And so it’s here yet again, the Spring Festival. One of the most important festivals and holidays of the Chinese calendar. One in which there is a massive movement of those working in the big cities to their hometowns for the week-long event. The Spring Festival itself will be held between February 4th and 10th, though I’m told I can start hanging good luck red charms outside my apartment door on January 28th.
It is the Year of the Pig taking the place of the Year of the Dog. You’ll recall my previous Lunar New Year excursions included a staycation in 2015 (the first year I was in China), followed by a journey down to Hong Kong (2016), Russia (2017) and then, I think, another staycation last year (2018). I honestly can’t remember what I did last year, though I’m sure it included visits to the temple fairs and only a brief time off from work. This year, however, I have a full two weeks!
I’ll avoid the crowds this year and stay away from airports or train stations, I’ve seen enough of those for work. I’ve also noticed that my neighbourhood has quietened down substantially as of last week, a sign that the work/farmer folks have started to go back to their hometowns.
So what will I do?
Oh, do I ever have a list of things to do!
- 10 musical ideas a day
- 1000 words per day (fiction, if possible. The words are real, but the subjects should be fiction! haha)
- Get a few more “old” posts finally up and published
- Study Chinese for 2-3 hours a day (finishing my HSK 2 books and starting HSK 3)
- Read at least one or two books from my book shelf plus the magazines and newspapers I’ve accumulated over the last few trips abroad
- Get some financial issues in order
- Learn more on how to use Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X
- Hit the gym at least a few times
- Think of how to redesign this site
- Start looking into game development, eg, Unity game engine
What’s with the last one, Unity game engine?
It’s been a long time fascination of mine, game development that is, and I think it’s become easier than ever before to both learn and build your own games. I’m not saying this is any sort of new career path, but it is an interest and something I’d like to learn a little bit more about.
Why don’t you spend some time learning about Chinese culture instead of focusing on these other things?
I will take some time and visit the various temple fairs that go on during the Spring Festival weeks. Now that I know what to look for and where they are held, it’s a lot easier for me to get going. Plus, as the restaurants shut down around the city (including the foreigner-pubs), I’ll need to eat and the temple fairs always have food available, if at a premium. Furthermore, Spring Festival is very much a Chinese-family-oriented gathering, so unless you’re specifically invited into a gathering, it’s tough to just walk in and find something going on (though I’m sure you could if you were out in the country). And the final tipping point is that any way out of the city will literally be jammed full of people, train stations, airports, highways, everything. So unless you want to spend a lot of time and aggravation in getting from place to place, it’s best to avoid those places.
To be sure, the Spring Festival also offers me a chance to finally not pack my bags and go anywhere, given that since Dragon Boat Festival last year, every break I’ve had I’ve packed up and gone somewhere (Canada twice and Hong Kong and Macao). So I’m welcoming the opportunity to stay put for a little bit. Two weeks of no movement and not living out of a backpack? Yes, please!
And once things get going again after the break, it will probably be back into the busiest time of the year for our company. I look at last year’s workload for March, April and May and it was rather demanding. Though I welcome the opportunity to work so much, I know I need some downtime beforehand. Sometimes I feel like a farmer in that when the harvest is good, you work as much as you can!
Anyway, so that’s my plans for the new year! Staycation here I come! 😀