we are in the single digits

Five days from right now, I will be in the Changsha airport, getting ready to board my flight to Beijing and start my winter vacation! I could not possibly be more ready, because as much as I love my students, I am sick of them--looking at them, talking to them, being around them, everything. I have been teaching for 20 consecutive weeks, minus one week back in October for National Day. Western universities have started and ended one semester, and started another, all in the time I've been teaching one semester. I completely understand why teachers gets breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas, because right now, I am going crazy.

I am also very cold, because it snowed yesterday (then melted) and all day today. The power was out nearly all day on Sunday, and I hadn't realized how much heat had built up in my apartment over the winter until it was all gone. I am currently wearing my thermals, a jacket, a scarf, tights, and fuzzy socks, and I'm shivering. I have to go back out in about half an hour to help with the oral exams for students trying to go abroad; I do this pretty often, but I really wish it wasn't at 8 p.m., especially when it's cold and the many stairs to campus are treacherous. Here in China, they like non-porous walking surfaces, so everything is smooth or lacquered or enamel-covered, so when it gets wet or slushy, it suddenly become ten times more dangerous. The five stairs to the guardhouse are so slippery now, it's like something out of a movie: I have to use both hands to hold the railing, while pressing my weight into the step, so my feet don't fly out and down. I have really good balance, so I feel like an old person having to hold walls and stuff to walk. The snow today is by far the prettiest we've had, though, so Amy and I went out and took pictures and made a little snowman (she is from Florida, so this much snow is very novel to her).

The Foreign Affairs Office has scheduled our last big group meeting for this Friday night at 7:30 p.m., exactly when we would have been eating a last dinner out with friends before the break. The Western concept of 'weekend' does not exist here--they have meetings, classes, and other academic events from Monday morning to Saturday night, and they expect you to be free during that window. These meetings can be a trip, because there are three teachers working exclusively with the undergraduates, five teachers with the postgraduates, and me in the middle with some of each. In Chinese culture, it's okay to have side conversations and whispers, so after 45 minutes or so the Chinese side of the table descends into chatter, while the foreign teachers are still trying to ask questions and get help. Most of our questions can't really be answered, and it appears that not much can be done with regards to our concerns, so at this point, FAO meetings are particularly pointless. Hopefully, all the other foreign teachers are as exhausted and ready for a break as I am, and they will not draw the meeting out any longer than needed with unnecessary and useless queries and comments.

This post, I now realize, is overall more negative than most of my others. Don't get me wrong, I still like China. I just need my winter break. Now, please.