I may have mentioned this before, but the climate in Southern Sichuan is pretty consistent--HUMID. As a native Minnesotan, I am not entirely unused to humidity, but I have never experienced such constant, pervasive dampness. This translates to many different things in my daily life, from the ever-present mold threat to the creativity involved in successfully doing laundry. Freshly washed clothes will not dry in the humid air unless there is sunshine and a breeze to coax the water into the atmosphere. Today was one of the days that I live for since arriving in China: partly sunny. Notice the below photographs. The first shows the near-sacred glimpses of blue sky that occur once a week, if I'm lucky. The second was taken a moment later. You can see that everyone thinks the same thing--when the sun makes an appearance, it is time to wash clothes. Today I did three loads of laundry...never know when the next opportunity is going to come, and the forecast is rain for the rest of the week. And that, my friends, is the weather report out of Luzhou...