Bonus Bombshell

Tuesday

Thank goodness there was no teaching on Tuesday, it gave me time to rest after my exhausting weekend in Xi'an! I chilled out all day and caught up on a few things! Rather boring day if I am honest but I definitely needed the chance to relax!

I did however talk to Fish about plans for the rest of the week (and the rest of our time in Xining), she mentioned something about us teaching 'disabled children, orphans or disabled orphans'. It sounds awesome though we would need some heads up as to what is classed as a disability in China...

Wednesday

Wednesday lunchtime we had a party! It was apparently the last day of school and the teachers were celebrating and welcoming some colleagues from Guangzhou. There were ballet dancing drill sergeants, songs and poems, it was really cool! We got asked to perform so we did a shortened version of 'The Music Man'! However the best thing about the party was the fact Will wasn't there because he was teaching!

Now with this kind of party there inevitably biajiu, I decided to get my own back and make people drink like they have done to me! Unfortunately I didn't realise that I had to drink too so I had to drink with half of the people in the room. A conservative estimate is 20 shots... It certainly felt like more!

Half drunk, we got a lift into Xining on the teacher bus and went to the office for a meeting. 

We talked about plans for the week (no teaching of orphans or disabled children), we talked about bonuses (16,000RMB!) and driver (no driver...). Now when we were talking about the driver things got rather heated. Our contract says we are entitled to a driver and yet there is no driver. Mike, William and Cecilia are still teaching lessons this week and so would have to get two buses to get to the meeting place before 930. Fish got rather frustrated with us because she feels that we are being unreasonable as she has to get a bus everywhere and so do the rest of the Chinese staff. I can see where she is coming from but we just want to know why and find a solution!

Thursday

Thursday brought rain, heavy rain. Mike, Cecilia and Will all went to their respective schools in a taxi with Fish; Deena and I were supposed to have an English corner, however we were soon told it was cancelled because of the rain. We then got an email from Fish about her frustrations with us, she is sick of being the middleman. It is understandable and we all emailed back apologising (well all but Will) and telling her how much we appreciate her hard work. Things are a bit strained though; I don't like the fact that Fish is unhappy.

Friday

Friday meant a Chinese lesson for Will, Deena and I, however I went in early to do some errands such as get a haircut. Fish sent me an email apologising for her behavior and saying we are still friends which is a relief, though things aren't as good as they were. She did agree to take me for a haircut though! I like Chinese haircuts; getting my hair washed and being given a head massage, what's not to like? I got a good haircut very cheap!

I went back to the office and Will and Deena arrived and our Chinese lesson began! The topics were emotions, expressions and the weather. It all went rather well until Will snatched the page Fish was teaching from so he could take a picture. Fish flipped out and refused to teach us anything more. Will is such a...

Anyway we sat there awkwardly until Michael Li showed up and decided that now would be a good time to talk about bonuses... Oh dear. Michael, Cecilia and I are getting 16,000RMB bonus before we leave while Deena and Will are having 2000 deducted from their bonuses. Now let's just say this went down badly... The reasons they gave Will for his deductions were numerous and I wouldn't say fair but they couldn't just say he is being deducted because he is a rude arse to everyone. I am not going to fight for his money and to be honest I feel like he got off easily. I told him this which he did not like, guess I burnt my bridges there! Oh well!

Deena on the other hand was being deducted 1000 for what happened at Soho and 1000 because apparently her teaching was not up to scratch. Now we all feel this is unfair as she was never given any feedback other than good feedback. She had no idea that the schools had any problems with her teaching whatsoever. They didn't tell her because they didn't want her to lose face, instead they told Matthew, not cool China. Her teachers should have talked to her about it so she could be given the opportunity to improve. I have argued these points with Michael Li and with Matthew but I fear it is too late. Poor Deena, she tried her hardest and for this to happen it's just such a kick in the teeth for her.

By the time the meeting had finished and Will had stormed off I was about ready to scream...

And to top it off the bus was packed on the way home...