So here are 7 things that are different here....
#1 I don't clean. Yes You heard me. We have a cleaning lady. So after my class- if I don't feel like cleaning I can walk right out and leave the room a hot mess. The best was the first day when I did not understand and went about cleaning the entire art room as normal. Nana and the cleaning lady just stared at me in confused disbelief. They just watched me scrub everything- until I asked what the big deal is. I still HELP clean- because it's too weird.
#2 Children are scared of me. Yup- instead of just being kooky Ms. Anna who everybody chases around the gym till I get tackled- now I'm scary Ms. Anna. The kids are FREAKED out by my blonde hair and green eyes. But the best part is after they get use to my freakish features and give me a hug. It feels like an EXTRA victory.
#3 Sales staff, front desk girls and marketers to boot! A typical US Romp N Roll has 2-3 full times employees and 4 or 5 part timers. Here at RnR Beijing we have 2 full time front desk girls, 3 full time Marketers, 6 full time sales people, 4 full time managers, 1 full time cleaning lady, 2 full time teacher/interpreters, and 2 American teachers. Yup- that's right 20 people.
#4 You bought HOW MANY classes? Here at Romp N Roll Beijing you don't sign up for 1 twelve-week course or a 6-week course you buy a certain number of classes out right. And then you pick & choose every week how many classes you want to do. So one week you do art explorer 1, the next week tumble tunes, and the next week princess. And they buy up to 96 classes!
#5 Events! Events! Events! We have an s-ton of events here to bring people in. But they don't always make sense. We had a crawling race one day. And I don't really like the idea of pitting baby against baby to find a winner. But I guess any publicity is good publicity.
#6 You work ALL DAY! RnR US style is you come and teach your classes then go home. But here at RNR you work all day if you have classes or not. Yup- so thats why I'm sitting here updating. Or skyping people. Because I physically have to be here- even if it is a breezy 80 degree day with bright blue skies.
#7 Made in China. Not SOLD in China. This one does not make any sense to me- but most of the stuff that we buy for art class in the US is made in china. But they REFUSE to sell it here in China. So it's left us up a creek with out a paddle when it comes to finding cheap pillow cases or pirate eye patches. So we're getting creative for our art projects (wooden air planes anybody?) Very frustrating. Same with many of our RnR Books. They don't have the very hungry caterpillar. I guess because it doesn't share communist ideals?
Those are interesting differences. It's fascinating how transferring the concept to a country with a different economic structure changes things. And yet, it's still Romp n' Roll! Thanks for sharing.
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