Cold-Snow-Water by Eric

Winter has officially descended upon Shiyan and we're diligently taking precautions against it's wrath. The high has routinely been in the 30s for the past couple of weeks. Layers and long underwear are the strategies of choice. Whenever I am outside or teaching in the classroom- where there is no heater and the windows are left open- I wear a t-shirt, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, a sweatshirt, and a heavy coat. Gloves and double socks don't keep my digits warm but the coldest part of my body is usually the tip of my nose. The first time our family donned the long underwear we had quite a laugh dancing and modeling our unfamiliar attire.  Tight,  black leggings isn't quite my style.

Our apartment has a heater that sits in the corner of the living room and a small wall unit in two of the bedrooms. We keep the living room unit set on 20 or 21 celsius (68-70F) whenever we are home and awake. The heater in the bedroom is turned on at night while we sleep. All in all we stay relatively warm inside although the tile floors seem to suck away the heat.

We've had two afternoons of snow flurries recently! The children (and their parents) were quite excited! Not something we saw very often in San Antonio. The forecast tomorrow is calling for more and might actually stick this time. A White Christmas might be a possibility.  

All the water in Shiyan has been turned off for 40 hours. Apparently this is a common occurrence in China; we're not sure if it's for conservation or maintenance. This is the third or fourth time it's happened since we've been here.  Thankfully they gave us several days warning so we were able to fill several containers of water in preparation.  As strange as it might sound, we had a little bit of excitement and a surge of contentment when we heard about it.  The chance to live simply and "rough it" for a few days was an opportunity to put things into perspective.  Many (or most?) people in the world don't have running water and we take it for granted.  Flushing, doing dishes, brushing teeth, and cooking take some forethought without running water but we've been able to manage.....and we're looking forward to the switch being flipped and the water flowing freely again.

All of our classes are cancelled for Christmas Eve and Christmas although the school is still open and all other classes are in session.  We're thankful they afford us this privilege.  The last day of our semester i January 4th but we still haven't been told when the new semester will begin; we think sometime mid to late February. We're looking forward to a break!  And looking forward to having time to write on the blog more!

Grace and Peace
Eric