Oh the drama!

Hey bloggers. I know this post is a little late but man have I got a story for you. So here's the background: Chinese education agents are people who charge 50-60,000 RMB per student to "assist" them in applying to foreign universities. They tell their clients to send their TOEFL and SAT scores directly to them and there are rumors that these agents photoshop their scores and submit them on behalf of the student (again the altered scores are rumors that aren't proven). These agents also write application essays for students and apply for schools with them as well. If you're interested in learning a little more about them, Click Here.
Rewind to last year in my second month working as a school counselor. A student comes to me and asks if I can look over her essay. She sits next to me while I ask her questions and she make the appropriate changes. A couple days later I get an email from my then supervisor, now coworker, that says, "I saw you working on a college application essay. This is not your job. The student has an agent to do that for her." You can imagine what uproars came from that email.
Fast forward to spring 2014. My American boss starts getting verbal for our soon to be seniors to stay away from agents because the foreign teachers are more than happy to edit essays with them FOR FREE! We are paid to be their teacher... AND we tell them the truth. Last year's seniors contacted me recently and told me about how their agents told them all kinds of lies and if they had known then what they know now, they wouldn't have paid so much money to work with an agent. So agents lie to students to keep their business alive. So anyway, editing essays appears in our contract for our second year so that when someone says it's not our job we can say, "yes it is and here's the proof."
Fast forward to Fall 2014. I have a number of students who are in and out of class (no surprise there). Yet I keep getting requests to look at application essays. The only difference between this year and last is that I'm getting these requests from my Chinese coworkers. They turn to me and say, "Chelsey I have sent you two essays." I ask, "When do you need it by?" At the start of the semester it was, "not until next week." Plenty of time for me to track down the student in class and say, "Let's work on it." In the last month, the answer became, "It's due by midnight tonight." So of course what they're basically saying is, "do it fast and don't talk to the student." A fight breaks out over this and foreign teachers start making it a policy that if they are to read an essay the student must ask, not the Chinese counselors.
Last week we discovered that my Chinese boss, Sharon, and a few other people (Chinese counselors) are being paid AS AGENTS to do the work. That's why the increase in essays has been so high. We brought this issue up to Sharon and said that we weren't given enough time to edit essays and she said, "the PS is the most important piece, it's true. So we need to support our students as best we can." I refused to edit a few essays because the counselors refused to tell me who the student was. So an American coworker did some asking and we discovered the following: Sharon charges each student 50,000RMB as a basic fee for the Chinese counselors to write essays for students and get them edited by foreign teachers. She is guaranteed a bonus of a few thousand RMB per acceptance letter the student receives. The student doesn't need to do very much work in their application process. The agency is under another name so that the school isn't associated (at least not directly). When we hinted to Sharon that we knew what was going on she told us that we are to just keep supporting the students as best we can. We aren't sure what will happen next but all foreign teachers are banning together to stop this illegal and unethical practice. I'm really nervous because it's already causing tension in the counseling office. Grace (one of the members of the agency and my Chinese coworker/previous supervisor) yelled at Sharon in Chinese and started crying. Once she left Sharon told Michael (the other American counselor at this school) that we need to start helping Grace by telling the foreign teachers to stop "complaining" about having to fix essays for students without the student being present. Grace refuses to talk to either of us and Sharon is constantly in and out of our office to make sure we're still working hard on application essays. I hope this gets settled soon. Until then... Laters.

Illness plagues my school

Hey bloggers. Well like my title suggests, illness has taken over at my school. There were three confirmed cases of chicken pox and a number of faculty members who have colds (including me) :( I got a scratchy throat on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I was hacking up all kinds of gross stuff. My chest hurts from coughing so much. Thursday was Thanksgiving dinner and there were so many problems. The students didn't bring enough of the ingredients, some of them couldn't find what they were looking for and didn't ask for help in looking for it (they just gave up), teachers didn't really want any of the food we were making... the list goes on and on. But despite all the stress it caused me, it was successful because the students had a great time. It was a super long day and I thought I was going to die at the end of it. I couldn't stop coughing and I was pretty done after dinner. Friday was a half day, thank God! And I slept most of Saturday and Sunday. I just wanted to get over my cold.... and I'm still not over it :( The SATs are this Saturday so about 90% of my students from the AP side are gone this week to prep for them. I have my observation on Tuesday so I'm pretty nervous about that since I probably won't have many students. Also on Tuesday I have my showing of the charity concert dance I'm working on. Adeline and I will be dancing while James plays the piano. James chose Magic Waltz as our music and my boss wanted me to work with Adeline who will be dancing a traditional Chinese dance called Peacock Dance. Basically, I will be doing ballet while she does Chinese dance and James plays a waltz. This should be interesting. We're meeting tonight to see what we can put together. I'm pretty stressed about having all these things coming up. On the plus side it sounds like I got my no Christmas celebration wish. The charity concert is on the 20th of December so planning Christmas parties for the week of the 22nd was just too much to do. Not to mention all students already got Halloween and the seniors got Thanksgiving. Christmas is just one too many celebrations for the first semester when we also have to deal with classes, midterms, and finals all at the same time. My students don't even want to celebrate Christmas with me or any of their other English teachers. They said last year it was boring. Oh well. I don't mind if they don't wanna celebrate :D This week is a long week so I'll definitely be keeping my head down and trudging along. And I do mean that literally because it's windy and 8 degrees Fahrenheit today so head down is what I need to do this week. I'll try to update you next week if I remember. Until then... Laters!

Week one of craziness!

Hey bloggers! Welcome to Chelsey will go crazy: week 1. Yesterday was the start of Midterms and today and tomorrow are midterm days. Then grades are due Saturday so I have three days to grade and submit my midterm scores. I also have to teach regular classes on Thursday and Friday so I'm doing a lot in a short amount of time. Then next week is Thanksgiving week so I'm gonna be taking inventory of everything students need to bring in for dinner Thursday night. I'm pretty stressed out because I know people are gonna get really mad if I ask them to buy stuff and donate it to the dinner. The center is already donating turkeys but other teachers are going to want the center to reimburse them for the other stuff they bring. Basically I'm preparing dinner for 130 people. It's gonna suck. After Thanksgiving is open house and conferences for year 10 and 11 but I'm not really affected by that since I teach year 12. Of course shortly after that is national exams so they're not gonna wanna learn anything from me, they'll just wanna prepare for national exams. December 20th is the Charity concert and I'm working on getting selections done for that. Sharon wants me to dance again but I said that I need students who know how to dance if I'm doing that again. It was FAR too hard to create a dance for a student who hadn't ever danced before. She also wanted me to give her movements that were not in her range of motion. If you're not flexible enough to do the splits, you can't ask me to choreograph a dance with you doing the splits. It just doesn't work that way.

Speaking of choreography, my club has officially been changed. I am no longer creating a live musical because students don't come to rehearsals every week. I'm luck if they come once a month. So we're gonna film it and put it together in a short film. I'm not really sure how that'll work but I know for sure we can't do a live performance. I'll be spending a lot of time working on the editing once that's all done. I can't wait for this club to be done.

On the plus side, I'm helping Michael in creating a real counseling program for our school! It's been really fun to help with this project. Basically what it consists of is getting students to fill out surveys on university and career interests and then putting them in groups for counseling sessions. I'm doing TRUE counseling work! This is so exciting! Thursday is our first small group session. We're meeting with students who are looking for schools that have the option of post graduate studies. There's 7 students and Michael and I will be co-facilitating it. I'm pretty excited. I'll let you know how it goes! Until then... Laters!

Sick again :(

Hey bloggers! Here's the update. China blocked Viber (but only 67% what ever that means) so I have a hard time keeping in touch with my family :( Last week was Halloween and the year 10 and 11 field trip. I was planning it all month and the Halloween party even longer than that. It was stressful but that's one less activity I have to plan. I asked some of the students who went on the field trip what their favorite activity was and they all said that the party was their favorite! It was an incredible ego boost and was nice to know that I'm doing my job well. At least one of my titles >.< But like last year I'm sick again thanks to the rain and camping in the cold. I spent the rest of the weekend recovering. My body aches and my head hurts on and off. But I'm one month closer to being done here! This new director of student affairs title is killing me.... My students stopped showing up to club because mid terms is in two weeks and they're all stressed out. I get it, I really do. But they have to understand that I'm creating a musical for them and they're gonna look bad if they don't perform it! It's gonna suck if some of them put all this work into preparing for it and then they don't do anything for it... Oh well. They're choice right? This week is a long week so I'm just going through the motions right now. Next week is a short week so I'll rest a lot right before mid terms. This month's project is Thanksgiving dinner. I'm supposed to plan the Thanksgiving dinner for the seniors and faculty. This is yet another stressful event for me to plan. Last year we all gave crap to Sarah because she made us do this dinner. Our director loved it so much last year that we're doing it again this year and this time I'll get all the crap for planning it all. It's gonna suck so much. I wonder if my boss chose me for this job because his wife got mad at me last year for not making sure she got to a wedding. But that's a whole different story. This blog has been all over the place because that's how my thought process is pretty much. It's time to go.... I'll update you again soon. Until then... Laters!

Busy busy busy!

Hey bloggers! I managed to find some time to update you all about this past week/weekend :D Last weekend I went with 7 of my friends to EuroPark! It was pretty fun but I got a massive headache from the day :( So here's how it went... The previous week Chinese Michael helps us rent a van and a driver for the day. Saturday morning 7:30am we all get picked up. We ride for an hour out to the park and get dropped off. The driver leaves and goes TROPO in the (extremely dry) Yellow River. We enjoy the park, which has carnival rides like sizzler, group sized zipper, parachute drop, etc. (of course none of them are called these names) as well as big roller coasters that go incredibly fast and feel incredibly unsafe. But we still went on them and it was still fun! It was no Disneyland though ;P Around 5 we get picked up and the driver has two still flopping around fish in plastic bags. He gives Chinese Michael one as a thank you for hiring him and he keeps the other one in front by him. Every now and then the fish would flop around and fall off the seat! It was entertaining. It was a lot of fun :) 3 Chinese colleagues and 4 other foreigners all enjoying each others' company.

This week has been crazy busy. I've been reading through application essays, meeting with students to talk about college options, and helping students figure out whether the ACT or SAT is right for them. It's been productive but not the most fun.

Monday night I had club night. I had two lead roles quit my musical so now I'm working to replace them. I don't have enough students to have understudies so it's been an interesting process. Next week I won't have club because it's the year 10 and 11 field trip. Despite all the changes and the stress that this field trip/Halloween party has put on me, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the final plans. Assuming all the supplies make it to the party, it should be fun. I just hope BDed doesn't take credit for the whole thing like he always does. Ugh!


I'm not doing anything special this weekend since it's a long week. I'll go pick up Halloween party supplies but that's it. Having a long week into a week where I can't sleep in is gonna suck! I know my colleagues are gonna blame me for the school not giving us our half day because we're pulling an extra long day for the field trip. I just hope they go easy on me.  I hope they realize it's not my fault. I can't wait until this year is done! This is way too stressful. I'll definitely keep you up dated. Until then... Laters!

Sorry for this update being so late!

Hey bloggers! I know it’s been way to long since I updated you but here’s the story as to what’s been keeping me from getting on here. First I got back mid August and my boss announced to everyone (including me) that I’ve been promoted to co-director of student affairs. I was excited at first but then realized that I wasn’t getting a pay raise. So I’m doing five jobs with the same pay as everyone else who’s only doing one job. For the last two months it’s been non-stop running from office to office doing one thing after the other. I’ve basically become the messenger of news to the foreign teacher about everything that is extra- and co-curricular related. Don’t get me wrong, I love having this title but when I’m being stretched over three floors of our building, I start to feel a bit under appreciated. So this is what’s been going on at the school. Well that and the fact that our semester just went from being 23 weeks to being 24 weeks. That made me swear really loudly and then want to cry. This means that our Spring Festival holiday is a week shorter than they promised us it would be. I’m pretty upset about it.

A couple weeks ago was National Holiday and due to the stress of my new title, I decided to use my week and go home to see my wonderful family and the love of my life. Shout out to Brendan for helping me get home! Shout out to Troy for being the most supportive boyfriend I could ask for in my time of need. Shout out to Mom and Dad for always standing by my side and helping me see everything in perspective. It felt like the end of the world when I was going through the stress of the new responsibilities but after talking to them, they made me realize that I could get through it and I shouldn’t quit. Yea, I wanted to quit because my boss wanted to take away my counseling title so that I could be a full time English teacher. But I fought it and showed that my students saw me as more of a counselor than an English teacher so he let me keep my title.

I got back to work after a week of rest and rejuvenation in Hawaii. I figured out that now that the school year was back to a regular schedule, my workload was cut in half. I only have one student affairs project each month, instead of three! This month, of course, I’m helping the seniors plan the Halloween party. Next month will be Thanksgiving. Then the following month will be crazy because we have both Christmas and the charity concert. But that’s nothing compared to tenth grade military training, college recommendations, and sports day planning from September. I officially hate the start of new school years. I got so tired from my days that I didn’t even go to the gym for three weeks! It was brutal.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on for the last month and a half. I’ve been crazy and Troy has been SUPER understanding of my bitter attitudes. I’ve actually picked a few fights with him and we’ve had our disagreements but we always go to sleep with dry eyes and smiles on our faces. It’s amazing how stressed a relationship can get when distance and time is put between an otherwise loving couple. Something to keep in mind when counseling students who will be in long distance relationships in college. I hope next week I’ll be able to update you about drama club. So far we haven’t had anything super exciting happen. Until then… Laterz!

Back to Work!

Hey everyone! I know I told you I’d keep you updated while I was home, but let’s be honest… If you know anything about me, you know that I keep EXTREMELY busy. I got home and stayed off my computer almost the entire time. When I did go on the computer, I either wasn’t on my own or I was only on for 5-10 minutes. So long story short, home was amazing! I missed my family way more than I thought I did and seeing them a lot was so nice. The twins got to know me a little better and Ryden told me I was his best friend (gotta love 3-year-olds). I also got to see some old friends and hang out with new ones :) How did I meet those new friends you ask? Well lemme tell you about my new boyfriend :D Yes everyone, I am currently dating an amazing guy named Troy and so far we’ve found that we’re perfect for each other. We spent a lot of time together while I was home and we decided to do the distance :( It’s been hard so far but we both want it to work so we’re gonna make it work. Aside from being home I went to Cali with my fam to go to a Thomas the train engine event. It was actually a lot of fun. The kids definitely loved it! We went shopping and just hung out as a family. After that I took a solo trip up to Seattle to visit Tiger and Jeremy. Troy wasn’t overly excited about me going and neither were his friends but Troy said that if it was important to me to go, he wasn’t gonna stop me no matter how uncomfortable he was (I told you he’s amazing). I got the closure I needed and confirmed that I wanted to keep Jeremy as a friend but that was it. I also got to see (and say good bye) to my beloved kitty, who btw was bitter about me leaving him :’( He definitely remembered me for better and for worse. I’m not sure if/when I’ll ever see him again. But moving away from the sad and on to the happy…. I’m back in China and I started working from the day after I got back into Jinan. I met the new teachers the day I got back and they’re super nice. Kevin and Sean are from Ireland so sometimes they have to speak slower for me to understand them >.< Colin is from Cali and he’s expecting a new born sometime within the next month. He also has a 2 year old so it’s like being back home only without twins! Haha. Work has been boring because all we’re doing is the same thing we’ve been doing the last two months of work: planning. Planning schedules, planning lessons, planning meetings, etc. I have A LOT of meetings to attend each month so I’m not looking forward to this year in terms of meetings. I’m still teaching grade 12 and counseling everyone who needs it. I’m also the TAG chair, that hasn’t changed since last year. This year, I got more resume bling! I’m the co-director of student affairs (my boss wants me to be titled assistant director because that’s his title but the director of student affairs wants me to be the director while he’s the assistant so we compromised… I’m co-director). I’m also an assistant homeroom teacher, which means I have the same responsibilities as the homeroom teacher when I’m at school but I don’t have to spend any nights with the kids like the actual homeroom teacher has to. I’m also a part of the leadership team (leadership is the same level as administration). So I have a few new titles and it’s making me realize that I might just get experience in being an admin this year. Maybe it’ll inspire me to find a new career path? I’m not sure what life has in store for me because I still really wanna dance for Disney. But realistically is being a Disney dancer practical for a 26-year-old? I’m not sure. It’s hard to be potentially too old for your dream but too young for your career. For now, I’m just waiting for signs to point me in the right direction. I have no doubt that the universe has my back and will tell me what I’m meant for when I’m ready to hear it. I’ll just have to be patient (that’s Troy’s and my mantra >.<). So now that I’m back on a schedule and in a pattern, I’ll be updating you as I used to… Once a week :) Until then… Laters!

Oops! I missed a week~

Hey bloggers! As you can probably tell, I'm getting lazy about updating this. Last week was really stressful in terms of things I had to do. Plus I have someone new in my life so I've been talking with him A LOT so time kinda just flies by with or without me. But let's get you caught up~

Last weekend was the first weekend I didn't have ANY plans. I went out to dinner with my friends, I went shopping, I played pool... nothing too spectacular.

Two weeks ago I was asked by grade 11 class 19 to join them in the IC's chorus competition. Now, anyone who knows me, knows I DON'T sing. Which is fine since they wanted me to dance during the instrumental parts. Then grade 10 class 19 came to me and was like please dance with us! I told them I already agreed to dance for grade 11 which means I couldn't dance with them. But of course, Tony to the destruction... He came up to me and said, "You can do one class per grade so it's ok if you dance with them too." So I agreed since the two girls who asked me to dance with them are two of my most favorite girls in the school. They stayed in my dance club all year (unlike everyone else who just joined half way through the year or quit half way through the year). Then I had two more classes come and ask me to join them but I had to refuse because I was already doing two dances. Another class asked me to choreograph for them and a fourth class I flat out declined because I know my limits.

Anyway, throughout the week I rehearsed with my classes, attended English class with George, Blanca, and Glies, and went to AP psych class with Michael. Overall it's been a pretty busy week. I study every chance I get but it's really hard to stay motivated with it.

Friday: My school FINALLY got documents to me so that I could transfer money home. That was pretty sweet. I went to the bank and was able to get all that done. Then I went home and talked with Troy (from Punahou) on Skype. It was Fourth of July but everyone was so burned out from the week that we all just stayed in. We tried to go looking for fireworks but let's be honest, what reason is there to pop fireworks in China in July? 没有！
Saturday: I went shopping! I had to get costumes for my performance coming up on Wednesday. I also had to get flat sandals. It wasn't a particularly busy Saturday for me but that was perfect since I wanted to spend time Skyping anyway. Two guesses who I was Skyping ;P
Sunday: I had to work.... not go into the office kinda work but go to my bosses apartment and sit in a two hour long meeting kinda work. We talked about next year and what we could "expect" with our living arrangements. Apparently I'm going to be living with an early 30s art teacher next year. I hope she's cool. Then they fed us terrible pizza that made me feel sick :( So I ended up not doing anything after the meeting except working on Chinese. Well I guess that's not really true. Troy asked me on a Skype date so technically, I had a date..... lol.
This week is the LAST week of school! And it's not really school. The kids have finals today, rehearsals and meetings tomorrow, the chorus competition on Wednesday, and they leave on Thursday. *I* have studying and meetings today, rehearsals tomorrow, the chorus competition on Wednesday, and an end of the year staff party on Thursday. I leave for Beijing on Thursday and my flight to go home leaves Friday. The next time I update you, I'll be in HAWAII! :D It'll be nice to see the sun again. Although I hope I don't die of sun poisoning :P or worse, fresh air poisoning! Bahahahahaha. Clearly I need to stop working now lol. Anyways, I'll definitely keep you updated about my travels during the summer. Until then... Laters!

Another great weekend in Beijing!

Hey bloggers~ Sorry I forgot to update you last week. I meant to do so on Monday but then I got asked to help out with three classes in the morning and two in the afternoon and in between the classes I spent my time getting actual work done. All week I kinda just lost track of time. I found out that we had a short week last week so I was able to go to the color run on Saturday :D But before I get too ahead of myself, let's review....
Last week Monday-Friday: I was asked to help out with grade 11 A-level classes. I go for two or three periods every morning and just help look over students' work. We've got a looooooooooong year ahead of us... to put it nicely >.< The kids are sweet and I'm enjoying getting to know them before we actually have to get down to business next semester. They just have a lot to work on between now and when they graduate.
Friday afternoon: I got off the bus two stops before my apartment stop and caught the city bus to the train station. I got my ticket and rushed off to the gate just as they were boarding.... PHEW made it! I was on my way to Beijing! I got in and went to my hotel. TRAFFIC WAS TERRIBLE!!!! It took forever to get to my hotel and that made me late for dinner >.< I went out to Haidilao with Russell, Nelson, and Richard (all Iolani). We had a blast eating and talking story. Then I met up with Jonathan and we watched the France v Switzerland world cup game. It was exciting because France scored three goals in the first half. Jonathan taught me a lot about soccer that I didn't know before.
Saturday: In the afternoon I had the color run but I wanted to go shopping :P I always wanna shop in Beijing haha! So eventually I met up with Maria and Alan (two of my former students) and then we waited for Tiffany and Renee (more of my former students) to meet us. Then all five of us started our run and along the way Jerry called Maria and asked where we were. So then we waited for him and attacked him with yellow powder. Then all six of us ran the rest of the 5k and had a blast with all the colors. We made some new friends by attacking them with powder as they attacked us.
Saturday night: I invited the students to a graduation dinner and told Jonathan to meet us there. I wanted him to meet them. He wanted to play a prank on them and I agreed that it'd be fun. So we pretended that Jonathan was a guy from Malaysia who didn't speak any English. Our story was that I met him on a hook up app called momo and I've been using Google Translate to talk to him. But I wanted to meet him in person and because I didn't speak any Chinese, I needed their help to translate. They all said yes and were incredibly supportive. Tiffany and Renee "calmed my nerves down" and Maria did a lot of the translations. Alan and Jerry spoke to him in Chinese. Five minutes into the conversation Jonathan played the super creepy, awkward guy and all five of my students started an under-the-table weixin group to figure out how they were gonna protect me from this weirdo. After 15 more minutes of us getting more and more uncomfortable Jonathan finally said, "Ok Sweetie, I think that's enough." And all my kids were SHOCKED! I burst out laughing high fived and hugged him. We explained what was going on and the kids were so mad but they laughed and enjoyed themselves. They all like him a lot :) Then we went out to get dessert and ended the night around midnight. I was so happy they liked him a lot and Jonathan even said that he was impressed with them, which is REALLY great news for my to hear! I'm proud of my students and I like showing them off :P
Sunday: I met up with Jonathan for lunch before he went off to Shanghai and then I met up with Russell to meet a really tapped in guy named Victor. He knows everyone in the entertainment industry in Beijing and Shanghai so I was really excited to get introduced to him. I started thinking about my future in China whether that's as a counselor or dancer. TBH I'm a bit overwhelmed but talking to him made me kick myself in the butt to study Chinese a little harder. I really wish I had formal classes >.< It would make understanding grammar rules so much easier! But whatever, I won't be complainy again. I refuse. This WILL make me stronger~
We got some news that this week is a short week AGAIN! We were all really excited by that news. We have Saturday and Sunday off, which means I have time to clean my apartment finally. I also will have time to study. Anyone up for a coffee and Chinese speaking date?! I REALLY need the practice! It's getting close to the time I'll be heading home and I'm really excited. I'll be going home on July 11th and I'll be traveling to Cali and Seattle so I'll have a lot to update you all on even when I'm not in China. So keep up with all my adventures as my first year in China comes to a close. The adventures aren't anywhere near done but as always, I'll keep updating you~ Until then... Laters!

I am NOT a secretary

Happy Monday (in China) bloggers! As predicted, not much has happened this week but for those of you interested, let's catch you up.

Monday I came back to Jinan and Tuesday I was back at work. I pretty much hit the ground running because I had a meeting at 10am and the deadline for the handbook I'm creating got pushed up a month... Oh did I mention that I'm creating a student handbook? Yea. My Oregon boss told Tony, the dean of students, that Tony was to create a handbook in English (keep in mind we're in China, our students speak Chinese as a first language, and Tony speaks English as a THIRD language). There's some drama among the administration because my boss doesn't think the dean of students counts as administration so they've been having a work war ever since the first day they met. Any way, so Tony comes to me and say, "Brian wants you to create a student handbook," then walks away! I was like oh wth?! But like a good employee I sucked it up and went to work on it. The task was assigned May 1st and I was told I had until July 10th. I was like sweet plenty of time to figure out what needs to go into the handbook. I spent the first two weeks of May getting translations of the school rules to put into the handbook. The last two weeks while I waited for more translations, I edited grammar, made sure the formatting was alright, and put everything that I thought we needed in there.

Then Tuesday comes around and my boss says, "so we're having a staff meeting next week Tuesday and we need this handbook by Monday." Well, I was told July 10th not June 10th. So I spent all week busting my butt getting as many translations as possible and working on this damn thing during working hours and when I went home.... I was so mad that I got caught in the middle of the admin war. But I got it done by Friday and gave drafts to people to look over. I only had minor edits to make. What really pissed me off and made me feel REALLY disrespected was that when I went to my boss and handed him the draft he said, "Just so you know, when secretaries are trained on making documents like this, they underline things that need to be edited so you should take out the underlining on the headings." HOLD UP! I'M NOT A SECRETARY! HOW DARE YOU JUST CALL ME THAT AND TREAT ME LIKE I'M ONE! I spent the rest of the day Friday out of my office because I was too mad to even think about what he just said.

Rewind back to Tuesday's 10am meeting.... BossMan also gave me a task that he assigned to someone else 5 months ago. I pulled it up in an email and sent it to him being like uhhhh you already have what you need for this. How is he this unorganized?! I don't get it. He also asked me to look for ways around students having to take the IELTS and TOEFL to get into universities.... Ummm it can't be done, it's required, task done.... CHECK! I swear... this man should not be an administrator!

Fast forward to Friday night after work. I wanted to go out to eat because I was still in my low mood from my Beijing trip and plus I was mad at my boss. So I set up a wechat group and asked if anyone wanted to go out. Then it started thunderstorming right as we were getting ready to go out. FML! The lightning and thunder happened at exactly the same time so basically we were right under it. I'm pretty sure I'm partially deaf from that clap of thunder that night. We still braved the storm to go get food and had a pretty decent time.

Saturday I had a performance so I spent all day stretching, prepping, and getting myself beautiful :) It was a nice relaxing day and the performance went well. A lot of the SDU students love watching me dance so they ask me back a lot :D Snaps for me! Haha.

Sunday I went shopping with Christine. We needed a girls day out even though it was hotter than hell. We got a bit cranky because we were searching for a tea market and couldn't find it after riding a bus in the heat and walking a lot in the sun for about 2 hours. That was pretty much the end of that day.

This morning we were on our way to work and about half way to school we got stuck in traffic. Our 45-minute commute turned into a 2 hour commute! Monday morning Jinan traffic FAIL! We were about an hour late for work. I don't have any classes so I don't care but for everyone who did, they felt a bit frazzled. This week is a long week and we're anticipating next week to be a long week as well :( SUPER LAME but on the 20th I'll be headed back to Beijing again. I can't wait. I might have to take some time off work but I have a lot of strong arguments as to why I deserve that time off aside from the fact that it's Saturday that I'm taking off. Oh China. These next two weeks (unless I get caught in another admin war) should be pretty chill so I'll update you if I have anything to update you on.... in the mean time, check out my friend's blog http://aiccomics.blogspot.com/  It's some pretty good stuff :P  I'll post again next weekish! Until then... Laters!

Words to describe this weekend... GO!

Exciting. Nerve-wrecking. Exhausting. Delicious. Fast-paced. Sleep-deprived.

Best. Weekend. EVER!

*Be prepared... This is a long post :D

So as most of you already read I went to Beijing this past weekend from Friday night to Monday afternoon. I spent most of the morning Friday anxious to leave Jinan. I went into work, talked with my friends, and tried to focus on the here and now. Then I caught a taxi to the train station. As I sat in the air conditioned taxi I prayed that it wouldn't break down like the last one did. I made it to the station with minimal problems and the entire time my excitement for leaving Jinan grew. I tried to keep it in check because I didn't wanna be let down if not everything turned out the way I had hoped. But I couldn't help it! I arrived in Beijing around 7:30pm and by the time I got to my hotel and checked in, it was already 8:30. I was supposed to meet Jonathan (from Punahou) at 8 so I felt terrible for being late and got even more worried that my weekend would end up a disaster. Fortunately, once I got into a taxi and met up with him, everything worked out in the best possible way. I met him at a restaurant that served American BBQ and it was AMAZING! I met some of his friends and enjoyed their company. They were all eating dinner together for someone's birthday (it was kinda awkward that I was there for her bday but I didn't know her but whatever). After dinner Jonathan and I tried to find a club or bar to go to but there really wasn't much going on so we just hung out and talked. It was an awesome evening to start my weekend... This is when I knew it was only going to get better so I let myself be excited :)

Saturday I met up with Richard (from Iolani) and a couple of his friends and we went shopping for a few hours. Before the day ended I had to go get cigars for Michael at a place I had no idea where it was.  So after lunch I had Richard call the hotel (I had their business card, which had NO ADDRESS) and they sent him the address via text to my phone. I was still really nervous because a) I can't read or speak Chinese very well so asking for directions was not exactly in my game plan, b) I wasn't exactly sure where I was in relation to the location, and c) What if this place doesn't speak English?! How was I supposed to get these things that I know nothing about in a language I don't speak?! Fortunately, it was Jonathan to the rescue! I was originally supposed to meet up with him after I got the cigars but with timing and the situation, he decided to meet me at the location of the cigar shop. He knew exactly where this place was and gave me directions. It was honestly the nicest thing I could've asked for. Super special shout out to Jonathan for being AWESOME! The errand got done with some difficulty and then we went back to my hotel to sit in the A/C for a while. I was kinda burned out from doing things so we decided to go get massages. It was definitely what I needed. Then we went to dinner at a pseudo Japanese restaurant and planned to go out to a bar or club after but when we got out of the restaurant it was thunder storming! Absolutely ridiculous.... So we ran through the rain to his apartment since it was closer than my hotel and waited out the storm. It didn't stop so we ended up not going out again. Second fail for going out in Beijing... oh well.

Sunday was the Great Wall Music Festival. Yes. A music festival ON the GREAT WALL! It started out a great day. Regina cooked Hawaiian food for me and I loved it. Then around 3 we left for the festival. We were on a bus with foreigners from Europe and North America so I made a lot of new friends. When we got there it was hot. As soon as we stepped off the bus, it started to rain. Not just rain.... Thunderstorm AGAIN! We were all like oh wth?! But we toughed it out and danced in the rain. TOTALLY WORTH IT! It stopped raining when Armin Van Buuren came on so people came back out from under the tents and it ended up being the most fun I could've imagined. The rain made the lasers in the air look super pretty and the lights on the Great Wall were just flat out breath taking. We got back to our drop off location around 1am.

Monday around 3pm I was leaving behind the greatest weekend ever and heading back to sad Jinan. I always get a little bummed when I have go back to real life after a vacation. But this time, I was boarder line crying. I can always tell how great of a weekend it is by the immediate crash of the high I get from traveling. If I'm happy to be going home, I didn't have a very good time on my trip so it was nice to know that  being THIS sad meant my weekend was THAT awesome. Anyway, I woke up and checked out of the hotel. I went to Jonathan's apartment to drop off my bags and we went out to lunch. We had burgers.... like REAL burgers. He took me to an international supermarket and it was nice to see all the things I had been living without for the last 8 months or so. Then Jonathan put me in a cab with some directions and I was on my way. I sat on the train exhausted but happy. I replayed all the events from the weekend in my head and smiled and cried at the same time. A little too quickly, I was back in Jinan staring out the taxi window trying to figure out which direction I was heading. I usually check my directions with the mountains that surround the city but it was so foggy that I couldn't see past 3 buildings in front of me! I had to work really hard to avoid crashing from an incredible high to the darkest of depressions. I managed to get home and do everything I needed to do before crashing into a coma.

Now I'm back at work with dead mosquitoes on my desk and a large number of emails to work through. This week is a short week (thankfully), which means we have both Saturday AND Sunday off. I agreed to perform for a graduation party on Saturday so at least I won't be totally lame this weekend. I don't anticipate anything exciting happening this week but if anything does happen, you'll be in the know :) Until then... Laters!

Graduation, birthday celebration, and year 10 field trip!

你好！This past weekend was CRAZY! So let's get you caught up.

Saturday was graduation. I cried as I watched my students get their diplomas and ask to take pictures with me. Chinese graduations are all very different but our ceremony (we have a ceremony because we're trying to be a more western school) involved a lot of speeches, videos, and songs/"performances." The students walked up 5 at a time to get a box with their diploma on top of it (not sure what was in the box) and shake hands with the principals. Then their family members were allowed to walk on stage and give them a bouquet of flowers. Then they filtered off stage and went back to their seats to take off their robe and get ready for their class song. Pretty much everyone looked like they were going to prom. Their hair was all nicely done with a full face of make up and gorgeous prom dresses on. They performed their song and concluded with all the grade twelve teachers coming on stage to hug them and take pictures with them. After the ceremony there was a dinner for the faculty.

Sunday was my birthday. I bought a bunch of pizza and beer for my friends and we played drinking games in the afternoon. Then Christine brought over cake from Aili (the cake was my present) and we pigged out on that. About 4ish hours later everyone passed out into a food coma (it might've been a beer coma). I really really enjoyed my time with my friends and I'm so glad everyone made the effort to  come over to my apartment to help me celebrate.

Monday-Wednesday was the year 10 field trip. We went to a city called Jiaozuo (焦作) in Henan (河南) province. We stayed near Yuntai Shan (云台山). It was a seven hour bus ride to our location from school. First we hiked down to Hongshi Xia (红石峡）then we went to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. After dinner a few students invited Christine and I to play Uno with them.

The next day we didn't have to be up until 7 so the students stayed up until half past 10! I was too tired to stay up so I went back to my room and passed out. The second day we went back to Yuntai Shan and climbed the tallest peak called Zhuyu Feng (茱萸峰). At the top we were about 1300 meters above sea level. Of course I shouted off the top. Then we climbed down and went to another gorge that I can't remember the name of and after that I climbed up a third mountain to see monkeys perform! It was an exhausting but totally worth it day. I had so much fun bonding with the students. I got to know my dance club kids a little better and they created a new nickname for me >.< MONKEY! After the mountains we went back to the hotel and rested for about a half hour. Then we all met for dinner but before we went to dinner we went to a "grocery store." When I say grocery store what I really mean to say is exhibition hall where you have lots of people trying to sell you stuff and offer you samples while you weave your way to the exit. I had a blast trying everything and my Chinese colleagues enjoyed seeing the people's reactions to my not being able to communicate with them. I ended up buying some Juhua Cha (菊花茶）for the summer to come. Then we went to dinner and called it an early night since we had to be up at 6am the next morning.

On Wednesday we went to another part of Yuntai Shan called Qinglong Xia (青龙峡). There was a cable car available but we could also hike it. I along with about 75% of everyone else decided to hike down. It was beautiful and even better, there were few people so I raced some students down for a bit. Once we got to the end of the hike we were given the choice to take the cable car up or hike up but we only had an hour to hike up if so chose to do so. I timed our hike down and it took us and hour and a half so there was NO WAY I was hiking up in less than an hour. I settled for the cable car and as I was approaching the top, I saw two boys walking up! TWO STUDENTS HIKED UP! I was thoroughly impressed! They were proud of themselves (as well they should be!). Then we boarded the bus and headed for Jinan. We got to school around 9pm (it was a LONG bus ride) and home around 10. I was exhausted to say the least but it was totally worth it. I had a blast and the kids all enjoyed getting to know me a little better. I studied Chinese with them and they loved hearing my improvement by the end of the trip. If I'm ever given the chance to do it again, I will gladly jump up and ask when.

On Friday I head out to Beijing for Dragon Boat Festival. I'm pretty excited to see some of my friends from Hawaii who live there. I'm also going to a music festival ON THE GREAT WALL!!!!! I can't wait to get home to tell you all about it :D Until then... Laters!

Weddings, drama, and work

Good morning, afternoon, evening (depending on when you're reading this) bloggers! My weeks in Jinan are getting longer and longer, which means that I forget to update you all on a regular basis. But fear not! My weekend was hectic and interesting so I have much to catch you up on! So let's get started...
Last week was a short week so we had a half day on Friday. I went to the gym and my dance teachers tried to practice their English with me while I practiced my Chinese with them. Then they invited me to go out with them! I was like, "Oh that's very sweet but I'm tired and have a busy weekend so I can't. Sorry." Then one of my teachers said something to a friend of mine at the gym in Chinese and my friend translated, "She said, 'I told you Chunzi wouldn't hang out with us. She's too..... fun for us." I just about died laughing! They think I'm "too fun" to hang out with them. Honestly, I just didn't have time because I had to run some errands for the weddings on Saturday and Sunday! I felt bad so I promised them I'd go out with them another time.
Saturday: Gigi's wedding! I was invited to my beautiful coworker's wedding and I said I would attend. So prior to Saturday my other coworker, Michael, told me to meet him at 8:30am so that we could catch the shuttle out to the location (which is like a 40-50 minute drive from our apartments without traffic). I agreed but then Jessie (another of my Chinese coworkers) came into my office and spoke to Michael in Chinese then turned to me and said, "Oh Chelsey! You're coming with me and Sharon to the wedding. I will tell you the time later." So I kinda just nodded dumbly and said, "Oh uhhhh OK." Michael didn't seem to mind because he still had plans to go to Gigi's wedding with Grace and Jeremiah. So Saturday morning comes along and I get ready to leave. I walk out of my door and Sarah (my boss's wife and our librarian) opens her door and says, "Can I go with you to Gigi's wedding?" I said, "Oh.... Well Sharon's picking me up in 15 minutes and I have to walk to her apartment to meet her so I'm leaving now." She turned on her heel, shoved money in an envelope, and then shoved the envelope in my hand saying, "Fine then, here. YOU give this to Gigi. You know, I don't know what I did that was so offensive to everyone but it really hurts my feelings." Then she slammed her door in my face. I'm more than a little confused and still have no idea why she was so angry with me. But to this day (Wednesday) she still has not said a word to me. So I tried to shake the negative feelings I was having and left to go meet Sharon. We then picked up Jessie and Ada and off we went to the wedding. It was a pretty traditional wedding and my coworker looked absolutely stunning. It started at 11:18 with the groom picking up a bouquet of flowers from the fountain on the stage and then shouting on the catwalk stage for his lovely bride to enter the room. She entered on his second call with her father and walked onto the stage. He knelt down and gave her the bouquet. She accepted it and they proceeded with MANY MANY MANY ceremonies. If I described them all here, we'd be here all day. All you really need to know is that it was VERY different from Western weddings. Then we had lunch and went home by 1:15.
Saturday night: I went shopping with Lucy underground beneath Wanda plaza and had a blast! We got a lot accomplished in just a few hours.
Sunday: Emma's wedding! A lot of my foreign coworkers were invited so I shared a cab with my friends to the wedding... It started at 11:08am so we had to get there by about 10am to make sure we all got seats. When we got there, Sarah of course, didn't say a word to me and said hello to everyone else. Emma's wedding was similar to Gigi's wedding except when we had lunch, we went to a different floor and the foreigners all went into a separate room from the Chinese people. Brian and Sarah didn't stay for lunch. We all ate and had a great time. Then we left at about 1:45pm.
Monday and Tuesday: Finals for my students. I didn't give my kids a final because they submitted a paper before they left for their senior trip. So I just hung out with them and answered any questions they still had about college life. I did a dance that I choreographed for them along with a slideshow of pictures from the year. Then they all wanted to dance so I put on some music and we had fun.
Graduation is coming up on Saturday and my birthday is the day after that. Then I'm going on a field trip to the Hunan Province with the 10th graders so I won't be able to update you until I get back. But a day after I get back to Jinan, it's the weekend of Dragon Boat Festival so I'm going to Beijing to celebrate my birthday and the festival with my friends from Hawaii. I'm pretty excited for everything going on and I can't wait to see everyone in Beijing again! I'll do my best to update you as time goes on but like I said, my weeks are getting longer and my days blend together. Yesterday I forgot it was Tuesday! That's just embarrassing haha! I'll be sure to update you the second I get the chance. Until then... Laters!

My school... is unique

Well let's see where to start... The seniors have been in and out of school all month because of CIE and AP exams. So this week they're supposed to be coming back to school. And when I say "supposed to" I mean, it's an option for them to come back to campus before they graduate. There are currently about 20 +/- 5 in the entire grade actually on campus. There should be over 100. So the director of our school decided the students needed a change in schedule because that would encourage students to come back to school. This whole month they've had 10 self study periods. As in, they just study on their own for their remaining AP and CIE exams. Now that most of those are done, they don't need to study. So my director called a meeting for all grade 12 teachers and students at 9am yesterday. She asked, "What do you want in your daily schedules?" The students sat there as they do so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Finally I broke the silence and said, "How about games outside?" Some of the girls perked up and said yes and some of the boys agreed alright, I guess I can get off my computer long enough to get out into the polluted air. Then we sat in silence again for about 5 (LONG) minutes and finally a students said, "Can we learn about food in the UK and US?" We agreed, we'd offer that course. Then Tim (my coworker) said, "How about dance? I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to dance by a girl that I liked and I had to say, 'Sorry I can't dance.'" So all the boys immediately jumped up and said, "YES!" REALLY?! THANKS A LOT! The girls that are already part of my dance club were like hell yea more dance with Chelsey! So that got thrown on the board. Then (and thankfully last) a student said, "How about daily life skills?" I asked, "What do you mean by that?" And the only example he could come up with was, "Like how to catch a bus." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WE LIVE IN A CITY AND YOU CATCH BUSES ALL THE TIME! OMG..... So Sharon was like Yea let's do that too! So our new schedule is as follows:
1-Self-study (realistically, time to wake up)
2-Outdoor activities
3-Outdoor activities
4-Daily life skills
5-Self-study (realistically, time to sleep)
6-Foods
7-Dance

This is probably the funniest schedule I've ever seen. And I'm "teaching" 3 of the periods. I mean, I'm all for having fun but these kids don't want to do these classes. It's all a front for the kids to look like they're doing something while really watching TV shows and movies in their classrooms. On the plus side, I had kids actually request to do a dance class yesterday so I taught them the Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and Cha Cha Slide. They LOVED it! So now that I know they wanna learn how to dance at parties and not so much how to dance like they're getting ready to perform, I can have some fun with that. They graduating May 24th so it's only for a couple of weeks. In the next week we don't really have much going on except a couple weddings so I'll update you about those next week. Until then... Laters!

Hawaii Crew and Suzhou!

Woah! Where did the time go?! So let's catch you bloggers up... The weekend before last (April 26th) I went to Beijing for an over night trip. I went because my dad's friend was hosting a Hawaii night. I went, ate awesome food, met amazing people, and enjoyed my time away from work. I was seriously in the best mood EVER! The Hawaii Crew was so much fun to chat with and we all enjoyed being around other Hawaii people. It made me miss home a lot more than I had been. So now I have people to visit in Beijing and for my birthday, I'm hoping to make it back for a party with my new friends :D

The next week was pretty short because we had a holiday starting Thursday. I went with three of my friends to Suzhou. But before we got to Suzhou, we had some troubles. We hopped in a cab to go to the train station. Half way there, our cab starts to smell like burning rubber. The cabby pulls over, pops the hood, and then yells something at us in Chinese. He gestures for us to get out and starts saying how much we owe him. We were like wtf?! So to get him to shut up, we paid him. He got back in his car and drove away. We had no idea where we were and the street/ally we were on/in did not have any cars driving by let alone cabs... So we go into a children's store and using broken Chinese ask if the woman can call us a cab. She does so and 16 minutes later we finally get one to come pick us up. We get to the train station with about 30 mins to get our tickets, go through security, grab lunch, and board our train. Talk about stressful! So we get to the ticket office and the woman types in the confirmation number, types in our passport numbers, and gives us three tickets. She speaks in Chinese and 10 mins later we decipher that she can't find Joanna's ticket. So we talk (again in broken Chinese) and she goes to another computer where we can't see her. Turns out I had typed in Joanna's passport number wrong when I booked the ticket so she couldn't find the reservation. She eventually found it and I had only switched two numbers by accident. So, angry and frustrated (and a little embarrassed), we finally get what we needed and go into the waiting area. We get a quick lunch and board our train. 3 hours later we arrive in Suzhou! From there it was actually not bad. We get in a cab and get a little lost. The cabby gets out of his car and asks for directions. He gets us there and we easily check in. We even got an upgrade for free! Then we grab our bags and go toward the elevators. Our room was on the 40th floor and we got into an elevator. Turns out, elevators only go to certain floors and we got into the elevator that stops at floor 35 >.< Yea terrible mistake on our part. So we FINALLY get to our hotel suite and settle in. Then we went exploring. While in Suzhou we went to Tiger Hill and a silk museum. Overall it was a really great trip and it was fun to get away from Jinan.

We got back Saturday afternoon and had to be back at work Sunday... We have wayyyy too many days in our work week this week >.< 13 to be exact... Our next day off is May 17th! The next four days are dedicated to Naviance training so that should be.... boring.  The only exciting thing that's happening for a while is that we have new counselors and teachers interning so that they can prep for the new year. I'll be able to meet new people and make new friends. My seniors graduate May 24th so that's also a little exciting except for the fact that none of my students are actually at school right now. Meh. Hopefully I'll have more to update you on next week but if not, it'll be a while for my next post. Until then... Laters!

Busy weekend past, busy weekend future

Hey hey bloggers! This past week was the first long week we've had in 3... count 'em... THREE weeks! So as you can imagine, I'm running off of adrenaline. So let's discuss last week. I'll admit I don't remember much from the week except for my culture class is down to four students and every now and then three show up. I receive work from a student who's traveling with her family via email but she hasn't been in class all month. This is typical of the grade 12 students. They already got the scores they need and the school will fake their transcript grades to show that they did well in their second semester of senior year. So none of them go to class. They watch movies on their iPads and play games on their phones.... ALL DAY LONG!!! Or they just don't come to class. It drives me nuts. But enough about the negative. Let's move on to the positive :D

On Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget which day) my boss's boss, the director of the school, asked me to go to a single's party on Saturday. Here's a little background for those of you who don't know Chinese culture. A girl who's single at age 27 is considered "left overs." You're past your prime, you're no longer desired, your parents (or in this case your boss) should arrange a marriage for you. It's old fashioned but the culture still exists. I'm 24 and will be 25 in a month. My boss is worried about me because I'm not finding Chinese guys to date and potentially marry. So she asked me to skip work and attend the single's party. The party was an event that the school hosted. They asked for RSVP's from all teachers and then matched numbers with townies. So for example, 60 female teachers said yes so the school found 60 males from around Jinan to participate. Mostly everyone was around 24-30. I told my boss that I didn't want to participate because 1) I don't speak Chinese and 2) I don't want to be matched up by my psychotic school. So she said, "Ok you can just be in the audience and cheer on the girls from our center. I hope they can find love." I don't think she knows what love is. Then she asks me to make signs (the kine you see at sporting events) for each of the girls. I made cheering signs and each teacher from our center who was in the audience was able to hold one for each of the girls who was participating. So basically this whole event was a game show to match up JNFLS teachers to random Jinan townies. They played a few games and if the couple won, they got matching mugs as prizes (keep in mind the couple has never met until this day). Then the women had to display a talent for the men to judge them on. Then the men had to write their number on a card and give it to a girl and if the girl liked him back, she would give her card to him. If you exchange cards, you're successfully matched and you begin your relationship after the event. Three teachers from my center were given cards but only two of them gave their cards back. My boss went ape sh*t when guys weren't choosing the girls from our center. She almost left in tears because she's genuinely worried that there will be girls who won't get married at her center. I swear this whole thing was bizarre! My boss said that if I don't have a boyfriend next year, I will be required to participate. I'm kind of afraid that she might actually fire me for not participating.

Moving on to Sunday. I PERFORMED! It was fun but also very Chinese. It was an outdoor event with no line up or schedule really. They kinda just had me stand around and then said, "You're next!" So I said, "Oh! Uh Ok!" I got a reaction out of the crowd and they seemed to love my dance. No one came up to me and talked to me after so I just left with my friends from work and a student who came to watch. We went to Melena's for dinner and had a blast celebrating Easter, 4/20, and my "successful" performance. But I think what really made the day come to a fantastic close was when my friends said, "OK let's book tickets for Labor Day Holiday!" We book our tickets for Suzhou so we're officially going! I'm so excited :D

This week is pretty chill even though it's a long week. The seniors are leaving for their senior trip on Thursday, which means no classes for me. Then Saturday I'm headed to Beijing for a party and I'll be back to work on Monday. My next holiday is May 1-3 (of course I have to work Sunday-Saturday the following week but we won't think about that just yet). It's a busy few weeks ahead of me but it should be pretty fun! I'll definitely keep you updated on all that happens as time goes on. Until then... Laters!

Oh. It's Thursday!

Wait... when did it become Thursday?! Oh my how time flies. Well let's see if I can get you all caught up on life in China. The last two weeks have been short weeks! Meaning we've had at least two days off each week! It's been amazing. Two Friday's ago, I had a movie night with my friends (we watched Frozen and yes, I'm obsessed with the songs now). Saturday we went out to dinner and had a great time bonding a little more on a less negative level. Then Sunday I took it easy, relaxed, worked out a little, you know... the usual :P Then the week went by. I gave my students a few lessons about the hook up culture in universities and I helped with the AP psych class since they're getting ready for their test coming up in May. My boss gave me the task of finishing the course description catalog for next year by April 30th. Again, WHY IS THAT MY JOB?! Ugh.... Anywayyyy moving on to last weekend. Last weekend was Tomb Sweeping Holiday. It's a festival type of thing where Chinese people go to their hometown or where ever it is that their ancestors are buried and they burn fake "afterlife" money. They do this so that their ancestors will have money to life off of in their afterlife.
It was kind of a neat experience to walk down the street and see all the mini bonfires of fake money on the sidewalk. 
So Friday, I didn't do anything special. I just went to the gym to do my usual work out. Saturday I woke up and Skyped with my grad school adviser which was really nice. It was fun to have someone to share my experiences with and to teach her about all the differences of being a counselor in China. Then I went to Coffee Time to read a little and spend some time by myself. On my way back home I ran into the Linfield crew playing basketball and decided I could use a little exercise. We ended up playing for a few hours and headed out to dinner after that. It was an awesome day but not as awesome as Sunday. Sunday I met up with Jessie, one of my Chinese friends and colleagues. We went shopping from 12:30 to about 2:30 and then spent two hours hanging out at Coffee Time. She really wanted me to see the night lights so we found some other things to do while we killed time. We watched a wedding photo shoot in a Christian church and listen to some people singing. We had dinner and FINALLY the lights came on around 6:30. We took a ton of pictures! It was so cute how happy she was when we decided to go home. She said that she had a great day and I agreed. It was nice to spend time with a new friend and get to know her better. Fortunately that's not where my weekend ended :D Monday we had a holiday! I worked on my lesson plans and created PowerPoints and presentations, etc. It was a productive yet relaxing day.
I found out during the weekend that my friend, Michael, got hit by a motorbike while he was standing on the sidewalk waiting for one of our Chinese colleagues. His muscle is badly bruised but fortunately his bones are ok. He said the bike hit him hard enough for the rider to actually get bounced out of the seat. Then the rider scrambled to collect himself, got back on the bike, and took off. Michael said that he looked scared and we're guessing because hitting a foreigner with your motorize vehicle probably costs a hefty fine. Only in China do you have the chance of getting hit with a motorbike on a sidewalk while you're not moving. RIDICULOUS!
This week has gone by fast and I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. Good thing tomorrow is a half day and we have two days for the weekend! I'm getting spoiled with these two day weekends. It'll be rough when we have our back to back long weeks next week. But it's ok because we have another holiday coming up May 1-4 :D I'm hoping to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Hopefully I can find someone to go with me! If there's anything else exciting that happens I'll be sure to keep you updated. Until then... Laters!

I'm surprised I'm still sane.

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Good morning Bloggers! My my, this week has been busy! Before we get into what I’ve been up to this week, let’s take a trip back to when I first started working here…

Back in September we were given a translated document that stated all of the conditions under which we were medically insured. In our contract with the school it states that we are given insurance. We were never asked to sign any documents pertaining to our insurance (which honestly should’ve been our first clue to the troubles we were in for). We were just told that the document is not to be used for any other purposes except to serve as translation. In January, one of my coworkers got sick and needed to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics. Her husband paid out of pocket and was told that they would be reimbursed.  Our "translated document" also confirmed that they would be reimbursed for the treatments. When we returned from Spring Festival holiday in February, my colleagues filed an insurance claim to get their money back. We just recently found out, within the last two weeks, that our school JUST NOW paid the insurance company bill to cover us. So we were without insurance for the first 7 months we were working here. And honestly, I still haven’t signed anything so I’m not 100% sure that I’m insured right now. So for the last week I’ve been busy helping my colleagues collect evidence to build a case for them to get their money back. It’s been quite the process. We’re still not sure if they’ll see their money again even though our contract clearly states that we should have been insured. I mean seriously, my colleagues paid equivalent to 1,000USD for the antibiotics AND got her pay cut equivalent to 500USD because she had missed so many days of work. If the school won’t pay her medical bills, they’re violating out contract. It’s so frustrating to watch this happen because if it happened once, I can almost guarantee that it’ll happen again if someone else gets sick. We’re given two days of paid sick leave per semester and because people don’t wanna lose money (and I don’t blame them) they come to school and teach sick. I get that you need to be here for your students but by coming to work sick, you’re risking all of us getting sick! Stay home and rest! Easy for me to say when I have Juice Plus+ on my side but still.

In other news, my boss is giving me projects that are in his job description. He has me creating course descriptions for the course catalog. How should I know what each class is teaching?! You have all the syllabi, why don’t you cut and paste each teacher’s course description into another document and call it a course catalog? Oh right. Because it’s easier to transfer all syllabi onto my thumb drive or email them to me so that I can do that and then email it back to you, have you write notes on a hard copy that you printed off and then give them to me to edit. WHAT?! That makes no sense… Although when you say that you live in Jinan, Shangdon Provence on your emails, I guess it makes sense to have someone who knows how to spell do these projects for you. Just so everyone knows, we live in the Shandong Province, not the Shangdon Provence.

Last story, I swear. So I teach a culture class to my students and this week I taught them about the hook up culture on college campuses. Yes, they do exist, yes our students need to be aware of what they may see and how to say no if they so choose. I had a talk from… an administrator. Not quite sure what his title is but he comes into my office and says, “Excuse me Chelsey I need to talk to you about your lessons.” I said, “Of course. What about my lessons?” He then says, “I completely agree that our students need to know this because it is important but maybe if you could just avoid using the word ‘sex’ or ‘sexual intercourse’ it will be better.” I said, “OK but that’s as technical as I can get. How would you like me to address the action of having sex if I can’t say sex?” He suggested, “Maybe call it ‘seduction’ or ‘doing it.’” Uhhhh Ok…? Also, he said that I can’t, as in I’m forbidden, to talk about STI’s. I asked, “But don’t you think that’s important for them to know?” He said, “Yes of course but it’s not that present in China so they can learn about it from their schools when they go to university.” HOLD UP! What?! I can believe to an extent that STI’s aren’t that present in China because their culture just isn’t as promiscuous as the US’s. But you REALLY don’t think they need to know about STI’s before gong to university in the states?! Really?! Chinese education doesn’t teach sex ed correctly. They teach it definitely but they’re taught everything wrong… For example they are taught that using multiple condoms (not just two but more than two) is more effective than using just one. “The more you use, the more protected you are.” Ummmm no. FALSE! WTH Chinese government?! I’m genuinely worried about my students in the states. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they use common sense and learn quickly!

Ok that’s it for now. I’ll be sure to update you next week. There are some crazy things happening this weekend and next week so I’ll probably be writing a lot more. Until then… Laters!

Consistency=no blog post

Hey hey bloggers! As my title states... consistency=no blog post. At least for last week. There really wasn't anything exciting that happened two weeks ago but I did have an opportunity to practice my Chinese this weekend :D So here's what happened:
I've been going to the gym almost every night for the last two weeks. I've picked up a bunch of dance and yoga words in Chinese. I'm getting pretty good at dancing with Chinese commands telling me what to do. Then on Wednesday a student asked me to help with Community Day. I said yes and he asked me to teach people a dance. Then he asked me if I needed a translator because we'll be in the community, not at school. I decided I didn't want a translator so I worked on my vocab for teaching a dance class in Chinese. Well of course I had no idea who would be in my dance class. It could've been teenagers, kids, adults, elderly folks.... Anyone really. So Saturday morning I get dressed, get picked up by a student's parent, and off we went to do our volunteer work. The whole time we were there was supposed to be awareness spreading. We handed out reusable bags with our school's logo on them, metal chopsticks, and spoons. Community day (according to one of our admins) has two purposes: 1. to help our community and 2. get the students out of their comfort zones to become more productive members of society. Well I think with my dance class, they were definitely out of their comfort zones. Dance isn't really a common pass time here. Music, sure. Studying, of course! Dance... not so much... unless it's tradition Chinese dance. So dance for the sake of dance is hard to convince people to do. Anyway, we get to our site and I see what I'm working with. Mostly there are grandparents, parents, and 2 year olds running around. So with my school's students, I had a nice mix of ages. I taught them a dance to Jack Johnson's The Three R's and they seemed to all love it. I proudly shouted commands in Chinese and even spoke with some of the kids. Apparently I have the vocabulary of a 2 year old because I could hold conversations with them no problem! There was one little boy who wouldn't leave my side. He kept dancing to the music I was playing.... SO ADORABLE!!!!! It made me miss my cousins' kids so much.

Anyway, so that's the story of the week :) I got to use my Chinese, the weather here is warm and sunny with minimal pollution, which makes everyone in such a better mood than I've ever seen them, and today is St. Patrick's day so I'm allowing myself a piece of chocolate cake from the Irish Pub in town. I'm pretty excited for it :P Hopefully more excitement will happen throughout the next few days so that I have something to share with you all. But hey, if my schedule remains consistent, I'm not gonna complain. Even if that means having nothing to write about. Keep your fingers crossed for the weather to hold this nice! Until then... Laters!

IT'S MARCH!!!!

Hey hey everyone! Sorry I didn't update last week but life at work has gotten pretty hectic. I now have three of my very own classes (last semester if you recall, I only had a handful of classes that I co-taught with Giles). Well it's the same class but it meets three times a week. This class is something I'm actually knowledgeable about. I'm teaching 30+ AP and A level students about university culture. I started out with 35 students. Then about 15 students added my class. But after taking the first two weeks of classes and realizing that I'm ridiculous when it comes to teaching this course, they all got scared and about 10 dropped. I told them that I was going to simulate a college course... that includes pacing and talking to them as if they understand what I'm talking about unless they specifically say, "I'm confused, can you please explain that a different way." These students aren't ready for college (let alone college in a foreign country with a foreign language) and the ones who dropped told me they were dropped because I wasn't making the class fun enough. I asked them, "Well, what do you expect from a college class?" And their reply was, "I'm not in college yet. High school is not supposed to be this hard." How did these students get through three years of high school with this mindset?! It makes me so frustrated that they expect me to prepare them for college and then at the slightest bit of difficulty, they run away. But as my coworker always tells me, "It's all about our numbers. That's what gets the tuition coming in." And unfortunately, that's true. This school makes their classes really easy so that their students' grades are really high and therefore more parents buy into the fact that they're paying equivalent to $12,000 a year for their child to get a "great" education. Every single student gets an 85% or higher regardless of their actual score in the class. As long as the students get the test score they want and the grades that get them into a foreign university, they don't care how they get it. For every student that dropped my class I remind them that they requested this class last semester, "You asked for a culture class and now you don't want to take it." Their response usually revolves around, "You aren't teaching us what we need to know to survive in university. We need to learn how to get a driver's license and get around our campus." Yea... That's not culture class... That's "how do I become a citizen" class.  I'm sorry if that's what you think will help you "survive" in college but I'm not going to worry about that because in order to stay at university, you need to learn how to do different types of work. YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO WORK!!!!! There are some kids here who say, "Well my parents have money so I don't have to worry about the college kicking me out because they want my money." Ok while for some schools, that may be true, it isn't for the schools that they're all hoping for: Harvard, Yale, NYU... These aren't schools that will keep you there just because you have money... Maybe University of Nowheresville will do that because no one actually wants to attend that university! Ugh! These students have been brainwashed to think that they're set for life and I'm doing my best not to crush their spirits but honestly, they won't survive in a foreign country. They're all going to come home crying because they can't handle the pressures of university.

So that's what I was dealing with all last week. Basically just defending my class to my administration. These kids need this class! Luckily they agree but it's still a headache to deal with these backward thinking students. So fast forward to this weekend... Friday I went with some of my favorite Chinese friends to a coffee bar and we just hung out reading and relaxing. I love their little place but it's still not my favorite. It can become my favorite to go with them but to go by myself... I have another place for that ;) I also went to a gym and signed up for dance classes on Friday. I am now taking yoga, jazz, ballet, and belly dance classes. Of course all these classes are taught in Chinese so if nothing else, I'll learn some new dance terminology in Chinese. The membership for the gym is only 650元 (about $100) for a year) and classes are free to all members of the gym.  Such a sweet deal! Saturday I woke up in pain from my dance classes on Friday and decided I needed to go to MY cafe. There's this tiny little coffee shop down a very busy road in town called Truth Cafe. Christine showed it to me and now I want to go every chance I get! There are 4 cats that have full reign of the place and their tea is amazing! I went on Saturday from about 10:30am to about 2:30pm. Like I said, it's my favorite cafe to go by myself. I can just sit with the cats, read, and drink tea for hours! Christine came for a little while to talk with me and just get out of the apartments. Then she left and I left a few hours after her. I went to the gym again Saturday night. Sunday I took it easy. I slept in, read some more and then went to lunch. I met up with Michael and Christine and we decided we needed to go to a movie. Last weekend Frozen was in theaters but here in Jinan, the movies that are available in English changes almost from weekend to weekend. So we ended up not being able to see any movies. Instead we went to Papa Johns and indulged in a bit of pizza. Didn't taste like American pizza but it satisfied my cheese craving.

Now I'm back at work yet again for another long week. I think my Chinese friends might want to go back to their coffee bar on Saturday once we leave work. I love that they invite me to things now :) Even if I can't understand everything they say they still like having me in their company, which is an amazing compliment! One day... one day I will be able to understand them and even participate in their conversations! I just have to study a little bit harder. There is so much I want to do every day (learn Chinese, work out, read for fun) but there are only so many hours in a day :/ I guess I have to prioritize. Oh well. Everything in its own time, right? I'll be sure to update you on how crazy life gets this week... Long story short, my boss is on the defensive because all foreign teachers are now providing documentation that he outright lied about some stuff that happened. He told us that he didn't need some stuff but when his boss came down hard on him he said, "I told my employees and they failed to give it to me."  So his boss came down hard on us and we provided emails where he said, "I do not require your documents... blah blah blah." So now he's making our lives hell for not having his back in his time in need. But he hasn't had our backs all year so what makes him think we'd have his?! Just because we're all expats? Think again Mr. Hostile Work Environment. Seriously, if my coworkers hadn't shared this article about our boss with me, I would've defended him. But since he's done this in the past, I have no sympathy for him. He should've learned. Whatever... life goes on! Speaking of going on, I have to get back to work. Update again next week. Until then... Laters!

Winter Holiday Success!

你好 bloggers! Get ready for a long post because I have three weeks to catch you up on :D

Week 1: I started my break on January 23rd. I chilled in Jinan for a  couple of days and quite frankly, I don't remember much of what I did because no one was around, I was pretty antsy to leave for Hong Kong, and I had nothing to do. So let's fast forward to January 27th when I left for Hong Kong. After a rough few hours traveling, Michael, Christine, and I get to our hotel around 2am. We were tired and cranky so we took that first day of getting there to just rest up. We explored around the hotel and got our bearings. We bought our Disneyland tickets and learned the ropes of traveling while in Hong Kong. We stayed at the Auberge hotel in Discovery Bay... I highly recommend it. It's on the pricier side but everything they offer is TOTALLY worth it! While in Hong Kong M, C and I went to Disneyland, Central, and Kowloon. Everywhere we went we were in awe of how orderly and clean everything was. I guess that shows how low our standards became from living in Jinan for 6 months. People were friendly and helpful everywhere we went. We found that mostly everyone speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, or at least two if not all three languages. I was incredibly impressed. Although I liked being there for the week, by the end I was missing mainland China. I was ready to go on to my next adventure. My recommendations if you ever go to Hong Kong: Disneyland (of course), Central (go up the outdoor escalator and just walk around), and The Peak (go on a clear day and you'll get amazing views of Hong Kong).

Week 2: I came back home to Jinan and spent a day to recover from traveling. I did laundry, hung out with my roomie and her bf, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of not having many people on our floor of our apartment. Then my family came! I met them at the Jinan West train station and showed them my neighborhood. Then we went to their hotel and went to dinner. Eric joined us for dinner. I had a chance to brush up on my Chinese since I didn't need it much in Hong Kong. The next day we were off to Beijing. While we were there we did EVERYTHING. Great wall, Tian'anmen square, Forbidden city, Temple of Heaven, Confucius and Lama temple... I mean honestly... If you think tourist location, you found us there. We walked A LOT. I got a lot of shopping done as well ;) My family had a great time and I loved being in China with them. I can't wait for them to come back next year. If you're like us, and like seeing the major sights in foreign countries, I highly recommend hiring a private tour guide and hiking the Great Wall in a spot that isn't where many other people go. The tour guide should know where to go. Also, Forbidden City is definitely somewhere to go during warmer months because there will probably be more activity than what we saw. The temples are a neat experience so if that peaks your interest, definitely go but don't go on a Monday. If you're more into shopping and experiencing the modern day Beijing, hang out in Xidan. There you'll find malls next to malls connected by malls. Joy City has the world's longest escalator and that's totally worth a visit. You can also see many younger people and business-looking people moving from place to place in a hurry.  It's a fun place that feels more developed than the rest of China. After our week was up in Beijing it was time for me to move on Shanghai. I had to say goodbye to my family at the train station.

Week 3: I spent three nights, two full days, and two half days in Shanghai. I got there Wednesday evening and struggled to find my hostel. I checked in and started exploring immediately (I only had a few days there). Before I even found a place to eat I ran into my friend in the hostel I was staying at! We started playing pool and she introduced me to her other friends. I ate at the bar while they played more pool. Then we met more people in the hostel (turns out pool is a pretty easy way to meet new people) and hung out all night. A group of them went out to a club but I stayed back. I was way too tired. The next day I met up with another one of my friends and he took me around Shanghai. We walked around Nanjing road, The Bund, and Tianzifang. It was shockingly warm even though it was drizzling and overcast. Later that night I went shopping with some new friends from the hostel and we went out to a club to celebrate Valentine's day eve. Then I met up with them the next day to do some tourist sites. If you get a chance to visit Shanghai I recommend: The Bund, Pudong, Nanjing East Road, and Yu Gardens and Bazaar. I loved the environment of Shanghai so much! It reminded me a lot of Brisbane in Australia, a big city but didn't feel crowded. I can't wait for Disneyland to open in Shanghai!!! I want to live in Shanghai soooo badly that I've already started planning for when my contract ends in 2015 >.< I'm setting myself up for a long year a head of me....

Today: So now I'm back at work and turns out it wasn't that hard to come back to Jinan. I started working yesterday and hit the ground running. It wasn't until I had a lull in the day that I started to realize, yea vacation's over and not traveling for another 6 months is gonna suck. Oh well. I start teaching my culture class tomorrow so I'm pretty excited for that. I have 35 students, most of whom I don't know so this should be an interesting semester. It was snowing in Jinan again today so whoever told me that it should start warming up second semester was seriously mistaken. It feels colder than when I left. Oh well. I'll live... I hope lol. In April I have two 3-day holidays... Tomb sweeping day and labor day. I hope I'll be able to travel during those so that I won't be too depressed from not traveling. This week is a long week and I'll be working my 7-day work week... I'll be sure to update you on all things Jinan next week when I get through the first week of the new semester! Until then... Laters!

Finals are here!

大家好! It's that time of week again and I feel a bit scattered. This week is finals week so I've got quite a bit going on. I have "homework" that needs to be turned in by the end of next week. I have to go through each lesson and label which core standard each lesson met. It's tedious and stupid because he doesn't actually want us to say what we did and what they mastered. He just wants some kind of paperwork so that we can submit it for accreditation. I'm REALLY starting to hate my administrator. He's no longer knocking on our apartment door and just letting himself in.... yes even when I'm in a towel on my way to the shower! He started doing it when my roommate's boyfriend was sick. I get that he wanted to check in and see how he was doing but not knocking, inviting yourself in, and waking up someone who isn't even in his own apartment when the residents of the apartment are at work?! That's a bit much. And now I'm even more paranoid to leave the door unlocked EVER even when there are people in the apartment. Clearly, boundaries don't exist. UGH.

Last week we had a 7 day work week and this week we only have 5. The primary students are on break now so it's finally calm at the cafeteria for breakfast and dinner. Unfortunately we can't eat there during the break, which isn't terrible because I'll be traveling most of the time anyway. But still, I need to find places to eat when I'm in Jinan. Spring Festival is coming up and that will be when life will pretty much stop because there will be so many people going home. I hope I'll be able to find places that I can eat at since I don't have a kitchen... I'm a little worried about it but hopefully it'll be OK. I'm super excited for Hong Kong Disneyland! and Hong Kong in general. Beijing should be fun but COLD! Also, incredibly crowded. Then Shanghai is my last stop, which is actually cut short :( My boss made an announcement on Friday that we're required to be at work Sunday Feb 16th instead of Monday Feb 17th. So I'm one of the few people who can actually rearrange my schedule since I can't buy train tickets until 10 days before the traveling date. But for my coworkers who bought plane tickets and can't switch their flight times, they will be required to use one of their allotted "sick days."

Craziness is happening more so than usual here at JNFLS. I'm used to the random, "Oh by the way, this week was switched to a long week." I'm even getting used to the sudden, "This week you'll work 10 days because you will have two days off next week. But next week you'll only have to work 6 days because then it will be the weekend." It just sucks when our plans for a national holiday has to change. It's so hard to plan trips! I probably won't have much to update you on next week since all I'm doing this week is exam fun. But when I get back from my trips, I will have A LOT to catch you up on. Until then... Laters!

Woosh!

OMG where has the time gone?! The Christmas season always goes by so quickly. It went by especially fast here in China because I didn't have any days off until the new year. I performed twice in 2013 in CHINA!! Oh yea!! I choreographed and performed a lyrical piece with a student while another student sang. This performance was for the New Year Charity Concert. Then I choreographed and performed a solo dance for the faculty New Year's party. It was really fun to be able to perform again and I got a lot of compliments that Sharon, Tony, and Jeremiah needed to translate for me >.<

The calendar new year has come and gone. I spent some time with my friends here. It was interesting to celebrate without fireworks... It wasn't that much fun :/ But enough about the past.... Now on to the future with Chinese New Year and Spring Festival! I'm currently working day 3 of 7 today... I went back to work on Saturday and will work until Friday with regular classes. Then next week Monday I will stay late (until 7:30pm) to start giving speaking exams to my students. Written exams start Wednesday and continue until Friday. But I have no written exams to grade this time around. We have Monday-Thursday of grading and working before our winter holiday starts so I'm not really sure what I'll be doing during that time since I won't have classes or grading. Maybe learning more Chinese??? For winter holiday I will be going to Hong Kong for a week, Beijing for a week and Shanghai for 4 days. I'm pretty excited but also a little nervous... That's a lot of traveling during the busiest time of the year here and I hope I'll be able to find places to stay/train tickets!!!! I will be going to Hong Kong Disneyland of course and next year when Disneyland opens in Shanghai, I'm hopefully going there as well. But for now, I'm just focusing on getting through this holiday. So January 31st is Chinese New Year (I will be in HK for that!) and Spring Festival is February 10th (I will be in Beijing for that WITH MY FAMILY)!!!!!! My parents and aunty will be coming to visit for a week and a half and I'm pretty excited to have them up here. My Chinese sucks but at least we'll be in a city that has a plethora of English speakers :D Then I'm going to Shanghai to visit Jeremiah. His mother lives there so that's why he's going there for the holiday. He claims he's from Shanghai but really he's from 4 other cities that spread out across southern China. He just speaks Shanghaihua and has a Shanghai accent :P

So that's all I really have in terms of updates for you... I know my post is short this time around but when things start happening too quickly, I forget what's going on. As you can tell from my post, my brain is pretty scattered. I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time but it's not working so well. I'm too excited for the winter holiday to be here and the fact that I'm finishing up my first semester of working a legit job in my career and... and... and... BEING IN CHINA!!!!!!!! I'm just so crazy right now! I love it here and can't wait to share this culture with my family :D I'll probably update you all next week but the next few weeks after that I may be MIA. I'll try to keep you posted if I can! Until then... Laters!