started with an early dinner at Lost Heaven on the Bund. It is a fancy Chinese restaurant right off the Bund. I went there one other time on my first date with Quinten. The food is really superb and the atmosphere is very relaxing and intimate. The five of us ordered a bottle of white wine and we each picked a dish from the menu and ate family style (that is how traditional Chinese meals are served). After dinner, we headed to the Grand Hyatt Café for coffee and dessert, a café on the 53rd floor of the Jin Mao building (the second tallest building of the PuDong new area skyline). The only view we saw was from a window in the bathroom, oddly enough. Although it was a rainy and cloudy day in Shanghai, we could still see straight down the side of the building, and man oh, man, was it tall! We were looking straight down to the express way, and in the distance, we could see quite a bit of PuDong.
After dessert, we went to the Piano Bar in Jin Mao but it was lame, so we went next door to the Shanghai World Financial Center (the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world). Standing at the bottom of SWFC, we could not even see the top because it was so cloudy – it just seemed to disappear. The building is very interesting looking because it looks like a bottle opener (which is what it is commonly referred to as). On the 91st floor was a bar called Altitude Bar. They played pretty good music, and the bar itself was really interesting. For decorations, they had white porcelain items hanging from the ceiling – anything and everything you could possibly imagine hanging from every two inches of the ceiling. It was kind of crazy and we spent a while playing the “I spy” game. Unfortunately, it was far too cloudy weather so there was no view to see from the 91st floor – it looked as though we were just in a cloud. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool to go up into both buildings.
After all of those places (that were rather pricey), we decided to head back to our usual stomping grounds in Jing’an. Our first stop as Julie’s, but it didn’t last long after they tried to get us to enter their wet t-shirt contest for the “Wild in White” night. So we ended up at The Spot down the street. I really like The Spot. They had a live Pilipino band, good drinks, and some good snacks. We hung out there for a while and listened to the Philipino girl belt her heart out! By the time we made it to The Spot, we were all beat! Pathetic, I know, but we were all home and in bed by 2:00am.
… a perfect finale to end our time together in Shanghai. I really do love Shanghai, and I love meeting all of the interesting people that come to China, but the worst part is that no one stays forever. I feel like I am always saying good bye to people. I know I am leaving for a little while for the summer, but I will be back. The sad part is that half of the friends I have made in the last 5 months will not be here when I get back. Just like that… people move on, and never hear from them again. It is just sad.
So last weekend we went out to ILS (I Love Shanghai Bar) – our favorite go-to bar and met up with some other friends. It was a rather interesting night. Nothing good ever happens at ILS, especially on Saturday nights when they have 100 RMB open bar from 7 to midnight. So we drank a little, played some darts and Courtney, Shannon and Brett all did absinth shots. I opted out of the absinth seeing how I nearly died the last time I touched absinth at ILS. It turned out to be a not-so-great night for Courtney and Shannon following the shots who blacked out and ended up puking in the taxi on the way home (thank goodness I opted out).
Then on Monday, after we turned in all of our portfolios and got into a fight with Morgan about the taxing and what not, we needed a girl’s night out. The four of us headed to Hung Qao and went to Golden Jaguar – the most amazing restaurant that I have been to in China. It was incredible! For 238 RMB we enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet of seafood, traditional Chinese dishes, sushi, pastas, veggies, soups, fresh cut meats, pizza, fresh fruit, chocolate fondue fountain, Hogan daz (sp?) ice cream, cocktails, beer, wine, coffee, soda, etc. There were rows and rows and rows and rows of food, and each time that we went to get more food, the dishes changed and there was new stuff. We stayed there for several hours. We would eat a little, then talk, then eat some more, then talk and eat and talk and eat. After we left, I felt like I had eaten a baby dinosaur, but it was worth every bit because it was that delicious.
The other night, we went to get facials. China has done quite a number on my skin, unfortunately and so I was trying to help it out a little bit before going back to the US. The facial and the massage was pretty amazing. However, for some reason, my facial lady took it upon herself to shave my eyebrows. I don’t really understand why, no one else got their eyebrows shaved and I definitely did not ask. I was pretty relaxed and out of it, and when I realized what she was doing, it was too late to stop her. Of course I had to let her finish and do the other side too. I hate it when people touch my eyebrows because I have very finicky eyebrows, and she really messed them up. Not to mention that shaving around the edges was just weird because now I have stubble. I know that from a distance they look fine, I am sure, but I am just angry about it.
Then this weekend was our finale. Shannon and Brett leave in just a couple days, so we went all out and went to the places that we always talked about going but never made it to. We got all dressed up and started with an early dinner at Lost Heaven on the Bund. It is a fancy Chinese restaurant right off the Bund. I went there one other time on my first date with Quinten. The food is really superb and the atmosphere is very relaxing and intimate. The five of us ordered a bottle of white wine and we each picked a dish from the menu and ate family style (that is how traditional Chinese meals are served). After dinner, we headed to the Grand Hyatt Café for coffee and dessert, a café on the 53rd floor of the Jin Mao building (the second tallest building of the PuDong new area skyline). The only view we saw was from a window in the bathroom, oddly enough. Although it was a rainy and cloudy day in Shanghai, we could still see straight down the side of the building, and man oh, man, was it tall! We were looking straight down to the express way, and in the distance, we could see quite a bit of PuDong.
After dessert, we went to the Piano Bar in Jin Mao but it was lame, so we went next door to the Shanghai World Financial Center (the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world). Standing at the bottom of SWFC, we could not even see the top because it was so cloudy – it just seemed to disappear. The building is very interesting looking because it looks like a bottle opener (which is what it is commonly referred to as). On the 91st floor was a bar called Altitude Bar. They played pretty good music, and the bar itself was really interesting. For decorations, they had white porcelain items hanging from the ceiling – anything and everything you could possibly imagine hanging from every two inches of the ceiling. It was kind of crazy and we spent a while playing the “I spy” game. Unfortunately, it was far too cloudy weather so there was no view to see from the 91st floor – it looked as though we were just in a cloud. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool to go up into both buildings.
After all of those places (that were rather pricey), we decided to head back to our usual stomping grounds in Jing’an. Our first stop as Julie’s, but it didn’t last long after they tried to get us to enter their wet t-shirt contest for the “Wild in White” night. So we ended up at The Spot down the street. I really like The Spot. They had a live Pilipino band, good drinks, and some good snacks. We hung out there for a while and listened to the Philipino girl belt her heart out! By the time we made it to The Spot, we were all beat! Pathetic, I know, but we were all home and in bed by 2:00am.
… a perfect finale to end our time together in Shanghai. I really do love Shanghai, and I love meeting all of the interesting people that come to China, but the worst part is that no one stays forever. I feel like I am always saying good bye to people. I know I am leaving for a little while for the summer, but I will be back. The sad part is that half of the friends I have made in the last 5 months will not be here when I get back. Just like that… people move on, and never hear from them again. It is just sad.
Monday, June 20, 2011
EFF YOU MORGAN HUANG
Really, I have nothing left to say. I hate that man more than I have ever hated anyone that I have encountered in my entire life. Hate is such a strong word, and there are very few people in this world that I assign that title to, but Morgan takes the cake. When I talk about Morgan, there is not a single thing I can say positive about him. If you have read even half of this blog, I am sure that you can understand why I hold such strong feelings for him. Of course, I am not going to relive all of the reasons why I hate him so much, but I will tell you what he has done to hold his spot at number one!
Today was pay day – a usual happy occasion, right? At the end of the day, Courtney came to my room and told me to head to Morgan’s office to get paid. Wait, wait, let me recap on how we get paid… there is a hand written spreadsheet that we record our hours, salary and taxes on, and Morgan pulls out a wad of cash and pays us all in cash. I know my monthly salary, and he gave us a table which states the percentage we should be paying in taxes to the Chinese Government, and he calculates it all out and gives us our money, and we go on our way (sketch, right).
So anyway, I go to Morgan’s office, and per usual, he has my spread sheet and piles of cash sitting all over his desk. I sit down, and we go over the days that I took off work and all that good stuff. Then he says, “Since you and Harp started asking so many questions about taxes, I decided to go over them all again, and I realized that I have not been taking out enough taxes all year… so you owe me money!” I was like, excuse me? So he continued to explain to me that last year, a foreign teacher told him that it was a certain percent, which is the percent that he has been using, but since we started asking questions, he called the Chinese Tax people and they told him a different number, so not only is he going to take more taxes out of our last two paychecks, but we owe him money from the last year that he has been under taxing us.
Naturally, I told him that it was completely absurd, and I refused to give him any money. I told him that I had the original documentation that he gave me which states what I should be “paying” in taxes, and until I see legit documentation proving otherwise, he was not going to get a dime of my money. Of course, this pissed him off and he started ranting about how this was for the Chinese Government and that he had no control and blah blah blah. So I said, that is fine, show me the documentation and show me the proof that he is actually paying taxes on me. So he jumped on his computer, and started a google search for Chinese Taxes of Foreign Expats. He clicked on 10 different sites including official governmental sites and came up with nothing – not a single word stating that I should owe him more money. Then the eleventh site that he clicked on was a blog, and at the very bottom, there was one sentence that stated something in the favor of his argument. But let’s be realistic… he thinks a blog is a reliable source of information in regards to my Chinese Taxes and a blog is going to be legit enough for me to pay him 1000 of RMB! I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT THINK SO!
He started to get really angry and I was to. I was not budging on my argument – show me legit documentation otherwise, you are not getting a dime of my money. He finally said, I will give you the money this time, but go home and do your research and you can give me the money on the last day of school on our final pay day. Well here is the thing, I have done enough “research” to know that his scam of a school is not legit, and I will fight him ‘til the death about this until he proves that I am even actually paying taxes in the People’s Republic of China.
So after he paid me, Courtney was next. She stood her ground and put up the same fight that I did - quick, easy and painless. After me, he knew exactly what to expect from Courtney. The kicker was when Shannon went in to get paid… Now Shannon has worked for Morgan for two years. She is moving back to the US at the end of June as well for good, but she has honored her entire contract faithfully at MRA for the last 2 years. Morgan told Shannon the same thing about the taxes, and that he has been under taxing her, however, he has been under taxing her for two years and he is clamming that she owes him money back for the LAST TWO YEARS! You have got to be kidding?!?!
I should tell you that I am not completely knowledgeable about the whole process, but I do know that Chinese taxing works somewhat similarly to US taxing – we don’t get money back, but in January, after an employer files his taxes, he gets a tax statement (similar to a W2) for each employee. Now if Morgan had actually been filing taxes, this is a mistake that he should have caught 2 years ago when he filled taxes for Shannon (and every other employee for the last five years). However, those taxes are said and done, yet he is claiming now that Shannon owes more money to the “government” because she has been under taxed.
So by this time, I am just fuming – LIVID about him being a fucking ass hole and trying to take advantage of us because we are foreigners. Then to top it all off, Courtney went back into his office to get something from him and he said, “You guys might want to talk to a lawyer and not your friends from the bar because I am reporting all of you to the IRS and the Chinese government. Make yourself a good case because you are going to need it when the IRS comes after you all. I will get money!” She said, OK – because that is Courtney, she is polite and passive. I on the other hand, would have said, bring it on Morgan! If you don’t go to the authorities, I would be happy to… then you can explain all of the bull shit that goes on behind closed doors while they go through every file in your school.
It is bull shit that he actually thinks I am just going to hand over money to him when he is already screwing me over with money from my contract. I was not going to put up a fuss about it because I am just ready to be done with him and his school, but if he is going to try and screw me over even more, I am going to do everything in my power to take him down… letter home to the parents, a trip to the Bureau and the police department, not to mention contacting universities in Michigan to expose his school for what it really is and keep him from conning Americans into working at his “preschool”.
I am just so mad that I could scream! Two weeks – TWO WEEKS – I have left at his school and he is going to try and pull this shit! Just get me out of here!!
Today was pay day – a usual happy occasion, right? At the end of the day, Courtney came to my room and told me to head to Morgan’s office to get paid. Wait, wait, let me recap on how we get paid… there is a hand written spreadsheet that we record our hours, salary and taxes on, and Morgan pulls out a wad of cash and pays us all in cash. I know my monthly salary, and he gave us a table which states the percentage we should be paying in taxes to the Chinese Government, and he calculates it all out and gives us our money, and we go on our way (sketch, right).
So anyway, I go to Morgan’s office, and per usual, he has my spread sheet and piles of cash sitting all over his desk. I sit down, and we go over the days that I took off work and all that good stuff. Then he says, “Since you and Harp started asking so many questions about taxes, I decided to go over them all again, and I realized that I have not been taking out enough taxes all year… so you owe me money!” I was like, excuse me? So he continued to explain to me that last year, a foreign teacher told him that it was a certain percent, which is the percent that he has been using, but since we started asking questions, he called the Chinese Tax people and they told him a different number, so not only is he going to take more taxes out of our last two paychecks, but we owe him money from the last year that he has been under taxing us.
Naturally, I told him that it was completely absurd, and I refused to give him any money. I told him that I had the original documentation that he gave me which states what I should be “paying” in taxes, and until I see legit documentation proving otherwise, he was not going to get a dime of my money. Of course, this pissed him off and he started ranting about how this was for the Chinese Government and that he had no control and blah blah blah. So I said, that is fine, show me the documentation and show me the proof that he is actually paying taxes on me. So he jumped on his computer, and started a google search for Chinese Taxes of Foreign Expats. He clicked on 10 different sites including official governmental sites and came up with nothing – not a single word stating that I should owe him more money. Then the eleventh site that he clicked on was a blog, and at the very bottom, there was one sentence that stated something in the favor of his argument. But let’s be realistic… he thinks a blog is a reliable source of information in regards to my Chinese Taxes and a blog is going to be legit enough for me to pay him 1000 of RMB! I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT THINK SO!
He started to get really angry and I was to. I was not budging on my argument – show me legit documentation otherwise, you are not getting a dime of my money. He finally said, I will give you the money this time, but go home and do your research and you can give me the money on the last day of school on our final pay day. Well here is the thing, I have done enough “research” to know that his scam of a school is not legit, and I will fight him ‘til the death about this until he proves that I am even actually paying taxes in the People’s Republic of China.
So after he paid me, Courtney was next. She stood her ground and put up the same fight that I did - quick, easy and painless. After me, he knew exactly what to expect from Courtney. The kicker was when Shannon went in to get paid… Now Shannon has worked for Morgan for two years. She is moving back to the US at the end of June as well for good, but she has honored her entire contract faithfully at MRA for the last 2 years. Morgan told Shannon the same thing about the taxes, and that he has been under taxing her, however, he has been under taxing her for two years and he is clamming that she owes him money back for the LAST TWO YEARS! You have got to be kidding?!?!
I should tell you that I am not completely knowledgeable about the whole process, but I do know that Chinese taxing works somewhat similarly to US taxing – we don’t get money back, but in January, after an employer files his taxes, he gets a tax statement (similar to a W2) for each employee. Now if Morgan had actually been filing taxes, this is a mistake that he should have caught 2 years ago when he filled taxes for Shannon (and every other employee for the last five years). However, those taxes are said and done, yet he is claiming now that Shannon owes more money to the “government” because she has been under taxed.
So by this time, I am just fuming – LIVID about him being a fucking ass hole and trying to take advantage of us because we are foreigners. Then to top it all off, Courtney went back into his office to get something from him and he said, “You guys might want to talk to a lawyer and not your friends from the bar because I am reporting all of you to the IRS and the Chinese government. Make yourself a good case because you are going to need it when the IRS comes after you all. I will get money!” She said, OK – because that is Courtney, she is polite and passive. I on the other hand, would have said, bring it on Morgan! If you don’t go to the authorities, I would be happy to… then you can explain all of the bull shit that goes on behind closed doors while they go through every file in your school.
It is bull shit that he actually thinks I am just going to hand over money to him when he is already screwing me over with money from my contract. I was not going to put up a fuss about it because I am just ready to be done with him and his school, but if he is going to try and screw me over even more, I am going to do everything in my power to take him down… letter home to the parents, a trip to the Bureau and the police department, not to mention contacting universities in Michigan to expose his school for what it really is and keep him from conning Americans into working at his “preschool”.
I am just so mad that I could scream! Two weeks – TWO WEEKS – I have left at his school and he is going to try and pull this shit! Just get me out of here!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Morgan is at it again...
Ok, so I have to tell you about this, because I think it is so ridiculous. The other day, Morgan was teaching a lesson to the kindergarten class. I was in the room, but not really paying much attention, since the lesson was in Chinese. One of the kids was misbehaving, and I saw Morgan walk over to her and grab a hold of her shoulder. At first I was not really paying attention, but I started to after I noticed him doing it several times to several different children and I could tell that he was applying a lot of force to the kids. Then I realized that what he was doing was grabbing a hold of the child’s shoulder and using his thumb to press on the pressure point in their shoulder cuff – which in turn made them sit up straight, and hurt them just enough to make a point, but not enough to make them scream or anything.
Really?? I have heard and seen some ridiculous things, but this one takes the cake. How would you feel if your child’s teacher or (even worse) the director was using pressure points as a form of physical discipline?
Really?? I have heard and seen some ridiculous things, but this one takes the cake. How would you feel if your child’s teacher or (even worse) the director was using pressure points as a form of physical discipline?
Moving on to the Next Step
As you know, I was not happy at Morgan Rothschild Academy. Overall, it was the exact opposite of what I wanted out of a school. I would have stayed to complete my contract, but since Morgan gave me the chance to leave it scot-free, I had to jump on it! I started applying all over the world yet I only got responses from a couple schools in Shanghai, and one in Honduras to teach high school (and I am clearly not qualified to teach high school!). I went on several different interviews here in Shanghai to Pinghe and Shanghai Experimental School (two local Chinese schools with an international department) and Rainbow Bridge International School. Of the three, I was most excited about Rainbow Bridge… it is an early childhood position verses a fifth grade position like the other two, and I got a really good feeling when I went on the interview and to visit the school.
Less than 12 hours after the interview at Rainbow Bridge, the principal sent me an offer letter, and a REALLY good offer letter with a huge pay increase and a load of benefits. The only downside is that it is not just a one-year contract, but a two-year commitment, and my summer would be cut in half than what I had originally thought. I gave it a lot of thought, but I made a decision and signed the contract on Wednesday.
So now that it is official, let me introduce you to Rainbow Bridge International School. Connected to the Shanghai Zoo, the school has an early childhood program, an elementary and middle school. The principal is an American and the ECE director is Australian (anything other than Taiwanese is a plus). The ECE program is what sold me! It is child-centered, play-based curriculum around broad themes. It is emergent, relevant and hands-on. There is a group of ECE teachers that work together to plan curriculum and organize events.
The facilities are really great too and there are a ton of resources available. I can design my own classroom however I want and hang child’s art up on the wall. The school is also legit. Because it is an international program, all children have to have a foreign passport to attend the school. Furthermore, there are no round-about illegal contract shenanigans because I will actually be working for their international school – legally. It is also in a much better location of the city.
I mean, I can go on and on about how great this school in comparison to MRA, but really, this school seems great independent from MRA. I think I am going to be happy there, and I can’t wait to return to Shanghai in August to begin this new adventure.
End of the Year
I cannot really explain just how excited I am for the school year to end, but it is rather bitter-sweet, I must admit. As you can probably guess, I am ready to leave Morgan and all of the bullshit behind and I am ready for my vacation back in the states and I am excited to start a new adventure at another school, but I am so sad about leaving my children. I mean, that is the life of a teacher… you spend an entire year growing to love a handful of children, and at the end of the year, they grow up and move on. If you are lucky, some children stay a couple years in your school so you get to see them grow throughout several years, but eventually, they always grow up.
My kids and I have been talking about kindergarten a lot because all but one will be moving to kindergarten next year. I have one child that is moving to Germany at the end of this year, and I have a handful of kids that are going to kindergarten at other schools, but the majority of kids are staying at MRA for their last year. When we were talking about them getting a new teacher for kindergarten, they all protested saying that they did not want a new teacher, but they wanted to stay with me in my class. It brought a little tear to my eye. I have grown so attached to them all in the last five months, and I wish that I could take all of them with me to Rainbow Bridge!
Sometimes Courtney and I plot how we can take some of our kids back to the US with us and raise our own little multi-cultural families. We could have kids from all over the world – Chinese, Japanese, French, Hispanic, German, etc. Naturally, we would never really take anyone’s children, but it is still kind of funny to think about.
So anyway, the end of the year has been crazy busy… Parent-Teacher Conferences are over, finally and I survived. Not only was it my first official PTCs, but it was a one of a kind experience. Both Ms. Qian and I sat with the parents. I am fortunate enough that the majority of my parents speak a decent amount of English, and of course I had Ms. Qian there to help translate if necessary, but it was definitely interesting. It still baffles when I think about the kind of things that a lot of parents are concerned about, and we do not have the same kinds of policies or socials norms to follow here in regards to PTC. The parents always want to know how their child is doing compared to other children, or a specific child. I usually defer the question and talk about developmental milestones, but the Chinese teachers will blatantly state, your child is not as smart as the other child.
As a teacher in the US, I know better than to talk about any other children with a parent – it is a lawsuit waiting to happen if you accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person. There are also confidentiality laws that protect children, but not here! During a conference, a parent flat out asked, does so and so have autism. I know he has problems and I don’t want my child to act like him… I mean really? I was thinking, how dare you say something like that, then again, I had to remember that saying something like that is not considered rude or anything, and the Chinese teacher had a conversation about that child to another child’s parent. Can you even imagine?
But anyway, my conferences went well. My kids are all doing so well and I am so proud of their progress since January. Of course, I had a couple concerns about children and I was a little bit nervous to talk to the parents about it (no one wants to tell the mother bear that her cub is not perfect), but I did not have any issues. I was so happy when conference week was over.
Now I have been spending the last couple weeks doing nothing but portfolios. While I really like the idea of the portfolios, I HATE doing them. I basically have to make a scrap book for each child in my class (18 kids) with 40 pages each. It has just been a pain in the butt, going through all my pictures and getting them printed, and then coming up with the different pages to do for all the kids, gathering work samples and whatnot, and then actually putting it all together in an aesthetically pleasing way for the kids. It is not like it is difficult, and I actually really enjoy doing these kinds of things, but it is just so repetitive and time consuming. I literally, go to school, go home and sit on my couch for hours surrounded by photos and papers, and then go to bed exhausted. I am amazing how exhausted it makes me even though I am just sitting there.
At this point, I am done with all but four of them. Morgan wants to see half of them tomorrow, so I brought in the ones I have finished today to give to him. Since I decided to boycott anything productive yesterday, I did not even look at portfolios, but I plan on finishing the last four tonight so that I can turn them in tomorrow and not have to think about them over the weekend. I cannot wait to be done! Then I am giving them to my students next Wednesday when we have our Preschool Graduation/Pot Luck. Then Thursday the 30th is our last day L
My kids and I have been talking about kindergarten a lot because all but one will be moving to kindergarten next year. I have one child that is moving to Germany at the end of this year, and I have a handful of kids that are going to kindergarten at other schools, but the majority of kids are staying at MRA for their last year. When we were talking about them getting a new teacher for kindergarten, they all protested saying that they did not want a new teacher, but they wanted to stay with me in my class. It brought a little tear to my eye. I have grown so attached to them all in the last five months, and I wish that I could take all of them with me to Rainbow Bridge!
Sometimes Courtney and I plot how we can take some of our kids back to the US with us and raise our own little multi-cultural families. We could have kids from all over the world – Chinese, Japanese, French, Hispanic, German, etc. Naturally, we would never really take anyone’s children, but it is still kind of funny to think about.
So anyway, the end of the year has been crazy busy… Parent-Teacher Conferences are over, finally and I survived. Not only was it my first official PTCs, but it was a one of a kind experience. Both Ms. Qian and I sat with the parents. I am fortunate enough that the majority of my parents speak a decent amount of English, and of course I had Ms. Qian there to help translate if necessary, but it was definitely interesting. It still baffles when I think about the kind of things that a lot of parents are concerned about, and we do not have the same kinds of policies or socials norms to follow here in regards to PTC. The parents always want to know how their child is doing compared to other children, or a specific child. I usually defer the question and talk about developmental milestones, but the Chinese teachers will blatantly state, your child is not as smart as the other child.
As a teacher in the US, I know better than to talk about any other children with a parent – it is a lawsuit waiting to happen if you accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person. There are also confidentiality laws that protect children, but not here! During a conference, a parent flat out asked, does so and so have autism. I know he has problems and I don’t want my child to act like him… I mean really? I was thinking, how dare you say something like that, then again, I had to remember that saying something like that is not considered rude or anything, and the Chinese teacher had a conversation about that child to another child’s parent. Can you even imagine?
But anyway, my conferences went well. My kids are all doing so well and I am so proud of their progress since January. Of course, I had a couple concerns about children and I was a little bit nervous to talk to the parents about it (no one wants to tell the mother bear that her cub is not perfect), but I did not have any issues. I was so happy when conference week was over.
Now I have been spending the last couple weeks doing nothing but portfolios. While I really like the idea of the portfolios, I HATE doing them. I basically have to make a scrap book for each child in my class (18 kids) with 40 pages each. It has just been a pain in the butt, going through all my pictures and getting them printed, and then coming up with the different pages to do for all the kids, gathering work samples and whatnot, and then actually putting it all together in an aesthetically pleasing way for the kids. It is not like it is difficult, and I actually really enjoy doing these kinds of things, but it is just so repetitive and time consuming. I literally, go to school, go home and sit on my couch for hours surrounded by photos and papers, and then go to bed exhausted. I am amazing how exhausted it makes me even though I am just sitting there.
At this point, I am done with all but four of them. Morgan wants to see half of them tomorrow, so I brought in the ones I have finished today to give to him. Since I decided to boycott anything productive yesterday, I did not even look at portfolios, but I plan on finishing the last four tonight so that I can turn them in tomorrow and not have to think about them over the weekend. I cannot wait to be done! Then I am giving them to my students next Wednesday when we have our Preschool Graduation/Pot Luck. Then Thursday the 30th is our last day L
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Suzhou for Dragon Boat Festival
So I must admit that of all the vacations that I have been on in the last couple months, and all of the places that I have traveled to, Suzhou was my least favorite destination. To be honest, I am lucky to have these kinds of experiences while traveling to all these different cities, and I am grateful the opportunities, but I was still rather disappointed. Then again, perhaps it was poor planning on our part.
Earlier in the week, we had thrown around different ideas for a vacation since we had a long weekend for the Dragon Boat Holiday. We did not really decide on anything until the night before, so we decided that we were just going to wake up early on Saturday, pack our bags, head to the train station and buy a ticket to where ever we could. You may think that it sounds easy enough, but we have never been able to buy train tickets ourselves in the past. We have always had our Chinese assistant do it for us because all of the information is in Chinese. Nonetheless, we packed our bags and headed to the train station with my Chinese survival book and decided that we would just figure it out.
We arrived to the train station and first got in line at the self-service ticket machines. We nearly got through the entire process of buying the tickets before we realized that only local Chinese citizens could use the automatic tellers because we had to have a Chinese ID to verify the tickets (of course it could not have been that easy). After several minutes of wondering around trying to find the actual ticket desk, we stumbled upon the huge crowd of people waiting in line to buy tickets. Once we made it to the counter, it was a breeze… we picked a place to go, gave our passports, paid 41¥ and boarded the train twenty minutes later.
We ended up in Suzhou. Only about a thirty minute fast-train ride away, Suzhou is famous for its beautiful gardens, temples and water towns. Getting there was the easy part, but once we arrived, it turned into a nightmare. As soon as we got off the train, I bought a map. We did not have a place to stay yet, but the map listed several different hotels in the area, and a kind local man told us where the city square was and suggested several different nice areas. It seemed as though everything was falling into place – we had made it to our destination and we had an idea of where we wanted to go, so all we had to do was get there, and choose one of the ten hotels in the area. The trouble started when we tried to get a taxi.
Now typically, at any airport or train station that I have been to, there is an area where taxis just line up waiting to take people where they want to go. The drivers don’t ask questions… you just get in, tell them where you want to go and they take you there. There was no such area at this particular train station, so we walked to a nearby intersection where we saw several taxis. Each taxi driver seemed eager to drive us, until we told them where we wanted to go. Then they either said no, or they said they would take us there for 50¥ (which was ridiculous).
Sidenote: all taxis have a meter which runs for the amount per kilometer. However, sometimes if a taxi driver wants to be a dick, he/she will just name a flat price and refuse to do the meter. We get this a lot when we travel because local people try to rip off the travelers, especially us because we are foreigners. However, it is ALWAYS a rip off when they name a flat price. In this case, it definitely was. They all wanted us to pay 50¥ but it turned out to only be a 13¥ taxi ride.
Ok so back to the story. At this point, we were tired, hungry and irritated because at least 20 taxi drivers had refused to take us to any of the locations that we wanted. Then on top of that, it started to rain. So here we were, three girls in a foreign city that none of us knew, with no place to go, stuck in the middle of nowhere (because the train station was literally in the middle of nowhere)! We began carrying all of our stuff walking down the road in the right direction, and although we continued to try and get a taxi, we failed… miserably!
About an hour went by before we found a small local Chinese restaurant. We decided to go in, get some food and try to call some of the hotels in the area to check for openings. That was when we discovered that none of our cell phones were working. We attempted to call some hotels, and call friends to help us, but it was another failure. Once we were done eating, we ended up heading back into the rain in search of a taxi. When we finally found one, we were kind of tricky. We could not figure out why no one would take us to a certain area (we kept saying that it was the forbidden zone), so instead, we asked the taxi driver to take us to a different place, he agreed, we got in and he started the meter. Then mid route, we changed our minds and told him the other location instead. He groaned and moaned, but we finally made it there.
He dropped us off in front of the Home Inn hotel. So it was a start, we made it to a hotel, but we still really had no idea whether they would have any rooms available, or if they were a reasonable price. Thankfully, they did have a two bed room available for only 280¥ a night – SOLD! The room was decent; not the best I have been in, but definitely not the worst! We rested up a bit before we decided to brave the rain to explore the city.
It was the craziest thing… on the way out of the hotel we saw a group of foreigners hangout out of the hotel window talking to a Chinese man across the way (who was also hanging out of the window). Thus far, they were the first expats that we saw (it is a very Chinese area), so we yelled hello up to them. They were clearly young Americans, so we asked where they were from. Turns out they were a group of 30 students from University of Michigan studying abroad at a University in Shanghai, on vacation in Suzhou for the weekend. About ten of them ran down stairs and they went to dinner with us. It was totally random running into people from Michigan. They were very nice, but very young at the same time. None of them were 21 so they were living up life in Shanghai; drinking and traveling a ton on their parents’ money. Since we were both in Shanghai, they kept asking about the bars that we go to or the clubs that we party at, our favorite thing to drink, etc.
I nearly barfed when one of the girls said that she had to go home and change before they went out anywhere because she was in jean shorts, and it is “sorority protocol to never go out in jeans”. Thankfully, all of the friends she was with also made fun of her, so I wasn’t alone in my judgments!
So anyway, after dinner, we went our separate ways. We ended up at a Pedestrian street where we did a lot of shopping, played some basketball on the street and ate some more Chinese food that was delicious. We were pretty beat from the horrendous day, so we ended up back at our hotel room pretty early in bed reading our books (totally lame, I know).
The next morning, we were woken up early by a Chinese midget street performer in hot pink pants singing into a microphone right outside our hotel room window around 7:30 in the morning – I know, it sounds like a nightmare, but I swear it really happened! We got up, got dressed and headed out for the day. We ended up in a water town right down the street from our hotel. Water towns are old Chinese villages built along canals full of food, shops and such. They usually offer some boat rides along the canals to visit all the different water towns. They are neat and very traditional Chinese, but once you have seen one water town, you have seen them all (and we live in a water town in Shanghai). We spent a little bit of time walking around, bought a lot of souvenirs and lots of Chinese food. It is Chinese tradition to eat Zòngzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, so we got one to try. It was kind of weird. It is all wrapped up in some kind of leafs and cooked, so when you buy it, you have to unwrap the leafs to eat the inside. It was slimy and smelled weird, and when I finally made it to the inside edible part, it was just a big rice ball with pork chunks. You can get them with all kinds of different things. The Courtney’s made me take a bite first, so I ate a small corner of just rice. To be honest, it was not my favorite thing! It is not like it was gross, it was just sticky rice, basically, but the flavor that the leaves gave the rice was not good. We all took a bite, but we ended up throwing it away and not even finishing it. Nonetheless, we can still say that we ate Zòngzi during Dragon Boat Festival.
Anyway, after we had had enough of the water town, we jumped in a taxi and headed to another water town area with some gardens. Suzhou is known for its beautiful gardens and water towns, but to be honest, I just wasn’t impressed much. The gardens were nothing fabulous, and like I said, once you have seen one water town, you have seen them all. We spent some more time walking around and whatnot, but we decided to head back toward the hotel shortly thereafter to get ready for dinner.
That is when more taxi trouble started! It took us nearly 45 minutes to get a taxi. It seemed that there was a total of twenty taxis in the whole town, and none of them wanted to pick us up. Open taxis would just fly right by us and would not stop! We were getting so mad and we were totally over the rudeness of the town! When we finally got a taxi, we decided that we needed to go straight to a spa for a massage to relax… and that is exactly what we did. We found a spa near our hotel and got 80 minute foot massages!
Side note: while we were getting the massages, one of the guys knew a little English so he was talking to us a lot. He asked us where we were from, and we told him that we were American. Then he looked at me and asked, where I was from (in Chinese). I told him that I was also American, and he started laughing. Then he said, “No, I think you look Chinese!” Clearly I have been here for too long if local Chinese people think I look Chinese!
Anyway, after our massages, we got ready and headed to dinner across town at Zapata’s – a chain Mexican cantina that we have back in Shanghai. We thought that it could not go wrong, but yet again, we were disappointed! They were apparently out of margaritas, the food was awful and they over-charged us for half our bill! After that, we had decided that there was nothing good about Suzhou and we couldn’t wait to leave, so we went home and packed up to get ready to leave. The next morning we got up early and attempted to get tickets to go home. It turned out to be a little more challenging than coming back, but we finally figured it out, and we were on our way back home (not soon enough).
I do love traveling and exploring new places, and even though it wasn’t the best place, we still had fun with each other – we usually make our own fun no matter where we end up, and it was the last vacation with the three of us together, so it was kind of sad :(
Earlier in the week, we had thrown around different ideas for a vacation since we had a long weekend for the Dragon Boat Holiday. We did not really decide on anything until the night before, so we decided that we were just going to wake up early on Saturday, pack our bags, head to the train station and buy a ticket to where ever we could. You may think that it sounds easy enough, but we have never been able to buy train tickets ourselves in the past. We have always had our Chinese assistant do it for us because all of the information is in Chinese. Nonetheless, we packed our bags and headed to the train station with my Chinese survival book and decided that we would just figure it out.
We arrived to the train station and first got in line at the self-service ticket machines. We nearly got through the entire process of buying the tickets before we realized that only local Chinese citizens could use the automatic tellers because we had to have a Chinese ID to verify the tickets (of course it could not have been that easy). After several minutes of wondering around trying to find the actual ticket desk, we stumbled upon the huge crowd of people waiting in line to buy tickets. Once we made it to the counter, it was a breeze… we picked a place to go, gave our passports, paid 41¥ and boarded the train twenty minutes later.
We ended up in Suzhou. Only about a thirty minute fast-train ride away, Suzhou is famous for its beautiful gardens, temples and water towns. Getting there was the easy part, but once we arrived, it turned into a nightmare. As soon as we got off the train, I bought a map. We did not have a place to stay yet, but the map listed several different hotels in the area, and a kind local man told us where the city square was and suggested several different nice areas. It seemed as though everything was falling into place – we had made it to our destination and we had an idea of where we wanted to go, so all we had to do was get there, and choose one of the ten hotels in the area. The trouble started when we tried to get a taxi.
Now typically, at any airport or train station that I have been to, there is an area where taxis just line up waiting to take people where they want to go. The drivers don’t ask questions… you just get in, tell them where you want to go and they take you there. There was no such area at this particular train station, so we walked to a nearby intersection where we saw several taxis. Each taxi driver seemed eager to drive us, until we told them where we wanted to go. Then they either said no, or they said they would take us there for 50¥ (which was ridiculous).
Sidenote: all taxis have a meter which runs for the amount per kilometer. However, sometimes if a taxi driver wants to be a dick, he/she will just name a flat price and refuse to do the meter. We get this a lot when we travel because local people try to rip off the travelers, especially us because we are foreigners. However, it is ALWAYS a rip off when they name a flat price. In this case, it definitely was. They all wanted us to pay 50¥ but it turned out to only be a 13¥ taxi ride.
Ok so back to the story. At this point, we were tired, hungry and irritated because at least 20 taxi drivers had refused to take us to any of the locations that we wanted. Then on top of that, it started to rain. So here we were, three girls in a foreign city that none of us knew, with no place to go, stuck in the middle of nowhere (because the train station was literally in the middle of nowhere)! We began carrying all of our stuff walking down the road in the right direction, and although we continued to try and get a taxi, we failed… miserably!
About an hour went by before we found a small local Chinese restaurant. We decided to go in, get some food and try to call some of the hotels in the area to check for openings. That was when we discovered that none of our cell phones were working. We attempted to call some hotels, and call friends to help us, but it was another failure. Once we were done eating, we ended up heading back into the rain in search of a taxi. When we finally found one, we were kind of tricky. We could not figure out why no one would take us to a certain area (we kept saying that it was the forbidden zone), so instead, we asked the taxi driver to take us to a different place, he agreed, we got in and he started the meter. Then mid route, we changed our minds and told him the other location instead. He groaned and moaned, but we finally made it there.
He dropped us off in front of the Home Inn hotel. So it was a start, we made it to a hotel, but we still really had no idea whether they would have any rooms available, or if they were a reasonable price. Thankfully, they did have a two bed room available for only 280¥ a night – SOLD! The room was decent; not the best I have been in, but definitely not the worst! We rested up a bit before we decided to brave the rain to explore the city.
It was the craziest thing… on the way out of the hotel we saw a group of foreigners hangout out of the hotel window talking to a Chinese man across the way (who was also hanging out of the window). Thus far, they were the first expats that we saw (it is a very Chinese area), so we yelled hello up to them. They were clearly young Americans, so we asked where they were from. Turns out they were a group of 30 students from University of Michigan studying abroad at a University in Shanghai, on vacation in Suzhou for the weekend. About ten of them ran down stairs and they went to dinner with us. It was totally random running into people from Michigan. They were very nice, but very young at the same time. None of them were 21 so they were living up life in Shanghai; drinking and traveling a ton on their parents’ money. Since we were both in Shanghai, they kept asking about the bars that we go to or the clubs that we party at, our favorite thing to drink, etc.
I nearly barfed when one of the girls said that she had to go home and change before they went out anywhere because she was in jean shorts, and it is “sorority protocol to never go out in jeans”. Thankfully, all of the friends she was with also made fun of her, so I wasn’t alone in my judgments!
So anyway, after dinner, we went our separate ways. We ended up at a Pedestrian street where we did a lot of shopping, played some basketball on the street and ate some more Chinese food that was delicious. We were pretty beat from the horrendous day, so we ended up back at our hotel room pretty early in bed reading our books (totally lame, I know).
The next morning, we were woken up early by a Chinese midget street performer in hot pink pants singing into a microphone right outside our hotel room window around 7:30 in the morning – I know, it sounds like a nightmare, but I swear it really happened! We got up, got dressed and headed out for the day. We ended up in a water town right down the street from our hotel. Water towns are old Chinese villages built along canals full of food, shops and such. They usually offer some boat rides along the canals to visit all the different water towns. They are neat and very traditional Chinese, but once you have seen one water town, you have seen them all (and we live in a water town in Shanghai). We spent a little bit of time walking around, bought a lot of souvenirs and lots of Chinese food. It is Chinese tradition to eat Zòngzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, so we got one to try. It was kind of weird. It is all wrapped up in some kind of leafs and cooked, so when you buy it, you have to unwrap the leafs to eat the inside. It was slimy and smelled weird, and when I finally made it to the inside edible part, it was just a big rice ball with pork chunks. You can get them with all kinds of different things. The Courtney’s made me take a bite first, so I ate a small corner of just rice. To be honest, it was not my favorite thing! It is not like it was gross, it was just sticky rice, basically, but the flavor that the leaves gave the rice was not good. We all took a bite, but we ended up throwing it away and not even finishing it. Nonetheless, we can still say that we ate Zòngzi during Dragon Boat Festival.
Anyway, after we had had enough of the water town, we jumped in a taxi and headed to another water town area with some gardens. Suzhou is known for its beautiful gardens and water towns, but to be honest, I just wasn’t impressed much. The gardens were nothing fabulous, and like I said, once you have seen one water town, you have seen them all. We spent some more time walking around and whatnot, but we decided to head back toward the hotel shortly thereafter to get ready for dinner.
That is when more taxi trouble started! It took us nearly 45 minutes to get a taxi. It seemed that there was a total of twenty taxis in the whole town, and none of them wanted to pick us up. Open taxis would just fly right by us and would not stop! We were getting so mad and we were totally over the rudeness of the town! When we finally got a taxi, we decided that we needed to go straight to a spa for a massage to relax… and that is exactly what we did. We found a spa near our hotel and got 80 minute foot massages!
Side note: while we were getting the massages, one of the guys knew a little English so he was talking to us a lot. He asked us where we were from, and we told him that we were American. Then he looked at me and asked, where I was from (in Chinese). I told him that I was also American, and he started laughing. Then he said, “No, I think you look Chinese!” Clearly I have been here for too long if local Chinese people think I look Chinese!
Anyway, after our massages, we got ready and headed to dinner across town at Zapata’s – a chain Mexican cantina that we have back in Shanghai. We thought that it could not go wrong, but yet again, we were disappointed! They were apparently out of margaritas, the food was awful and they over-charged us for half our bill! After that, we had decided that there was nothing good about Suzhou and we couldn’t wait to leave, so we went home and packed up to get ready to leave. The next morning we got up early and attempted to get tickets to go home. It turned out to be a little more challenging than coming back, but we finally figured it out, and we were on our way back home (not soon enough).
I do love traveling and exploring new places, and even though it wasn’t the best place, we still had fun with each other – we usually make our own fun no matter where we end up, and it was the last vacation with the three of us together, so it was kind of sad :(
Monday, June 6, 2011
Dragon Boat Festival
Duānwǔ Jié or Dragon Boat Festival is a national Chinese holiday celebrated on the fifth lunar day of the fifth lunar month. The legend is that when a famous poet and statemen, Qu Yuan revolted against the Zhou Dynasty by opposing the alliance to Qin, he was accused of treason and was banished. During his exile, he attempted to commit suicide in 278 BCE by drowning himself in the Milou River. The local people who admired Qu Yuan began searching for his body in dragon boats, beating drums to fend away the fish who might want to eat his corpse. Just as they discovered his body, a large fish was about to eat it, so the people began throwing Zòngzi into the water, a traditional Chinese rice ball dumpling. The fish ate the Zòngzi and was so full that it swam away without touching Qu Yaun’s body.
Traditionally, Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by preparing and eating Zòngzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats in the river, in honor of China’s first renown poet, Qu Yuan.
Traditionally, Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by preparing and eating Zòngzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats in the river, in honor of China’s first renown poet, Qu Yuan.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Time for a Change
As you know, I was not happy at Morgan Rothschild Academy. Overall, it was the exact opposite of what I wanted out of a school. I would have stayed to complete my contract, but since Morgan gave me the chance to leave it scot-free, I had to jump on it! I started applying all over the world yet I only got responses from a couple schools in Shanghai, and one in Honduras to teach high school (and I am clearly not qualified to teach high school!). I went on several different interviews here in Shanghai to Pinghe and Shanghai Experimental School (two local Chinese schools with an international department) and Rainbow Bridge International School. Of the three, I was most excited about Rainbow Bridge… it is an early childhood position verses a fifth grade position like the other two, and I got a really good feeling when I went on the interview and to visit the school.
Less than 12 hours after the interview at Rainbow Bridge, the principal sent me an offer letter, and a REALLY good offer letter with a huge pay increase and a load of benefits. The only downside is that it is not just a one-year contract, but a two-year commitment, and my summer would be cut in half than what I had originally thought. I gave it a lot of thought, but I made a decision and signed the contract on Wednesday.
So now that it is official, let me introduce you to Rainbow Bridge International School. Connected to the Shanghai Zoo, the school has an early childhood program, an elementary and middle school. The principal is an American and the ECE director is Australian (anything other than Taiwanese is a plus). The ECE program is what sold me! It is child-centered, play-based curriculum around broad themes. It is emergent, relevant and hands-on. There is a group of ECE teachers that work together to plan curriculum and organize events.
The facilities are really great too and there are a ton of resources available. I can design my own classroom however I want and hang child’s art up on the wall. The school is also legit. Because it is an international program, all children have to have a foreign passport to attend the school. Furthermore, there are no round-about illegal contract shenanigans because I will actually be working for their international school – legally. It is also in a much better location of the city.
I mean, I can go on and on about how great this school in comparison to MRA, but really, this school seems great independent from MRA. I think I am going to be happy there, and I can’t wait to return to Shanghai in August to begin this new adventure.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Latest & Greatest
So everything with Morgan has been pretty normal. He still continues to act weird and inappropriate and I continue to avoid him and keep my kids away from him. You wouldn’t believe the way Courtney and I acted when a parent approached us the other day saying my child said, “Morgan hurt my pee pee.” Courtney actually laughed in the most awkward way that suggested the inappropriate nature of the occurrence, questioned the causality of the conversation, yet did not hid the fact that she was not surprised by the accusation. Turns out two years ago, her older daughter who is now in my class made the same accusation, and although she nearly busted down Morgan’s door, nothing ever came of it.
Of course, to me, it is ludicrous to think that a child would make that kind of statement against a director of a preschool, yet the parent would keep their child enrolled, and in fact, enroll a second child. Naturally, this parent was concerned, but not as concerned as you would think… not as irate like I would be. That was just so weird.
So anyway, I have not told Morgan that I am planning on leaving officially. Of course, I have made up my mind, but the last we talked about it, I told him that I was still considering it, but that we would have a conversation in June to make a decision about what was best for me and the school. Well now, he keeps talking about how he has hired 6 new really great teachers from the US (none of which are EMU graduates). Then the other day when I was getting paid he said, “Oh and can you write me your resignation letter… just saying that it is mutual.” Well that was interesting because I have not resigned yet! Then a day or two later, he said something else about me only having a month left! Now, I know that he doesn’t want me to stay because he wants to start over with a fresh new staff, but I still have the choice to resign. It is just so strange because he keeps saying things like I want you to stay, but I understand that you want to leave… At this point I just want to tell him that I have decided to stay just to see what he says. Honestly, I know that I am benefiting from him releasing me from the contract, but in a way he is still screwing me over. He is not going to reimburse me for my flight like he was supposed to and he is going to cancel my visa so I will have to pay more money again for another travel visa to return out here.
So the other day Morgan FREAKED OUT! When I say freak out, I am not just talking about him getting a little bit upset and raising his voice. I mean, he absolutely freaked out on me and my Chinese teacher Ms. Qian! He caught us both completely off guard in the hallway and started screaming and yelling at us in front of other teachers, children and parents (talk about professionalism). It is a long story, but he was mad because a curriculum packet did not go home with the kids two weeks ago. It is really weird, but the teachers send home a curriculum for the parents every other week. For some reason, Morgan wanted these packets to go home, but it did not make sense because it was not the correct curriculum. When I talked to Morgan about it, I thought that we were under the understanding that I was going to send home the regular curriculum and not the incorrect curriculum. Well apparently that was not the understanding. You may think, this isn’t the end of the world, right… well that is what I thought, but that is not what Morgan thought!
He was so mad! He was shaking and waving his arms in the air, screaming things like YOU MUST THINK I AM STUPID! He was yelling at Ms. Qian that he told her to send it out and that she shouldn’t ever listen to me because I am not the one who pays her salary. I apologized for the misunderstanding several times, but he just kept yelling. I just stood there in shock – trying to understand why he was so furious and trying to understand his reaction to not sending out the curriculum verses his reaction when I told him that his teachers were hitting children! Let’s be honest here… which do you think is most important? He barely even blinked an eye about abuse but heaven forbid there is a mix up with the curriculum. Well I sent home the curriculum, even though it was not right and it was going to confuse the hell out of parents, but whatever.
Then we had a meeting with him yesterday, awkward as usual, and completely pointless. Again, he asked me for my resignation letter… funny because I still have not resigned. Then he and I got into a little tiff again after the meeting. Although he keeps saying that he wants me to stay and that he is not firing me, he is pushing me out of the school. He told me that since he never heard anything else from me about the offer to leave, he assumed that I would not be returning. Therefore, he hired 6 new teachers, including one to replace me. Well if you ask me, I am the one with the contract, so the job is mine until I resign. On the other hand, Morgan says that he replaced me because I never said I wanted to stay. He went on about how unprofessional it is of me to “leave him hanging” for three weeks. Although when we talked last, we agreed to further discuss it in June, Morgan thinks it is absurd that I didn’t tell him anything earlier, and that three weeks is far too long. I am sorry, but I don’t think that three weeks is too long to make a life altering decision.
Of course I left his office just so frustrated. Everything that he says is so backwards from logic. Speaking or reasoning with him is like arguing with a three-year-old. It would be more productive to bang my head against the wall (and less of a headache I am sure).
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