Hello everyone. I've been pondering this post the past couple of days. I know that all our posts since we have been here have been good and upbeat, I hope so anyway. I really focus on the good and there are lots of good thing. There have been some struggles, not a lot but some. I will start this post as a little bit of a downer..but keep reading! It's gets better...I Promise!
Coming up this month (can you believe that it's February already?) is the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival. All the schools are out for 22 days of vacation. But if you remember from other posts and us mentioning this, they really don't get vacation they move days around to make up for the time off. Do you see where this is going? We were told that the week before we go on vacation that we will be doing 3 weeks of classes in 1 week! We love teaching and the kids, but everyday we will be putting the kids through the ringer at the start of their vacation...no fun! THEN we found out that we would only get paid for 2 weeks and not 3 weeks. Our boss is being sneaky and using the contract signed against us. It states up to 15 hours of work per week even though we have only enough classes for 10 hours per week. So 30 hours = 3 weeks. BUT since contract states 15 hours 30 hours = 2 weeks. Anyway...I had been on the fence about possibly coming back next year. After this stunt...no way. I love China and the people and especially the kids. At one point we will be back, but not next year. Enough of that stuff, we are moving on......On to the fun things this week!
Here's a picture of us with Sue and Lynn. These are the girls that help us out tremendously and are great to work with!
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| Jami, Me, Sue and Lynn |
Monday night we had a CHEESEBURGER NIGHT!!!! OH MAN! We had mustard and found some cheese (which is really hard to come by here) and we made some make shift buns. We were in heaven. We are excited for the real thing with REAL Cheese!
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| Almost had everything...just missing dill pickles! |
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| Yum, Yum! |
This week we had snow! We thought the only snow we would see would be from the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival (which we are going to at the end of February and I highly recommend you google it)
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| Heading to work |
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| Having fun in English... |
Here are some great pics of the snow and how everyone "shoveled" the walks and streets.
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| This is how they cleared the road. Now that is team work! |
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| Clearing a way to the car |
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| There are no snow shovels that we saw |
It possibly was my last time going to the Disney Kindergarten on Friday and one of the kids had a birthday and brought in Graham Crackers and Carrots for a healthy treat.....NOT...hahahaha (Sorry Wade and Jodi I had to mention it). They actually brought in a HUGE Beautiful delicious yummy cake! See pictures below!
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| It's tradition for the Birthday kid/adult to cut and hand out the pieces of cake. She wanted me to cut it with her. The grin of her little sister is priceless.....she kept getting caught trying to steal a taste! |
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| She wanted to give me a kiss on the cheek but got really shy, so I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and she was thrilled! |
The Ideal Kindergarten class went out and built a snowman and played in the snow.
The boys had a great time playing in the snow as well. SNOWBALL FIGHT!
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| Having a little fun! |
Earlier in the week, before the snow we went to the city "Mountain" (Bochi Mountain) and took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed our time as a family.
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| Contemplation |
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| Our warriors! |
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| Having some fun mimicking |
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| My Love! |
1 comment:
While I think most companies here in China will try to take advantage of you wherever they can, I must say I have been pretty happy with where I work. I teach kids as well. I love it, and the company (actually... the government) pays quite well (and we don't have to teach three weeks in one).
If you ARE interested in staying in China for another year but just want a different company, let me know and I can give you details of where I work.
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