Pre-National Holiday Logistics

I will define “weekend” as consisting of the traditional non-work days of Saturday and Sunday.

Most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, has a weekend. [see above]

That means that most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, gives us two non-work days (Saturday and Sunday). [see above + above]

That also means that most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, I get two non-work days (Saturday and Sunday) to ... well ... not work.

Now ... China will on occasion, when it feels like its citizens have been good and obedient and productive workers, give long national holidays that last a week long. Golden Weeks. Yes, a whole week off from work. Mandated by the government (unless you are one of the unfortunate few who run a mom and pop shop or some other privately run business), schools, and state enterprises, most foreigners, most companies will take a week off. The theory behind this is that when allowed such a long break from work, people will want to open up their wallets and spend, spend, spend those RMBs on shopping or trips and by extension boost the economy. Imagine if it was required by law for all Americans to take a week off from work during Christmas or Thanksgiving. Culture-wise Americans spend those holidays with family, but no doubt it would also encourage some tourism and shopping when given all that free time.

Here’s the kicker. The weeklong holiday does not come without its own terms and conditions. Because by law, the government is giving us these holidays, by law most schools, state enterprises, companies will have its workers work on the weekend to “make up” for the future days off. Yes, you read that correctly. The general idea is we shift our “work days” around so that we are not taking -too- many days off. Because -too- many days off would actually be “bad” for the economy when factories aren’t running and making “Made in China”s and little Maos aren’t learning in schools. These “make up” work days typically come right before or right after the Golden Weeks so that the “weekend” days will be tacked onto the “holiday” days to make the holiday “longer”. Following? You can’t have cake and eat it too. In this case, we have to bake our own cake before we can have and eat it.

National Holiday/October Holiday (Fall Golden Week) celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The PRC’s 4th of July. This year, it will last from October 1-8 (extra day for Autumn Festival, joy). What does this mean? It means that this weekend has been made into a one day weekend. I get Saturday off, but I will be working from Sunday - Wednesday. Thursday is the first day of the Golden Week. China has the power to not only declare one official time zone across a landmass that requires closer to three separate time zones (Beijing Time = China Standard Time), but it can also declare one day or no-day weekends. Yes, I’ve once worked 7 days straights when China shifted the “weekend” to the following week.

Hooray for Communism!

"And it's going to be totally awesome!"

Here is the link to the website for "A Very Potter Musical." They have finally put the soundtrack to the musical online for free download! Check it out!

www.teamstarkid.com/verypottermusical.html

Sirens in Shanghai

Imagine an ambulance parked outside underneath your bedroom window. On a Saturday morning. With the siren blasting. And not stopping.

We experienced just that this Saturday morning in Shanghai. Except it wasn’t an ambulance with a broken siren outside the bedroom window. Rather, they were air raid sirens. To warn the Chinese of an oncoming aerial attack.

Of course there was no actual attack coming. But after some googling for information, it turned out that the sirens were partly a memorial and partly a drill. It was a memorial for when the Japanese attacked in 1949. It was also “educational” so that citizens could familiarize themselves with the different alarms, in case there was an invasion on Chinese soil --

- an attack is on the way!
- the attack has begun!
- danger has passed!

One problem, all the alarms sounded the same to me. Another problem, there was no broadcast of what we are supposed to do or where we are supposed to go if there was a real attack. A flaw in the plan?

Friday Nights

Most young people my age like to go out on Friday nights, especially in such a big, international and exciting city as Shanghai. It is a bit like the reward for working hard and surviving another week in this place. You have managed to dodge the crazy taxi drivers and old Chinese men on their motor-scooters to live another week. You have put up with the second hand smoke and gross loogies (“the nasal form of mucus“ says Wikipedia).

I, on the other hand, usually prefer to stay in on Friday nights to recuperate from all the mentioned above. I like to grab dinner with friends, perhaps. Have little hang outs. But I’m not usually the type to stay out all night. Just my style. I don’t mind. Some people will call me boring that I’m not out having fun and savoring the moments, but meh ... Friday nights are my time to rest up from the long week of having had to teach and play with hundreds of kindergartners.

Of course every once in awhile I’ll feel in the mood to do something and if that is the case than okay, it will happen.

Unfortunately, the deadlines on my thesis are coming up fast. Faster than I had anticipated. It’s amazing how fast time will fly when you are trying to live life, go to work all day and try to squeeze in some research and writing time. My original plan had been to use the 3 hour lunch break that I have everyday to do some thesis work here and there, but for the past 2 weeks that 3 hour lunch break had been taken up by me covering a grade 3 (kindergarten) class for Ryan who is on holiday. I don’t mind covering for him because it’s just at my school and does make the ”break“ time past by faster. Supposedly once he gets back from holiday he will be taking those classes again. So besides the addition of the ”Dr. Zhu“ classes, I should be getting my long lunch break back. My goal is to have a significant portion of the draft complete before October holiday so that I can email it to my advisor for his feedback while I go off to South Korea for some cultural fun!!

October Holiday

I will be going to South Korea for China's October Golden Week holiday (Oct. 1-Oct. 8)!!