This week, the email finally came down asking us to renew our contracts for next year! I did have two changes to the contract that I sent back, one being a raise, and I don't know when I'll hear back about that. The secretary needed a reply from everyone by the 15th of this month, so it might not be until after that.

Not much is new here, we had a few days of lovely spring weather before the rain returned, bringing with it the cold temperatures...again. Last weekend was a longer one for us because of a Chinese holiday (Qing Ming Jie, Tomb Sweeping Day), but it turned into a personal "I hate China" weekend. On Friday, we decided to head back to the Hunan Botanical Garden since the cherry blossoms hadn't come out the week before, and on this day, it appeared to be some kind of Childrens' Day. I'm talking thousands of schoolchildren. Manners don't really exist in the Western sense over here, and I've heard that they are actually taught to *yell* "Hello!" at foreigners, so we were taunted all day. I've mentioned on this blog before how children are generally spoiled anyway in China, so we were stared at and shouted at, and some kids even got up in our faces to really get a good look. Because America is a multicultural society, (in most places) people are not stared at for being a different race, so it's an experience and a feeling that can't really be communicated unless it's happened to you. It was even worse because there were four of us, and Jason and Julianne are both much taller than me, so they stand out even more. The point of the day when I hit really miserable was our short trip into the "zoo", where the animals were kept in basic wire cages with little or no visible food or water. These kids were running around like hooligans, chasing birds that weren't in cages (I've never seen a peacock up a tree, but they sure can get up there), and throwing things at the caged animals. At one point in front of the lioness, I actually grabbed a Chinese child after he threw things at her, got in his face, and told him to stop. Then they yelled at us even more, and for some reason started yelling "Yingyuren" (British people). The sad thing was that these normally fierce animals knew to be scared of the children. We skipped out on the demonstration with the alligators, it was apparently some kind of performing thing like one might see at Sea World...but with alligators? I didn't want to participate. Overall, not the best day, for even more reasons than I'm willing to list on this.

On Monday, we made the mistake of going out during the holiday, so everywhere and everything was crowded. Generally, I don't mind crowds (or I wouldn't be surviving here), but there's a big difference fighting crowds on your own versus with the group you're attempting to stay near. On Tuesday, I only left my apartment twice, and that only to take out the trash and recycling. I really needed that day. We only taught Wednesday and Thursday this week, a dangerously lazy schedule to which I could definitely grow accustomed. Amy and I made it out to Pizza Hut last night, and I have delicious American pizza leftovers in the fridge for lunch, which is a good feeling. I had my smallest class yesterday afternoon, and I decided to teach them E.R.S., a slapping card game that I learned in high school. Where was my brain when I decided to teach male military students a slap game, and then play it with them? One of my beefiest students overall is in that class, and while he was confounded every time my small female hand slipped in at the bottom of the pile, he's getting the last laugh today because my hand is sore. It was fun though, and I enjoy that class because it's so much smaller than my others and we can get to know each other and not have to rush through lesson plans.

Amy and I are heading to Chengdu in three weeks, which is exciting!