Year Four: A New City, A New Job, and New Beginnings

The last few months, I have been relatively silent for many reasons, not the least of which is all the changes in our lives which seem very insignificant when compared with the issues many of you have been facing in the States. The COVID crisis seems largely to have passed, which is what benefits the political situation here, although there are significant monitoring policies still in place. In our previous city, Xiamen, students have been allowed to return to their universities for the new school year, but they have been locked on campus and must apply for permission to leave campus. Over the most recent break (which should have been at least a week long) the students merely given a long weekend vacation which was designed to prevent them from returning home and bringing the virus back with them. In our current situation, we are merely facing occasional mask requirements and a few health code checks, though that may also be because we are living in a much more rural setting.

As to that setting, we just moved about three hours (by high speed train) south of Xiamen and are currently in Daya Bay, which is technically a part of HuiZhou city even though it is easily a one-hour freeway drive outside HuiZhou. So, although HuiZhou is a city of about 4 million, Daya Bay is a community of about 20,000 (by my estimate) and the area we live in is smaller than that, except on holiday weekends. Yes, we are in a resort town, which means that it is relatively quiet, calm, and isolated. Absent are all the western fast food restaurants and chain stores; gone are all the supermarkets; missing is any semblance of mass transit. So, we either have to travel 30+ minutes to find city life or just stay put and deal with a slower pace of life. We are generally choosing the latter, which means that we are becoming Taobao (think Amazon) masters.

So, why did we move and what are we doing? Well, back in December, long before COVID hit, we knew that there needed to be a change in my job. The university I was working at was becoming an unfriendly workplace (and it increasingly continued in that direction during the year) so we began looking in other directions. As much as we wanted to stay in Xiamen, no opportunities were opening. Then in mid-February, I was offered a position at an international school in Daya Bay teaching with a former colleague of mine. We took time to seek guidance, and as illogical as it seemed at the time, we were led to take this opportunity. 

 Well, time bore out that decision as being the correct one. Over the next few months, my university became hostile toward its foreign workers. For example, the school restricted all foreign teachers from  leaving Xiamen, even though there were no government restrictions on travel at the time. So, Sandy and Emily traveled to Daya Bay to look for housing. Upon their return to Xiamen, they were confronted by the school’s property manager who angrily demanded to know why they left Xiamen. We had not told anyone at the school that they were leaving the Xiamen. Our best guess as to what happened is that the school must have been alerted by the government because Sandy and Emily did have to use their passports when boarding the train. Fortunately, nothing came of the situation -- except that they secured a good apartment for us. Other indicators that it was time to move were that the social landscape of Xiamen was changing with many of our friends shut out of Xiamen and the opportunities we had been working with in the community disappeared. From our current perspective, we are confident that the move we made was the best move. However, that did mean a major change in our lives.

With the impossibility of returning to the US for summer vacation, we focused our energies on moving. My new employer was very generous, providing moving expenses and an early paycheck which made the move and setting up a new life much easier. By the middle of August, we were settled into our new apartment and had a basic lay of the community.

So, what are we doing now? Well, Emily has begun her freshman year in college at an online school, and Sandy has joined her at the college in order to finish her BA. They both are majoring in international studies. This has been a major adjustment for both of them as it does require a lot of focus and time, but they are both enjoying their classes and the experience. And they have both found friendships with people at the school I'm working at. Since there are few foreigners in the area, our social circles mainly revolve around people we know from the school, which is nice for the sense of community it provides.

For me, I am now teaching at BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, which is a franchise school that began as a charter school in Arizona, spread across the US, and now has reached China and Thailand. The school is a boarding school with students from grades 5-11 and is planning on adding grade 12 next year. It is very serious about college prep, requiring students to take six AP classes in order to graduate. Last year about 500 AP tests were taken at our school, and the average score was 3.8. For those of you unfamiliar with AP scoring, here is a quick primer: The score is based on a 5-point scale with a score of 2 indicating college readiness, and scores of 3-5 earning varying amounts of college credit depending on the subject and the university awarding credit. So, an average score of 3.8 is impressive. 

 

The school is very demanding of its students and also of its teachers. It has been a tiring 4 ½ weeks of school, but I am enjoying it. Right now, I am teaching three sections of Honors English Language and Composition 9, one section of AP English Literature and Composition, and one section of Honors English Literature and Composition – which I actually am acting as the classroom presence in the class for a teacher who is teaching by video from the US. Although we are able to hold regular classes, this is a very common situation at our school since about 15 new teachers are currently out of the country and are teaching remotely while awaiting their Chinese visas. Some of them should arrive at the school during October, and we hope all of them will be here by December.

So, this year has brought about major changes in our lives, but we are hopeful that there is a good design and are excited about the new opportunities that we will have.