School's Out

Today was my last day of the semester, meaning I am now officially on break! This may seem odd to all of you who just finished Christmas break and are heading into your second quarter/semester/term but, as I've mentioned before, Christmas isn't the big deal here. Chinese New Year is.

So, in the weeks before and after the actual lunar new year, which this year falls on January 23rd, all the schools get time off. Quite a bit of time, actually: their last day is this coming Wednesday (I'll be at the Fulbright midyear conference), and school doesn't begin again until February 7th, giving the students--and us teachers--a solid three weeks in which to rolick and play and rest.

And I plan to take full advantage of it. First off, CNY break is pretty much the only time we Fulbrighters are okay-ed to leave the country, so Karina and I will be hitting Thailand for about a week, visiting my lovely friends Marissa and Melanie in Chiang Mai and checking out the beaches for a bit. Then there's been some speculation that we'll do a bit more exploring in Taiwan with Tom and Amanda, though nothing's set yet. And, of course, there's the inevitable conference, which will give us a glimpse of Xitou (溪頭).

Aside from that, I think I'll take the "break" thing as literally as possible without going dormant. Explore the parts of the city that I haven't seen at a leisurely pace. Eat at new restaurants. Hang out with my co-teachers, colleagues, host family, fellow ETAs and friends. Play Mahjiang. Visit wherever I'm invited. Rediscover the gym. Sleep. Basically, get in all the things I know I won't have time to do once school starts again, and hopefully form some better habits for myself to keep following once it does.

I'm so ready for this break. It's really quite amazing how exhausting it can be to live in another culture and to teach 5th and 6th graders. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it. But this break is good news--and for some reason, all I can think of is this song, inaccurate though it may be: