neither here nor there

I am reading the essays from my intermediate class. They were supposed to make a timeline of important events in their life and then choose one event and write about it. One of my students wrote about her first job. It was a year ago during winter break. She got a job for 3 yuan an hour and worked two hours per day. That's less than one dollar for two hours of waitressing. She said she walked instead of taking the bus in -12 degrees Celsius weather in order to save more money. Wow.