Vacations

There are always some fun things that deal with scheduling in China. China is always last-minute. Do you know when your breaks are?

I don’t. There might be three days off next week, and I still don’t know. Some of my students tell me it is next week, some tell me it has been postponed. I probably won’t know until the day of.

That’s how China rolls. It’s the sports meeting. If it was next next week, I’d have a nine day vacation. If it is next week, I only have a five day vacation. As I’m not sure on which one, nor is anyone, I cannot really plan a vacation in advance- I can only go on vacation via seat of my pants. It’s kind of interesting how vacations work.

Because the breaks are not really planned and just happenstance, when they’re announced everyone rushes off at the same time to enjoy their vacation. Good luck getting anywhere, and good luck coming back- you’re usually traveling with millions of other people. Only during spring festival is it much worse, as then you are traveling with a billion other people.

Not knowing concretely when vacations are have definitely upset some of the teachers here, and those that have concrete lesson plans. Anyone who wants to travel is left thinking in very short term, maybe less than 36 hours at best. And most foreigners here, I have found, enjoy planning things well in advance.