To Lishi (Luliang?)

So we filled out the paperwork for our official residence permits - we had to drive out to Lishi (Luliang? I don't know which one is actually the name of the place (Luliang actually ought to have umlaut (umlauts?) over the "u")) to get them, and it almost looked like we'd have to try coming back again sometime 'cause apparently the police station is at least mostly closed from Friday to Sunday (a little awkward, since we teach classes at the high school Monday through Thursday), but luckily, Mr. Ren was friends with someone, so we got to do it today. We should actually get the permits sometime soonish, probably within the week, and then we'll be all set.

The drive to Lishi was pretty cool. We hadn't been out of the city and awake since leaving Beijing, so it was nice to see some of the countryside. The first few days we were in Fenyang, the pollution was really bad; we couldn't see the sky, and we met a girl from the medical college who said that she had been there for three years and had never seen stars in Fenyang. The weather today was beautiful, though. It was clear and blue and had little bits of white clouds that really seemed like clouds and not smog.

Sooo this picture is from the drive out to Lishi - the air got worse the closer we got to the bigger city, and we passed an evil looking factory with flames shooting out of it. (pictures by Katrina)