christmas in may? and more ...

today the mail arrived and we received 5 christmas cards, i realize that mail in china can be slow, but wow!! they must have arrived via the donkey cart. this is a new kind of slow, it will be hard for me to complain about the US post office ever again. rachel even received some birthday cards. what an exciting day!!! (the postmark on one card was from december 3rd, 2006)

here i am trying to hear lilo, but all i heard was rach's stomach gurgle.

i just returned from dropping rach off in beijing, so she's a local beijing peep, until lilo comes. i have to teach this week and then i'll move there next week until lilo makes here grand entrance. so here's some subway pictures from the weekend in beijing. it was a little bit crowded!




and this is why i love queuing day!! there's a poster to promote standing in line on the 11th of every month. here seth and i are demonstrating the proper way to "queue it up!" (the people in the picture have their mouths open, in case you are wondering why we chose the "pac-man" look)

spring is also in the air!!! beijing was already green and warm, where siping is still chilly and brown. but i did spot some signs of spring coming very quickly. if you look really close you can see a little green bud coming out.