The Hong Kong Shuffle

I am literally just back from my second visa run to Hong Kong. I left late on a Saturday afternoon and returned on Sunday.

Eve, Ruby, and I thought this would be best, as it would not necessitate my missing any classes. We decided not even to apply for a tourist visa this time; hopefully, their thinking is that they will have their permit in place within the month, and then I can just go out again and apply for my residency visa from abroad on a third (and hopefully final) visa run.

I really didn't take advantage of my time in Hong Kong, though that was partly because there was so little of it this time. I got in late at night, did not wake up until after eleven (illness and depression seem to make me want to sleep for long stretches lately), and had to be at the airport by three for my return flight. I did take another trip on the Star Ferry, and rode the trolley a little bit, but that was really it. I did, however, get some brochures about tours around the Hong Kong harbor, which I will fully take advantage of the next time I pass through.

Before I left, Eve, Ruby, and I narrowly averted another serious kerfuffle--though I suspect it has simply been delayed and will come Monday. Last Friday night, at 7:30, Ruby told me I had a second class on Saturday. There had been two boys in for this class the previous week, but from the way she described things during the week, I thought the class had closed--it seemed to be another example of my "losing" students. I told Eve and Ruby I couldn't prepare for a class with as little notice as I was given, and was extremely tired to boot (I had gotten almost no sleep the previous night), and so they hired a sub for that class that day.

This Friday night, Ruby said something like, "You have two classes after you go to Hong Kong." I took this to mean that there would be two classes for me to teach after my return from Hong Kong; we had decided the previous week I wouldn't teach the class this week, either, because of the trip.

I thought nothing of her comment, until yesterday. I finished my morning class at 12:30. After that, Ruby asked me some questions about how I would get to the airport, and I said I would probably take a cab. She said there was no need for that--she would get me information on the bus, and I should come back at 1:30. So I left to go have lunch.

I returned to the school at 2:00 to be told that "I was late" and "my class was waiting for me." I guess Ruby had meant, "You have two classes tomorrow; after that, you go to Hong Kong." But this is not what she said. As teaching the second class would not have conflicted with my trip to Hong Kong, it would have been reasonable for her to expect me to teach it, but she never communicated this to me--or at least, when she tried to, she got her English mixed up.

Well, I was completely unprepared; obviously, I couldn't teach the class. I told Eve and Ruby so, and then went upstairs, to where the boys and my Chinese Teaching Assistant, Cecilia, were waiting. I told them there was no class, and Cecilia decided to go confer with Eve and Ruby, as she said she distinctly remembered my having understood I had the class both yesterday and today. She did this in front of the students, whom I had just told to go home, clearly contradicting me in the classroom.

Now, Cecilia's English is better than Eve's or Ruby's. But even she occasionally gets mixed up. But I have a feeling Eve and Ruby will selectively choose to believe Cecilia over me. After all, I can't possibly be trusted to say what I do and do not understand in my own language, right?

Eve and Ruby were clearly angry about the whole thing. Of course, rather than choosing to be angry at their own poor English skills, they chose to be angry at me. Eve said something to the effect of, "So when will you be able to prepare to teach this class?" Umm...after I get back from Hong Kong, which is what we agreed. She said she was "so very angry"--although I suspect she uses "angry" as a catch-all term that includes what a native speaker would mean by angry, frustrated, or upset. But her tone was clearly one of near-fury.

I decided to leave quickly rather than let the situation continue. Nothing good could come of pursuing it then, and I hoped that by Monday, Eve and Ruby might cool down and see reason.

We'll see where this all goes when I show up for work on Monday.