CAUTION! Please have your decoding hat on while reading this post!  I’ll do my best to choose my words wisely. 🙂

I’ve been back in the Middle Kingdom for about two weeks. My return date was set in June because the original start date of school was the weekend after I returned. I actually thought I was going to be one of the last people to return. Hehe…

Towards the end of last semester, I was at school one day with another fellow teacher (the lead teacher/owner/etc. of the school) in the office, preparing things for teaching (like good teachers do…hehe.) We received a visit from the Men In Blue (they are also blue in China, funny enough…are they blue everywhere?)  They were just “checking” out the school and asking a lot of questions about it (weekend school that is)…how many students, how many teachers, etc…  (You should know that this visit came at the beginning of what we foreigners liked to call the 100-day purge…the Middle Kingdom is currently changing Heads and we think it might be his/their way of showing their power, etc…something else I had heard was that the new Head would like to remove BIG DADDY from the country as well)  What we didn’t realize was that our visas would be a little troubled. So everyone happily returned to the states with the hope of returning in the fall for another fun-filled-year of weekend school.

Over the course of the summer, our new teachers had delayed arrivals (due to some visa trouble) and so the start of school was pushed back a week. During the week before school, the lead teacher/owner was working at school getting supplies ready, sorting out class lists, etc.  She received ANOTHER visit from the MIBlue, and this time asked her to visit them in their Office. So, she had an appointment for the next day with the MIBlue and our Chinese “liason” (also Chinese owner of the school).  The MIBlue separately ‘interrogated’ the lead teacher and the Chinese owner and it was decided that the school would have to be closed. (Not legal visas, other stuff…skype me if you want to chat)  So all of her hard work during that week was for nothing.  We had an emergency meeting with the teachers and decided that we needed to expedite the changing of our visas. (Mine is supposed to be good until November…prob isn’t now…)  Also-we needed to find a way to earn enough money to support the teachers because the school was a large portion of that income. Since it isn’t legal for any of us to be shaping young minds of China, we decided it would be best to stick to tutoring until further notice.

The day after the ‘interrogation’ with the MIBlue, I needed to register. (technically you are supposed to register within 24 hours of arrival in the country…minor detail…) It was probably a good thing that I didn’t register right away because I would probably be back with all of you stateside right now.  HE always works things out for the best, and I confidently believe this was one of those times.  When the lead teacher was asked where I was (because I was with her during the first visit of the MIB) she told them, ‘stateside.’  Had there been a record of me here, I probably would have been brought in too…

So, registration was another tiny problem.  I went with my other roommate (who arrived the night before) to the MIBOffice to officially register. We were not able to register because we didn’t have the landlord (LL) proof of ownership. hmmm….  That was on a Friday at 4:50 pm.  “I guess I get to stay for another weekend,” I thought.  Monday, we tried again. We took the LL to the MIBOffice with us so that we had proof. The registration went smoothly and NOT A PEEP was said about my late registration/not-so-kosher visa.  PRAISE HIM!  (It’s a bit of a Catch-22 for visa/registration in this country…) For me to come, I have to have a visa. When I get here, I have to register….(to get my “kosher” visa I have to have proof of registration.)  A bit 复杂 (complicated) if you ask me.

So I’m a little stuck…but life is moving on as planned.  Things you can talk to BIG DADDY about: My visa, the weekend school (there’s a lot more to the story…which I’ll try to relay piece by piece), the ‘daytime-training-of-Chinese-kids-in-English-which-some-people-do-with-their-own-kids-at-home’ that we also do, HIS protection of our STUDIES and the FRIENDS that we serve here.  I’m confident HIS PLAN is the best.