First up, as everyone here in China knows yesterday was the one year anniversary of the devastating Sichuan earthquake last May that killed 80,000 people and left millions homeless.  While the earthquake could physically be felt here in western Hunan when it hit Sichuan the anniversary was less noticeable to me.  There were fireworks – the Hunan answer for any occasion, good or bad – and I know that the speech given during the day’s morning exercise was in remembrance of those who were killed.  Other than that though it was a normal school day, no parades or assemblies of any kind.

There is so much online about the earthquake and the anniversary so I’ll leave that to you to discover if you’re interested.  However I would highly recommend this conscientiously made video called “Afterquake” about the devastated region and the music sung by the local children.  The Shanghaiist wrote a piece about it (video included).  If you are in China watch the video on Tudou instead, it’s faster.

This week has been my first full week of teaching after being sick and then recovering while showing a movie in class, which my students loved and gave me plenty of reading time.  Teaching is one hell of a tiring profession, that’s a big lesson from my year here.  Teaching in Hunan’s sub-tropical hot ‘n humid weather means being stuck in a sweltering BO scented room (no air con) with 60 students, often with the windows closed so we can use the projector.  It gets old after awhile.  I must say though, compared to showing a movie or lying in bed sick teaching is definitely more enjoyable.  And now with only 4 or so weeks left of classes I want to make sure I get in all the important lesson plans I’ve been saving.

Tomorrow, after my last classes of the week (Hoorah for three day weekends!), I’m heading to Changsha so that can catch an early morning plane to glamorous Shanghai.  This trip is to (hopefully) solidify my future job in Shanghai after a short summer in America.  I’m getting excited just thinking about living in city of Shanghai’s caliber.  Besides the insane air quality Shanghai has many modern day comforts like micro brewed beer, cheese, and quality live music (Ratatat is playing next week and Ghostface Killah is hitting up the city in June!).  It should be a fun weekend.