Blessed With Long Days.

Blessed with long days.

We were so blessed that the first week that we were here sure seemed to have lasted forever. We were not teaching and we were able to get so much done as well as rest and get on schedule. Really I would think about something that we had done since we arrived and would like it was a few weeks ago and then realize that I had not even been in China for a whole week. We were so busy and yet we were blessed with enough time to rest and enjoy our family a little bit.

The next few days are all a blur. We were so busy getting things done for our apartment and unpacking and then running around with whatever else we needed to do that it became one very long week. If we were not doing some of the things listed above then we were sleeping or trying to keep our girls and ourselves awake as we tried to adjust to the new time zone. I do know that Tuesday we returned to Wal-Mart by ourselves and survived. And on Wednesday we called and had dinner with some other Latter Day Saints that live here in Wuhan. We actual figured out that they live in the complex just behind our complex. So it is nice to have some neighbors, per say, that share our same believes and that live SO close. They are a pleasant family with 4 kids, who are mostly grown (but still younger than us). One day, we went to the hospital here and got physicals for our residency. Man are they thorough with the exam here: x-rays, blood tests, vision check, ECG, and a couple of other things I am sure. We were excited to meet with Tammy, who we knew from Yaohua, and she told us what exactly we would be teaching. Robert and I both are teaching literature. I teach only 12 classes a week because I am contracted part time and Robert is contracted to teach up to 25 classes a week. I will be teaching 4 classes of 10^thgraders. Robert will be teaching 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th graders. Each of us will only be teaching the students half of the book. We are teaching from an American (Glencoe) literature book that would be the corresponding grade in America. When we attempted this at Yaohua it was a disaster. We will see how this works out. On Friday we got to go to the school to see the campus and where our offices are. Robert and I have a nice sized office all to ourselves. The campus is huge! There are over 5000 students on the campus. However the International Section (the students that we teach) of the school is just a small part. It was then we saw Mr, Tian for the first time. He is the owner of Yaohua in Shenzhen. He took us to lunch and gave a small welcome bonus. While at this lunch at the end I heard someone mention that classes might begin the following day, on Saturday, but the teaching schedule will be for Thursday. (They change their schedules around here to “make up” for holidays and such. It is really confusing without showing it and a long explanation, so we will just leave it at that.) At this point I did not have anyone to watch my children, so I began to think the school had put themselves in a hard spot. Then later that night after dinner we got it confirmed that classes started the next morning at 7:45am and that it was only for 12^th grade, which I do not teach. So Robert went to work and I was able to use that day to find someone to watch the girls for Monday. They told us that Sunday would be Friday’s schedule and that Robert and the other teachers would have to work. We began to fight that because we were told we would not need to work any Sundays. Then at almost midnight Saturday night we got a text stating that they would not be teaching. We were so glad, but really we were all asleep and it sure did startle us.

So the school that we work at now is a public middle and high school. This high school is very prestigious and has contracted with Yaohua for teachers and the curriculum for its International Section. So, I think technically we are working for the same school as before. I think.

We were all settled into a pretty good schedule and adjusted to the time change by the weekend. We have a couple of beautiful storms with lightening and thunder in the first week. It did a lot for the heat and took some of the humidity away. We have only had 2 days of extreme humidity and heat. There is a cool breeze that often comes through as well. Don’t get me wrong we are sweating like crazy everyday, but just not over whelmed with heat like we were expecting.

So then Monday classes began as planned, but not without last minute changes. There were changes to everyone’s schedule except for mine that were handed out Monday morning.

The reason that I write so much detail and explain all of this is because it just goes to show that life will have the same stresses as before when living in China. It was not just the school and the area that we lived in. This is life for these people and they just accept it. Knowing differently it is so difficult to have such chaos and disarray in life, especially in the work force. When we think of work it is often the most constant thing in our lives and if there is a change we expect and are notified well in advance so that adjustments can be made. Oh well, this is something that is part of life here in China. I cannot say that we will ever get use to it or that we will ever stop fighting it. Oh how much smoother things could be! Well, that brings you all the way up to the morning of our first day of work.