文化差异 Culture Gaps too Great to Bridge

I'm getting low on cash, due to my extravagant life style over here (kidding about that) so I've decided (against my will and better judgment) to take on a couple students and teach some English classes on the side to earn some money.

Why this seems like a good idea on the surface: 1) money 2) I always waste my Saturdays anyway (mostly due to having been out til 4 or 5 the previous night) so why not force myself to get out of bed and do something productive? 3) chance to get out of Wudaokou where I live and make it downtown.

Why this is, in reality, NOT a good idea:
1) I hate teaching. I am a terrible teacher. If you know me, you will know this is because I am impatient and get annoyed extremely easily. One of the things I hate most in life is dumb people. People who cannot speak my language fall into this category. (Why? Not because they're dumb; they just appear so). Further, why I would be a bad English teacher, in particular, is that I talk really fast, and like to express myself. Getting the words out as rapidly as possible is important to me.
2) I particularly hate children. They are too small, too annoying, and we come back again to the dumb people thing (they may not actually be dumb, but appear so).
3) Getting downtown (that is, anywhere that's not the isolated university district where I live) is an arduous process that normally involves the following: fighting massive crowds on the subway, where it is normally AT LEAST 90 degrees Fahrenheit; getting shoved, trampled, elbowed, jostled, grabbed, and otherwise manhandled while trying to enter or exit subway cars or transfer lines; being crushed in a subway car holding several hundred more bodies than it is designed for, thus feeling less like a sardine and more like a molecule in an aerosol can under extreme pressure; and changing subway lines at least 6 times in order to get anywhere, which normally involves mile-long walks in underground labyrinths that smell like asbestos.
4) The reason I am unproductive on Saturday is that I need a day to recover from schoolwork, speaking Chinese and wanting to have my brain explode, and being out too late and drinking too much.

Needless to say, almost as soon as I began this "teaching" process, I started to regret it. The way it's working is this: I'm using a "broker"-type lady (for lack of a better word) who will set me up with students. The students have money and will pay a pretty high hourly rate; in turn, I'll reimburse this broker lady for setting me up. Fine, sounds good, I'm in.

This past Sunday I met with the two children who will be my students. Obviously, they were dumb (why did I not predict this???). Nothing had been finalized, so we left it open ended, TBD during the week.

Tuesday rolls around. 10 am, I'm in class, and my phone rings. It's "Kelly," the broker (for edification, she's Chinese). I don't answer. It rings again. I don't answer. I get a text. "It's Kelly, please reply." I don't (I'm in class, you'll remember). She proceeds to call and text me incessantly for the next several hours. It's like, HELLO, LADY, I SEE YOUR COMMUNICATION. I WILL REPLY TO YOU AS SOON AS I AM ABLE. IN THE MEANTIME, I THANK YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE.

I don't get a chance to call her til 4:30, by which time I have received at least 20 calls, 8 texts, an email, Skype messages, and messages from Eunjee (my roommate who also works for her) that she's looking for me. Thanks, GOT IT, you want to get in touch with me.

And it's ridiculous, too, because in the end all she wants to say is that everything's been finalized and we're meeting Sunday morning at 9:30. FINE, THAT COULDN'T HAVE WAITED TIL THIS EVENING?!??! No? Well, deal with it. It just did. You calling (did I say calling? I meant harassing) me did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to speed up the process, but did manage to make me mad.

This is standard Chinese practice. There's no voicemail, and it's perfectly fine to pester people til they get back to you. But honestly, she made me want to track her down in her posh apartment and throttle her. I was so infuriated and annoyed I wanted to walk away from the whole thing. Obviously, doing so would just be to my own disadvantage in this case, but just think about the obstacles this type of thing must raise in business world. If I were a businessman (sorry, businesswoman) this sort of thing would turn me off extremely quickly. I'd be tempted to walk away from dealing with certain people or companies if I knew that this was the type of interaction we were forever destined to have. Wow, China, get voicemail, and learn about a little thing called PERSONAL SPACE.