Over the Major Crunch

Today's weather:  High = 19  Low = 17

Sunny

 

If I've got this figured out right, the worst crunch of the year is now over with.   This isn't to say it will be all smooth sailing until the January break, but the last 2-3 weeks of hell are getting over with.  Now it looks my teacher evaluation by the principal is done, the student midterms are finished, the 1st term report card marks are all finalized, the masters degree proofs written assignment is handed in (stayed up until 2am doing this after getting my marks done first), and the transport and apartment situations are finally solved, then I can't anticipate another crunch like this happening for a long time.

 

Fittingly enough, the leadership conference just had to happen ALSO on the past weekend!  At any rate, I don't regret attending, even if it pushed me back a day and caused a backlog.  Anyways, it's common knowledge for anyone living in Shanghai that things pile up and happen all at once, then it gets easier once the crunch is done. 

 

It's a lot like how rush hour works, when the city reaches a state of absolute gridlock from 5:30pm to 6:30pm daily.  Then once the peak has passed, the traffic clears up amazingly quickly so that after 7pm it is hardly crowded at all.  Of course, everyone has to head back at the same time, hence the gridlock.  The same can be said for how the entire city eats from 12pm to 1pm and then after that it is not crowded at the restaurants.

 

Basically you just learn to deal with it, brace out the crunch, and then life gets back to normal.