More Woes

Today I talked with Ruth, and we realized we had a misunderstanding- I took her words too seriously, and she didn't realize the effect her words had on me. We are better, and I'm glad. 

Perhaps I'm just stressed and reading too much into things. 

But today did not go much better. Here's a timeline of how I received information: 

At the beginning of the year we are all handed a schedule with the times we will teach and the times the breaks are. The days off are Monday, April 29 and Tuesday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 1st. 

On Monday I bought my nonrefundable plane ticket to leave on Sunday. 

On Tuesday afternoon (the discussion is in the morning) my students tell me that we will have the second and third of May off. We will make up the days we miss the Sunday and Saturday before break and the Sunday and Saturday after break. Nothing official has been told to me. 

On Wednesday, today, I receive a notice from my TA that she will visit my classes. I tell her great, I'll see her on the 7th. She explains I will have class on Sunday. I tell her that no one has told me, and I have bought nonrefundable plane tickets, so I won't be going. 

She tells me to prepare for the worst and that the department is serious. 

I am so tired of being pulled around by this department. Last semester I worked 24 hours of teaching, plus about 20 hours extra of prep, because I had NO TEXTBOOKS or LISTENING MATERIALS given to me by the department. I've had to edit movies, tv shows, find scripts and transcripts in order to make some semblance of a class. I've had to make a writing class from scratch as well. This semester I have much more manageable time, but I'm still bending over backwards trying to get my students to understand a research paper and how to divide a big paper so that it doesn't feel so big.

Things that I am frustrated by the department/University for: 

First thing said (department): Well, we're going to not pay you for the extra classes you teach until a date that keeps moving into the future.

Solved by: Payment the day the new semester started.

Second thing (department): Well, you're going to have to teach double the amount of classes, but we'll put them at the same time so your pay will be the same. If you refuse the department will give them to another foreign teacher. 

Solved by: Threatening to leave and mentioning that teaching those class sizes would break my contract.

Third thing (university): All foreign teachers will have to teach this new, extra class! (The Australian teachers do not apply mysteriously, nor do the Oya college teachers). 

Solved by: Callie and Ellen agreed to teach, and by this point the department was desperate.

Fourth thing (department): You now have to teach your classes on New Campus! Randomly! In the middle of the semester! Good luck getting there!

Solved by: I am teaching the classes at new campus for now. This is not worth fighting, it's just annoying.

Fifth thing: You must teach on these dates we did not prepare you for nor tell you about. 

Solved by: I'm not teaching on Sunday. I'll teach the weekend after, but I'm not teaching Sunday. My tickets are bought and I cannot return them.  

Between the issues at the department this year, and the place I live- I cannot count how many times the power has gone off or I'm without power, nor can I tell you how much money I've wasted going to other places for fast internet so that I can prepare for classes since I have no materials provided by the department. There's no fast internet here, there's no regular power, there's occasionally things that don't get fixed until you get super vocal about them. 

I know it's April, and I know it'll soon be May. I know I'm thinking about what it will be like to be home. I know last semester I was run ragged and tired and exhausted. 

But I am so tired of being dragged around by this department. I am so tired of being told last minute about things, of agreeing to things. I know that's how China does things. I know I'm not the only one affected by this. 

I have done more than what was asked of me, and never received a word of thanks. I regret taking on all that extra work now, as instead of thanks I'm told that the department is serious and upset with me and they've consistently demanded that I do more work.