This will be fairly long.
So I found out a couple days ago, that I lost my court case in Shanghai. This is ranty enough, but not the main reason for the rant.
For background, let me tell you what the case was about. back in May, I decided to resign from my teaching position in Wuxi so I could attend school in Fall because I wanted to pursue an education in medicine. I looked carefully over my contract for the terms of resignation and found that they wanted 60 working days notice to resign, and to make sure it didn't interfere with classes. Fair enough. So I told my boss near the end of May that I was leaving 60 working days later (which would be in August). I got a letter of acceptance of resignation from the Head office in Shanghai but instead of agreeing to the stipulated 60 days, they were kicking me out at the end of June. My bosses boss (the head principal) also decided he wasn't going to pay me for July and not allow me to work the summer school. So I was basically looking at losing $8,000. I fought it, told them that if that was the case, then I don't accept the resignation at the end of June (this was in writing and verbal). This went back on and off for 2 months--well into July-- until I said screw it, I'm getting a lawyer. It went to court in September and weeks later I found out I lost. Why? Because the court decided I accepted the resignation. Well gee, if that was true, why did I take it to court, dumbass? Also, why doesn't the school have to follow their own contract? Ironically, it wasn't a Chinese person that screwed me, it was a British principal.
Surely that's the end of the rant though, yes? Well, no. I might be out that money, but at least June was going to bringing home at least $8,000-10,000 of her own for our wedding.
Nope. She based this off what her father received when her mom died, and what her grandfather received when her grandmother died. We'll be lucky to get $4,000. So here I was, looking at a comfortable $15,000-$20,000 to start us off, and we're down to 4k. Oh, and over half of that will go to pay for her green card applications. This whole year I was working my ass off to prep for coming home. I stayed an extra year in China so we could have some more money before I started school, but it's all gone. Lord knows I wanted to start schooling earlier because med school takes long enough as it is. Best part is, since pre-med classes are all undergrad and I already have a bachelor's degree, I pretty much get jack squat for loans. I get $12,000/year for a campus with a cost of attendance of over $20,000.
You sort of accept that if/when you hit med school you're going to take loans unless you're independently wealthy. I at least thought, however, the student loans I got for the undergrad classes would at least cover the cost for undergrad. Now I'm looking at high-interest loans to cover Jun and I for the next year and a half.
Everything I planned on turned out to be wrong. I didn't expected to get royally fucked by my job. I didn't expect her to be bringing less than half of what she thought she would. I didn't expect I wouldn't be able to get normal student loans like everyone else. I almost feel like I made a mistake coming home. At least in China I was living in large, spacious apartments that I could *easily* afford and still have money for nice vacations and going out to eat all time. Now here I am about to get married, broke, and expenses up the ass.
/rant