The pains of transitions

Transitions are never easy.  Paperwork and red tape in China is never-ending.  Life as an ex-pat is never dull.  I was taught to not use “never” and “always,” but these are common truths.

The list of things I have to do and the hoops I have to jump through seems endless.  The thing is, it seems no one is definitely sure what exactly I need, which comes first, where to go, and then the rules change!

The latest rule is that I need a criminal check and my college diploma notarized and authenticated.  Ok, so the police station gives me the criminal record, but that’s not proof enough?  It needs to be notarized?  And the college diploma one is just time-consuming and expensive.  It costs $250 for the process.  Stephen looked it up and we all have to do whether we change jobs or not. He said he would be surprised if we lose a lot of teachers who don’t have true or accredited diplomas.  That’s fine with us.  Makes us more valuable.

But oh my goodness, the hoops!, I have to go to one office, then another, and of course, each leg of the process has it’s cost.  I’ll be honest.  I haven’t even started the process yet.  It’s a bit over-whelming and intimidating.  But tomorrow, I will be going to the police station for a few simple and free documents I need to start.

I haven’t told my work yet that I’m leaving.  I’m already getting the syllabus for the new job.  I really, really wish the process was easier.

My birthdays in about a week, and I really want to do something.  In fact, I want to go to the hot springs.  But all this paperwork and running around may keep me tied up for time and money.

Do you know what else has been never-ending?  The rain!  All day, every day, for about 34 days!  After living in Thailand, and living here for so many years, you would think I would be used to this, but this rainy season is particularly rainy, and long.

There are times when other ex-pats move back, and when they do, they get rid of their stuff in a hurry.  Jodie knows a lot more people than me, so she often gets a lot of cool stuff.  One thing she recently acquired is the entire video library of Little House on the Prairie which we have been borrowing.  We have been binge watching on these very rainy days.  We are up to season six.

Also, in my very limited free-time, I’ve been reading a lot.  In our book club we are reading The Handmaid’s Tale.  We are half-way through.  Yesterday, we held club at Stephen’s Pizza Place, and I tried a new bacon cheeseburger pizza.  I love that they let me try things before they are on the menu.  Erek (a teacher from PA) brought two new guys, one from Italy, and one from Mexico.  It’s nights like those that I really love the life I have established here.

It makes me want to make sure I get all that paperwork squared away so that I can do even better.  That, and Rumi and Raine’s non-stop talk about going to school.  They can’t wait.  I’m only sorry that they have to wait until after Christmas.  I know it’s a slow process, and I’m working full-time, so I can’t get it done any faster, but it will get done.

 

 

 

On the fence

What a week of ups and downs, yes’s and no’s, and just back and forth on the fence.  A week ago, I went to sign the contract.  And I did sign the contract.  I took the girls with me so they could see the school.

But as I was talking to HR, they gave me a list of things I have to do in order to transfer my work visa.  Go to the U.S. Consulate and get my college diploma notarized, get six passport pictures for each of us, reframe my resume in the official Chinese way, and on and on, but the thing that got me was that we might have to leave the country if my present employer doesn’t provide another list of things.  I don’t have the money for three of us to leave the country, even if it was just Hong Kong, Japan, or Korea.  I told them that then and there.  They said it was “Plan B” and they hope “Plan A” works, but about 60% of the time, it doesn’t.  At least they were honest.

I went to work later that day.  I had been sick for more than 24 hours with a fever, a sore throat, cough, horrible headache, and dizziness.  They let me go home after a few hours and I just couldn’t think about anything.  I slept for a day.

But I did have lunch with my co-worker/friend, Stephen, the Canadian who owns the pizza shop.  He said that everything’s going very well, and he’s doing well, so that if we need to leave the country, he can lend us the money and he said he’s done it lots of times.  It’s no big deal.

Still, the next day, I resolved that it wasn’t that much more money, and it wouldn’t make sense to take a job that costs me money up front.  I felt good with this decision, and called the girls to tell them.  Then Rumi said that we should talk about it home.  And we made a list of all of the good things and all of the bad things.  There were 8 things on each side.  Then we starred all of the really good things and the really bad things.  There were two each.

Then, I had lunch with Stephen again.  He said, “You never regret the things you do.  You usually only regret the things you didn’t do.”  (My marriage is an exception to this) He also reminded me that they are good with raises and promotions, whereas, we never get a raise ever.  Also, he said with the new visa regulations, I would still have to do all of that stuff at the consulate.

Then I received two texts from my friend Jodie, a driving service (reliable transportation to work) and the contact of a friend of hers who is also a teacher at this school.  We chatted for quite a while.  I now know about 8 teachers at this school, and more than 15 students.  After talking to Stephen and her, I completely went the other way and officially accepted the job after asking one more time if my girls could start at the same time.  They still can’t, but we can wait a semester.

So yes, at the end of August, I will be a Middle School English literature teacher for Xiwei International schools.  We are all excited and happy.

Sadly, we haven’t really been able to celebrate as we’ve all taken our turns to have the flu this week.  Sleeping on the couch and eating chicken noodle soup and jello has been the order of day.

On the kitten front, our new baby, Luna isn’t fitting in well.  She’s starting to try to be more sociable today, but before this, she had two modes: hide or growl.  It’s kind of funny because she had her tail broken off and it’s not even an inch long.  It looks more like a rabbit’s tail, but it’s hard to tell if she is happy.

As the World Turns…

Volume three of the interview saga… I had the meeting with the owner, and he was uncharacteristically (for Chinese) direct and, I felt, discriminatory.  “How are you going to have energy after work to deal with your children?”  He asked.  I asked him if he had no teachers who were parents.  He said yes, but they are married and the kids go to school.

“I can only play with the cards I am dealt.”  I told him.  “And Obama was home-schooled by his single mother in Indonesia.”  I had nothing to lose, and I just stood up to him.  Everything he threw at me, I threw right back.  I actually said, my own father doesn’t worry about me like this, why do you?  I’m pretty sure he’s younger than me too.  I didn’t leave with a very good feeling.

I got home in less than 5 minutes and I already had 3 texts waiting for me.  He wanted me.  He said he liked how tough I was.  Lauren in her South African accent said, “Good on you!”  The only thing that bothered me is that he wouldn’t budge on tuition.  He said 50% for each child, which is $20,000 and completely ridiculous as you can imagine.  It’s also ironic since it would eschew his fears about me having to go home in an emergency, or having to plan their home-schooling, or the fact that he thought it was sad that they don’t speak Chinese yet.  However, all the teachers have said that once you are in, and he likes you, he is very generous.  They get great raises and promotions, and they are sure (though they can’t guarantee) that next semester he will give me 25% tuition, which is doable, as it’s a little less than what I pay my nanny.  I would LOVE to not need a nanny.

Long story short, I’m taking it.  I’m signing the contract tomorrow.  No one is happier than the girls.  Even if they have to wait a semester, they can’t wait to go to this school.  I’m going to throw in two links, so you can see it too.

http://international-schools-shanghai.com/xiwai-international-school-shanghai/

http://www.xw.sjedu.cn/html/en/index.php

This will start on August 26^th, so I still have all summer, at my current job, with my current schedule, which means a good schedule for having fun.  My friend had a great idea that I can still sub at my current English Learning Center, on my summers off for extra money.  I’m excited and nervous.

Today was unseasonably cold and rainy.  Didn’t go out, didn’t do anything.  Tomorrow, our friends, the Clarks, are coming to visit.  We haven’t seen them for well over a month, that they spent in New Zealand.  We’re going to go to a new ball pit and maybe paint some rocks and hide them.  Then in the evening Raine is getting a new rescue kitten.  She has already named her Luna Lovegood.  She’s a two-month old, tortoise, with a broken tail.  She has a thing for problem animals.

This is my big girl wearing one of my university student’s clothes, and my baby girl with a stuffed panda she got at Yuyuan Gardens.  We finally went there, but it was on a holiday and I think everyone in Shanghai was there too!  Never, ever again.