Winter in Xining

It got cold today.

Before it was kind of chilly. You needed your heavy coat and a hat - especially in the morning. But if you were out in the afternoon you might not even need to zip up. Today was definitely a long underwear day. That's how I know whether it is cold or not. Since I am not a weather/temperature junky like so many people seem to be these days (meaning I don't check the forecast twice a day or have an outside thermometer or a digital thermometer for every room in the house) the way I know if it's cold is by sticking my head out the window. If I think to myself that there is no way I'm going out there without long johns, then it's officially cold in my book.

Chinese people, on the other hand, will wear between 3 to 5 pairs of long underwear every day from October to May. So obviously they have a different system than I do. Must be like the Fahrenheit/Celsius difference. Or is it Fahrenheit/Centigrade? What exactly is the difference between Celsius and Centigrade? I think I need to stop now and Google that...

BTW... I found out that one reason that it has seemed colder lately is that Laurel has been secretly turning down the thermostat in our flat. If you know her at all, you have to be wondering what she's worrying about... And if you said money, you would be wrong. One of her greatest fears in life is that we will all die during our sleep from poisonous gas. Even though there is a built in gas detector on the heating unit and a separate gas detector plugged into the wall, this is still a great fear. I think something along this story line would have made a great Raymond episode... (Which is what we have been watching lately... since we have been missing Amazing Race Asia).

Don't worry... I will let Laurel make fun of me a little bit on the next post...