Paul,

Interesting to read about your experiences. It is very familiar to me, this thing. I have seen many teachers come to China, and there is a pattern. (My company even has this in the training manual.)

First there is the 'honeymoon'. Everything is new and exciting. This slowly wears off and from about 10 weeks to 3 months comes the second phase. This is the 'rejection' phase. People start to miss their home culture. Everything here seems stupid and dirty. People are often lonely as they haven't the friends they had back home. The language is often frustrating.

IF you can get over this phase then things start to improve. YOu meet new people and make new friends, you adapt to the way of life and generally settle down and start to pick up some of the lingo.

By the end of a year most people feel quite at home and comfortable here.

Your school though, sounds pretty severe. Please don't think that is the norm. The lack of freedom for the teachers, does this apply to yo as well?

Schools have a responsibility to look after their 'foreigners' and they will have a world of trouble if you have major problems, or an accident (over and above losing one of their teachers). Hence many schools try and limit where and when the teachers can go (out). This, of course, creates many problems, as we are not accustomed to this. If this applies to you, you need to speak to the boss and tell him this isn't in your contract! (Unless it is of course!!)

Anyway, stick in there, and if you stay in China for another year I would find a school which isn't such a grim place! (Well, it sounds bad from here!)