I forgot to tell you about my birthday

Not much to say. These Chinese cakes have no butter in them, and most of the frosting is intended to end up on people's faces in the inevitable cake fight.

It was really amusing waking up on a train at 4am on my birthday, riding back from Wuhu. That was when the lights turned on. I had somehow managed to drape all of my train blankets over my bed, trapping Shannon--who was sleeping in the bed below mine--in a canopy, so she was fortunately spared some of the blast of light.
(the beds are like this, stacked three high. Here's Sarah in the middle bunk)
We arrived at the train station at 5 and had time to got to our apartments and get ready to trach at 8. I find it really exciting to do extreme things, such as not sleeping well and going all day straight. Therefore I was so entertained by the thought of what I was doing that I didn't feel tired for the first two hours of teaching. then, during the second class, I yawned, the students picked up on this and instantly commented. although they seem entirely incapable of hearing, understanding or caring about anything I'm trying to teach them, they are perfectly attentive to any motion that potentially entertains them or warrants unsolicited remarks of concern. Thus asking them questions draws blank stares but dropping a power adapter or kicking a chair by accident elicits gasps and pleas to be more careful. Therefore, yawning got me a barrage of comments that I must be very tired. I had to admit that I was, and that really didn't help. The more they talked about it, the more tired I felt.
Once class was over, I went home and passed out for a while until Aaron came for lunch. I don't remember well when I'm tired. After that I made it through office hours, probably sleeping most of the time, and then on to the faculty meeting, and after the faculty meeting was my birthday dinner. It's a blur now, but there were pancakes, per my request. It was actually the next day that my students surprised me with the cake.