Mountain Sheep and Sexist Cows

My school pays a bonus of about 75$ if I show up every working day of the month. But if you miss for any reason, you don't get it. So, once you've missed an afternoon, you might as well take another day. I'm taking tomorrow, July 31, because Friday, August 1, is the school's "summer vacation." One day. Of course, the Chinese mindset thinks of it as 3 days, but I'm not going to address that right now.

So, because I've got a 4-day weekend, I'm done bitching about my job for the moment.

I'm going to be a complete sexist cow for a minute.

Anytime I have done anything with a group of Chinese people, I'm always struck about how much they talkabout their plans. They plan things like group trips, graduation ceremonies, dinner outings, and so on. And how they always follow the group. My school was planning a graduation ceremony (kindergarten! Six years old!) for months. And of course, it made no difference to the kids.

When they eat in a group, they all wait around outside and talk about going in, and then go in and talk about the food, and then order together for everyone.

Or a story from my boyfriend Tim, who went on a trip with his staff to a mountain resort town. The Chinese staff had planned for everyone to go look at some sheep and take pictures of each other. The foreign (i.e. white) staff all wanted to sit at a restaurant and drink. The Chinese staff were totally confused and couldn't figure out how to accomodate this unplanned suggestion.

And then I realized, just today, that the real problem is something else: Men virtually never work in these schools in Taiwan. All of this cross-cultural nonsense had nothing to do with Chinese people. It's because they're all women.

There's my controversial remark for the week.