Another week in paradise.

Here is another Blog I wrote for HHS and below is an excerpt from an email to a friend.

On the au pair emotional chart the au pair is expected to have a sharp decline in happiness during the second week. I would like to think that I would be an exception to this, but as predicted things are beginning to be more difficult for me. Things are still going really well with the family, and I have even met some friends here in town, but other things are beginning to drag on me. I find culture shock is like an earthquake, you may feel a tremor here and there, but underground where you can’t see it there is a tension building, and all of a sudden something shifts and then the roof falls in on you as if you were in a Sichuanese schoolhouse.

Chinese people don’t seem to have the same value for plans that I do, and when all my plans got thrown out the window without my consent I got very angry. My Chinese friend said she has never thought about it before. “Maybe it’s because we don’t have tenses expressed in our language in the way you do? Anyway there is nothing we can do about it.” Luckily none of these problems were in my family so at least my home life is still going well. I spent the first week largely in the house with the family. Now I spend more time out, both with the family and with friends. My host mother, Bob, my new 9 year old brother, and I went to a really cool art and drama museum. I went to another museum with my friend and learned about the local Chinese history. I know very little about Chinese art, and my knowledge of history is confined to politics so I found it all very interesting. Bob is now on break from school so we spend a lot of time together. Sam, the 18 year old son is in his last year of high school. His uncle said, “The life of a pig is better then the life of a last year student.” I agree. He goes to school early in the morning, even on weekends and comes home for dinner and then after my English lesson he studies until late at night when he goes to sleep. Since it is winter Bob and I spend most of our time inside playing cards, soccer, or tag. I am not used to spending so much time inside and I feel like I am wasting away. I never really liked cold winters in the city. Lan Zhou is very cold, not like Florida where I grew up.
I am also beginning to miss my freedom. There is no key to the door, the grandmother is always home to open it, so I can’t go out at night. It is not that big of a deal since I don’t go out that much anyway. I was really surprised when, in the middle of the night, Sam came into my room and told me it was too late and I have to go to sleep. I opened Google Translator an invaluable, however limited, tool and asked him if I was keeping him awake. He said no, so I told him that I would not be told when to go to sleep. He tried to argue but decided that he would rather sleep. I have not been told when to go to sleep again. Also, the pollution is wearing on me, it is a little worse here than in Beijing. I have been coughing every day. When I lived in Thailand I coughed every day for a month but I got over it. I expect to get over it soon; pollution is a small price to pay to see a whole new world. The coughing only really started after I got really sick. After dinner the grandmother got sick and puked up all of her food. I didn’t think much about it and the next night I ate all the leftovers. It was Jiao zi, one of my favorite dishes. I didn’t think about the grandmother getting sick, or the fact that they don’t refrigerate leftovers. I spent that night in severe discomfort. The next day, after the pain stopped all I did was sleep and go to the bathroom. I hardly ate for the next three days.

First of all: I was told that I would spend the weekend in a hotel, but I got picked up by the mother and the HHS translator at the airport. I did not mind this because I knew the whole thing was being arranged spontaneously. The translator hardly speaks any English and comes off as a very odd person. (Later a Chinese friend I met here independently commented that he was very strange). After we arrived at the house everything was great for the first few days. Of course the family expects me to be a live in English teacher and doesn't understand why I would want to leave the house with out them, but I was planning on dealing with each of these issues in turn.

"Before I could finish addressing the first issue about having my own free time I found out that HHS had signed a 1 month contract with the family. My agreement with Michael was that I would only be here for 15 days. I went to the office with the mother to address the issue. I spoke with Michael (on the phone) and the Lan Zhou officers and agreed to stay for at least 18 days and possibly for the entire contract. Before I was done making this arrangement with Michael the manager left the room and told the mother that I would be staying for longer then the contracted month. After my agreement with Michael was settled he spoke with the translator and told him our arrangement. Immediately after speaking to Michael the translator also told the family that I would be in Lan Zhou for longer then the contracted month. A few days later during dinner the family mentioned "our plans" for the spring festival. I told them that I would not be here for spring festival. They told me that I would. I called my translator friend so that I could understand what happened (accounted above) and spoke with Michael again. He said that the translator did not admit to telling the family that I would be here until after the spring festival. I then asked the mother to record her account of the meeting so that I could share it with Michael because he said that he was too busy to deal with it and I should solve it and get back to him. I will speak to him with my translator tomorrow."

In the end I figured out who was responsible, the regional manager, and he got fired.

:P