Voice of Will: Going Postal

2006-06-27 - 5:53 p.m.
Have you ever had a postal or nuclear moment? If so then you can understand this story.
We have had to leave china. If you are a reader of this blog, then you know what has been happening and the "Why?' of the story already.

Well yesterday we actually had finished packing, mailing stuff, and left to the airport to fly to Beijing for 5 days before we leave China.
Now lets paint this picture. 11 full sized suitcases weighing in at about 50 lbs each. (international weight limits are 50 pounds per suit case), 5 large carry ons (could be considered suitcases if people actually look carefully, since they actually weigh more than our suitcases in 2 cases), 3 children, wallets and purses. So the day starts out, and it continues this way. we get up at 6 am (after being up to 1 packing) and then have to load our luggage in the van the school brought. That is nice, but when we got here, the school loaded it for us. you can tell we aren't welcome any longer because the help has officially ended.

We get to the airport and find out that our domestic luggage allowance is 20 kg per bag (44 lbs) and we ahve to pay a fee for the extra weight. 1600 rmb ($200) for the extra weight. It doesn't matter that we are taking an international flight, because the domestic flight has this limit. Ok. we have to pay this fee.

On the plane some local yokels decide to start making fun of me, staring at me, making jokes at me. I am already starting to boil, but this helps. In fact I believe the statement I made was something about minding own business or I'd make their faces my business. I'm sure they didn't understand it, but they got the message.
We get off the plane in Beijing and start gathering our stuff. All 11 bags make it fine, so we have 4 large baggage carts full, and now have to get them to from the airport to the hotel. And I need cash to pay for this since the 2000 RMB I had in the Zhengzhou airport is now gone. So I have my friend Dean call the hotel to find out about their shuttle, and have another friend Carrie ask about ATMS. WE find out there is a bank of beijing ATM (which does me no good, only bank of China will take an American debit card), and the shuttle is to take the city bus. Dean says he found a Bank of China ATM, so we go off to check. No. Bank of Beijing. Which accepts bank of china atm cards, but not American debit cards. So we are stuck at the airport, w/no way to get cash from the debit, and having to transport the bags to the hotel.

I manage to find a currency exchange machine and cash in one of my $100 bills. For 10% fee. We go to the shuttle, and it is a glorified city bus, that I have to load the luggage on, while being yelled at by the local Chinese bus driver to move "faster", only to find out there isn't enough room. I completely loose it when my youngest son stands on the bus steps going "it's too heavy" and not even trying to lift his sisters bag. I'm holding a 60lbs bag full of our stuff, after getting half way through our luggage (and filling the underside of the "shuttle) my back is killing me, and here is my adorable son being a shit. I believe my exact words were "LIFT THAT F*ING BAG AND GET YOUR A** ON THAT F*ING BUS!!!"

Not one of my better moments. at that time, Dean (he is really only trying to hlep) tells me that I need to stop using "THAT" word because everyone in beijing understands that word. I will say my next statement also is a classic of "You don't F*ING say? REALLY, they f*ing know what that f*ing word means? Well f* me. If they don't have a good idea that I'm f*ing pi*ed off, then f* them!" Again, I can only really plead insanity caused by stress.

it doesn't get better. we get the bus loaded (by we, I mean I get the bus loaded while the kids whine, criss gets in the way, and dean and carrie flounder around and get in my way w/out really helping with the physical work) The bus doesn't go to the hotel. No. It goes to the train station where we have to "find a way" to the hotel. So I then have to unload all of my stuff, stand there in the sun while Dean tells me we need to find TAXI's to get to the hotel. for 11 full suitcases, 5 carryons, kids, students, and us. I finally completely melt down. And unfortunately I go off on dean. It wasn't his fault. he isn't used to travelling with kids, or luggage. To his credit, when he travels he worries about himself, his bags, and he rides the bus, or takes a taxi.
We did manage to find a hustler who was somewhat honest, and he helped us find a large van to carry our baggage from the train station to the hotel, and we will be using these same people to take us to the airport tomorrow. That will save a repeat of my meltdown.

Once we made it to the hotel, it was all better. In fact I have enjoyed my last 3 days in china tremendously.
It is unfortunate that I may have terribly insulted a friend who only wanted to help. After the melt down he decided to go and stay with his cousin, and then took the next train back to zhengzhou even though he was supposed to travel with us for 2 days. I really hope that my anger at this situation and the surrounding issues hasn't ruined a friendship.

Voice of Will: All Wet

2006-06-11 - 10:38 a.m.
Ahhh..... so I am done howling at the moon, and the unfairness of how we have been treated. I'm done with the righteous indignation over how this has been so unprofessionally handled. We are moving to tokyo for a better location, a better working environment, a better environment and a much higher salary. phew. glad to get that out. It does make it better to say it.

The other thing that helped me realize this and let it go was yesterday. The kids ambushed me with water guns and completely soaked me. at first I was realllllly angry, but I decided that I had been way tooo up tight lately, and needed to relax.

So I went inside and got my "daddy's squirt gun" a 5 gallon supersoaker. My supersoaker outranges the kids, and I have a lot more water. Needless to say they got the cummuppance they deserved!!! (but everytime I ran out of water I was also soaked.)

I must admire the kids, they worked well together, and used team work to soak daddy. (I just used cunning and experience to soak them.)
Good wet sloppy fun, and the kids were still wet 2 hours later.

Will

Voice of Will: Leaving China

2006-06-06 - 11:49 a.m.
Well I haven't written in a while, and you all deserve an update.

 We have been asked to leave SIAS for "academic" reasons. Under that auspice it means we are bad teachers. NOT! We have found out that the dean of the BGS department, and 2 other department deans went to the owner of the school and threatened to quit if Christine and I were not removed. Well these deans have been at the school for about 5 years, and it came down to personal vendettas and we have been asked to move on. These vendettas come from the extreme chrsitian right wing who want to use SIAS as a base for their "mission." If you want something scary go to www.plugintoyours.com and read it. These are the people completely responsible for academic hiring for the next couple of years at SIAS. There is absolutely no way a buddhist, a mormon, a catholic, jews, or muslims will go there to come to this school. Now that seems like an EEOC violation, as well as a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I may have to check into an attorney to look in to this in the states. SIAS GROUP is incoroprated in LA, and therefore they have to abide by American Laws for employment practices.

I love this place, but I really hate the people who are hypocrites and lie about why they are here, and for what. I will miss my students, and my job, but I won't miss the rest of this.

This leads to the second point. We are going to Tokyo next year. Christine has accepted a fantastic job from Toyo University. They have an international partnership with the University of Montana Missoula, and they send students to the University of Montana for masters degrees, and christine will be an intensive oral english prep class for these students. She will have 5 collegues who are all working in the same program. They pay about 2x what Christine makes here, they will pay for 42 square meters of floor space in an apartment (we need about 65, so we will pay the difference, but it is TOKYO man!!) We are working on the Visas now, and will be leaving for Tokyo on about August 1st (classes start September 1st.)

This leads to the third point. What do we do between then and now? Our Visa's in china expire on June 15th, (we are trying to extend them, but they are being very difficult) and even if we do extend them we can only stay until july 15th. We still have to pass about a month somewhere. So we are probably going back to the states for a month or so, then off to Tokyo.