Click-clack, click-clack

As good luck would have it, I was hired on the spot at the school I've been lovingly referring to as the Chilton of Shanghai. [That's a Gilmore Girls' reference. If you don't get it, please clear your schedule and go rent seasons 1-6 immediately [*don't bother with season 7, they switched writers=destroyed the show.] But I digress.

My interview was for Thursday afternoon with the elementary school principal for an elementary substitute position. Well, I passed! She signed me up for a job the next morning and two more the following week before whisking me away to the Middle School and High School offices to meet with those principals, despite the fact that I didn't have appointments to meet with either of them. Both gentlemen squeezed me into their busy schedules and gave me the thumbs up, so I was hired THREE times in ONE day [don't worry, I didn't let it go to my head or anything...] Keeping in mind here- I'm just a sub. Right. Check. Moving on.

So I get up Friday morning, SO excited to start my first day of school. I laid out my outfit the night before, I got up way earlier than I had to, I even went to wait for the bus half an hour before it was supposed to pick me up just to make sure I didn't miss it. I stood on the street. Waiting. Waiting. Squinting into the sun. Checking my watch. Waiting.

But it never came. Stupid bus! I was there so early and you still outmaneuver me! Oh well, I'd just have to take a cab, but since I didn't have enough money on me to cover it I had to run back to our apartment [literally, more like a fast skip] and climb the 4 flights of stairs in our non-air-conditioned corridor to our room to grab the cash I'd left on the kitchen table. I burst open the door to the apartment and reach for the dining table for the cash. Gone! What?! I just climbed four flights of stairs only to find that Joel [even though he still denies it] had taken the money? So I had to get to an ATM. The closest one is just on the other side of Joel's highschool- probably a 5-6 minute walk away. No problem! I can do this! By this point it's well after 7:30. The bus should have come at 7:00. I'm starting to get a little antsy.

I get to the ATM, "glistening" quite a bit now in the heat of the morning. Someone is inside already [it's in it's own little building off the guard house]. perfect. So I wait. Moments later a peeved man emerges from the tiny building sputtering in Chinese. I shove past him, more aggressively than I usually would and go to put my card into the machine. It. won't. take. my. card! No! You can't be broken! I already missed the bus! It's my first day!

I tried calling Joel for moral support [and to attempt to reclaim the dollars that were so wrongfully swiped from the dining table] but his phone was broken. My fury was welling up within me. Luckily, I found a familiar face in the crowd of people shuttling into school- a new friend who lent me the money to take a cab.  My driver, naturally, didn't know where the school was and I ended up more than half an hour late on my very first day.

Once I actually arrived at the school, the teaching part was a breeze. I had fourth graders, and they were great. I subbed again today for a fifth grade class, and I genuinely enjoyed it. I wore heels today and, let's be honest, reveled in the sound of the click-clack, click-clack they made against the floor as I walked. I promise you the students sat up straighter in their seats when I crossed over from rug to tile.

Back again tomorrow, hoping the bus is there this time. It was this morning, but it's a very tricky bus.