Today we had our first real rain shower since winter began. In spite of being humid, foggy, and overcast much of the time, it seldom rains in Chengdu during the winter. Even when it does rain, it’s usually just a drizzly or misty rain. Real rain showers are the property of the warmer months–which is why todays rain has me excited. It’s been a warm winter, and the weather forecast is predicting temperatures in the low 20s C/70s F for next week, but somehow, seeing a proper rainfall makes me feel more confident that we’re in for an early end to the cold weather this year. I can’t deny that the prospect has me a bit giddy :-). If you compare my photo from today with the picture in the header–which I posted in my first blog last summer–you’ll see that they’re almost identical.