Happy news!

Evidently Chinese construction companies like to celebrate when they have gotten to the top floor of a new building that is being erected. Today we watched an enormous crane perched on top of a multi-story building that appeared half built, and the crane was dangling a long "string" from the end, and was spinning around the building. The string was actually a huge line of firecrackers, so the crane was spinning a long dangling string of lit firecrackers around and around a construction site, and they were going off for what seemed to be about 15 minutes until the final BOOM. Go figure!

Our apartment complex has lovely gardens, as I've mentioned. In them there is an outdoor exercise area, of sorts. Sort of like an ancient gym with steel equipment, but not many machines you'd recognize. Thank goodness for it because it has become the kids' go-to playground. When in Rome, I suppose.

The happiest news of the day is that we met 2 moms who have young children and speak both English and Mandarin!! We went to an actual play date in our complex! I was elated, as were Oscar and Josie. The moms said they even have a ladies lunch group with women from a lot of different countries, and hopefully they will go out to lunch again soon so that I can join in the fun. The fact that I had conversation with other people was really good for me.