Why Chinese Kids are Smarter Than Us

It's funny how quickly people adjust to new surroundings. Now that I've been here for a little while, I've gotten used to the Shane teaching schedule. And having  gotten used to it as a creature of habit, it really throws me for a loop when it changes. China is not America. When there is a holiday, it isn't really a vacation. The kids might have the day off but you can bet that they're going to have to make it up sooner or later. Who needs a two day weekend when you've already had one day off during the week? What, you think you can have days off from school for free? Absolutely not. And we generally work the most when the kids are out of school, so when the weekend moves around, so does our work schedule. That's right, not only do you not actually get holidays, but sorry Chinese children - in your free time you get to go to extra English school! No wonder sometimes they just seem burned out. At least Shane accommodates our western mindset that vacation means vacation, so our working schedule all evens out eventually. Still, the past week and this one as well have been so screwy and it's completely thrown me off. It's just tiring. The hardest part of this job Id say would be planning. You only work about 20 teaching hours but for each hour in the classroom you have to do AT LEAST an hour of preparation (or at least I do at this point). And then when days keep getting switched around and you don't have as much time to plan when you normally would or whatever...I really can't complain though. The kids are great, and honestly they're the ones who get screwed the most with this whole "holiday but not really" policy. Come on China, stop working so damn hard all the time!