Chinese school calendars

I can finally post after the Taiwan earthquake that has disrupted internet access across Asia. And yes, I did feel a bit of the quake here in Bao'an.
Anyway, on to New Year's!
We had to work Saturday and Sunday to make up for the time the school was giving us off. We had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off. I'm a little rusty on my math, but I think this is pretty stupid. We always have two days off each week. This means that in exchange for ONE extra day off, we had to work TWO days. Anyone else confused? I know the Chinese staff was a little perplexed. But I just found out on Wednesday afternoon that I won't have class Thursday for some reason.
Well, we had hot pot at my girlfriend's home on the eve with a few foreign teachers. There was tons of food. But we were too exhausted from sitting and eating to go out. It was an effort (mostly on my part) to keep everyone awake until midnight to drink the champagne that I bought earlier. They opened a new Carrefour store closer than Commie-Mart. The place is immense. There is a mall around the store with restaurants, a bookstore, and even a movie theater (50 kuai for one ticket). The liquor store is quite nice and pricey--it carries a bottle of Absinth from Czech Republic which we will try at some point.
Tuesday was fun with a trip with my girlfriend and her mom to Lianhuashan park and the statue of Deng Xiaoping (story and photos to come).