The school I work for follows the Chinese calendar, which means the predominant winter holiday is the Chinese New Year, happening in February this year, and not Christmas. Because of this fact, it is always difficult to get time off to visit Canada for Christmas -- my country of origin. To make a long story short, I hadn't been back for 7 years and thought it appropriate to try and fight for some time off this year to see friends and family, despite the difficulties involved.
It seemed that this year we might actually have had 6 days off in a row around Christmas plus weekends. So I talked to the boss, he agreed to book the plane tickets, and so it was done. Fly out Dec 21, fly back Dec 30. The only problem was the Chinese side later change the schedule to this:
Dec 24 -- work
Dec 25 -- one day off
Dec 26,27,28 -- work
Dec 29,30 -- two days off
Dec 31 -- work
Needless to say, it created a mess, because the Chinese side only let us know the revised holiday changes a month in advance, and my plane ticket was already booked. This is a common problem of working in China which makes it very difficult to do any kind of long-term planning. However, a salvage plan emerged where other teachers would sub my classes, and in turn, I brought them back a lot of stuff from Canada.
So I could go and visit. Now the question is, did this time feel like a holiday? Not really. It wasn't expected to be a holiday from the get go, given the short time involved, and the inevitable deluge of phone calls from people expecting me to visit them since I was in Vancouver. But I saw as many people as possible, and despite the rush, it was still fun.
One thing to say about this, however, is that my little short holiday is the norm for people back home. That is, a few days off around Christmas is all they get. Then it's back to the working grind. So the holidays are very, very short. To make matters worse, there is an incredible amount of work involved during this holiday time, out of the usual Christmas obligations. You know the drill. Shopping, cooking, preparing. In a word, stress. No small wonder that credit card debt goes through the roof during this time, and so does depression, loneliness, and suicides.
Every year it's the same thing with Christmas back home. People always complain about the loss of the meaning of Christmas, and the commercialization of the holiday, yet nobody offers any solutions to the problem or does anything differently. In a sense, living in Shanghai, worlds away from the whole thing has been the ultimate solution for myself. But I still like to go back and enjoy a holiday -- as best as possible.
Of course, it's not all bad. As mentioned, there were some fun parts to the holiday and I'm quite glad to have made the trip. Catching up with family and friends was excellent, and there were some lovely dinners with great people. Santa gave me a new Garmin GPS unit for my upcoming bicycle trip that is going to be sweet. And I'm now well stocked with reading material and other essential items from Canada.
Nonetheless, the real holiday for us starts in 3 weeks, which is Chinese New Year. Until then, it is going to be some very hard work and slogging as we prepare the exams and lead up to the vacation.
It seemed that this year we might actually have had 6 days off in a row around Christmas plus weekends. So I talked to the boss, he agreed to book the plane tickets, and so it was done. Fly out Dec 21, fly back Dec 30. The only problem was the Chinese side later change the schedule to this:
Dec 24 -- work
Dec 25 -- one day off
Dec 26,27,28 -- work
Dec 29,30 -- two days off
Dec 31 -- work
Needless to say, it created a mess, because the Chinese side only let us know the revised holiday changes a month in advance, and my plane ticket was already booked. This is a common problem of working in China which makes it very difficult to do any kind of long-term planning. However, a salvage plan emerged where other teachers would sub my classes, and in turn, I brought them back a lot of stuff from Canada.
So I could go and visit. Now the question is, did this time feel like a holiday? Not really. It wasn't expected to be a holiday from the get go, given the short time involved, and the inevitable deluge of phone calls from people expecting me to visit them since I was in Vancouver. But I saw as many people as possible, and despite the rush, it was still fun.
One thing to say about this, however, is that my little short holiday is the norm for people back home. That is, a few days off around Christmas is all they get. Then it's back to the working grind. So the holidays are very, very short. To make matters worse, there is an incredible amount of work involved during this holiday time, out of the usual Christmas obligations. You know the drill. Shopping, cooking, preparing. In a word, stress. No small wonder that credit card debt goes through the roof during this time, and so does depression, loneliness, and suicides.
Every year it's the same thing with Christmas back home. People always complain about the loss of the meaning of Christmas, and the commercialization of the holiday, yet nobody offers any solutions to the problem or does anything differently. In a sense, living in Shanghai, worlds away from the whole thing has been the ultimate solution for myself. But I still like to go back and enjoy a holiday -- as best as possible.
Of course, it's not all bad. As mentioned, there were some fun parts to the holiday and I'm quite glad to have made the trip. Catching up with family and friends was excellent, and there were some lovely dinners with great people. Santa gave me a new Garmin GPS unit for my upcoming bicycle trip that is going to be sweet. And I'm now well stocked with reading material and other essential items from Canada.
Nonetheless, the real holiday for us starts in 3 weeks, which is Chinese New Year. Until then, it is going to be some very hard work and slogging as we prepare the exams and lead up to the vacation.
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