The last couple weeks at school have been pretty busy with end of term exams and marking. That has all finished now, and we have one last week of school before the spring festival starts (lunar new year holiday). Our holiday starts on Monday, February 1, but in a move designed to make sure that teachers don't get it too easy, we must teach on Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 30 and 31). I do not understand this at all, and with exams finished and everyone looking forward to the holiday, it is not easy to keep the students on task! We do have today off, though, Monday, Jan.25, but only because our host school has this day off for their students to study for their end of term exams (theirs makes a little more sense being right before the holiday!). So, 6 straight days of teaching and then we are off!
My holiday plans are looking like this: leave Xi'an on Monday, Feb.1 and fly to Guilin in southern China for 4 days. It is a place that is supposed to have some beautiful scenery, rock formations, caves, and the Li River which you can cruise down and see some rural China that is still left.
I'll return on Feb. 4 to Xi'an and then hang around here for about a week before flying to the island of Bali on Feb.12. Didn't think I'd take a vacation without visiting a tropical isle, did you? (Last year I went to an island off the coast of Vietnam if you recall.) Then I'll return to Xi'an on Feb.19 in time for the start-up of school on Feb.22.
We've had some snow this last week - I'd say 2-3 inches. The locals say it's the most snow in Xi'an since 2008. With it we've gotten some really cold weather - down around 10 at night, low 30's or high 20's in the day. Consequently, still snow and ice on the ground. Definitely the coldest weather I've experienced here! And I'm ready for it to go away! Long underwear is a necessity around here - it makes such a huge difference in your comfort level! I have to say that my apartment has stayed nice and cozy and I have no complaints in that area... getting consistent hot water can be an issue at times, however...
I saw my first american football game in China and it was a huge disappointment - all of the playoff games have been close from what I gather, but I saw Carolina clobber Arizona. It's hard to find a place to watch football here (you can't say just football or they'll think soccer). We located a bar in downtown Xian and got there at 7 am this morning to watch the game. There were only 4 Americans, one Welshman and 2 Chinese (one was the owner of the bar) in the place... I don't think I'll have an opportunity to watch the Super Bowl...
Well, I'm getting ready to cook up my specialty here - grilled ham & cheese sandwich. It's just too cold to go outside! More updates on the upcoming vacay later!
No comments:
Post a Comment