April 1 was kind of a funny and strange day. I started off the day by pranking my 8am European History class. We have a mid-term exam in one week but I walked in the class with a stack of papers and said, "Ok, we have an exam today - please put everything away." I thought that someone would be on to me but nope - they flipped out! The room was filled with heated protestations and complaints in both Chinese and English until I started laughing and said "April Fools!" After that, some students breathed a sigh of relief, others started laughing and the remaining ones just looked totally confused until I explained the holiday and tradition of April 1. This particular class is so innocent and trusting that it was easy to fool them - they are also the class that begs me to put on the movie Beauty and the Beast during the 10 min. break each week. We're up to the part where (*spoiler alert*) the Beast saves Belle from the wolves when she tries to run away. It's gripping.

The day was filled with random lucky and unlucky events. Here's a quick synopsis:

Unlucky: While eating out of a large clay bowl filled with soup and noodles downtown in a Japanese restaurant we all heard a loud crack. It sounded like a light had fallen from the ceiling or someone had shot a gun and people started freaking out. It wasn't until there was soup running all over my corduroys that we figured out what had happened. For some reason my bowl had suddenly cracked in four places and then shattered, but the noise was so loud we couldn't tell where it was coming from. It was weird. My Chinese seatmates couldn't decide if this was a good omen or a bad one - a little disconcerting.

Lucky: They brought me another new bowl of ramen.

Lucky: After my last class at Web at 9pm, a student was waiting outside the door to give me a ride home. I was particularly happy about this because trying to cram on the last 9:05 bus that leaves downtown is a nightmare that can sometimes lead to physical injury.

Unlucky: My student, Anna, was very nervous and excited about giving me a ride home. So much so, in fact, that she couldn't remember where she left her car. We searched for 30 minutes in several different parking garages all while she was almost in tears and apologizing profusely. It was awkward but then we finally found it in section D.

Unlucky: While driving home, we got in a car accident which mangled whatever shred of nerves Anna had left. It wasn't her fault; someone rear-ended her at a light (he says that he thought he was putting his car in reverse but accidentally put it in drive). He drove away after giving Anna about $15. She was super angry and embarrassed that I had to see all of that happen (it was a pretty big scene that gathered a crowd of onlookers very quickly).

Lucky: Speaking of driving, my roommate, Qin Chen, passed her driving test today! (I wish her the best of luck on the Chinese roads because the driving is among the worst in the world)

Lucky: I called my sister because her birthday is actually April 1 and she was actually home so we got to chat a bit.

Lucky: My dad let me know that I received a little bit of scholarship money from NOLS to help with the tuition cost! Fire up!

I hope you had a good/interesting April Fool's Day too!

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