Big decisions...

Before I start this one I thought I'd introduce everyone I work with. The Hefei Aston franchise has a grand total of 12.5 employees. It's run by an apparently fairly popular businesswoman / entrepreneur, Vivian, who is in her late 30s or early 40s and is well connected in Hefei. She has an office to herself which she works out of most days. Brenda, the Chinese teaching manager, is in charge of four Chinese teachers (CTs) who help the English teachers run the show. The four Chinese teachers are Jackal, Jasmine, Alice and Monica.

The way it works: classes are all two hours long, so the CT is in the classroom for the full two hours while the Foreign teacher (FT) teachers for a half hour in the lowest levels, an hour in the middle levels, and an hour and a half in the highest levels. This way the school can run up to eight classes at a time (at the lowest levels) and still have the FTs participate in each of them. On Sundays during the afternoon block of classes I have 3 in a row - an hour of C7 (a mid-level class), and then two half hour sessions of C1 (a low level class). Each class is taught by a different CT, but I visit each one to make sure pronunciation is sharp and grammar is correct. Also to legitimate the whole English language course idea.

There are two front desk assistants, Daisy and Tina, who help students and their parents to do paperwork and scheduling. They also do general office filing and organization. There are also two guys who do marketing and branding, Tony and Edison. These two also take care of the foreign teachers' in terms of housing, billing and other lifestyle necessities (shopping, getting around, cell phones, cable and internet, etc.). There's an accountant who comes in a couple days a week to handle the billing and financial side. Finally there's the two English teachers - me and Craig Nel, a South African bloke, also 6'6". We're kind of a big deal in Hefei - when we walk around together people just stop and point and say "Hen gao de...". "So tall...".

The school's on the 3rd floor of the Ping An building. Ping An is a giant life insurance company that has offices on every other floor of our building. It's very central and easy to get to.

So today Brenda surprised when I came into the school with a contract to sign. But she also asked I sign a year-long contract. Mostly because it's easier for the school and for Aston to not have to go and find then train another foreign teacher, but also because I'm pretty much the shit. I pondered on it for a while. I don't like long term commitment, so I was hesitant to lock down my entire year. But I thought it'd be a great opportunity to keep me in China at a very open, relaxed job that is fun and pays decently. I have a lot of time to travel and see the country, and plenty of time to practice the language.

My biggest goal for this entire experience was to pick up Chinese. In six months, I was aware that'd be difficult to do; but in a year fluency will be much easier to approach. I also get a contract completion bonus on the year long contract that is 4x bigger than the 6 month contract and way more vacation days - big positives. Finally I negotiated terms that allow me to tutor English privately - big plus. I can rake in some cash on the side there. As long as I don't try to market my English language tutoring services in competition with Aston, I'm in the clear.

It's looking good! For a few hours I was sweating it out. Like I said, I hate commitment. Probably what did it the most was seeing what the Federal Reserve did in the US today (bought a bunch of government debt and threw another $1 trillion on to the US national debt). For real. It's not a good sign for the US. This is a travel blog though, so I won't get into it.

Cheers!