Everyone needs to vent every now and again. often as not, I choose to do it here. So consequentially I try to do it in an entertaining manner. But after this Saturday's final - in which somehow one of my classes "didn't get the memo" for the schedule change, even though I specifically remember devoting about 15 minutes to each class telling them about it - was effectively a nightmare. This was compounded by the fact that I was "assisted" by a certain WZMC nanny, whom for the purposes of this articles will remain named only by the letters "cxx." But let me just say, she's come up repeatedly in this very blog. I leave the associations to you. Regardless, on the bus-ride home I was irate enough to whip out my journal and pen a letter to her. I've learned that in these situations, it's often extremely cathartic to write as though you're going to send it, but then never send it. But since Blogger is on, apparently, the parma-block list here in good old Zhongguo, and she's never heard of it anyway, much less my semi-anonymous blog contained within, I feel pretty safe in giving you the unfiltered edition of: "CXX, My Regards":
~~~~~
"CXX,"
You said today that you felt you needed to be frank. Well, allow me to be frank in return.
First, though this entire year you have never once visited a class of mine, nor taken any interest in the work I do - save when it hasn't superficially "looked" as nice as you might like it. Thinking back, I cannot remember a time where you have pro-actively helped me or assisted me in any meaningful way. For instance, what about those student evaluations I asked you for, during both semesters, and you told me you'd get copies of? What happened to them? Instead, your job consistantly seems to have been to give me only the vaguest notion of what you want, and then criticize, belittle, insult, or otherwise waste my time when it's not exactly the way you want it.
And that I tolerated. The lack of any direction whatsoever, I also tolerated, since more often than not I am convinced I care more about the education of these students than you or the school - which prioritizes their (and your) income and image above the students' educational welfare.
Students - and people in general, in life and in the workplace - behave according to how they are treated. And I am sorry to say that your - and the school's - lack of trust or confidence in the students' ability to or willingness to behave in a mature, adult manner regarding tests, classes, or anything has resulted in exactly what you fear. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: you treat the students like cheating children, and the consequentially behave like cheating children.
But today's "argument" with me in front of not one, but two classes of students in unacceptable, and embarrassing - not for me, but for you. Had you *any* respect for me either as an employee or as a person, you would have had the decency to wait until everyone had left, or we were somewhere private, before you attempted to chastise what you didn't like - but failed to look into beforehand - about my test. Clearly, however, you do not. I had expected more from a Chinese person. Clearly, though, I expected too much, at least from you.
You said you felt "guilty" about leaving the dissemination of the schedule change to me, and that you should have called them yourself, before attempting to guilt-trip me with the work others will have to do "as a result." The questionable validity of that aside, your thinly-veiled suggestion of my incompetence did not go unnoticed. Please, if you are going to be snide, at least have a backbone enough to say it outright. If I am incompetent, though, then I blame you for it. You, who only ever spoke to me to tell me what I'd done wrong... well after the fact. You who, having absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of my classes, presumed to know better than me time and again. You who greeted my every suggestion as though neither it nor I existed, You, who over and over again failed to provide even the most basic information or supplies that my job would require (including the pointless busywork you have me jumping hoops through), and then forced me to use yet more of my time to "fix it" - when you couldn't even be bothered to tell me in the first place.
I've come to dread any interaction with you. You have no idea how disappointed I was to learn it would be you "helping" me today, since I knew immediately that you would be nothing more but a critical, detrimental drag on my day. To me, you are nothing if not a useless nag: someone whose sole purpose is to point out my faults - not because I have some overabundance of them, but because you remain pointedly, in fact *willfully*, ignorant of anything I may be doing well.
As you've ignored virtually everything else I've said over the course of this year, I certainly wouldn't expect - or want - you to suddenly change your tune now. So please, don't waste both your and my time with yet another of your say-nothing responses. You opinion of me or this letter is as utterly worthless to me as mine have been to you all year.
I conclude by simply saying I am glad beyond words that this year with you is coming to a close, and it should come as no surprise that I've been wanting to leave as soon as possible. My only regret is that it cannot end sooner, and moreso that you are needlessly dragging it out longer.
Good Bye.
~~~~~
I think that basically sums it up. There's still a big part of me wanting to send it... but at this point, I don't see what good it would do, as I might need the school as a reference at some point. Best to remain prudent. Still, it was amazingly gratifying to write it... well worth the time.
'Til Next Time,
(CS)WC Out.
The lycanthropic jottings of my fourth year prowling the Chinese moonlight.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Job Offer Cometh Amid a Tide of Crazy
Amid crazed, belligerent heads of state with awful hair holding people hostage for looking at their country, and crazed, belligerent Southern pastors trying to kill Obama through prayer, a beacon of light has seen fit to pierce the veil of craziness that has descended upon the world...
That's right, I officially have a job offer in Shanghai. It's through a place call BSK Academy, which effective contracts teachers and then hires them out to public schools to teach. I'm reviewing the copy of the contract they went me, and will probably forward it on to my Dad to review in the near future... still it's a very interesting offer. 11kRMB/month, ~16hrs/week... but no housing included. Nancy seems hung up on that, to which I replied: "but I thought you wanted us to get our own nice apartment in Shanghai and not be in a hole like right now." We'll see how it progresses. I'm in not rush to sign anything as of yet. Hell, my current contract isn't even completed yet! Regardless, BSK's school year begins in September, so I'd be in for a nice long, relaxing summer :D
I was awoken today at about 11am by the repeated ringing of my doorbell, and hard pounding on the door. This had happened once before and, not expecting visitors, was more than willing to just ignore it once again. However when the knocking - nay pounding - turned into forcibly pulling on the door handle, I'd had enough. I knew it was a shrill, middle-aged woman, so I was just annoyed, not afraid. I opened the door and was immediately assaulted by this 5'3" woman yelling at me. I caught the vague idea of what she was talking about: something about her being mad (no translation needed there), something about water, and something about a child. I repeatedly shrugged my shoulders and, when she finally was forced to pause and inhale before continuing her rant, I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and couldn't understand her. She claimed that she "knew" I could understand her, and so continued on her rapidfire rant at me. At this point I figured it must be that my bathroom was somehow leaking down into 308 (the apt below mine, and where she'd said she came from, so I told her to wait a moment and I could have a look. She made a motion like she was going to open the door more and step inside, so I quick cut that thought off at the waste with an upraised palm (stop) and saying "whoa whoa whoa."
She said something that sounded snide, so in very growly, not at all friendly English I said, "Listen lady, I don't know what the fuck your problem is, but if you don't quit yelling at me you can just fuck off and get the fuck out of here. So Deng yi xia (wait a second)." Of course she didn't understand, and I didn't mean for her to. It had exactly the effect I had intended. A big, male foreigner telling her something that sounded threatening in a foreign tongue. That's usually enough to shut most people up. I went and put my shirt on while she began jabbering again at the now-empty doorway.
Fortunately, Nancy was calling at this point to invite me to lunch and show off her new haircut (which is gorgeous!). I said, "Nancy, there's some old woman yelling at me right now, can you talk to her and see what she wants?" Obligingly, she said yes, and I handed my cell to the now slightly deflated looking woman. The look of deflation grew the more she talked with Nancy, until she finally handed the phone back to me and said nothing else... without another word to me, she began talking to my neighbor...
I got back ont he phone with Nancy as asked what the deal was. Apparently, there is a baby in the apt below ours, and somebody occasionally throw water out of their window from above. The water hits the plastic balcony cover and makes a big noise, which frightens the baby. Somehow this woman had got it in to her head that it was me doing this... because of course there's certainly not 4 apartments directly above mine. And so took it upon herself to chastise me over it. This included the pounding on the door, not just this time... but once before at about 6am. Nancy told her it absolutely was not us, which took the wind from her sails.
Before she left, Nancy overheard her (via my cell phone) telling my neighbor that I was not "gentle" and wasn't as nice as the last foreigner who lived there. Well NO SHIT. I'm not going to be polite to someone yelling at me. and I certainly could have been much less "gentle" had she continued on like that.
She didn't even apologize - to either me or Nancy - before storming off to go stare outside for who was "really" doing it. Nancy is about as pissed as I am over it. Probably more so, since she wasn't around to face this moron. She now very much wants to confront this bitch face to face and demand an apology for being such a giant douche. Seriously, if you're going to pound on someone's door at all hours and then yell at them once they answer and accuse them of annoying your child with water, you'd better be damn well sure that you're accusing the right person. And then when you've been proven to be an idiot, the least you can do is apologize for being a rude bitch. Nancy's planning on going back downstair later and having a "talk" with this woman about manners. I'm planning on going with her. Not because she needs me (she can be scarier than I could ever be) but because I feel like the lady should looks me in the eye when she apologizes.
Anyway, that's all the craziness to report for today. Tomorrow I attempt to finish my oral finals... and then saturday I've got my lovely listening finals. Joy of joys! Bu hey, less than 2 weeks before I'm outta here!
(CS)WC Out.
That's right, I officially have a job offer in Shanghai. It's through a place call BSK Academy, which effective contracts teachers and then hires them out to public schools to teach. I'm reviewing the copy of the contract they went me, and will probably forward it on to my Dad to review in the near future... still it's a very interesting offer. 11kRMB/month, ~16hrs/week... but no housing included. Nancy seems hung up on that, to which I replied: "but I thought you wanted us to get our own nice apartment in Shanghai and not be in a hole like right now." We'll see how it progresses. I'm in not rush to sign anything as of yet. Hell, my current contract isn't even completed yet! Regardless, BSK's school year begins in September, so I'd be in for a nice long, relaxing summer :D
I was awoken today at about 11am by the repeated ringing of my doorbell, and hard pounding on the door. This had happened once before and, not expecting visitors, was more than willing to just ignore it once again. However when the knocking - nay pounding - turned into forcibly pulling on the door handle, I'd had enough. I knew it was a shrill, middle-aged woman, so I was just annoyed, not afraid. I opened the door and was immediately assaulted by this 5'3" woman yelling at me. I caught the vague idea of what she was talking about: something about her being mad (no translation needed there), something about water, and something about a child. I repeatedly shrugged my shoulders and, when she finally was forced to pause and inhale before continuing her rant, I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and couldn't understand her. She claimed that she "knew" I could understand her, and so continued on her rapidfire rant at me. At this point I figured it must be that my bathroom was somehow leaking down into 308 (the apt below mine, and where she'd said she came from, so I told her to wait a moment and I could have a look. She made a motion like she was going to open the door more and step inside, so I quick cut that thought off at the waste with an upraised palm (stop) and saying "whoa whoa whoa."
She said something that sounded snide, so in very growly, not at all friendly English I said, "Listen lady, I don't know what the fuck your problem is, but if you don't quit yelling at me you can just fuck off and get the fuck out of here. So Deng yi xia (wait a second)." Of course she didn't understand, and I didn't mean for her to. It had exactly the effect I had intended. A big, male foreigner telling her something that sounded threatening in a foreign tongue. That's usually enough to shut most people up. I went and put my shirt on while she began jabbering again at the now-empty doorway.
Fortunately, Nancy was calling at this point to invite me to lunch and show off her new haircut (which is gorgeous!). I said, "Nancy, there's some old woman yelling at me right now, can you talk to her and see what she wants?" Obligingly, she said yes, and I handed my cell to the now slightly deflated looking woman. The look of deflation grew the more she talked with Nancy, until she finally handed the phone back to me and said nothing else... without another word to me, she began talking to my neighbor...
I got back ont he phone with Nancy as asked what the deal was. Apparently, there is a baby in the apt below ours, and somebody occasionally throw water out of their window from above. The water hits the plastic balcony cover and makes a big noise, which frightens the baby. Somehow this woman had got it in to her head that it was me doing this... because of course there's certainly not 4 apartments directly above mine. And so took it upon herself to chastise me over it. This included the pounding on the door, not just this time... but once before at about 6am. Nancy told her it absolutely was not us, which took the wind from her sails.
Before she left, Nancy overheard her (via my cell phone) telling my neighbor that I was not "gentle" and wasn't as nice as the last foreigner who lived there. Well NO SHIT. I'm not going to be polite to someone yelling at me. and I certainly could have been much less "gentle" had she continued on like that.
She didn't even apologize - to either me or Nancy - before storming off to go stare outside for who was "really" doing it. Nancy is about as pissed as I am over it. Probably more so, since she wasn't around to face this moron. She now very much wants to confront this bitch face to face and demand an apology for being such a giant douche. Seriously, if you're going to pound on someone's door at all hours and then yell at them once they answer and accuse them of annoying your child with water, you'd better be damn well sure that you're accusing the right person. And then when you've been proven to be an idiot, the least you can do is apologize for being a rude bitch. Nancy's planning on going back downstair later and having a "talk" with this woman about manners. I'm planning on going with her. Not because she needs me (she can be scarier than I could ever be) but because I feel like the lady should looks me in the eye when she apologizes.
Anyway, that's all the craziness to report for today. Tomorrow I attempt to finish my oral finals... and then saturday I've got my lovely listening finals. Joy of joys! Bu hey, less than 2 weeks before I'm outta here!
(CS)WC Out.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Et Tu, Dick?
Reporting once again from the now infamous Undisclosed Location somewhere on the forest moon of Endor, under the watchful gaze of the Second Death Star, Darth Dickhead broke his self-imposed vow of silence of the Imperial Throne Room to relay yet more "breaking news:"
(excerpts from http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/01/cheney.speech/index.html)
Well gee, Dick, thanks for that astonishing information. What the rest of us have known for the last, oh, 4 years or so is only now dawning on the guy behind the whole thing. He went on...
As I've state innumerable times on the internet to the morons who at least have the decency to hide the ugly, snarling faces while they spout bile: just because you say something is a "fact" doesn't magically make it so. The Baathist regime was horrible, yes... but it was also ideologically and religiously utterly at odds with a Sunni group like Al Qaeda. This little tidbit went un-noticed by... well, everyone at first - but it still appears to be slightly beyond the capacity of our former VP, The Undying One. The Baathist regime of Hussein, as we found out by hitting the hornet's nest in 2003, was really the only thing keeping the various factions - including the extremist ones - under control. Far from providing shelter to terrorist organizations, Hussein's reign kept them out of the area. I say this not in defense of Saddam and his despicable reign, but rather as a condemnation of these utter falsities of a man so worried about how people will view his Vice-Presidency/Reign of Terror that he's willing to fall back to the stand-by Bushian defense of saying a lie often enough and loudly enough that people begin to believe it might be true.
Still, he went on...
But that's a false choice, Dick. Utterly false. It's not Guantamo or summary executions, nor is it Gitmo or releasing terrorists into the US. The choice is between keeping open a facility which is seen by our enemies as the pinnacle of what they're fighting against, a center which stands against every philosophy and creed we as Americans believe in and hold dear, a camp which is a slap in the face to any notion that we're fighting "the good fight."
or
Closing down said abomination and instead housing the detainees (which the Supreme Court has ruled have no right to Habeus Corpus protection) in the Supermaximum Security prisons we have already built to house the world's most dangerous people. You know, the prisons no one's ever broken out of, and letting them rot instead of torturing them in Cuba.
Most though, Cheney is pissing me off right now because he's engaging in the most insidious, despicable, nigh treasonable PR campaign I've ever heard of... ever. That is to actively predict that under an opposition Administration America will be subject to the unthinkable: yet another terrorist attack; ad not just predict it, but to all-but hope for it -- all so he will look not as much of the inhuman monstrous shell of an autocrat he is, and more like some patriotic hero for engaging in the most systematic undermining of America and its values since South Carolina seceded from the Union and started the Civil War.
Turning America itself - along with the lives of hundred, thousands, or possibly millions - into a political trump card. Nice one, Dick. Way to go for the gusto... or was the the throat?
(CS)WC Out.
(excerpts from http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/01/cheney.speech/index.html)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he does not believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney says Saddam Hussein "provided sanctuary ... and resources to terrorists."
He strongly defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, however, arguing that Hussein's previous support for known terrorists was a serious danger after 9/11.
Cheney, in an appearance at the National Press Club, also said he is intent on speaking out in defense of the Bush administration's national security record because "a clear understanding of policies that worked [in protecting the United States] is essential."
"I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. We had that reporting for a while, [but] eventually it turned out not to be true," Cheney conceded.
Well gee, Dick, thanks for that astonishing information. What the rest of us have known for the last, oh, 4 years or so is only now dawning on the guy behind the whole thing. He went on...
But Hussein was "somebody who provided sanctuary and safe harbor and resources to terrorists. ... [It] is, without question, a fact."
Cheney restated his claim that "there was a relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq that stretched back 10 years. It's not something I made up. ... We know for a fact that Saddam Hussein was a sponsor -- a state sponsor -- of terror. It's not my judgment. That was the judgment of our [intelligence community] and State Department."
Cheney identified former CIA Director George Tenet as the "prime source of information" on the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.
Tenet "testified, if you go back and check the record, in the fall of [2002] before the Senate Intelligence Committee -- in open session -- that there was a relationship," Cheney said.
As I've state innumerable times on the internet to the morons who at least have the decency to hide the ugly, snarling faces while they spout bile: just because you say something is a "fact" doesn't magically make it so. The Baathist regime was horrible, yes... but it was also ideologically and religiously utterly at odds with a Sunni group like Al Qaeda. This little tidbit went un-noticed by... well, everyone at first - but it still appears to be slightly beyond the capacity of our former VP, The Undying One. The Baathist regime of Hussein, as we found out by hitting the hornet's nest in 2003, was really the only thing keeping the various factions - including the extremist ones - under control. Far from providing shelter to terrorist organizations, Hussein's reign kept them out of the area. I say this not in defense of Saddam and his despicable reign, but rather as a condemnation of these utter falsities of a man so worried about how people will view his Vice-Presidency/Reign of Terror that he's willing to fall back to the stand-by Bushian defense of saying a lie often enough and loudly enough that people begin to believe it might be true.
Still, he went on...
Among other things Monday, Cheney also called the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center a "good facility ... if you are going to be engaged in a world conflict, such as we are, in terms of global war on terrorism. You know, if you don't have a place where you can hold these people, the only other option is to kill them. And we don't operate that way."
But that's a false choice, Dick. Utterly false. It's not Guantamo or summary executions, nor is it Gitmo or releasing terrorists into the US. The choice is between keeping open a facility which is seen by our enemies as the pinnacle of what they're fighting against, a center which stands against every philosophy and creed we as Americans believe in and hold dear, a camp which is a slap in the face to any notion that we're fighting "the good fight."
or
Closing down said abomination and instead housing the detainees (which the Supreme Court has ruled have no right to Habeus Corpus protection) in the Supermaximum Security prisons we have already built to house the world's most dangerous people. You know, the prisons no one's ever broken out of, and letting them rot instead of torturing them in Cuba.
Most though, Cheney is pissing me off right now because he's engaging in the most insidious, despicable, nigh treasonable PR campaign I've ever heard of... ever. That is to actively predict that under an opposition Administration America will be subject to the unthinkable: yet another terrorist attack; ad not just predict it, but to all-but hope for it -- all so he will look not as much of the inhuman monstrous shell of an autocrat he is, and more like some patriotic hero for engaging in the most systematic undermining of America and its values since South Carolina seceded from the Union and started the Civil War.
Turning America itself - along with the lives of hundred, thousands, or possibly millions - into a political trump card. Nice one, Dick. Way to go for the gusto... or was the the throat?
(CS)WC Out.
Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square/ Was fashion the reason they were there?
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