Last Thursday there was a fire scare in one of the dormitories. The Tianjin fire department was out in force and several dorms were evacuated for a while. Nothing bad happened.

So it has been 10 days since our last post. Time flies when we are busy. Linda has been busy on the computer putting the final touches on her classes and writing her exam and I have been busy getting grades together. Linda has been busier than me. I have one more class - tomorrow, Christmas. Then I'm finished. One of my other classes voted to watch a movie on a day when they would not have had to come to class so we are hopefully going to watch Finding Forrester. That is an example of great teaching and dedication on their part.

Saturday night it snowed here - the most snow at one time in 50 years - about 6 inches. After it snowed, the wind started to blow and it got really cold. I woke up Sunday morning and was very excited to see snow so I went out to take a few pictures. I was out about an hour. that was enough because it was cold - cold and windy.

As you can see from the pictures, life does not stop in Tianjin with a little snow. It slows down but it does not stop. I did hear later that all flights were cancelled out of the airport. Snow removal is interesting. It is not done with machines but with human power. People show up with snow shovels and little carts. Snow is shoveled back to the curb and then loaded into carts and then dumped down the storm drains - very labor intensive.

Some people did stay home because of the weather. We were supposed to have some people over Sunday evening but they all cancelled because they could not ride their bikes.

Monday was bitterly cold as well but our group made it over. Mostly, they rode the bus. Buses are very crowded and slow when the weather is bad. Tuesday it warmed up to the mid 30s so I took a short trip to get some bread. The roads were wet but pretty clear. Today the north - south roads were in pretty good shape but the east west roads are in shade more and still had some snow or slush on them. Maybe by the weekend they will be clear. Linda still likes to ride her bike fast on the street. I'm a little more cautious when the street are even a hint of wet.

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas.