Baby boom, and job app. jitters.
Every time I go out this year I see tons of pregnant women. It’s because of the Year of the Pig. Everyone wants to have a baby this year so it can get in on the Golden Pig luck. I heard on the news that in a typical year, 100,000 babies are born in Beijing. During this lunar year, 144,000 are expected. That’s a lot of babies! Actually, even the normal figure is bigger than the population of many whole US cities. That’s just the births for one city!
Speaking of population, Shanghai’s official population count was just revised. Now it’s 18.5 million, not counting migrant workers. Jeez!
In other news, while I’m reapplying to teach here next year, I’m sending out other applications for summer and fall to see what will happen. A lot of things make me jittery, and writing job applications is one of them. I’m always afraid of screwing up in some way, writing a hilariously bad cover letter, etc.
I was about to write an application for a place called U. of Pittsburgh. I was thinking it was just a normal state university branch, or a city university. Then I found out it was the famous school — Penn (or was it Pitt? That shows you how much I know!). I probably have no chance to get a job there, but I feel like I should send in my app. anyway, although writing it is scary. Maybe they’d need me for a summer position, or something? (Ooooh, but as usual, I’m scared to get going!)