The job in Shenzhen fell through. The company that Rebecca and I signed on with was very large and had about 30 different foreigners in an orientation class. When I arrived, I was supposed to get picked up at the train station and taken to the hotel that the company had arranged. Instead, I was told to get a cab from the station to the hotel. I didn't have the money for that, so I took the metro instead, lugging 50+ lbs through the subway for an hour before I got to the nearest station, where I then had to make the 20 minute walk to the hotel from there, whereupon I discovered that the hotel that they had arranged was a shared room and I wasn't going to be given a key, meaning I basically had to stay in the room or travel with my roommate wherever we went.
That soured me on the position to start with, but the following days were wrought with incompetence on the part of the company, the first day them being incapable of even giving me directions to their building. They sent me instructions to go to the subway station closest to the hotel and look for a build of a particular name. They even sent me the location on WeChat, which is the social networking/messaging app here. After searching for more than half an hour, I discovered that they were trying to instruct me on how to get to the metro station, but had neglected to tell me where their building was. Further, the meeting that I was supposed to have with the school where I'd be working was cancelled at the last minute.
In some ways, it was a standard corporation. The right hand seldom seemed to know what the left was doing and going through the checklist of having me attend seminars about working and living in China seemed more important than actually showing me the school where I was going to be working. You see, this company is a recruitment agency. They find native English speakers abroad and arrange for them to come to China to teach. Being a corporation, they are always looking to cut costs where possible. One way in which they do that is to put the expenses of moving to China on the worker and let you do most of the work yourself. That would have been fine, but after the first day I wanted to know exactly where it was that I would be working. I found it suspicious that, even though school would be starting the following week and it was Friday, they were unable to arrange a trip for me to go out to see the school. Furthermore, I was told that they'd get back to me about when I'd go to meet the people at the school.
So I decided to take matters in to my own hands. I asked for the location of the school and quickly discovered that it was located two and a half hours by train from the city center. I later learned that they had placed other teachers four hours away. That alone was unacceptable to me, but I wanted to see the school itself so I took some time the next day and went out to see the school. Even after living in inland China for a year, I was surprised at how destitute the area was.
Though there were some businesses nearby, there was very little that one would need to survive. No grocery store, for example. And only a few restaurants. The area was dominated by auto parts and hardware stores. The school was not in an area that was livable,but I quickly discovered that the question was largely academic because the only housing available was on campus. Dormitories right alongside the students.
I told the company that all of this was unacceptable and they offered up a couple of different schools, but they were largely the same. Rebecca had not yet left England (she was visiting for the summer) so I contacted her on WeChat and we arranged to meet with a guy who would get us a job in Zhuhai. I went to where he was in Shenzhen and we agreed to go pick Rebecca up in two days time at the airport in Guangzhou, then on to the new school in Zhuhai. I asked to see a contract right away, but Vic, our new agent, said not to worry. Of course, that was when I started to worry. Two days later, just before we let to meet Rebecca at the airport, Vic pulled out a contract and we went over the details. I told him there were some points on which I was not comfortable and he said that if I didn't sign he wouldn't pick up Rebecca at the airport.
Fast forward six weeks at our new school and Rebecca has already quit. (Wise lady) And I have been stiffed for everything I've made so far. Six weeks of work for nothing. The pay here is monthly, but six weeks is a long time to go without pay. At six weeks the school told me it would be another two weeks. They said it was a penalty for coming in late one day, but hadn't been late for or missed any of my classes. I could tell they were just trying to get an additional two weeks of free work out of me. So I left that job and kept living in the apartment until today. I found a new job back in my old town of Chenzhou and I start next week. If everything goes smoothly, I should be settled into a new apartment by the end of the week and working a new job. I've asked for the first month's salary in advance and he's agreed, so hopefully this guy will be more trustworthy. If you're reading this before November 2017, keep your fingers crossed that things go well and I'll update everyone again next week.
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