Waking up to explosions is always preferred

A few days ago we woke up by the sound of explosions out our window - turns out one of our thoughtful neighbors had decided to kindly wake us by shooting off some fireworks directly beneath us. It's not in the video, but there was a policeman walking on the street about 10 yards away, just watching and enjoying the pyrotechnics.




Our inability to use the bus system well has actually allowed us to meet a lot of people: yesterday we were wondering how we were going to get home from Walking Street (the bus we usually take home was packed, so it wouldn't stop). Two nice buisnesswomen heard us talking and said they lived near us and were headed the same way; they would help us home! We had a good conversation on the bus: Carley really connected to one of them, the other unfortunately couldn't speak English. We hope to meet with her soon - she said she can teach us how to cook Chinese food!

Our other bus experience was when we couldn't get to Auchan (Chinese version of Wal-Mart) - and four girls got on that heard us talking about it. They ended up helping us a lot to get what we needed, and we were able to meet with one of them a few days later for lunch!

(Pics of the historic part of the city - this girl took us here and Carley shared as we walked)




Carley and Lydia love to run here (well, minus the smog that kind of hurts your lungs):


Story behind this pic: Carley and Lydia go running one night in the rain and get home absolutely soaked. Trying to avoid hypothermia, pneumonia, frostbite, and all the rest, Lydia changes into warm, dry clothes and turns on the heater in her room. A second later, just as her body temperature reaches a normal level again, Carley comes out of her room exclaiming, "Lydia! put on your running clothes again! we must document this!" So after much deliberation, we put on our cold, slimy, gross, did I say cold? running clothes again just for this picture. Still not sure if it was worth it... :) But the run was awesome!