PAY DAY!

It has been three months since I last got a paycheck. It feels good to be making money again instead of spending it. We still have some savings and shouldn't need to touch it again for some time. Since China is mostly a cash based country I get paid in cash. We will keep the cash under lock and key and spend it as sparingly as possible. This first pay is for five weeks work at an average of 31 hours each week. The contract is for 26 hours per week and 6,000RMB per month. I received 25 hours overtime pay but that is only at 50RMB per hour. We get paid less for overtime per hour than we do regular. This first paycheck was for 7,070RMB and included five weeks instead of four. The school really got thier moneys worth. In the states you are under salary or hourly, not both. The hours are figured weekly and then we are paid monthly. It will all work out in the end. Of course the school also spent a good deal of money getting our house set-up for us before we arrived. The only thing we had to pay for out of this pay is 300RMB for our new local phone cards and 180RMB for water. Next month we will pay for the electric which is billed on the 4th, 8th and 12th months.