This is the first time in my life that I’m working on Christmas Day. 
Anyone else working today?
I’m also at work, Ben.
The only bright spots have been access to Forumosa (all day long) and a Kit Kat bar the office “Secret Santa” left on my desk. 
And the sun is trying to shine, so it’s all good. 
i’m stuck at work today too, but i’m not planning on actually working…
if i still had any vacation days left i would have used 'em for today and tomorrow.
at least i don’t have it as bad as mrs. monk… she has to deal with students… ugh.
merry christmas anyway :moo:
I have to work. It doesn’t bother me too much. That means I’ve been here too long. We opened presents last night and I got some country music CDs from home. Commander Cody and Asleep at the Wheel. So I’m listening to those while I “work”. Yee Ha!
I am working today. Did so last year, too, but at least now I am in Taipei and not freezing my ass off in Kinmen …
Yee haw! Nothing like western swing music on Christmas day. Happy 2-steppin Holiday!
I’m working too. Instead of sitting around the house in Taipei today, I figured I’d save my days off for a trip to Brussels in January, the birth of my baby in February and a vacation in the Colorado mountains next summer. But we’ve got the lights up and will go out for a nice dinner tonight. So it’s not so bad.
It’s not like back at home. People here work on Christmas. I’ve done it for three years now. It’s not a big deal as it is back home. Besides at my school they made turkey for lunch with potatoes and carrots. Yummy!
Yes I’m at work too. Everyone still looks the same as every other day. I went to Taipei 101 and Tong Hua Ji Night Market yesterday and thought something was wrong with my hearing. Everywhere I went I heard cantonese! Then I realized they were all here because they get Christmas off! Grrr … I just came back from HK on Tuesday and I’de still be there if i didn’t have to work!
I have to work today, too. I think it’s terrible that the government decided to no longer regard Christmas as a public holiday starting about three or four years ago.
Well, the official reason that December 25th used to be a holiday in Taiwan was that it just happened to be the anniversary of the writing of the ROC constitution when Sun Yat-Sen was the leader of the KMT in China. But it was obvious to me that they just called it “Constitution Day” (“xing2 xian4 ji4 nian4 ri4”) because they couldn’t officially call it “Christmas” because if they did, then they would also have to have Buddhist holidays, Daoist holidays, and Matzu holidays.
I wonder if the fact that Chen Shui-Bian is Buddhist has something to do with the reason why Christmas is no longer a public holiday in Taiwan. Lee Deng-Huei was Christian, and so was Sun Yat-Sen and even Chiang Kai-Shek. (Well, they all claimed to be Christians, anyway.)
So I’m really disappointed that Christmas is no longer a holiday in Taiwan. I just did some web searches, and I found out that Christmas is a public holiday in Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, and even Brunei (which is in fact an Islamic state)!
In fact, the only countries in Asia (not couting the Middle East) in which Christmas is not a public holiday are Taiwan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, and Japan. But in Japan, December 23rd is a holiday because it’s the Emperor’s birthday, so most Christians in Japan celebrated Christmas then.
This is the first time in my life I’ve ever worked on Christmas. Was very apprehensive at first but it’s actually quite enjoyable. I passed out Christmas cake and the students are giving me cards and presents. We sing jingle bells, I wish you a merry Christmas and so on. I agree with the other poster that it’s better than sitting around in an apt in Taipei or wandering the streets. I’m ok with this.
A’Bian gave with the one hand (shorter hours each week) and took with the other (fewer public holidays).
My clients seem to think I work today, but I do not. They’ll find out tomorrow when they do not receive the “urgent translations” that they sent today to be finished tomorrow. (Which would be a turnaround that called for some “client education” in the first place, but over Christmas it’s even worse.) 
Bad clients. Bad! Bad!
I am working as well, working on my resume… is that working?! 
One shouldn’t really be stretching the truth today. 
One shouldn’t really be stretching the truth today. [/quote]Yes MiakaW, Santa will know if you’re naughty or nice. But, in your case, it’s both. 
My confessional is open if you want to confess anything else
Yeah the old one step forward and two steps back. When I first got here I couldn’t believe that people refered to the weekend as “days off” in the sense of the weekend being a holiday. That was real culture shock there. No wonder this place has such a high rate of suicide.
Hans
Yeah the old one step forward and two steps back. When I first got here I couldn’t believe that people refered to the weekend as “days off” in the sense of the weekend being a holiday. That was real culture shock there. No wonder this place has such a high rate of suicide.
Hans[/quote]On job descriptions, 2 days off at the weekend is described as a ‘perk’
There are many traditional companies here, where employees work every saturday. Every other saturday is also a very normal setup, as the work week is 44 hrs. Then they will have more days off in way of compensation.
40 hour work week has been the standard in Denmark for more than 40 years.