The sun comes out and I pull off my fleece jacket and wonder if I really needed to wear my thermals underneath my jeans today.  It is mid-April after all.  A cloud rolls in, covering the sun, and I can feel my arms getting chilled beneath my long-sleeved T-shirt.  The fleece goes back on.  What’s up with this weather?

The radiators in our apartment were turned off in early March, but someone forgot to turn up the temperature outside.  After the sun goes down (and on the frequent cloudy days of late), our concrete apartment turns into a cooler pretty quickly.  If your feet or nose get cold at this time of day they will stay that way until you hop into bed for the night.  I am thankful for the hot chocolate we have on hand.  It is technically spring now I think.

The girls have found a tree near our apartment that they can climb.  Anna is proud of the fact that she can climb near to the top — a good six or seven feet above my head.  It makes me nervous.  The daily attention we receive in our town is bad enough, but our kids have to make it worse by climbing a tree.  As I watch Anna with broken arm scenarios looping through my head, I hear the locals asking each other over and over again, "Twins?  Are they twins?"  All of these foreign kids look the same I guess.  They smile and gawk at the little white birds up in the leafy treetops.

Zacchaeus, you come down!

This afternoon we looked at a another potential rental property for our library.  We think this might be the one.  As you may remember, the place we were renting had some "foundational" issues.  I’m not speaking figuratively when I say these issues were foundational.  The floor was very literally caving in.  We condemned it and have been looking for a place ever since then.  I wish I had some photos on hand to show you. If we can get this new place rented that will be very good. It will keep us a good deal busier during our last month here in J-town.

Christa has been visiting her Chinese Mus. friend in town, Sophia, pretty often. Sophia is expecting a baby boy during the first part of May so Christa is hoping we’ll still be here when the baby actually comes.  Sophia will be giving birth at the hospital here in J-town which has a good reputation supposedly, but makes a foreigner like myself cringe just thinking about it.  Christa gave Sophia a childbirth book (in Chinese) a few weeks ago since Sophia will not have any kind of preparation (childbirth classes, doctor consults, etc.) before the baby arrives.  Epidurals?  I don’t think so…

I’ve been tied up with other preparations lately.  The girls and I have been scheming and plotting in lieu of Christa’s birthday on Thursday (17th).  We have a few things lined up, but it will be pretty low-key. 

Thought of the day: Tibetan clothing just looks cool.  I like the long robes, the colorful patterns, the yak’s wool lining, and the curious faces staring at me from beneath it all.