visa lording

For 99% of EFL jobs, a class Z work visa is built into the contract as the school's responsibility to provide. Many foreign language schools like to screw around with these and try to hold them over our heads and/or not provide them. Visas are a lot cheaper to get for foreigners before we get to the country, especially in China, because once we are here we have to physically go to Hong Kong to get the visa, whereas before we arrive, the whole process can just be done by mail.

If you get caught working illegally in a country it's not the end of the world. You'll get fined and likely deported, but not jailed or anything crazy. You will, however, have that stigma against you when you try to work in other countries and you likely cannot work in whichever country you were busted in again. As far as the school you were working for illegally goes, they will get a small fine, a slap on the wrist, and that is all. The chances of getting caught are slim, but still much riskier for the teacher than the school.

Now I want to share a story about a hypothetical friend in Songyuan. She got her job teaching in China last minute, so her employer told her to just get a class L tourist visa to come over and then when she got here he would get her Z visa. This friend arrived at the beginning of February and since then has been bugging her boss about getting her visa. At first he kept telling her to wait until more foreign teachers came so he could send them all at once to cut costs. Eventually he stopped making excuses and just blew her off.

Toward the end of April, my friend told her boss that she would be unable to work in the month of May until flight arrangements had been made for her to go to Hong Kong to get her visa. Within a day, her boss had interrupted a class of hers to tell her when she would be going. He asked her to look up flights, since he was so busy. She had no problem with this, as she was essentially planning a vacation for herself and two of her friends (they were also without visas and she had included them when speaking to her employer).

She sent him the info and asked for confirmation of flights and hotels. She never got it. She asked her boss and he said everything had been purchased and set up by another school admin so she should email him. She did and never got the info.

Then, a week before she was supposed to leave, she received her schedule and saw that she was set to be judging the Happy Songyuan English Speaking Contest. As I have mentioned before, the pay for working the contest is ridiculously minimal, you're basically volunteering. My friend had previously stated that she would not work the contest and hadn't been scheduled to do so since, so she went in to her employer and told him as much.

He asked why, she gave her reasons (low pay, detracts from teaching hours, not in her contract and she'd also had her schedule screwed with when she showed up at 6am one day… don't mess with a girl at 6am). Her boss's arguments for her to work were that it was for charity (not true), the school wasn't making any money (the school is actually calling every single contestant afterwards and using the judges' comments to recruit them to the school), was she so greedy (this is her job?!) and if he let her do this then what about the other teachers (not her problem). Then things got dirty…

He asked her, "If this is your attitude, then why am I paying 5K to send you to Hong Kong for your visa?" She said something to the effect of, "Because it's part of my contract that you are almost four months late in fulfilling." His reply was, "I don't care about your contract. Maybe I don't get your visa." To which she said, "Then maybe I don't work for you anymore." He basically said he didn't care. She asked if he wanted her to come to work tomorrow (so was her going to get her visa), or not, and he said he'd think about it and call her later. He never called, so she didn't go to work the next day.
 
My friend was only so worried, because she had plenty of people to stay with if need be, and the way she saw it, she had three options: 1.) she could easily go work at another school in Songyuan 2.) she could go to Xia'Men early, where she was planning on going in September anyway OR 3.) she could work a two week summer camp in Thailand with a friend and make enough money to travel for a few months without working.

Her only concern was getting her flight money and making her employer pay. Her contract read that if her employer broke her contract he had to pay her three to ten times her monthly salary, depending (on what, who knows). She also wasn't entirely sure how long her tourist visa was good, it didn't say on the visa. All it said was that it was good for multiple entires into the country, but only 60 days each entry, and she had about 10 days before she hit that 60 for her current entry.

In her unexpected day off, she interviewed with another school in town and met with a few of her adult students who are completely awesome and took the day off work to counsel her and help take her mind off the whole thing. Also that day, her school VP asked to meet with her in the evening to get the lowdown. She had texted the VP and her students the night before to let them know she wouldn't be teaching the next day so she wasn't flaking on anyone by not showing up.

Her VP and the school she interviewed with both told her that to work elsewhere in China, she would need a letter signed by both herself and her employer releasing her from her contract early, eek. The VP got her side of the story and then met with the employer to try to smooth things over and get him to be reasonable. She called my friend later that night and said he would still get her visa if she would be flexible to potentially help with the contest in the future. She said no. The VP told her that she does the scheduling, so she would make sure my friend never had to work the contest again. My friend still said no, there's no way she was going to work it, the VP could say whatever she wanted, but if it ever came down to it, she wouldn't do it. The VP said ok.

The next day my friend saw her employer at school and he asked her, "Are you still mad at me?" with a big smile.

random pix: around Crack Den 2.0

This looks safe...

It's fog, not pollution, I swear. I hope...

This old man brings his birds in their cages outside my bedroom window, hangs them from trees and then stands and stares at them. For hours.

rape confusion

I've discovered that when Chinese menus say "rape" they aren't completely crazy. Some of the Chinese TAs at my school tell me this vegetable is called "rape" in English. They don't all agree, but I looked it up the other day and the Chinese for it translates to "Brassica campestris" which is the same "Brassica rapa." Apparently the French call it "rappa." It seems to be associated with canola oil, mustard, or turnips, but none of it is quite exactly this vegetable. Does anyone know what this is?

yep, I'm pretty awesome

massage culture

After the trip to Chanchun the other week, my neck, right shoulder and half of my back were absolutely killing me and I couldn't turn my head at all. I ended up getting a massage at a foot massage parlor the day after I got back, getting acupuncture, cupping and a massage the following day from a therapist and getting another massage along with a scrub the day after that at a bath house. On top of all that, some friends and students had some other remedies for me as well.

This might make the whole thing seem a lot more serious that it really was, but it's really more of a reflection of the culture here. Chinese always want to go to the doctor for the littlest thing and are really big on taking care of your body. I think of it as "massage culture." Before coming to China, I'd say I've had less than 15 massages in my entire life. Here, I go about once a week, most of the foreigners do.

Foot massage places are kind of a hybrid between western pedicure salons and massage parlors. Pretty sure I've described one on here before, but oh well. They have rooms of varying sizes that you go in with your friends, there are a certain number of bed/cot type things in each. They all have pillows and heavy comforters. You can wear pajama type clothing that they supply, but usually you just wear your own clothes the whole time. The lights are usually on high and there is usually a tv playing a random program or the news.

First they soak your feet in a bucket that they put at the foot of your bed. While your feet are soaking, they give you a neck and shoulder massage. Massages here are not slow, deep, relaxing, or really any other adjective I might use to describe one in the States. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of the people giving them here have no training or certification either. Massages are usually very hard, quick and vigorous. There is also a lot of shaking and thumping involved and maybe a little stretching. We took a new foreigner to the foot massage place when we went the other day and she absolutely hated it at first (as did I actually).

After that bit, you lay down and they massage your feet with lotion. Then they move up and do the rest of your body over your clothes, front and back. Foot massage parlors will usually also do guasha, cupping, ear candles and maybe acupuncture. They range in price, the one a lot of foreigners go to here is 60 kwai (so like $9.50) for 70 minutes. They are a great place to practice your Chinese, because they are a captive audience, they usually want to talk to you and sometimes they know a tiny bit of English.

The second place I went last week was to see an actual Chinese therapist. His office was in his home, which is normal here, and he had certifications, diagrams of the body and stuff like that on the wall that you might expect to see in a western therapist's office. One of my Oil Adults 2 students took me there, as he knew I wanted to try acupuncture.

When the guy explained to him what was wrong with my neck, he said I needed a massage, not acupuncture. The massage was great, definitely Chinese style, but he really got at the knots in my shoulders and gave me good advice (i.e. stop carrying my laptop everywhere). He cracked my neck and shoulders a LOT, much in the way I imagine a chiropractor would. At one point he was climbing up on my chair to hover over me, hugging my head while my student held my chair still and he told me not to be afraid, lol. It felt amazing.

Afterwards, he did some general acupuncture for me. He said I was very brave, many Chinese won't even try acupuncture. Typically if they do try it, it's only when something needs fixing or they are sick. He put maybe 30 needles in me and left them in for about 30 minutes. They didn't hurt going in, it just felt like pressure. If he would tap or twist them it felt kind of crazy. I could feel the needles in other parts of my body, where there were no needles, and when they moved it felt like I was getting shocked, radiating from the needles. Not in a painful way, more in a static shock kind of way. I can't say if I actually saw any effects from this after or in the next few days though.

After that, my student talked me into trying cupping (again). He asked if I had a high pain tolerance and when I said yes, he used the bamboo cups, which are said to be the most painful with the least give. They weren't painful exactly, just really uncomfortable, like they suck your skin in a lot tighter. I didn't have any really crazy bruising though, so the therapist said I was young and healthy. I have no clue how much that whole experience cost, because my student put it on his wife's account, ha!

The following day I got my third massage for the week at the bath house. This was my first bath house experience in China, I had only been to the one in Korea previously. I'd actually be wanting to go for a while, but all the females I know I either am not comfortable being naked around or they weren't comfortable being naked around friends. If I go with the guys, we can meet up in the coed parts where you wear pajama type clothes and play cards, go in the sauna, lay in heated rock beds together and talk, etc. but the other parts, like the showers, steam rooms and scrubs, I'd be alone for.

The bath house in Korea completely showed this one up. The women's area was small and more like a locker room than anything else. Chinese bath houses don't have pools on the ladies' sides, so really all you do is take a shower in a big room with everyone else and maybe get a massage or a scrub or something. My friend that had been before recommended a body mask if I was willing to spend some money, so I tried it and was pretty disappointed. I don't know that I'll go back. I was spoiled in Korea!

The final thing I tried to fix my neck were these patches with Chinese medincine that you stick on muscles that hurt and leave for maybe 12 hours. There are different varieties and I have no idea what the medicine is. It just seeps into your pores. One of them had a really herby smell and made the area around it kind of cold, which was cool. I think that one helped the most.

random pix: tree iv