Posting Break

You may noticed that we have not had much to say recently. This is because we have been busy getting ready to head back to the States!
That's right, we are going home for a vacation, and man oh man are we looking forward to it. While we are State side we are not planning on posting much if anything. But we will be back in China the second week of September, so check back in then.

Two Great Tastes, That Should Never Go Together

When we saw it in the store, Michael couldn't resist buying the coffee/cola. Cara wasn't so excited about it, but that could be because she doesn't like coffee.
To the left you can see Michael trying the stuff.


Now you can see Michael trying not to spit it at Cara as she takes his picture.

We do not recommend it to our viewers. 

I must remember...

...to buy a rain coat.
One nice thing - the air does smell better when it’s raining :)
Another neat thing is that once you've crossed a certain wetness threshold, riding your bike through the puddles is really a lot of fun! 

Classy Gas Stations

We have heard about the gas prices in the states and feel lucky that they have not gone up in quite the same manner over here. (Yay government subsidies.) What we do have though are some mightily classy gas stations. We came across this particular place and realized that it was the first gas station we had ever seen that had Roman columns as a support structure.
The pictures don't quite do it justice, but when we saw the place, we just knew it would have superior service because it had such impressive architecture.
As it turned out, its service was much like any other place but they were probably just having an off day. 

More Parks

During this past weekend's trip-around-town, we visited this little park. There are parks all throughout the city that usually charge about 25 cents entry fee. The trees reduce the sound of cars honking and block the view of most of the construction cranes, so the parks are a nice escape from the city. On this particular day we were able to see the lotus's opening on the pond and hear an instrument that sounded a lot like a very mellow oboe playing across the water. 

Yahoo!

Subway sign.
There is a bonus prize for anyone who can tell us what all the Chinese words say. 

Crazy Weather (for Beijing)

Yesterday the sky was a leaden gray when we woke up. It was the darkest, ickiest day we had seen yet. Nothing was visible from the apartment windows - very spooky. The only thing we were not sure of was weather the grayness was caused by fog or smog. Then, around 9am, it started pouring and while the air became clearer, the sky became darker. It was odd to watch though it did confirm that the earlier murkiness was due to contamination in the air rather than water particles. Sometime in the early afternoon if finally clearer up completely - and we do mean clear! The clouds went away and the sky grew bright and you could see forever! or at least to the other side of town. It was one of the clearest evenings we had in a long while. And to make it even better, it was still that clear this morning.
But then, this afternoon, out on the horizon, in came another mass of clouds... dun dun dun duuuuuu.
The clouds in these pictures moved from the distant horizon to right overhead in about 15 minutes and Cara had an exciting ride home keeping just ahead of rain. She made it though Michael got pleasantly soaked.
Hopefully the rain will mean that tomorrow is another beautifully clear day :)