Most everything in China is disorganized.

Seriously.

Talk about cultural differences. First of all, you can rarely get a straight answer out of anyone, for anything. I attribute this to the major differences in communication style.

I like to know everything. I like to have everything in order, and I like to communicate what I know so that everyone else will know what's going on too. And it's not that people in China don't have everything in order, it's just that they don't communicate it in a way I can understand. In China, a lot of things are assumed, so things aren't necessarily said outloud. But that's not helpful for me. And it's very frustrating, because it just means that I have no idea what's going on most of the time.

Sometimes I don't even know when I need to do something until just a few hours before I need to do it, and sometimes even only a few minutes before. I know it's not because the staff at my school want to sabotage me, it's just the way things are done. But it doesn't make things any easier for me. I've just become the obnoxious American who asks the same question over and over again (mainly because I can never figure out what the real answer is).

I have so much sympathy for the office staff at my school. The office staff is nearly all women, and most of the time they have absolutely no clue what is going on. The president of my school is such a deceitful asshole liar. He's a misogynist, and he has no respect for anyone but himself and the other men at the school. I don't think he ever does any work, and whenever we ask him anything, he just lies and gives us the run-around, telling us to ask the office staff. But when we ask the office staff, they never know what's going on either since no one tells them anything. And they do everything in English! It's crazy. I certainly wouldn't be able to run an office using only Chinese.

So today I showed up 10 minutes late to my writing class. It was soo embarrassing. I got sick last night, and so I didn't correct any student homework, I drugged myself with NyQuil and went to bed early. I woke up this morning, taught for an hour, ate lunch, and went back to sleep. After lunch, I passed out again, until about 3:15pm, then I woke up, corrected student homework and ran to the classroom. I showed up to my Section 2 writing class. The students in the classroom said, "Teacher, we don't have class today. You teach us tomorrow." They showed me their schedules, and they were absolutely right. I must be out of my mind (Sadly, this wasn't the first time this week that I got the sections mixed up). So I ran to the office to check my schedule, and Mandy, one of the office staff, says, "Wendy, your students are looking for you. You're teaching section 1 writing today." So I go to the classroom (it's 3:38pm, and class starts at 3:40pm so I'm thinking, "Whew.. I'm just in time."), and the students are going crazy. When I walk in the classroom they say, "Wendy's late! Wendy's late! You have to sing a song! Sing a song!" Obviously I'm not going to sing. So I ask the class, "What time does class start?" I look at their schedules, and all of them say 3:30pm. But MY schedule says 3:40pm. What the heck!? See! Serious disorganization if the teacher doesn't even know what's going on. I take full responsibility for showing up to the wrong section, but for typing the wrong start time for classes on my schedule? Not cool.

But yeah, this level of disorganization, I don't think it's only my school. I think it's China. It's just major cultural differences in how things are run (and it's not even an issue of a language barrier. I'm pretty sure that even if I were completely fluent in Chinese, I'd still be confused all the time, just cuz I'm not used to the process of how things are done around here). And honestly, I don't think I'll ever get used to it. So for anyone who is considering working in China, prepare yourself for major confusion, like all the time.