Chinese word of the day: 国庆节 guóqìng jié. Guoqing jie is the National Holiday of the People's Republic of China, and it is coming up on October 1. This year marks China's 60th anniversary, and preparations for a big celebration and military parade in Beijing have been going on for the past few months. Preparations are also in full swing here, and I often hear patriotic songs wafting through my window as various departments prepare their numbers for the big singing competition tomorrow night.
All Chinese generally have a week off at the beginning of October to celebrate National Day. However, due to H1N1 and security concerns, rumors have been flying:
"They might not allow us to go home for October Holiday."
"They might quarantine us all on campus." (This has happened in a few schools in my province, due to H1N1.)
"October Holiday probably will not be canceled."
"October Holiday definitely will be canceled."
"October Holiday will be only one day instead of 8."
And on and on. We may not have any official information, but doggone it -- we have rumors to make up for it. Today many of my students said that October Holiday will be reduced to a single day, although I am not sure where they heard this. In America, it would be the equivalent of canceling Thanksgiving break a week before Thanksgiving. My homesick freshmen especially will be disappointed if they can't go home for holiday.
In unrelated news (or is it?), my method of accessing Facebook, Blogspot, and other such sites is no longer working. So I will be blogging via e-mail, which means I can't see your comments and my pictures might not get formatted right. Thanks for bearing with me!
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