some views from my bedroom window

Last Thursday I woke up to the clearest, most beautiful day I had seen in Xi'an yet. I could see the mountains in the distance from my apartment!!! Of course, they barely show up in the pictures, but you can kind of see them if you think really hard about it.

Looking to the left/center (southsouthsoutheast):
Note the abundance of cranes (the national bird! Hahahaaaa...). All of China seems to be under construction. Also note the abundance of trees here on the old campus. Excellent.

And to the right (southwest):The building in the foreground has a big student cafeteria on the ground floor, just across the street!

The weather this past week has been wonderful, even a little too hot for my tastes -- about 80 degrees and sunny every day, and clear blue skies on the best days. I've been told that the pollution has been much less apparent lately than it usually is this time of year. October is supposed to be the worst. We'll see...