Summer!

Summer, that wonderful time of year where it’s always nice out, the flowers are blooming, and the kids get to have fun and don’t go to school. As children, we always looked forward to this time of year. As adults, it became just another day.

However, as a foreign English teacher, summers are complicated. According to my contract, I get 2 weeks off, with half(-ish) pay. According to my training center, there are classes to teach.

In the Beginning…

We had the first meeting about the summer shortly after all the craziness for the Labour Day holiday. We got schedules that were wrong, just to give us an idea of when classes might be taught. And how many days in a row it is possible to teach (too many as the end of the semester goes straight into more classes with no weekend, at least according to the wrong schedule).

We were told we have some options on which classes we can teach. And have the option to go on a school trip for a week with the kids. They haven’t picked locations for one of the two trips yet as everyone in China is trying to organize summer camp trips, but the other is going to Xi’an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, and some other stuff.

I did learn that I would be getting a different Chinese teacher at some point. I’m not sure when but her current foreign teacher is leaving to go work elsewhere in the city in the middle of summer.

A few weeks later…

We have another meeting to discuss the summer schedule as there is only about a month to go before the end of the semester. I want to know when I can go on vacation!

I know I could just tell the training center that I’m taking these days off, but if I say I want the second half of August off and they don’t offer any classes the first half, I’d only get a quarter of my salary (half pay for the vacation and no pay for not teaching). I just got here; I can’t afford that!

This time, we’re informed that we’ll have a day off after the semester ends, teach 6 hours a day for 5 days, get another day off, and teach 6 hours a day for 5 days again. These two weeks would be 4 classes a day of teaching the normal syllabus. And 9 hours of overtime a week, for me. Unfortunately, over time just means that I’m getting my normal hourly rate, no time and a half or double time, like overtime in the USA.

After way too much teaching, we finally get a proper weekend. Two whole days off! Then, possibly, it’s on to special summer classes mostly focusing on reading or phonics. However, we won’t know if or how many of these classes there will be until nearly the end of the semester, the beginning of July.

If these classes exist, they will, again, be 6 hour days, but the classes are 10 days long with 2 days off in the middle. And each class is 3 hours long, so I’d only teach 2 different classes.

If they don’t have or there aren’t enough students for these classes, some, or all, teachers will get a longer, and unpaid, vacation.

Also, due to there being cases of COVID-19 going around Shenzhen and the nearby provincial capital, Guangzhou, many of the precautions from the lockdowns are back. Travel is becoming more challenging and no one is getting a free trip to Xi’an, or anywhere else this summer.

Trip Planning

As I start to plan my vacation, talking to a couple tour companies to get an idea of how much it would cost, Covid has, once again, thrown a wrench in my plans. I’m planning on going to Tibet, Datong, Dunhuang, and Hohhot for the break.

One company gave me a detailed itinerary for all the destinations I want to go to, all the sightseeing I want to do, how I’m getting to the various cities, and the hotels I’ll be sleeping in. It’s roughly 30,000 yuan (about $4,500) for the trip. The other company just gave me their Tibet trip itinerary, with no mention of the other cities, which is just under 9,000 yuan (about $1,400). Obviously, I’m going with the company that actually listened to me, even if they want most of the contents of my Chinese bank account.

I don’t want to wind up in quarantine again, if I go to the wrong place, and it’s hard to find information on travel restrictions in English, leading to lots of translation issues. I tried asking my employer where I should avoid going and their answer was “the training center doesn’t want you leaving the city”.

Way to ruin my vacation.

I’m still planning on going somewhere, but now I can’t get any trusted advice on where to go or not go. I’m now more likely to lose my green health code and get stuck back in quarantine somewhere.

All this uncertainty is causing me so much unnecessary stress. I started this adventure to travel more and to be able to see more of the world easily. I don’t want to sit at home doing something I could do on a normal weekend when I have 2 weeks off. I want to see something that isn’t right around the corner.

But, I also don’t want to get fired or wind up in quarantine. Granted, if I do go on this trip, I’ll have nearly completed my China travel list, leaving only Yangshuo and Zhangjiajie, both are close-ish to Shenzhen. If the trains ever decide to run both ways again, Yangshuo is a weekend trip. Zhangjiajie is a little further, requiring either a plane or 3 or 4 days to do properly.

My only real option is to ask the tour company and hope, hope they tell me the truth and hope that nothing changes. They said that there is little to no chance of anywhere I’m going being a danger, but, in China, Covid restrictions and requirements can change overnight.

I’m crossing my fingers in this one. Wish me luck!

If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.