There is only one week to go until Hallowe’en. Hallowe’en isn’t a Chinese thing nor is it a celebration that we care for even in Canada. We do buy the treats to hand out in our town as it would be a faux pas for the retired principal to not do his part to maintain social events.
We are getting tired as we have picked up another teaching gig in order to help our university gain even more status. We had been asked to teach a few times a week at a prestigious elementary school, the one that several of the college deans have their children attend. I have been giving it my best efforts, however I just don’t enjoy teaching grade 4 and 5 students. Still, the experience pays more per teaching hour than I get at the university. To be asked to do this is a high honour which none of the other foreign teachers have been asked to do.
As I said, we are getting tired. We need a holiday. We didn’t get to have the usual National Day holiday of several days, a time when we usually travel. In the past, we visited Beijing 2006, Xi’an 2007, and went to Chongqing 2010 via a cruise through the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River. Our social life has been limited as well. We are not in the “in crowd” with our foreign teacher colleagues. And, I think that has a lot to do with my withdrawal from trying to be extroverted.
I am an introvert, and as such I need to withdraw in order to have enough energy to cope with a busy outer world. The cost involved in recharging my energy levels usually comes at the expense of engagement with others.