Sunshine and smiles

Since Dragon Boat Festival is this coming Wednesday, the Shenzhen government has moved around the children's school days so they went to school on Saturday and Sunday so they could have a three day weekend. That means I got Friday and Saturday off this week and am working today and tomorrow.

The weather this weekend was absolutely GORGEOUS. Goodbye seasonal depression! The humidity has gone down a bit and the sun is shining. So naturally I spent some time both Friday and Saturday laying out in the sun.

In China the sun is avoided. People walk around under umbrellas to avoid getting any color. Being white is valued here because if you are tan it means that you work in the sun which means that you are poor.

   

So you can imagine how unusual it is for people to see me laying out enjoying the sunshine. Even the pool at my garden has a canopy blocking the sunshine, so searching for a good spot to lay out is challenging! But i recently discovered this overhead walkway from the civic center to linhua mountain park.

I layed out my towel, put in music, ignored all the stares and read my book. On Friday no one bothered me because i had headphones in. On Saturday I forgot my music so this older man started talking to me in very broken english. He was under a tree and said i should come sit in the shade, but i told him (did some charades) that i was trying to get a tan. He decided to come sit next to me in the sun. After about 40 minutes I couldn't take it anymore and had to tell him I had to go. Next time ill have to make sure my headphones are in...