It has literally been ages since I have had a moment to sit down and write an update. To be honest, after my long low-key summer back in Hartland, I am not sure that I was ready for the whirlwind that awaited me the second that I boarded the plane from Detroit! I ended up stranded in Chicago for nearly an entire day due to a typhoon passing through Shanghai. After a very delayed departure and a very long and bumpy flight, I arrived back in Shanghai just a couple hours before I had to begin orientation for the new school year... talk about hitting the ground running! I am not even sure I had a chance to even think about being tired. Not only was it miserably hot, but I was already working 6 hours a day to set up my classroom, attend planning meetings and such, and I had only 6 days to find a new apartment before my lease ran out on my current apartment.
I had gone back and forth over the summer about weather to live alone, or have a roommate. Truth be told, our school stipend is just barely enough to cover rent in a shared apartment. Friends and co-workers had already spent several days or weeks searching out one bedroom apartments over the summer within our price range without any luck, so four of us decided to begin searching for houses to share thinking that our odds were a little better in finding something bigger and nicer with our stipends added together.
I am sure it comes as no surprise that four people are a little difficult to please when searching for a place to live... We each spent countless hours speaking with agents, viewing apartments/houses and searching online, but everyone was either too small, too expensive, too far away, too old, etc... Finally, James and I found a place to fit just about all of our needs - big bed rooms, big bathrooms, a gym, a pool, tennis courts, etc. We all loved it. The only problem was that it had no furniture....
Sunday, we signed a lease with the agreement that the owner of the apartment was going to provide us with "brand new, simple, Ikea furniture" and we were to move in on Wednesday (the day that our least was up and the night before the first day of school). On Monday, the furniture showed up, and it was anything by brand new Ikea furniture. They provided us with a shitty, old, ugly couch (that still remains in our apartment), and only three beds with old stained mattresses. We were still missing TV stands, wardrobes (because we don't have closets), washer, etc, and my bed! After a long time fighting with our agent, he finally agreed to buy us all new mattresses, a fourth bed and the rest of the furniture that we needed. So we moved our stuff in on Tuesday and slept in sleeping bags on the couch and the old stained matresses for several days. Friday, we finally got our mattresses, Sunday we got our wardrobes and Monday we finally got our washer.... That week, we found mold on our living room wall and my and Amy's bathroom flooded....
Our agent, Sam, turned out to be one of the most worthless people I have yet to meet in Shanghai! We pay the agent 35% of our rent to maintain the apartment for the entire year, help up set up internet and all, and help us get the invoices (fapio) for our rent (which we need in order for our school to give us the stipend). Sam refused to help us when our bathroom flooded, gave us fake fapio, then refused to get us new ones, and continued to do one shady, dishonest thing after another. I finally decided to take the issue to the head of our HR department at school, Irene. She is the basically the scare Chinese women that runs our school, but she knows her stuff, she is all business and she gets stuff done. We gave Irene the Landlord's number (whom only speaks Chinese) and Irene filled him in on all of the bullshit/illegal stuff that the agency was doing. Like I said, Irene gets stuff done. By the end of that day, Sam was fired from the agency, and the boss was bending over backwards to fix the fapios along with the rest of the apartment!
My school has also been a little bit on the rocks thus far. It is a little bit difficult to explain, but the moral of the school is really low, and I feel as though there is a little bit of corruption in our politics... well, that is unfair to say... this is China, so of course there is corruption - but there has been a little bit more than usual! Our first pay day, we didn't paid on time (clearly that is not ok, but they claimed there was a mistake at the bank), then when we did get paid, many of our pay was wrong and we had received less money than we should have. When I signed my initial contract in August of 2011, I had fixed rate of 6.5 for the length of my 2 year contract. In January, the exchange rate dropped to 6.33, and RBIS decided to give a raise to all of the teachers with certificates. However, for my first paycheck, I was being paid at a 6.2 exchange rate - canceling out my raise. Our HR office claimed that we all signed new contracts in January accepting the pay raise and the change to 6.2 exchange rate, however, when we asked them to produce the copies of those "signed contracts" they were unable to. The teachers effected where in uproar for about a week before our principal met with the board, whom decided to put us back at the 6.5 rate plus our raise. I have honestly lost a little bit of trust for my school since then. I feel like they tried to pull a fast move hoping that we wouldn't notice, but when push comes to shove, it just makes them look like ass holes!
In addition to the none-stop headache from our apartment fiasco, I have been working like crazy in my new position as a Preschool Teacher. I have had to go to several trainings to learn the PYP curriculum program that our school does (that I didn't have to teach last year). I spent three weekends in a row at trainings without any breaks... needless to say, I am a little bit drained, so you can imagine my excitement when my school announced an unexpected three day weekend. Apparently, there is a big Government meeting in the Zoo on Monday, so it is closed to the public - a perk of working in the Zoo. A nice short work week for me next week then I am heading off to the good ol' US of A for a week for Jessi's wedding!
It seems strange to be going back to the states so quickly, but I am excited for the week with my sister and family... for the bachelorette party and all the other wedding festivities! Sure, the rest of my friends are going to be sitting on the beaches of Cebu, Philippines, but I am sure I am going to have way more fun in Hartland, MI.... well at least I better after spending 16,000 RMB (2,500 USD) on the flight back for only a week!
Come to think of it, I should probably be writing a speech instead.....
