There must be something about being from Wyoming…mountain state and state of coal mining!  🙂

Although I have only been back to China for about a week-and-a-half, it feels like much longer (like I didn’t even leave) but also much shorter.  I don’t know what to think of this new emotion. 😉 

Mr. Wang has been just as frustrating as he always is.  I asked him about a job since the Tsinghua thing wasn’t going to happen this semester.  He kept insisting on sending me to Sinopec (same place I taught first semester last year) but I kept saying no.  He does not understand that it is not worth my time to travel an hour one way for the pay that he gives (which is not much).  He keeps saying, ‘But you’ll only teach there for three and one half hours, Amber.’  Yes Mr. Wang. I know. I do not want to work for Sinopec an hour away.  I thought I had finally convinced him to stop asking me when he said, ‘Amber, I’m not trying to persuade you.’ Really, Mr. Wang? You’re not? Why do you keep asking me?  I told him that I wanted something close so that I don’t have to take the subway for an hour, and I wanted adults (or university students).  I understood that this limited my options.  But, living in the university district should have it’s advantages, right?  In the meantime, I looked for another boss to drive me crazy.

I ended up at this place called ‘New Channel English’.  This place appears to be super organized and with it.  They were so organized and ‘with it’ that they do their monthly, yes MONTHLY schedule, days in advance!  This is unheard of in China!  Unfortunately, I went there on September 1.  🙁  So, no job at New Channel until next month and that’s probably not going to happen. 

Randomly, the next day, I received a phone call from Sophia, former assistant of Mr. Wang.  She must have kept my number from her glory days of working for him!  She asked me if I was looking for a job.  How did she know? 🙂  We made plans to meet the next day to discuss the possibility of me teaching….middle school students….. 🙁  Well, that was a downer.  Mr. Wang called me later during the day and told me he had some university teaching for me to do.  So, I had a choice between middle school and university. Not really much of a choice.  (I do love middle school, but I love university more.)   I consulted another teacher.  She told me that the going rate for foreign English teachers is 30 元 more per hour than what Mr. Wang has been paying me.  Hmmm….. So, what should I do?   Being the chicken that I am, I sent Mr. Wang a text message (no phone call for me) asking him if he could pay me more.  (After all, he did tell me last semester that he would give me a raise and he never did.)  I did not receive a message back from him. 

I got another phone call from Mr. Wang telling me about this really awesome school (awesome to who?) right on the Tsinghua campus (super close to my home).  Grade 2!  No. Way.  ‘Mr. Wang, I don’t want to teach 2nd grade.’ ‘But, Amber, they are really good students.’ ‘Mr. Wang you already told me I could teach at the university.’ ‘I know but this school wants a woman.’ ‘Mr. Wang you don’t pay me enough.’ ‘I can’t afford to pay you more.’ Right.  I told him that that the going rate was much higher than what he was paying his teachers and that I would find a different job if he didn’t pay me more.  (How’s that for bargaining…it’s the ‘walking away’ technique. Sometimes it works…sometimes it doesn’t.)  He said, ‘okay, Amber, I will pay you more but you cannot tell the other teachers. Some of them already don’t get what you make.’  Okay. 

So, to make an already very long story short, (that phrase never makes sense) I’ll be teaching at the Forestry University (sophomores) and at the Mining University (post-graduates).  Along with my dear students (now 4th and 8th grade) at the FOC school. 

A little about the language:  大 = big， 学 = study.  So, 大学 = big study or “university” 🙂  (See the title if you are wondering where I’m going with this.)  业 = industry, 林 = forest (it even looks like a forest) 🙂  矿 = mine.  So, if you want to take the names of the schools literally they are: Forest Industry Big Study 🙂 and Mine Industry Big Study.  Mr. Wang must think I’m special to have come from Wyoming, land of lots of forests and also many coal mines.  I wonder if being from there will make me more interesting to my students…. I’ll let you know!  I’m looking forward to starting the university stuff on Monday. 

As I write, it is the end of a very long day which started with teaching.  My first day of teaching this year.  Weird that this is the start of my sixth year of teaching.  I taught two classes and before the second one started I was developing a rather painful headache.  Add that to my persisting sore throat (no thanks to you, Beijing air) and you have a recipe for teaching disaster.  Thankfully, my 8th graders were really great today.  I’m also thankful that the class was only two hours this afternoon.  I went home right after class, took some ibuprofen and went to bed.  A couple of hours later, my friend Gretl sent me a message telling me she was on the way over with the butter!  For supper we were making the difficult ‘macaroni and cheese’ (Gretl loves cheese–I think she’s part American) 😉 and then watching a movie!  Gretl just left for the night and I’m finishing up my writing before heading off to bed. 

Thanks for your continued pr-yers.  My job worked out, my first B study being back was amazing! (It ended up being mostly one-on-one and so great!) I’m slowly but surely regaining my health.  (Gotta love Chinese medicine!)  Life couldn’t really get much better.  (Remind me of that next week when I’m complaining about how annoyed I am about something Mr. Wang/etc. did.) 

Blessings on your long weekend! Be thankful for your work!