We successfully moved into our new apartment 3 weeks ago, and have been busy ever since.

When we moved into this apartment we knew that there were things that need fixing right away, and that service men were not going to be available due to the virus situation. So my wife and I rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Luckily we both come from families that promoted Do It Yourself home repair.

First thing we had to do was replumb the bathroom sink. The sink was so clogged that nothing would go down. When we looked, the pipe was a thin plastic hose (commonly used here). The problem with these thin hoses is that drain cleaners create enough heat to melt a hole in them. We did not burn a hole in this one, but instead went to the local home repair shop and got a new hose, and decided to install a new drain with a built-in plug at the same time.

The next project was the kitchen. While that isn’t complete yet, it’s so much better. Our old apartment had literally a metal sink and 2 computer desks instead of counters, so really anything would be an upgrade.

This kitchen needed a good cleaning. Now, you should be aware that every apartment in China we have rented has had a ton of grease caked over the kitchen walls, and a lot of people just don’t have the energy to fight it. Well we don’t live like that. My wife and I spent 1 day just cleaning grease off of everything we could. Then, we went to work on the counter top.

The counters in the kitchen had big cracks in them. One was even broken through. Now neither of us have the skills to truly repair that. Instead we braced the broken section and bought some marble textured sticky linoleum and covered it up.

While Keeping busy doing this I have had to completely take over schooling my daughter as she is unable to use the apps that the rest of her class is using to study. Some of them require a better understanding of Chinese to use, and another reqires a Chinese name and Citizenship number.

On top of all this I still teach my school class in the mornings, play with my toddler in the afternoon and spend all night marking and planning. Needless to say I have been a little tired.

I hope everyone else has been keeping busy during this interesting time.

May-day, or Labor Day in Asia here, is coming up and it’s time to do the shuffle again. The holiday shuffle.

What is the Holiday Shuffle you ask?

The holiday shuffle is something that I have only ever seen in China. What it is, is a reshuffling of regular work day to compensate for a holiday.

Let’s take May-day as our example because it is next week. May-day falls on Friday, and the government has graciously given us from May 1st to May 5th off in case you want to travel. (I know we’re in a semi-lockdown, but still.)

The shuffle happens where the Monday work we will miss is moved to this Sunday. The Tuesday work we will miss will be moved to the Saturday after the holiday.

So now my next two weeks schedule looks like this (starting tomorrow, Saturday.)

• Saturday April 25th off.
• Sunday April 26th – Thursday April 30th has class.
• May1-5th is off.
• Wednesday May 6- Sunday May 9th has class.
• Sunday May 10 the off.
• Then back to normal from Monday the 11th.

The overlying thought is. ONLY the holiday is off. (May day). Any days that you get extra must be paid back. And the government will give you a schedule of what days are to be replaced when.

My first experience with this was when we first arrived in China. I had a week of almost no work followed by a week of double shifts ( worked twice my classes) just before New Year’s, and I was expecting a lot of overtime because nobody bothers to explain what is happening to foreigners. They just expect you to know.

Needless to say there was a lot of arguments between the newly arrived workers and our boss. Only 1 of us got overtime. Because his first day was the first day of double shifts.

Every Holiday we do the Holiday Shuffle. Frustrating as it is, it’s part of life here.