Attempt to start blogging again with random antedotes about life in China...

It's raining...again. From September until about two weeks ago I could count on my fingers how many times it's rained (or snowed) in Beijing during that period of time. But now starting some time last week, we have had so much rain!!! It's really crazy. I think it was last Friday... oh yes, last Friday after Chinese lessons. When I went it was normal cloudy/hazy. When I left, the sky had turned eerily black and it was just starting to rain. I bought an umbrella at a newsstand (for 10rmb it's just not worth it to carry one around all the time, I now own four umbrellas). Biking with an umbrella is not fun. Biking with an umbrella with even a little bit of wind in rush hour traffic is impossibly dangerous. I got wet but the rain wasn't too bad so I didn't mind. I was almost home and decided to stop to buy bananas from one of the fruit vendors (I like them for breakfast). I was feeling pretty safe at the time. I made my purchase (the guy was nice and charged me 5 jiao less instead of changing a hundred) and continued home. No sooner had I turned the corner then splat! splat! splat! - a HUGE down pour! I quickly took my umbrella from the bike basket. Half a block later I was under a bridge with a lot of other wet bikers. I decided it was easier to walk the rest of the way home than bike, so I did. I was quite wet when I got home, but not quite dripping. Since than, it's rained everyday except Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday we actually had (almost) blue skies and sunshine!!! I took advantage of it and went for a bike ride in the morning (before it was 90+ degrees). I decided to go east and explore that direction. I went outside of the 5th ring road. It was like a completely different city. Most of the buildings were only 2 or 3 stories. Everything looked older and more run down. It's kind of how I imagine the whole city must have been like ten years ago. Development just hasn't hit the outskirts yet although there were signs that it was coming. I'm looking forward to my next morning off to go and explore some more.