First Day of School

Can I get a "woot-woot!" for the Chinese school day?  Oleg gets on the bus at 7:30 a.m. and returns at 4:15 p.m. Lots of time for getting all kinds of things done.  I'll finally get back to the gym today and I'm meeting my Mandarin tutor and the group class I'm going to join today.  Seriously need to get Mandarin under my belt.  Life will be so much easier being able to say more than hello, goodbye, yes, no & thank you!


In other news, I love walking my dog, Schnitzel around 6am.  The city is so peaceful and beautiful.  This morning, I was enjoying my walk over to "dog poop mountain" aptly named by Steve because it is a large grassy hill where everybody takes their dogs, when 2 little puffball dogs seriously attacked Schnitzel.  He looked like a cotton ball was riding him like a horse. The elderly Chinese woman who was walking them without a leash came over and broke it up and everyone seemed fine, but it was very exciting for that hour of the morning.  No one here walks their dogs on a leash and it seems to work out fine.  Same strange thing with the traffic-stoplights are merely a suggestion.  The largest and most assertive vehicle gets to go first.  Horns are used constantly, not out of anger, but more of a "hey I'm over here and I want to get over there" or "hey I'm in a smart car and your SUV is about to crush me" sort of way.  Yet, there are virtually no accidents or road rage.  The Chinese are doing something right here, people.

Anyway, here are some cute pics of Oleg this morning on our way and at the bus stop.

In front of our building

In front of the bus

On the bus