"Holidays"

So, as I've mentioned before, National Day is coming up and we get a week off from school. Laura and I have made plans to visit a friend in a nearby city, and then the 3 of us are heading up to Beijing for some sweet touring and shopping and whatnot. Only thing is, apparently in China a holiday really isn't a holiday. It's Saturday morning and I'm currently in my office getting ready to teach today. Not just a class or two, but 4 classes today. And another 3 tomorrow, starting at 7:35am. That's right, even if it's the law that you get days off for a holiday (and in the case of National Day, it is required by law to have days off) we still have to make them up. So I'll be teaching this weekend, and then most likely the weekend after the holiday is complete, to make up for the time we missed. So much for a break, huh?

I believe the celebrations have already began for National Day though, there have been many official looking things on TV, granted since I don't know any Chinese it could be absolutely nothing. But there is also a small festival type set-up going on in the square of our town. Last night after dinner we passes what seemed to be a talent show of sorts and there were games and small rides for children. It's essentially like China's 4th of July, and the Chinese are a very proud people so you can guess how big they are doing this up!

We did get one piece of good news from Laura's friend who is from Beijing... apparently she feels that the government might lift the ban on youtube and facebook after National Day. Since the riots and such from the summer are far in the past, and if all the celebrations go off successfully, they just might give those things back to the people. But I guess that is just another thing added to the list of what we want to happen in the near future. Here's to hoping...