Day 919 Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

Meet my beautiful Thai friend, Keaw.  This is only the second
time she has ever seen snow in her life.  Watching her watching
the snow fall outside the school's library windows was like
watching a child on Christmas morning- pure joy was on her face...
and a few snowflakes, too :)

This is my third winter in Beijing, and we have only had one
'dusting' of snow each winter I have been here.  This was the
first measurable snowfall.  Though we are in northern China,
along the 39th parallel north (the same as my home state of
Indiana), our climate is exceptionally dry here.  As you can
see in the map above, we are not far from the Gobi Desert. In
 fact, we are prone to sandstorms from the Gobi in the spring.
Even more worrisome is the fact that the Gobi is creeping south
 at an alarming rate of 'consuming' 1300 square miles of grassland
 each year. China's response to the desertification was been to
plant a "Green Wall of China" (a forest) to slow the progression.

But yesterday, concerns about desertification were furthest
from Beijingers minds. It was SNOWING, y'all!!!

And it was sticking! (Thanks, Elena, for the photo!)

As kids walked to lunch, it was nothing but gray, polluted skies.
Forty-five minutes later, it looked like blizzard conditions!
I have not seen snow like this in ages...
and I have to admit, I was pretty excited, too :)

When I woke up this morning, I expected the
snow would be all gone- nope!  It had snowed
even more overnight.  It made for a treacherous
walk to school, I tell ya'!

The view outside of my friend, Carlos' apartment was gorgeous.

Snow plow? We don't need no stinkin' snow plow!  In China,
everybody has a job and today it was throngs of Chinese with
shovels.  Instead of hearing the usual cacophony of blasting horns
and street traffic, today it was shovels scraping ice and snow.
(Greg Stiers, you wouldn't make any $$ pushing snow in Beijing.)

This fella was built outside the security guard
shack to the apartment complex.  I had to laugh-
it's a CHINESE snowman!  Look at his eyes!
They folded two leaves in half for slanted eyes :D

Litao is a sculpting teacher at the National School, and after

school yesterday, he took to the new fallen snow to create a Buddha.

So cool :)

Though the snow quickly began to melt in the afternoon sun today,
he played in this rare medium once more to create a reclining Buddha.
The detail was incredible, as it was complete with Buddha's right
 arm resting under his head as you typically see in the temples.
Such talent!

By the time I walked home from school before sundown, the snow
had all but melted away.  This little guy was lining up chunks of
snow along a bench in my courtyard as his grandfather looked on.
I must admit I have enjoyed watching children, parents, grandparents
and puppies playing in the snow here in the last twenty four hours.

But I am equally happy to say I am ready for it to go!

It's still crazy to think that it's been just five days ago that 

I was basking in the Florida sunshine in 80 degree temps.

At this rate, my flip flop tan will be fading fast.

G'nite, y'all!