complications

What I love about my school is that I have the most amazing students. I really feel that what I learn from them is so much more than anything I can teach them. They are really incredible people.

What I hate about my school is that there seems to me such little organization. The foreign teachers are told to do something, not by our supervisors, but through second or third hand information. And of course, if there is ever a question or problem, whoever is delivering the message has no interest in helping us find the person who might have the answer.

There was a problem last week with my night class. I won't go into the details, but the point is that office A refused to help me until they heard from someone in office B, who insisted it was office C's problem. Nothing has been resolved yet, and there has been some very angry yelling. (not by me, or at me, thankfully)

Tonight my site mate was supposed to give a lecture, but it was canceled because someone forgot to reserve a room. Who was responsible for reserving the room is a mystery that might never be solved. The teachers are blaming the students, who claim they were never told. And of course, no one thought to call my site mate to tell him it was cancelled, and no one appologized to him for the inconvenince. I don't know what he would have done if I had not gone with him, because it took a couple of phone calls on my part, and all of my limited Chinese, to even figure out what was going on. Needless to say, we were both a little frustrated on the way home.

But I know that all these problems don't matter. That in the end, I spend 90% of my work dealing exclusively with my wonderful students. In my classroom, I can make things as organized as I want.

Still.. it didn't help that in my shower I took to tonight to relax, I dropped a razor down the toilet, which of course is just a big hole in the ground. :( AT least my cat is being nice to me.