April Showers Bring May Flowers

Well Spring has finally arrived here in Changzhou after months of the worst weather we've had in a while. Last year in April we had up and down weather a lot but nothing like this year. It was basically cold and rainy for the whole month of April. Ken had told one of his friends who visited to expect good weather only to have it rain for a week straight. China isn't usually an overly sunny place with the constant layer of haze but I think I went weeks without seeing the sun. But it looks like the corner has finally been turned. For the last three days it's been warm and sunny. Today I'm finally wearing shorts and I think the air conditioning was even on in the afternoon in the hotel. I even got a little sun burned yesterday when going out to see some Dragon Boat races, more on that tomorrow. The flowers metaphor is particularly apt as a number of my students have missed class over the last week so they could volunteer at some sort of international rose festival that is going on in Changzhou right now. Here are some pictures the first three are from Teddy's party and include a shot of me eating cake with chopsticks, a picture of the cake and a good group photo. The last picture was just taken at Sarah's place the other day of all this year's English teachers.