It snowed Saturday night/St. Patrick’s Day here, which was a seriously unexpected weather pattern.  Just goes to show that spring has been slow to come here, as it is still quite cold out; there hasn’t yet been a really nice spring day (hurry up!!). I, and others around me, both friends and colleagues, have also been getting the requisite changing of the season cold.  

Aside from health and weather, life is good as always in Beijing.  Things feel more and more like life, and though I do have China moments that surprise or astound, it feels like they are fewer and farther between.  

The first two weeks of March (every year) they have 2 important political meetings in Beijing at the People’s Hall, which, to most, mean worse traffic.  To those politically aware, they maybe will remark about how they are important meetings, but when pressed for details, can’t usually offer any. These meetings have also been all over NPR (the States) and Weibo (Chinese twitter) because of the ridiculously expensive clothes/accessories the “representatives” are wearing.  

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/03/china-and-the-unofficial-truth.html

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/13/148499296/chinas-legislators-are-increasingly-wealthy

At any rate, I was tutoring my high school students and when illustrating what the word “successor” meant, I found out that they didn’t even know who Hu Jintao’s successor will be. That’s good old Xi Jingping for anyone who also didn’t know (the Chinese guy who came to America a few weeks ago).  That blew my mind.