Blogharbor was down during the national mourning period as was Google Documents so I couldn't post, the Party had blocked Internet sites that were deemed too "fun". I had decided Monday afternoon, prior to finding out sites were down, I wouldn't say anything bad about China while blogging during this time as a of respect.

It was hard not to blog during those three days especially when a slew of bad events took place and I really needed to vent about them. Blogharbor's back up so I can commence my complaining. I started writing all of this up on Monday but things have been so busy that I've not gotten to finish it until now. Be prepared, it's long and it's a rant.

Niels & I have been having the worst luck with taxis the past couple weeks. Two Saturdays ago we were on our way to EM School, for movie night with some of the teachers, and the driver decided to take us on a tour of perimeter of Zhengzhou. A ride that should cost no more than 29 RMB cost us 40. When Niels confronted the driver he said that he went a "faster" way to save time. Wha...? His tour took us longer to get there.

Then last Tuesday, I spent 35 minutes waiting for a cab, for my weekly teaching gig at EM School. During that time six cabs drove past me, acknowledged my existence and then drove on, I wound up missing teaching that day because I couldn't get there.

This past Sunday, I went with Niels to his Sunday gig and the driver's meter was broken, but we didn't notice it until it was time to pay, the route he took normally costs 29RMB but it cost us 45. We called the headmistress of the school to be like "We're getting ripped off, again. Can you please help?" She talked with the driver who gave her some lame excuse on why it cost so much. Because she's so awesome she reimbursed us immediately for the fare (normally we get reimbursed for cab fare when we get paid at the end of the month) and because she was out of the office had one of her teachers call and complain to the taxi company for us as well as write them a complaint letter on our behalf. It's getting to the point of ridiculousness, and puts me in a state of nervousness every time I now get in a cab.

The letter writing campaign our friend has done on our behalf has had some positive results. I should clarify and say that she has a stake in us not getting ripped off as well. She reimburses us for our taxi fare so she's losing money because of it. The taxi driver who gave us a tour of the city is getting fined 2000 RMB (which is probably a month's salary) by the taxi company, we're getting reimbursed for the 40 RMB AND he's meeting us on Sunday to apologize. We're still waiting to hear the response from the company about the other driver, but we're guessing the same result will happen.

She's also taken to calling the cab company and having a driver meet us at our place. Once we get to her school, she has a teacher or two come out, pay the fare and make sure we we're ripped off. How awesome is she?!! We love working with her, not just because the kids at her school are great but because she cares for the well being of her teachers.

In addition to dealing with the taxi drivers who think it's cool to rip off the foreigners, there's been a rise in meanness by people at the university.

Wednesday afternoon, on the bus ride from the new campus back to the old at lunchtime, I was saving a seat for one of the other foreign teachers on the bus, because our schedules are so different the bus rides are usually the the only time we have to catch up. She didn't see me so went to the other bus. As she's approaching the buses one of teachers sitting in front of me pointed at her and started talking about how fat she was, this set me off into a rage. I shouted and the teacher turned around, made a face at me and said (in Chinese) "But she's so fat." I yelled at her (in English), "So what? You don't even know her! What the hell is your problem??" told her she was ignorant and then called her a witch. She either had no clue what I was saying or feigned the ability not to understand (a talent here) turned back around and continued talking with the teacher she was sitting with. (Did I mention that this woman is not thin?)

I was so mad I saw stars. I called Niels to vent to him I was so angry, in the process of venting I made sure to use the few words in Chinese I knew so the teacher knew I knew she was being rotten. You know how I know she could understand me? She kept turning around every time I mentioned my friend's name and when I said fat in Chinese. Niels taught me how to say rude, so I repeated it a few time to him, by saying "She's so rude." I swear I saw this awful woman squirm a few times.

As I got off the bus and was walking home we passed each other and she looked at me, so I said to her "Are you going to start talking about how fat I am, now?" (In English.) Told her she was rude (In Chinese) and then called her a stupid bitch (In English). I probably shouldn't have done that part because it just brought me down to her level, but it was either that or going over and slapping her, that's how mad I was.

I think some of the (English) teachers heard, and understood me, when I went off on the teacher on and off the bus, because in the afternoon they were a little squirrelly around me. Also a teacher who used to say hi to me and pretend to be nice to me has begun to ignore me. Do I care? No. Not once have the English teachers, as a whole, made me feel welcome, so I no longer worry what they think about me. They can suck it.

Then, while waiting for the classroom to empty out so I could enter it for my 5pm class, two students walked out, looked at me, looked at each other and then started laughing. I went after them and stared yelling at them asking if they thought it was funny to make fun of a teacher. They kept walking away as I was yelling, which made me even angrier. I knew they understood me even though they kept pretending not to understand. The amount of disrespect shown to the foreign teachers is unbelievable. They think we're not humans, but dancing monkeys, so we can be treated any which way they like.

After English Corner last night one of my writing students asked if he could talk with me in private, he said that there was something "bad" I had done and wanted to talk about it. He told me he had seen me yelling at the girls and couldn't understand why I was so mad because I'm, as he said, even tempered. I told him what had happened earlier in the day with my friend and how these girls were the straw that broke the camel's back, and he said understood why I had gotten so mad and if had happened to him he would have hit them. He also asked if maybe perhaps they were being curious. I talked with him about the difference between curiosity and meanness and he said he was sorry when people did these things to me and that it was wrong to treat people this way.

My conversation with him was so different from many I've had with other people about situations like this. They tend to make excuses for those making fun of us. He didn't, he came out and said people like that are bad and that he hoped these experiences didn't affect my time in China for the worse, because he and his classmates really enjoyed my class and are sad that I won't be returning in Fall. His words were all I needed to hear, and they made me feel better.