"Back in the Saddle Again..."

"Well howdy, pardner.  New in these parts?"  I am shaking this blog awake.  Time to get to work!  We have returned once again to China--Beijing this time--new university, new neighborhood dogs, new opportunities!  I must admit, however, that I have been desperately homesick for Chengdu, so before we begin in earnest, I'd like to take a moment to pay homage to our former home.
We miss these dear dear faces.

Alice--one of the top 20 cutest little kids in all of China with her daddy, Bill-a peach of a guy and a smashing dentist as well.  You filled our apartment with hearty laughs and good fun.

Lily, Irene, and Mindy--I REFUSE to think that we will never see you again.  I have never felt love so quickly and so deeply as with you.  Thank you for dropping like gold dust into our lives.  Just a few of the many faces we singled out of the masses and called friends.  There, I can move on now.

New faces in Beijing at the Summer Palace.  We don't live too far from here.  I think, in fact, we could ride our bikes!!!

Did I say bikes????  Why yes!!  Before we hardly had a chance to unpack our jammies the first day back, Lee (fellow BYU teacher and on his 3rd year with his wife Kathryn here at PKU) had us herded off to the bike shop!!!  Before we could say, "20 MILLION CHINESE LIVE IN BEIJING!" we were bike owners and out on the streets dodging and swerving!!  It was a clever slight of hand on Lee's part, catching us in our jet-lagged state, but by cracky we are doing it!!!!  I love my new blue one speed.  She purrs.  She goes by "Gamma".  Welcome back one and all!  I was pleasantly surprised this summer to learn that my blog has lurkers!  Hello to you!  I apologize for needing to do some retro blogging for a while to catch things up to date.  Go make yourself a sandwich and come back when I am more current.