Air so fresh you can chew it

The view from our window

We haven't been going out much lately. In fact, if we can help it, we don't go out at all. I don't think our girls have left the apartment building for more than a week. It's pretty nasty outside. 

Let's talk about haze! This is the view from the other side of our building. You can usually see the freeway overpass if you follow the street to the left. The street on the right leads to Chairman Mao's giant statue. I don't feel too bad for him standing out in the smog. He did his best to create this mess.

You can even see the haze between us and the other half of our building.

We had a week of haze like this last year, and it got really oppressive. This year, after three weeks or so, we've worked through the oppression, and we're just dealing. Today the sun shone through the haze, which was nice for a change.
Mostly we just stay in our apartment. I have some sewing projects I'm working on, and I take a painting class. On Fridays I have a Chinese tutor, and besides that, I just hang out with my girls. This week we've been watching too much TV, but I blame that on Naomi's being sick. When the girls aren't sick, we sometimes play with our friends in the apartment building.
We have a playroom on the clubhouse floor, and that is often a great escape for the girls. But they're remodeling the room next door, which means there's tons of dust and fumes wafting in. For a while (in December) we would just open the window and let some fresh air in, but lately we've just had to give up the playroom and stay home.
We have three months left in Shenyang. I hope we can get out and about some before we leave!