Our Lovely Home

On this crisp Autumn day, we wanted to show a picture of our lovely home, and some of the people in our neighborhood.  Scaffolding has been erected around the building and netting has been added to contain falling debris.

In addition, we have been asked to wear hard hats as we walk to and from our entrance as many workers are banging their hammers on the side of the building and dinner-plate sized pieces of concrete are falling on the ground.  Sue is sporting a red hard hat below.  On the right, they have finished removing the concrete and there is a layer of brick below it.

Here's the safety patrolman watching me take a picture of Sue before he collects her hard-hat.

Outside our building our neighborhood is undergoing a quite a transformation with 20' tall trees being planted and new sod going in.  Some things don't change between cultures: These two women are chit-chatting away as they move sod back and forth in their wheel-barrow.  

... and back they go with another load!  The grass and trees you see in the background weren't there a week ago.

These guys are the local recycle patrol.  They are weighing recyclables to determine their value and the person that collected them is getting paid.  It's not just bottles and newspapers here, but Styrofoam,  bands that go around cardboard boxes, pieces of machinery, any plastic they can break off of consumer items, and much more.  You see people digging through trash piles and trash cans all of the time looking for anything to recycle. Hey Seattle-ites:  no need to sort your trash here!

After a nice lunch with our friends, Sophie got out of school at 12:30 today.  They came back from a field trip to the park, and it was pandemonium with cars, bicycles, people, kids and busses all vying for space in this small side street in front of Sophie's school.  It makes Abia Judd's dismissal process seem so orderly in comparison!

Even in China, there has to be some Mom that carries all of the coats!

Tonight we go out to another dinner with some other friends who have quite a book collection and they have been nice enough to offer usage of it to us and the boys! 

The boys are not looking forward to another Chinese dinner out they'll survive!  It is usually difficult to have Sophie at a restaurant for long periods too as she gets so rambunctious after 10 minutes of sitting in her seat!  Sometimes we think that someday she'll play quietly, but I don't think it's in her nature!