Hey Cantankerous,

Thanks...it's an action-filled life. ;-{)

On the construction you saw/heard, it's even worse than you postulate. That construction was the remodeling company moving into our old space, NOT any kind of renovation at ICS. At all our pleading ICS finally did do some sprucing up, but I think they were given a budget of about 50 RMB...they took down the horrible plastic Christmas trees, moved out some of the old junk (broken furniture, decrepit equipment, etc.) that was piled all over the place, rearranged the furniture, and covered some bulletin boards (former whiteboards no longer needed, as there were no longer any classrooms for them) with pictures torn out of some National Geographics. It was a bit like hanging an Airwick in a sewer: not much help.
Anyway...we ended up with fewer classrooms AND months of power-tool noise drowning everything out, to beautify some other company.

Small woman, reptilian personality...that would be the teacher elevated to management after the good one was given the heave-ho. New girl had been a good teacher, apparently, but utterly clueless as far as management went...and apparently the allure and power of management turned her brain to cheese sauce, because she just bent right on over for all these ludicrous bankrupt programs.

She's now gone herself, and a new management team is in place. Don't know much about them yet, but I'll be paying them a visit very soon, I promise you.

As for foreign vs. Chinese, I don't share your observation. I've been ripped off and abused by foreigners at least as much as by Chinese, and have come to think of foreigners as often being even worse. It doesn't help that there are few fully or mostly foreign-owned schools in China (the taxes eat you alive!), and most foreign managers are essentially paper tigers with no real authority of their own. Their job typically is to try and ease you into the will of the Chinese owners, NOT to protect you in the event of a problem.

Also, international schools aren't much of an option for me. They typically require a real teaching credential from a Western country, and I don't have one...and am not terribly interested in getting one. I also have little enthusiasm for teaching the larval and pupal stages; I'm a teacher of adults and adults only. The money can be quite good, though...

I'm OK on visa...I'm a damned lucky guy...and am trying my best to move into less teaching work. I'm doing some marketing for a bar here (and am also their DJ), and have a fairly good gig writing for a local magazine, and teaching as little as possible while still meeting the ends.
I hope your visa comes out well too!