Spring has Sprung!!

Finally the days of bundling up in my down coat and winding my 45 foot wool scarf around my face are over!! Last weekend I went with some friends to an out of the way furniture market and got pelted with dust and fumes and all things that can be thrown around by a mighty wind that sounded like a train and one of the women looked at me and said "Welcome to Spring!" But as I look out my window this morning I see clear blue skies (thanks to the wind, the pollution has retreated for a while) and from my 3rd floor window I can see the magnolias and the cherry blossoms lightly swaying on some nearby trees. Quite fittingly in our backyard we only have dead trees growing along with the dead bushes with the perpetually dusty stone patio and fence that has a mangy, feral, born-white-but-is-now-environmentally-reduced-to-a-pale-gray cat slinking around our property. But at least I can enjoy the spring blossoms from afar. And as I've been told spring doesn't last long around here -- approximately 2 weeks of fair weather and then it turns unbearably, humidly hot. But all the stars have aligned and we are enjoying this weather as the kids are off for Spring Break, Cory has work off due to the Chinese National Tomb Sweeping Holiday, and it just happens to be my birthday week. So we have been using this time to get a little bit more acquainted with our new country.

SATURDAY:

The official Tomb Sweeping Day is Wednesday -- the day that all people should tend to the graves of their dearly departed ancestors -- but the holiday is observed Monday through Wednesday. But the government would never grant a superfluous 3 days off without requiring something in return. So people may have work off for 3 days but they are required to work the Saturday and Sunday prior to the holiday. Yes, ridiculous. So Cory had to work all of Saturday. I thought he was kidding about this until he woke up early on Saturday morning and headed off to work (in our basement, but with a huge, although invisible DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door.) Now what in the heck was I going to do with my 4 kids on a Saturday at the beginning of their Spring Break? My original idea of heading out to the city to enjoy some in-your-face culture was dashed. So what do you do with 4 kids that need to get out of the house? You go to the PARK! And what do you do when the wind is blowing so hard that you think it might lift your 7 month old baby away if you stay outside for too long? You go to the play area at the mall! (I know this from many a hot summer afternoon spent play-area hopping in Arizona.) And what do you do when the Chinese equivalent is an eclectic assortment of rundown toys that would never pass an American safety test? Well, you go of course! Too bad I found out they charged a whopping 60 RMB (the equivalent of about $10) per child after I had raised the hopes of my too-bored-for-home kids. In they went and we had a surprising good time.

Fortune Cookie say:

Spring is sprung. Life is blooming!