Today was another scorcher at 31 degrees! It has also been a very weird day. It all started when I was trying to get a taxi to work when one of the other teachers pulled over in his taxi and I jumped in with him. The first thing he said to me was “how’s it feel to be back?” and that he had got the email from Dave saying that I was in Hong Kong trying to get my visa. I thought this was a bit weird and said that I had been to Hong Kong on the last break but didn’t get my visa. I got to work and told my friend about the conversation, thinking it was weird that another colleague would email saying that I was in Hong Kong when I wasn’t.
At this point I should probably say about what has happened over the last two weeks. I hadn’t mentioned this before (to anyone) because things can change so quickly that I wasn’t sure how things would work out. Before the Easter break I was asked if I could get a new visa when I was in Hong Kong. In my contract it says that the school will pay for all costs so they would reimburse me, but as I had booked and paid for my holiday to Hong Kong myself, I didn’t have the money to pay for a visa myself, so I had said that if the school gave me the money upfront then I would get my visa. This is a conversation that I had with the admin girls who sorted out visas and they said that they needed to check with the principal first. To try and cover myself, as one of the admin girls has a reputation of not doing her job, I also asked the vice principal to speak to the principal for me as well. A few days after I got back from Hong Kong I was told that Vanessa (the admin woman that has been making life difficult for everyone) had told the principal that she had told me that she had the money for me for a visa and I never went to collect it. Now this is a complete lie and I was furious that she would say that to the principal, who believed her. The principal then said that because of that, the school weren’t going to pay for me to go to Hong Kong to get a new visa and I would have to leave when my visa expired on the 16th May. Now I have had a few problems with Vanessa in the past over various issues and she doesn’t like me and I do not like her and I was so angry that my boss, the vice principal, said that he would speak to the principal and a few other people did on my behalf, but the principal still believed Vanessa and wasn’t changing her mind. Although she did say that the biggest reason that the school were now not getting me a new visa was because it cost too much money to fly me to Hong Kong, put me up in accommodation and pay for a new visa for me when there is only 6 weeks left of school. This I could completely understand and although I was really upset at the time, I had only just sort of accepted that I was going to be leaving early.
Anyway, back to today. I had forgotton about my conversation that morning and was going about my day when I bumped into another collegue who threw out his arms and shouted “your back! I thought you were stranded in Hong Kong?” Now this I thought was a bit weird, this was the second person to say something about me being in Hong Kong. After further questioning it turns out that another teacher had gone to Hong Kong to get his visa and they weren’t letting him back into the country and somehow I had been mixed into this story because everyone knew that I needed a new visa soon so assumed that I had been in Hong Kong. All a bit weird.
By this point, I needed to go and speak to the principal as if I changed my flights I knew that I would get charged and seen as that was the schools fault I wanted them to pay the charges. I also wanted to get my side of the story across as well. I went to see the principal and she agreed to pay the charges and told me that the only reason that the school were not paying for the visa was that it was just too much money for the school to pay for just 6 weeks. I told her that I had heard that Vanessa had said that she had the money for me and that that was a lie and then I got a bit emotional as I was telling her that I loved my job and that I wasn’t ready to leave and that I was concerned as to what would happen to my classes once I had left. I’m glad that I put my side across and that the school were going to pay for my charges and I left it at that and went back to the office.
At lunchtime we had ordered food in which was supposed to arrive at 12pm. By 12.45pm (when classes start again) it still hadn’t arrived so I had to go to my lessons and eat it at snack time at 2.15pm. During lunch I was speaking to my friend Raena about the weird conversations that I had had today and asked if she had received an email about me being in Hong Kong and she said that she hadn’t and that they were weird conversations.
At 2.15pm I came back to the office to eat my lunch and Doreenda was there aswell, we had 15 minutes to eat our lunch and get back to our classrooms, which was less than ideal. Just as I was finishing mine Raena came into the office and told me that the principal wanted to see me. Now the first thing that I thought was that I was in trouble and I was really nervous walking over to her office. On my way there James came out and asked me where I was headed, I told him that I had a been summoned to the principals office and he said that was where he was heading aswell. We got to the office and the principal, both vice principals and the curriculum co-ordinator were sat waiting for me, I instantly thought oh this is bad, I’m going to be sent home or something! I sat down and everyone was looking at me and the principal said to me “I don’t want you to change your flights” I wasn’t sure what she meant at first but then she said “we are sending you to Hong Kong for your visa on Sunday 13th May, the school needs you”. She carried on talking but I didn’t really take anything else in, I was still trying to absorb what she just said. James walked me out of the office and said to me that I should probably go to speak to the grade 1 office. I wasn’t really sure what had just happened and I knew that grade 1 were all teaching so I went to Raenas office as she had just come from seeing the principal when she came to find me.
Now this is the part that I am still in complete shock about and get all choked up every time I think about it. Yesterday, Dave (who I was attached to with grade 1) Tracy and Ashley had sent an email out to all of the teachers saying about my situation, that the new visa came down to money and that everyone wanted me to stay because of the hard work that I do and that they were going to all pitch in and see if the school would meet them halfway. By lunchtime they had the 3000 RMB (£300) and Dave and Tracy (another grade 1 teacher who’s sons are in both my grade 2 and 4 classes) had gone to see the principal. The principal had been blown away that all of the teachers wanted me to stay that much that they had rallied round for me and she had said that if it comes down to money and everyone thinks that I am that valuable that the school would pay for my visa and she gave everyone their money back! As Raena was telling me all of this I felt so overwhelmed that everyone would do something so nice for me, and that teachers that I don’t even help out in their classes had all pitched in to help me stay that I was in complete shock and so emotional I just started crying. I think I sat there not being able to string a sentence together for a good 30 minutes, I just couldn’t believe everyone had rallied round for me like that. I may have my moments where I hate my job, but the people I work with are true friends with hearts of gold and I am just so thankful to everyone.
At 4pm James came into the office laughing and saying he was glad that I was staying and that it had all worked out. Now I had had a conversation about the two teachers saying I had been stranded in Hong Kong and James had walked over to the principals office with me, the whole time not letting on that he knew what was going to happen, I’m never playing poker with James! I packed up my things and went down to the grade 1 office and thanked them all, they had heard about my weird conversations with the two other teachers and then they had heard that I had been to see the principal and had been worried that that would have ruined their plan, but it had all turned out well. I was still a bit shocked and just didn’t know what to say, I think it’s one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me. We decided to go out for a celebration drink and then for some food at the swan and had a really nice evening. I’m feeling very lucky right now to have such great friends.
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