Real Housewives of Shenyang

So I've been taking a painting class for a few months now with some Japanese ladies from my apartment building. It's a relaxing hobby, and it's fun to get together with this fun group of ladies. They are very friendly, and we have fun together-- despite the fact that I don't speak Japanese, and some of them don't speak Chinese or English. But between it all, we always have some good laughs. And we paint awesome paintings!
Now that it's almost Chinese New Year, though, most of the class is in Japan for several weeks. I think there are three of us still in Shenyang, and it's pretty expensive to split the class fee between just three of us. So our class is cancelled for the next month or so.
However, I'm leaving China in three months, and I want to finish a painting or two before I go. Cancelling a month of class doesn't exactly help with that goal. Our same teacher teaches another class on Fridays, also in our building, also in the same room, also at the same time. I asked her if we could attend that class, and she saw no reason why not.
So last Friday, the three of us attended their class. We had a nice time, even though the rest of the students were French, and we don't speak enough French to communicate. Still, we painted, we learned, and we split the class fee between all of us. I'm sure they were happy to have a few more students.
Or so I thought....
Today two of us showed up to class and started setting up to paint again. A French lady who had not been there before came and introduced herself to us. Then she started lecturing us about how the class is arranged by the International Club of Shenyang. If we are not members, we may not attend the class. She shoved membership applications to us and said that if we wanted to attend the class, we would have to pay the membership dues, which are 150 Yuan for the year ($25). It's already 80 Yuan ($12) to attend the class, and I had no intention of paying triple that for a short-term substitution class.
I told her I was sorry for the misunderstanding (it was honestly the first time I had heard that you had to be an ICS member to attend the Friday class. Our painting teacher also said it was the first time she'd heard of that), and that I would not attend in the future. She again repeated that we would need to pay our membership dues to join the ICS club. She wondered how we had learned about this class if we were not members of the club. (Um.... we live in the building? We see it happening every week?)
And she kept going. I was staying calm and thought that a reasonable resolution might be that we attend that day, pay the teacher like we always do, and then just not attend in the future. But she would not accept that. She stayed icily calm, but I could see red splotches appearing on her neck as she kept lecturing us.
She had settled all her belongings in the chair across the table from us, and she was not leaving us alone. She kept badgering us and repeating her demands. Eventually (in Chinese-- our secret language) we decided to just go paint in the room next door. Our teacher came to visit and teach us in there, and my friend and I had fun chatting and painting, just the two of us.
I saw that a couple minutes after we left, the ICS lady left, too. I'm guessing she's part of the club leadership, though I'm not sure if she's the treasurer, the bouncer, or the enforcer.
Either way, she was incredibly rude. If I'd ever given thought to joining the International Club of Shenyang before, I have no desire to do so now.
I've met a handful of French people here in Shenyang, and all of them have been friendly and kind. But this lady reminds me why we have stereotypes of French people being rude, unfriendly, unwelcoming, and arrogant.
And ohhhhhh, the drama!