Thursday, November 22, 2007

Turkey Day in China

Well, since I’m on the other side of the world, my Thanksgiving is almost over.  I just got off work at around 7:30.  My Thanksgiving feast will consist of watching DVDs, and eating delivery from a French bakery:  a couple of baguette sandwiches, a caesar salad, and a diet coke.  It’s all good, Thanksgiving was never a big holiday in my house.  My mom is Australian, and for most of my childhood we were living in countries other than the US so there was no celebrating the holiday.  I have no real emotional attachment to it.

Plus, the project I am working on is due December 31, and we are WAY behind schedule.  The senior staff (of whom I am a member) got together and decided that we’ll be working late every night (8 pm minimum) as well as every Saturday until the completion of the project.  So I’ve got that to look forward to for the next four weeks.

Overtime here is different than the US.  Rather than time and a half you get “overtime in kind” or “overtime in lieu,” which is a fancy way of saying that for every hour of OT you work you get to take an hour off at some point in the future.  With the schedule I’ll be working in December I’ll be earning about three days vacation per week, so December will allow me to take 12 days off at some future date.  Not a bad deal, really.  It’s not like I have family here or had a big Christmas planned.

It’s one of the advantages to being a maverick capitalist whore who doesn’t mind being alone. 

Saturday night, though, I am still getting together with friends for a turkey feast.  I’m just going to have to have them keep a plate warm for me until I get off work.  I’m sure I’ll go out and get shitfaced somewhere afterwards, which will more than make up for the inconvenience.