March 19 - Happy St. Patrick's Day (a little late)

Life here has been on the quiet side. I volunteered to co-chair Staff Appreciation week at Daniel's school. That is keeping me out of trouble!

My friend, Veronica, and I still go out once a week to explore some new place in the city. Last week we went to a glass museum and a fake market that we had not been to yet.

Outside of the Glass Museum

This piece is called "Bamboo Forest"

This was my favorite piece. Each side looked different. It was really cool.

Another angle of my favorite piece.

We are trying new areas to shop because I am looking for a pair of TerraCotta Warriors that are about 3 feet high. I would like to put them out on our front porch when we move back to the US. Like everything, the prices keep going up, so I would like to buy them now before they get too expensive.

The weather here has turned nice. The winter was very cold. It did not get "New England" cold, but it felt just as cold because it is damp and raw. The cold just goes through you. It is funny though, about half the trees dropped their leaves and the other half did not. In New England, the leaves drop and the evergreens keep their leaves/needles. Here, some of the trees with leaves drop their leaves, while others do not. They planted impatients around our complex for the winter. They did freeze a couple of times this winter and I thought for sure that the flowers were gone, but a couple of days later the flowers were fine! There is a bush here that has rose type flowers on it. They bloomed all winter long. I think they bloom because the ground does not freeze here.

You can tell spring is coming, they have started
washing the buildings. These two men are washing
the windows in the building near us. First they
wash down the building to get all the grime
off and then they go back and wash the windows.

When they did our building, I was sitting at the computer and I looked out the
window to see a man washing the window. I almost had a heart attack.
Reminder - we live on the fourth floor! I just waved and he waved back!

Now it is starting to warm up. Today I walked by the trees and they have buds on them and the flowering trees are all starting to bloom. It is really pretty. It feels weird, because I am used to the flowering trees blooming at the end of April - beginning of May or later. We have seen the sun once or twice. It is overcast and rainy through the winter and spring. Pollution levels are a little high (Ha, a little, that's an understatement!) so it keeps the sky a gray color, or as our driver calls it - "Shanghai blue!"

The bikes loaded down always amaze me!

Anyone need a chair?