Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Huh, I did not know that

So apparently China doesn't have daylights savings time.

God, I'm stupid. So two days ago on Sunday my computer set its clock back an hour. I just went with it, thinking, "Hey it's daylights savings time, I get an extra hour. Yay, more sleep!"

Well, it was only until Tuesday morning that I learned I was wrong. I found out as I went to wait for the bus, ready to head for class. I'm ten minutes early, I thought to myself. Then I got a phone call from a teacher at the school. "All your students are waiting for you," she said. "Class started twenty minutes ago."

Shit. I hailed a taxi and then sped off to the school. Once I got there, I then had to run all the way to the otherside of the campus, where my class was taught. Then I had to run up 6 flights of stairs.

I explained to my students what happened. I couldn't tell if they understood, or maybe didn't care, -- or maybe they were hoping I wouldn't arrive -- but they were generally stoic. "Embarrassing" is all I thought.

I later learned that all of China runs on one huge timezone, and that the country never utilizes daylights savings time. No wonder when I went to eat yesterday, the restaurant was completely empty. It was actually 9 p.m. I still can't believe that for two whole days I thought that all the clocks were turned back an hour.

Yea, that's one thing my mom cautioned me about when heading over to China: You can't always make assumptions.

Oops!