Commonly asked questions......

Hello Everyone -

Thank you for reading my blog, or trying to anyway, since the amount of reading has been limited!  Yes, needless to say I heard many of you loud and clear and the message was the same.  YOU NEED TO POST MORE OFTEN!  So, I will this year.  Can't be too hard to post more than four times!

I have been thinking about what to post and have decided that I will start with the most common questions that we were asked when we visited you this summer:

How do you like it?  Obviously, it's not killing us being here but there are defiantly things here that take some getting used to and challenges above and beyond the language barrier, and these are things I never imagined I would ever have to contemplate.

What is the weather like?  See below

What do you do? As in, now that you don't work what do you spend your free time doing?  Hopefully, after you read most post you won't be wondering this anymore.  :)

What do you miss the most?  Are there products you can't get there that you normally get here? YES!  More on this later.

Your dogs are there?  Yes, they are and I think they really enjoy having us around more throughout the day.

How do the kids like school?  They like it!  They have a lot of friends, speak English and are learning Chinese.  I will also post more on this later.

I know there were a lot more question than this but it's a start.  And do you want to hear them all now and never get any information from me?  I didn't think so.  :)

So today's theme is weather.  Why do I choose this today?  Well, because the weather today and many days these past couple of weeks since our return as been horrible!  We have had rain almost everyday.  I am not talking about little showers either.  Full on thunder, lightening and "big" rain.  Prior to moving here we of course did our research and thought ok, so it rains about as much here as it does in Portland, we can handle this.  But this rain is different.  It happens fast and comes down all at once.  And just because I am complaining about the rain it doesn't mean it rains all day.  We still enjoy long periods with warm temps and dryness.

Here are some stats from The Weather Channel:

On Average the warmest Month is July with average highs around 90 and guess what July also holds the record for most rainfall!  July average rainfall is 9inches.  The average rainfall for August is 8.7 inches.  

We have a little weather station set up here at the house and in the last 24 hrs we have had almost 2inches of rain.  So far this month we have had 7.78 inches!  Our weather is much more similar to the southern US., when they have Hurricanes, we have Typhoons.  And I think last year was an exception to the normal because I don't remember having any.  And this year, while none have actually hit our city several have come close which still impacts us.  It's hot here and it is humid.  The humidity has been hovering around 80 and 90% lately with the heat index hovering around 100-105.

This is not the kind of weather we would be experiencing in Oregon right now!

This video was taken during a major rain shower one Saturday afternoon.  Imagine being dressed in shorts and sandals and having to tromp through these streets!  That was us to get to our car.

This picture was taken from the club house in our neighborhood prior to a storm arriving.

Editors note: this post was written on August 22nd but the Author forgot to post it.  :(  oops.