Nowism: “Your holiday break actually starts today”
To quote myself...
Oh, nowism. It’s a dirty little aspect of Chinese culture that will drive expats up the wall.
Today nowism struck again, this time to completely mess around with my Chinese New Year break plans.
Chinese New Year (or the “Spring Festival”) is China’s biggest holiday. As such, schools give their students anywhere from 3-5 weeks off to celebrate and visit their hometowns. Each school is different, with some letting their teachers out in December and others in late January.
This year, the Chinese New Year falls on February 14. You can bet that any Valentine’s Day celebrations here will be pushed aside.
For the last month, my school has given us few details about the start and end dates of our break. This is to be expected, but nevertheless, it’s frustrating since I’m making plans to visit Southeast Asia during the break.
A few weeks ago, I decided to go ahead a book a plane ticket to Bangkok for January 23. I was told that the students’ last day would be on January 22 but that I might not have to teach that week, or “maybe” even the week before (i.e. this week). As for the return date, I was simply told that classes would begin sometime after February 14. Accordingly, I didn’t yet purchase a return ticket.
Today, the vacation timeframe became a lot clearer. I just learned this morning that I no longer have to teach for the rest of the month. (It would’ve been nice to know this earlier, as I could’ve bought an earlier ticket, but with a long break I really can’t complain).
I assumed I would be returning on or around February 14, but I wasn’t sure. So I decided to ask my contact teacher for a return date guesstimate, fearing that she still wouldn’t have a definite answer. What she told me was rather surprising: the students don’t start classes again until the first week of March.
So after weeks of waiting, I finally know: my break lasts from today, January 12 to Monday, March 1. Thanks, China!
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This is nuts as you of course realize.
QQ just makes me think of the internet expression.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=QQ
Weird, it put that comment on the wrong post….it was supposed to go on the one about 7 chinese sites. Must have been my own fault.
[...] through the end of February for my Chinese New Year break. I won’t be bringing my laptop, but if I happen to find an Internet cafe I’ll try to [...]
[...] to most Chinese workers, I lucked out with my Spring Festival break — I stopped teaching early last month and won’t start up again until March 1. The extended holiday gave me a chance to visit more [...]