Jen had been trying to decide over the past few days whether or not to leave Liaocheng.She was unhappy teaching such young children and the only placements available of older students were in other provinces.She made up her mind today that she would leave Shandong province in the hope of finding a more suitable placement.

I jumped in a taxi to school and as it got the crossroads I had a text from Miss Wang saying "where are you? Stay at home please. Miss shi is coming" so I had to try to gesture for the taxi driver to take me back to the yard gate.We had literally crossed the road, got to the traffic lights and turned around, but I gave him the minimum fare anyway.He laughed and gave it back to me.I thought that was really sweet, a lot of the drivers in Liaocheng (and the world) would have taken it.I sat around waiting for Miss Shi but there was no sign of her.What was going on??

Echo phoned me and told me she was sorry that I had lost my job at the kindergarten.She sounded really upset but at least I knew what was going on at last.I asked her why and she said that the parents were unhappy about the school spending money on a foreign teacher.I've never been fired or lost a job in my life!Imagine if you were told not to come back to work in the UK because people didn't like seeing your foreign face around the place.Madness!Well anyway I got on the phone to James from the agency and told him everything that had been going on since we arrived in Liaocheng two weeks ago.He said it sounded like it had been a complete shambles and he wanted to get us all out of town and back to Beijing ASAP.However, over the weekend I had come to realise that I actually quite like it here.I felt really bad because if it wasn't for losing my job there was no way I would consider leaving, despite all the initial difficulties, I felt settled in Liaocheng now.I called Ruth and told her to come over with Debbie so we could all speak to James and make a decision.While I was waiting for them I had a thought- if Jen is leaving town then maybe her job will now be a vacancy.

Ruth and Debbie arrived and we got on the phone to James.Debbie was still waiting to start her placement on the outskirts of Liaocheng and she was happy to stay and see what her job was like when they moved her there.Ruth didn't really want to be in town on her own so if James made me leave when Jen left she said she would go too.I told him I didn't want to leave and that I would like him to help me find another job in Liaocheng- how about Jen's?He said he would contact the placement team in the morning.I didn't have much faith as he seemed keener for us to leave Liaocheng.I contacted Echo and asked her if she could do me a favour and tell Miss Shi and Jen's Headmaster that I would happily do her job, especially as she wasn't going to be working her notice.

I didn't get a response so I went to Lilly Coffee with Ruth and Debbie.While we were eating our meal, three other foreigners- Patrick, Dean and Shush- came in and we all introduced ourselves and started to chat.They are also teachers in Liaocheng and we told them what had been going on with our agency and with my job situation and they basically said - that's China!Being jobless at least I had the advantage of not getting up tomorrow the morning, so I drank quite a bit of rice wine.Jen called me saying her Headmaster and Miss Wang were at our apartment and wouldn't let her leave.They were showing her the clause in the contract saying she had to work 15 day notice.I told her that I was supposed to receive 15 day notice if my school wanted to fire me and didn't, but that she could tell them I would work her notice on her behalf.She was told by James that she may have to work the 15 day notice herself and when she agreed to this they let her come to meet us.

When Jen arrived at Lilly Coffee she told us about being kept in the apartment and she was annoyed about possibly having to work out her notice as she just wanted to get out of Liaocheng.We drank some more as everyone was feeling pretty stressed out by now.Then suddenly Echo and the Headmaster appeared in the café.This was kind of embarrassing… Chinese women don't really drink in Liaocheng, they don't usually go out on a school night, and they don't seem to hang around with groups of guys drinking and shisha-ing.Although I don't feel bad for doing these things out of their sight, I would rather them not to have seen it in action!

It turned out they weren't there for Jen, they wanted to talk to me and took me into a booth in the café to speak privately.We talked for ages with Echo acting as interpreter between me and Jen's Headmaster (Teacher Khan) and basically I was offered the job on the spot.They asked for my assurance that I would be staying until January and I said I absolutely wanted to and I was so happy not to be leaving Liaocheng.Ruth came past and I told her I'd been given the job so we could both stay in Liaocheng.She was really happy too.Teacher Khan does not speak much English but she smiled at me and said "welcome to school" and then Echo and Teacher Khan left and although I wanted to stay and celebrate I decided to get home and get some sleep ready for my first day at the new school tomorrow.