I tried for the most part to spend little time with the expat community when I first reached China because I wanted to learn the language and the culture and who better to learn Chinese from than actual Chinese people.  However, sometimes there is comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone in a strange and foreign system.  So when I had complaints about my visa issues, I went to the expats.

Most of you know that while I do not always understand how people feel, I am empathetic so I feed a little – rather a lot off other people’s emotions.  Some of the expat community who teach English or within the English speaking schools are having issues because the Chinese government at least in Hubei are cracking down on those without proper credentials.  In this case if you are an English teacher then you should either be a native English speaker from a country where English is your native tongue or you must have a degree from a university in a country where English is your native language.

Unfortunately, nobody really informed the expat community of these rules until it was rather too late.  Now I say informed because it turns out that the rules have been in place for some time but it has not been enforced.  Sometimes it is our fault because we do not fully understand the written Chinese contracts and the English contracts are only 1/2 translated because people don’t know how to translate it and sometimes people are just unethical and take advantage. There are people who were leaving for holiday or had already left for vacation and now cannot leave or are stuck outside of the country.  This is extremely bad for the expat community who have basically settled in China and are now scrambling to find a job back home or find a way back here to get their stuff out.

This is really scary to me and I think that I am feeding off their anxiety.  Had to call home for a wake up call.  Friend told me to stop inventing problems for myself and to focus on the bar exam.  She reminded me that I am not in this particular category of teachers/professors and that I need to focus on the bar.  The idea of leaving for a nice vacation and coming home to find everything I worked for in the last couple of months/years gone is terrible.  I get upset if I lose 10 yuan to counterfeiters not sure what I would do if I lost everything I squirreled away for a bit.  Furthermore, I would be really upset at missing meetings, and overall losing my plans for things.

Tried to help and asked people about the immigration policy and getting lawyers to help but the answers seem unsatisfactory because usually the advice is you cannot help.  It makes me sad, frustrated, and think that life is so unfair sometime.

Current Mood:  Anxiety ridden and possibly subconsciously not trying to take the bar exam by distracting myself with loads of problems.