I awoke to a serious rainstorm this morning and sloshed my way along the streets to the office. Without question, this is by far the most rain I’ve experienced since arriving in Beijing in April. Temperature wise, it’s in the low 70’s which is also the coolest day since I arrived. I also couldn’t help but notice how the streets flood so easily. Evidently, because major downpours are fairly rare, storm drains aren’t a major part of the city infrastructure.

As I write this, it’s almost 2pm and so far, of my five classes today, three were complete “no-shows.”  My next two aren’t until this evening. All of the other teachers have had to endure classes of one or two students and they have expressed their envy or anger at the fact that I’ve gotten a “pass”, so far today. It’s also my “Friday” and if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, I can, presumably, look forward to a pollution-free day. No small thing, here in Beijing.

I realize the above missive hardly qualifies as “newsworthy” but it certainly is different than any other work day I’ve had. Take it or leave it!

Addendum: It’s just past 9pm and I am back home. I ended up teaching my early evening class but my last class ended up as a ‘no-show” so in the end, I only taught one of my five classes today. More interesting is the amount of rainfall. In some parts of Beijing there was over 30 inches of rain! Video footage from some parts of the city were astonishing. It was unrelenting all day where I worked and never let up. It does appear to be doing so now that I’m home which wasn’t the case while walking back from work (obviously!).

The forecast for Thursday is for light showers in the morning with clearing. If that turns out to be the case, I will take a trek to the famous “Summer Palace” which is somewhere fairly close to where I live. Stay tuned.

A sight you rarely see in Beijing. Looking out the backdoor onto the 6th floor terrace.

That’s the subway station in the background. It’s probably a good day to ride the subway because few people are out and about.

It’s even raining in our office. There are a few other leaks around as well.