Last week before back to school

How fast 5 weeks has gone by. I can't complain because I have had a nice vacation. I have travelled, seen so many things, spent time with special friends, slept and rested but it is hard to believe that it is almost that time of year. Of course, our schedule is a big wonky this year because of the Olympics. We go back to work next week and then have the two weeks of the Olympics off and then school starts with the kids on August 25th. During those two weeks I plan on slowly acclimatizing myself back into school mode.

The weather continues to be brutal in Beijing. Today should reach 35 degrees with 85% humidity. We have a white/grey haze over the city and I can't tell whether it is the weather, smog or a combination of both. They say it is going to rain tomorrow but we will see.

I found out an interesting fact yesterday about travel into Beijing. If you do not have a Beijing licence plate then you are not allowed into the city. For example, if you a licence plate that shows you are from Tianjin but don't have the proper papers to get into Beijing then you are not allowed in. Feels strange. The first symbol on licence plates indicate what city the car is registered in and so that is how they tell. Apparently, you need to have an invitation from someone within Beijing to come through and they are checking all of the roads. It doesnt' affect me in anyway except how I feel inside. Interesting.

When I was getting a massage yesterday at one of my favourite places we found out that their clientelle had really fallen off as so many expats were not able to get their visas renewed and had to return home. The usual process when this happens is that you can go to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks, apply for a visa and once you have it you come back into the country. That is not what has happened this year as people have had to go back to their home countries and apply most of which are not approved. Again, interesting.

Even though I am living in the Olympic city I don't feel as much of the excitement as I would if I was back home as I can't watch it on English tv and at the moment I don't have access to news except through the computer. My main information about the Olympics comes from Discovery Channel, believe it or not. I am sure everyone at home knows a lot more about what is happening then I do. This will be the third Olympics I have watched in Chinese....I hope we will see things other than shooting, table tennis and archery. :)

The city, except for air quality, looks incredible. Beautiful greenery everywhere, gorgeous flowers, intricate flower designs. I will take pictures once I get back out again traveling around. Right now I am being lazy and it is too hot to learn to ride a bike. :)