Final exams have been given, grades submitted, and lots of selfies with students have been taken. The semester, and subsequently the school year, is finished! Boom. Add another notch to the belt. Year seven complete.
So what to do now with my 2 months of freedom? Well, when you live in the Miami of China, summer has a way of finding you without you even trying. “Anyone want to go swimming?” a friend asked me on my first day off. Yes please!
While I could spend the whole summer hiking, swimming and lazying around in the Xiamen tropics, I won’t. But I’m not going traveling this summer either. Well, not exactly.
I’m going to dedicate my summer to studying Chinese. My Chinese has improved over the years, and now I have dozens of friends who don’t speak English, but truth is, I haven’t actually studied in years. The last time I took a serious class was in Kunming four years ago, and the last time I studied seriously was for the HSK three years ago.
So, I figure it’s time to give up a little bit of fun and freedom and shackle myself to books. I won’t be doing it in Xiamen and as much as I liked my former school in Kunming, (Keats,) I like to try new things and go to new places. So I’m gonna head to another school in China to try it out.
Four weeks, intensive classes in the morning, language partners and cultural events at night. Last time I had a surreal, life-changing experience in Kunming because of the people I met. I know that summer can never be recreated and I don’t want it to. I’m gonna really try to buckle down and focus totally on studying and occasionally playing badminton.
One thing I have to keep in mind, is this summer marks the final stretch of my “walk 10,000 steps everyday” thing. August 16th to be exact. Unfortunately sitting and studying all day isn’t conducive to walking 10,000 steps, but with just a month left to reach my goal, I’m gonna have to be really vigilant about it.
So while all my students get to close their books for the summer, I’m opening mine up, and waking up early everyday to study. And paying for the privileged. And yet? I’m pretty excited for it. *Packs pocket protector.*
Can you give more info about that intensive learn Chinese class. I need a fire lit under my arse to learn Chinese. I will be permanent in Fuzhou on the August 9th. When I get fully settled and our schedules align I can make a day trip to Xiamen.
Good for you — though I am selfishly sad not to follow along with yo on your travels this year. i had my “Where’s Becky Now?” map all ready.
Haha, sorry to disappoint Autumn. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to traveling to new places winter holiday (that is, if I can bear to be separated from my darling badminton again.)
Amber, it was called Omeida. I’ll be writing a blog post about it soon!