Hot and Spicy Macaroni

Right, so after a dinner of hot and spicy macaroni (found in the Walmart here) and some cheez-its, I'm ready to write you a short update.

Friday had mom and I scrambling to pack, clean, and make it to Nanchang before Simon's birthday party at 7pm. We (read I) had risen late, and were quite sure that David would be driving us to Nanchang which would give us plenty of time to get mom's train ticket and find a hotel. However, David canceled on us around 2pm. Oh... that's not good. It's the last weekend of Chinese spring festival and the weekend before schools start (however, we didn't realize this until later.) Mom and I decided we still had plenty of time to get to Nanchang and decided to finish watching Vicky, Christina, Barcelona (which I thought stunk). We walked down the street to the bank, then caught a cab to the train station. I had no problem buying train tickets for the train which was to leave in the next twenty minutes and we managed to get through security quickly. We slowly meandered up the stairs to the platform... then realized that the train was right about to leave and our car was at the other end of the platform. Crap, crap, crap. I was, of course, wearing heels which I should have known would be a bad idea. I quickly removed them as I realized that running would be necessary, and almost immediately cut my foot on something. Damn. We made it onto the train in the nick of time, but realized that there were a.) no seats and b.) we were going to be packed into the train like sardines. I was still barefoot, and now bleeding, but luckily mom had some handy wipes and I had just enough room to wipe off my now black feet.
After almost two hours of hot, stinky, claustrophobic train travel we arrived in Nanchang. Nathan had kindly already bought moms ticket and greeted us at the exit with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (for Valentine's day.) We walked to the hotel and deposited the copious amounts of luggage (all moms) before heading to the restaurant for Simon's birthday dinner.
The feast was delicious and fairly vegetarian (although mostly meat) friendly. Good chatting and friendly vibes all around.
After food it was karaoke time. Mom decided to join us for a bit and got to meet some of the characters that live here in Nanchang. It was a good time, though she left early (we helped her get a cab back to the hotel). We left karaoke around 2am and headed back to Nathan's place.

Nathan and I headed to mom's hotel around 1pm. We had lunch reservations at Le Bistro for 2 o'clock, a sort of Happy Valentine's day celebration. Lunch was delicious and very filling, despite them not having the shrimp ravioli I have been craving lately. We went to the park after that and enjoyed watching the people and seeing all the fun rides. I will definitely be heading back there when the weather warms up again. After the park we went to a temple which was lovely. Very peaceful except for the angry drunk man who was yelling at the gate. We spent much of the day just walking Nanchang and searching for the ever ellusive cell phone I desire.
After a quick rest at the hotel we went to a bakery where we heard there were good sandwiches. However, it was Valentine's Day and the evening which meant no sandwiches available. After decided to see if Bro was open and finding that they only had a set meal menu and a long wait, we went back to the bakery and ordered a delicious pizza instead. Yum.
We headed back to the hotel after that where mom and I tried our face masks and watched tv with Nathan until he decided to bid us adieu.

Neither mom nor myself slept too well last night. We woke up at 6am to get ready for the day, packed up, and shipped out. I left my bag at the hotel so I could help mom with hers and I didn't have to lug it around with me. It was raining out so we caught a cab to the station then headed in to the waiting area for mom's train. I got to wait with her until it was time to go to the platform, then we said our goodbyes and I watched her make it up the escalator. I headed to McDonald's for breakfast and to do some lesson planning/kill time. After a few hours of that I went back to the hotel to collect my bag and flowers, walked back to McDonalds where I got in a fight with the cashier girl about wanting a bottle of water (which I not only said in Chinese but also pointed directly at the bottle of water), I lost though because she gave me a cup of coke instead. (I think a lot of Chinese assume that no foreigner can speak Chinese and therefore even when perfect Chinese is sometimes spoken, they still don't understand you because they think you're speaking another language).
I caught my train to Jiujiang around 1:15pm which then took over two hours to get to the station. (Normally the trip is 1.5 hours.) I found a reasonable cabbie and was finally home. Then I got my schedule...

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IT IS AWFUL!!!! Monday I have classes from 8am-4:10pm, Tuesday I have another 8am, Wednesday I have an 8am and 10am, Thursday I have an 8am, and Friday I have an 8am and 10am.
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And all of these classes are estimated to have between 60-80 students in them. And I can't split them. Which means that I have between 600 and 800 students this term.
Seriously.

I do have my own classroom though.

I'm still pissed.

I'm looking for a new job for next year.

Now I have to go lesson plan... and cry... and maybe curse a lot.