It’s a strange cycle of life that we go through as teachers or maybe as expats in general. From an academic perspective, we work for 10 months with a few holidays here and there, then have nearly two months to ourselves and then return to another 10 months. While the rest of the population might envy our holiday time (2 weeks a year is unfathomable to us!) and some people might even think the only reason we chose this profession was for the holidays, I think that this cycle is just one its pitfalls as all jobs have.
It usually takes me somewhere between two and three weeks to completely relax and let go of the stress of work, thinking about work, planning for work, etc. Unfortunately, it only takes about two or three days for all the relaxation and stress-release to be mooted as if it did not ever happen. π
Dealing with a roomful of semi-adults for 3 hours and 20 minutes a day without a turn-off switch and then using the 2hours and 40minutes break to eat lunch, plan upcoming lessons, collaborate with colleagues or have meetings is a lot to ask of a person five days a week. Those who get a mere two weeks off a year, generally have a lot more ‘down’ time during the day than someone like I do.
Now, I wouldn’t trade my job for anything. I enjoy my students. I like most of my colleagues. My workplace has improved for the time-being. And, yes, I love my holidays. Still, the first week back in full swing is always a killer!
The good news is that it only gets easier from here on out! π
-T π
