We are by now at the end of the Spring Festival vacation, also known as Guonian, or Chinese New Year. I had originally planned to visit home (Philadelphia, PA, USA), however, I decided to wait until summer break to do so. I figured that it would be better to wait until then when I would have six weeks to visit family and friends, pay respects at gravesites, and so on. Last year, the Co-VID travel ban had been lifted, and I was eager to visit home after three years of being trapped in lockdown here in China. Now, however, I think I can proceed at a more leisurely pace.

For the past month, I have been renting a room at a B&B type building in Wuqing, a suburb of Beijing. It’s about twenty minutes away from my home by high-speed rail. In fact, I would have been just as happy to stay at the teachers’ dorms at the school; but of course whatwith the holiday, everything was shut down. –The Spring Festival is rather like Christmas and Easter vacations rolled into one, back home (though without the religious connotations).

I’m very much looking forward to getting back home to my ‘cell,’ and get back into harness. In truth, this holiday break has been excessively dull. I have done little but sit in my room, exulting in the WiFi connection, which is far more reliable than the one I must use back at school, and ordering out for food. I had planned to do a lot of editing, possibly some original writing, and so on, but alas, none of that happened.

This rather makes me glad that I am not wealthy enough to not have to work, nor old enough to retire. When there is nothing to do, and nowhere to go, the days just slip away, barely noticed, blurring into one another. Breaks are fine, of course; but I am not in the right mental space for an extended break. Not here in China, anyway. I feel as though I am deteriorating without a proper focus. I am looking forward to seeing my students again.