I awoke to a view I was told by the foreign teachers I wouldn't see for weeks, a **clear** blue sky. I should know not to listen to them. I have read and have heard from Haiyan and Mr. Li that in autumn the Beijing sky's blueness is described as "tall". I can only think think that this tallness assumes the color's proximity to the deep blue of the upper atmosphere, reaching closer to space. 
The spring sky at its best, according to this rare day of clarity, is pale and gauzy and fleeting. As I type this now at 6pm a haze is diseminating over the city. But at least for most of the day I was offered a glimpse of the mountains
Today was my first day of observation at Aihua Academy. I headed out at 9:30 am. The school is tucked in an alley behind a wall of apartment complexes. On the other side is a howling thorough fare teeming with buses, cars, bicycles, tricycles, scooters, peddlers selling steamed yams out of charred barrels, magazine and paper peddlers, and the Subway line that I will be taking to school everyday. Its amazingly only 1 stop from the apartment. 3 RMB per ride, which is about 40 U.S. cents. 
My first time to behold the Morning Exercises in the courtyard of Aihua. All Chinese students have morning exercises, which range from calistinics, to aerobics, to simply forming up and marching in place. 
Here the students are in "Military Training" which is just a discipline exercise of standing in lines and intermittantly thrusting ones arms out straight and turning directions every 3 minutes while in between listening to the leader yelling commands. Its not a very vigorous exercise. Occasionally, the leader told the students to shake out their legs in between long sessions of standing like ramrods. So the kids reluctantly wiggled a little bit.
I observed 3 classes today participating a little bit to lead a memorization game called "What has Finlay's brother got?" The kids yell "HEllo!" at the top of their lungs when we walked in. Some adorable little girls ran up to me a put their bundled up arms half way around me. I could not stop smiling during class it was so cute!!!!!
