As of this morning there had been 10 straight days with no progress on my needs (phone, Internet, cell phone, Foreign Expert Permit, schedule, textbooks, etc.) and no contact with anyone at my school. I really haven’t been worried about it, ’cause when it comes down to it, I’m guessing that they need me (as a teacher) more than I need them. Because of this attitude, many locals have been telling me that I am “very Chinese” … going with the flow and living day-to-day, unprepared.

But this morning I awoke to the sounds of thousands of kids going everywhere and loud announcements being spoken over the outdoor speakers. It was clearly the first day of school … and I was still without a schedule or any official notice. So I did what any responsible adult would do in that situation … I closed the door, went back to bed, and continued to enjoy my lazy morning.

Eventually, however, a little voice inside me started telling me that someone needed to step up and be an adult (I think it was something I ate). So I finished my breakfast and headed to the phone bar to call my liaison, Helen.

On the way out the school’s gate, I faintly heard someone saying “Nance! Nance!” It caught my ear, so I turned around and found my liaison coming towards me. She had my Foreign Expert Permit in hand … which means that I can now officially stay here in China until August 1st. Hooray!

I asked Helen how her week was (very bad, she said … Changsha was too hot), and she asked me if I had started classes yet. In response, I gave her my best sarcastic facial expression and told her that I still don’t even have a schedule or any textbooks (or any of the other things) … that’s why I was going to try to call her! She was very surprised by this information … perhaps she thought that some other random Chinese person would have jumped in and taken care of me in her absence. So she offered to take me to get my schedule.

We went to the school … and after waiting for about 30 minutes for the administrator who does schedules to return, Helen noticed a copy of my schedule sitting on his desk. She gave it to me then answered my questions about when my classes would be and what level I will be teaching. I noticed that I will teach Junior 1, 2, and 3 students … very unusual for an oral English teacher (Junior 3 is a Testing Year, so they would normally not have “extra” classes like mine). I also noticed that my first class was scheduled for today at 10:45!

Of course, I was ready to teach … and I love teaching “off-the-cuff” … but I felt that agreeing to teach today would be a bad move. It would reinforce the fact that they can disregard my needs and be careless with communication … so I simply refused to teach. “Now that I finally have my schedule, ” I said, “I will start on Wednesday.”

So I’m on strike, for the first time ever. And it’s kind of nice! I’m hoping that the union will be able to negotiate some of the terms of my contract before I have to start picketing …

Posted to webeldotnet on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 1:57 am EST in China & Education (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!