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1/20

B chatted with a Chinese co-worker last week and found out she has three siblings. She’s from such a poor province that there aren’t the same restrictions on the number of kids you can have.

1/24
Last night we walked half a block to a new Pizza Hut restaurant that opened by us in December. I wore my air mask for bad air because it works great as a nose/lip warmer. Every time I exhaled, my breath went out the top of the mask and onto my eyes. By the time we got to the intersection to cross the street to the mall, I had ice crystals on my eyelids. That’s how insanely cold it was in Beijing yesterday.

1/25
Just ordered peanut butter sundaes from McDonald’s… for delivery. Sometimes living in China has its perks.

Update from B: Except when McDonald’s calls you up, speaks some Chinese at you, and then delivers vanilla ice cream instead. The all-too-commonplace “we don’t actually sell the items we advertise.”

Update from N: I’ve now actually learned the phrase “MeiYo,” meaning “not have.”

2/7

We *almost* got to have Relief Society in Spanish today at church… in Beijing, China. Awesome!

2/9

It’s been not freezing for about one day and I’ve already killed two mosquitoes.

2/13

China weirdness #3242349: B and I ate at Pizza Hut (China) last night. B was daring and ordered the fruit salad. We forgot to take a picture. It consisted of cut up apples, cucumber, canned peaches, and clear, flavorless gelatin cubes on a bed of lettuce with a side of sweet mayo.

2/23

I can almost handle the spitting in China (everyone just spits on the sidewalk when they need to clear some phlegm). *Almost.* I can’t handle the spitting on the sidewalk where everyone is walking (spit into the road, or off into a bush, people!) and I definitely can’t handle spitting INSIDE stores, buildings, subway stations or subway trains. And I can’t even begin to think about the constant farmer nose blowing we witness. Bleh.

Snow and a Dinner Party

11/22

When we left for church (7AM) it was just starting to show. When we emerged from the subway over an hour later, there was a light dusting, especially on the pedestrian bridge we use to get to the church building. During church it snowed and snowed. After church, R and J L invited our family as well as some other people from church over for lunch. The kids enjoyed watching the snow fall from their windows and we enjoyed a delicious meal and wonderful company. Afterwards, we rode the subway home and emerged back on our end of town to see what our neighborhood looked like blanketed in the most snow we’ve ever seen here in Beijing.

Snow!

2/20/15

It’s snowed a few times, but never enough to stick even a little bit. Here’s a recent snow.  It stuck a little bit on the roofs and on the grass field.

Out our eastern sun porch, toward the north gate of campus.

Over that wall is off campus, a hotel and some sad looking apartments.

Out our south sun porch, toward the west. Behind those stadium seats is a little garden, a small parking lot and I think a little soccer or baseball field and then a street.  Those skyscrapers are apartments across that street and that is the complex where some of the other teachers live (off campus).