I eat another pear as I walk to work. I'm so sick of these fucking pears. They taste fine and I appreciate them because I'm poor so I love free food, but I've been eating 1-2 pears a day and still there is no room for anything else in my fridge. I'm not gonna throw them away though, that seems wasteful, so I'll probably eating pears for at least another month or so.
When I get into work, Josie plops a new contract as well as a workers rules sheet on my desk. The new contract basically states that I have to stay another week in China because I got to work late, and has changed my title from "Teacher" to "English Teacher." This already upsets me because it makes me feel like they left out English Teacher intentionally to trick me into working for their school.
Then I read the workers rule sheet, which has list of reasons why they can deduct my pay. This includes being late for work, having stubble and taking days off of work. Josie had previously told me I could take that Sunday in October off to go to Bali with Shaya without once mentioning that my pay would be deducted. They were also telling me now that I was going to be scheduled to work on that Monday as well, even though I never worked Mondays, so they were going to deduct me two days pay. This was going to amount to about 2,100 yuan.
I was furious. I couldn't contain myself.
"You guys have to tell me these things before hand. I already booked my flight and hotel rooms so I have to go now!" (I had, I just hadn't mentioned it in the blog yet.)
I refused to sign anything and basically threw a hissy fit. Then I had to go teach students, with nothing resolved.
I started my first class and tried to stay in a good mood, but it was hard. I found myself being irritated by the kids not paying attention or goofing around and that wasn't fair to the kids. I felt really bad about it and tried to keep my cool, but I was not doing nearly as well as I would have liked.
Pretty soon, I got pulled out of the classroom and another teacher was sent in. In the office now was a British guy who was there with his girlfriend who was interviewing for a job and he immediately became a mediator. For the rest of the day, I was going in and out of classrooms while teaching to talk to this guy about what had gone done. Peter sat in the room and typed on his computer, not saying a word.
Apparently, Josie told the British guy that she had told me about the seventh even though they admitted I had not seen this workers rules sheet until today. I tried to get Peter to back me up, because he had been at the lunch with us.
"Peter, you were there! Did Josie say anything about the seventh during that lunch?"
"I think so."
Peter, you Judas! Of course you take Josie's side. I can't take it anymore.
"Really Peter? Really?"
"I don't remember."
God dammit! I have to leave again to go teach another class. In this class, one student calls me "red-faced teacher." Normally I would think this is funny, but right now it just hurts my feelings. I get called back into the office, this time with both the British guy and then head of the school.
"The school is prepared to offer you 1/3 of your pay for those two days. Are you happy with that?" says the British guy.
"I mean, I don't really have much of a choice do I? They have all the power in this situation."
"Just answer the question, are you happy?"
"No! No. No I am not happy."
The British guy talks to my boss in Chinese.
"How about docking you only one days pay? Does that make you happy?"
"Sure, fine, I'm happy."
We all shake hands and then I leave to pay for my own taxi and head to the other campus. At this point in time, I have about 140 yuan left in my bank account. (In American money, this is about 20 bucks) While I'm walking out to my taxi, I begin to weep (for about thirty seconds).
I get to the next school and teach some kids fruits: apple, strawberry, blueberry, pineapple, peach, banana. These kids have a new favorite activity, which is sneaking up behind me and poking my butt when I am talking to another student. It's very funny but I also am very scared of getting in trouble for having my butt touched by kids so I try to seriously tell them to stop doing it. This only makes them poke my butt more. I am doomed.
After class, I am too scared about money to take a cab home so I walk the mile and a half home. I stop and get a bacon hamburger at that nasty chicken place I went to the night before. In China, bacon is ham. This is the worst burger I have ever eaten and is only the size of a silver dollar pancake.
I get home, sad and defeated, and begin to binge Comedians in Cars getting Coffee. I've never really watched it before, and it's a pretty stupid show for me to be watching. Its people who have succeed in the career I dream of having, hanging out with each other and having a good time. Meanwhile, I'm eating pears and chain smoking in rural China after teaching English for 9 and 1/2 hours and being told I will have a some of my paycheck reduced. But, at least I got one days pay back. So, meh, things could be worse.
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