Under Construction

If I had to use two words to describe China they would be: Under Construction. Every direction you look there are old buildings being torn down and new high-rises going up. China has more cranes per captia than any other country in the world. For everything they build they use cranes. Construction causes so much of the air pollution that this summer in Beijing companies will have to stop construction for three months while the Olympics are held.
My new school is under construction as well. A week before I returned to China my school got a new Center Director (because my school is technically an "English Training Center"). The new CD has a strong belief in franchise, mostly in the sense that all of the World English Training Centers should look exactly the same. So we are getting new flooring, new paint, a new desk arrangement, new tables and chairs, a pool table, and hi-tech English Corner. Instead of orange, yellow, and light wood colors the school is now bright blue and grey so far, I'm not sure what color the new chairs will be. The paint is noxious even though we keep the windows open. They say construction will be done in another 5 days. The head foreign teacher, Jackie, would rather have had a printer for the teacher's office. But we are only small potatoes.
No one is very happy with the new Center Director. She is a very traditional Chinese boss. The teachers can no longer wear jeans to work, though Jackie still does. I wore jeans the first few days because I still hadn't gotten my iron from Ali's house and the CD told one of the students she didn't like me wearing jeans. One of the Chinese tutors used to have red hair that was a little bit crazy, but the new CD forced her to change it. The CD never chats with the teachers, just has meeting with them when she needs to. Unlike the previous Center Director she is removed from the every day going-ons of the teachers and students. It is the same sense I had last year about the leaders at my school. Leaders in China are an intangible and incomprehensible higher authority hovering above that much be reached through numerous other little leaders. Part of the appeal of this job was that the Center Director was so approachable and relaxed, much more like bosses in America. Supposedly the old Center Director should be returning, but nothing is definite in China. It is always under construction.