Things that become normal #4

Full Camouflage Gear

Our teammate, Andy, bundles up to head outside everyday much like everyone else in Harbin only he wears full camouflage gear. Coming from the southern USA this is the only warm gear he owns. Good thing he hasn't tried to hide from us or we may not be able to find him. Then again, he would probably stand out against the white snow!

Things that become normal #3

Putting on layers before heading outside for anything.

Every time we want to go outside, we start the process early. It takes time to get all the clothes on. Since our apartment is heater, we often wear shorts and t-shirts inside. Thus the long process of putting on "outside clothes." These outfits include 2 pairs of long johns, pants (flannel lined if extra cold outside), undershirts, t-shirts, sweater, and a jacket. Not to mention the gloves, hats, and scarves. Hopefully sometime this nest term we'll get a video posted of layering up Kanyon to head outside.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We've safely arrived in Thailand and have since been hanging out with friends enjoying the great Western food and warm weather. It is great to not have to bundle up every time we head outside. However, we discovered that we really like the cold weather of Harbin as we feel just dirty after a day walking around and sweating.

So far we have been really low key in Chiang Mai. We've taken care of some business like meeting our adviser, doctor's appointments, and dentist's appointment. We've enjoyed each of these great foods Jerusalem Falafel, Mike's Hamburgers, great Italian food, and The Art Cafe for Mexican food. We are now ready for round 2 at each. Check out some of the photos from around Chiang Mai:



Want more photos? View our complete collection of online photo albums at PicasaWeb. Click below to view.

Things that become normal #2

After a semester of giving Kanyon a bath, the giant orange bath tub becomes normal. We don't flinch even once when we take the shower head off the wall to fill up the tub. We don't flinch when we unplug the tub and let the water drain all over the bathroom floor. (Remember bathrooms in China are a combo toilet, shower, sink, all-in-one.) The tub does have some normalcy in that there are bath toys stuck to the wall keeping him entertained.

Off to Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Today's the day! We're off to Thailand for the Annual Conference. We'll fly south for 2 weeks of training, rest, Western food, and visiting with friends and co-workers. We are excited to get south out of the winter for at least a bit and be able to step outside without having to bundle up to the extreme. It will be awesome to wear shorts, t-shirts, and sandals outside the house for a change.

During the conference over 600 workers will gather together for a time of training and encouragement. It is incredible to see so many workers together in one place celebrating together. We'll learn from the most experienced teachers beginning new ideas into the classroom. We can't wait to get south and will post all about our time in yet another country.

Turkey Tale (Firsthand)

If you haven't heard how we got a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, you're in for a real China adventure. A friend of ours in Harbin tells the firsthand account of finding, bargaining, and preparing the wonderful Thanksgiving turkey.

Read the account here.

I originally posted the story here, at least my second (or possibly third) hand account of the events. But stories are always better when they come directly from the source.

Tuesday Morning Image (TMI)

Many internationals come to Harbin for the Ice and Snow sculpting contest and other events. We hosted this group to dinner at our home sharing warmth through food, inside heaters, and kindness. Please remember all the internationals as they work, travel, and are guests in Harbin.

It's Not Pink, It's Light Red

Proud and Unashamed

My parents came to visit us in 2005 when we were in Nanchang. While giving them a tour of the campus, our favorite student rode up on his brand new bike. He was so proud of the purchase he was showing it off to everyone. The bike still had the plastic wrap and other packaging on, it was so new. Only one thing was strange about the bike. It was PINK. My parents sure got a kick out of seeing a boy riding a hot pink bike without thinking twice.

I must have been in China long enough to have adopted some of the traits. I unashamedly carried around my bag of groceries home from the market today in a PINK bag. But really it's not pink, it's just light red!

12:2 Times January 2009

10th Annual Harbin Ice and Snow World

Wintertime Ice

Winter has arrived in Harbin. Average highs during the day struggle to reach the teens and when they do, we are eager to get outside to take a walk around the neighborhood. Winter means the end of the semester, a break from teaching, some traveling, and more time to spend around Harbin.

The largest attraction in Harbin is the Annual Ice and Snow World so of course we had to make a trip to check it out. (In our next newsletter you will hear M’Lynn’s firsthand account of the adventure.)

We walked around for 2 hours in 0 degree weather and thought to ourselves, “This is such a great night to be outside. It’s so mild tonight.” Not once were we cold. Well maybe once our toes got cold as we stood in line on the ice steps waiting for the big slide. We soon realized it was too cold to be standing still and the line was not moving so we jumped out of line to get some frozen fruit and see the other sights.

Among the other sights we saw were great vistas of the entire ice world, giant ice slides, ice skating performances, frozen restrooms, and a snow model of the famous Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium.


Frozen Fruit Vendor

We managed to take pictures of just about every attraction in the park. With the weather so cold, we hoped the batteries in our cameras would last long enough for all the photos we were taking. The batteries held up and so did our hands as we took photo after photo without gloves. We had to remember to hold our breath when taking each photo, both behind the camera and as the subject. Any little breath would fog up the photo, and we have plenty of those. Be sure to check out all the photos from the Ice and Snow World online by clicking the photos link at the top of the page.

Visiting the park once just doesn’t seem like enough. We are already looking forward to next year, or when any visitors come, to return to the park and enjoy the winter wonderland. Don’t worry; we have more than enough clothes to let you borrow some to stay warm.

Indoor Basketball

With the weather being such a factor in all activities, I got to do something the other day that I hadn’t been able to do very often, play basketball. Not only play basketball, but play basketball inside.

Basketball is a one of my favorite ways to get involved with students outside the classroom. As I was walking about my errands around campus making copies and finalizing the semester’s grades, I received a call from my student. His roommates had just reserved the basketball court for later today and I was invited to play. While it is sometimes hard for me to accept the sudden change in schedule I knew this was a great opportunity. Throughout the semester we have been asking for chances to be involved with our students. This was an answer and couldn’t be rejected.

I put on some sports clothes and met the student outside his dorm to walk over to the gym. Soon after, we began playing basketball. We played, without keeping score, for 2.5 hours pretty much nonstop. I was exhausted!

Walking back to his dorm, we chatted for a while and furthered the process of getting to know each other. Please remember these relationships as they continue to be built.

Tonka Trucks

Boys love trucks. That statement is true for Kanyon as well. Christmas brought him at least 10 different Tonka trucks of all shapes and sizes. He has a set of little trucks that he likes to throw and I like to play traffic jam with (see photos online for different jams). Another set is just a little bigger. Then two race cars that when shaken rev up their engines and speed off. And finally a large dump truck to haul around all the other smaller trucks.


Playing with any and all toys

We have been teaching him another boy trick, to slam dunk. (I guess girls can dunk too.) He knows exactly what to do with the orange striped ball, take it to the rim and dunk it in his mini goal. Each dunk is followed with a loud grunt and then clapping. We are still working on the jump shot but maybe sometime soon he will be shooting 3s with the best of them.

The newest little kid trick he learned is to open closed doors. He is now tall enough to reach the door handle and pull it down to open the door. This trick has opened a whole new adventure for us all.

Homemade Ice Cream

We have experimented with Tang slushies by putting a cup of Tang outside our window and waiting 30 minutes. The result is a great little slushy. Well, we decided to take the experiment to the next level.



Thumbing through our recipes we realized we had all we needed to make some homemade ice cream. Milk, check. Sugar, check. Sweetened condensed milk, check. Instant vanilla pudding, check. (Thanks to mom mailing us boxes of pudding to make pudding cookies. Hopefully she wouldn't mind us using the pudding mix to make ice cream.) We mixed up the bowl. Only one problem, we don't have an ice cream maker but we do have a whisk and are willing to stir often. We set the metal bowl outside our window on the ledge (it was below 0 degrees F outside at the time) and set the alarm for 5 minutes later and got up, went to the window, and stir the ice cream every 5 minutes. 3 hours later, voila, homemade ice cream.



Lesson learned for next time: There's no need to stir every 5 minutes for the first 2 hours, every 15 minutes would do fine.

Big World of Ice and Snow

We visited the 10th Annual Harbin Ice and Snow World this weekend. Ever since the day we learned we would be in Harbin we had been waiing to get to this place. When we immediately googled Harbin, we saw the pictures of the Ice and Snow World. And now we have been there too!

Walking around for 2 hours in 0 degree weather was great. Not once were we cold. Well maybe once our toes got cold as we stood in line on the ice steps waiting for the big slide. We soon realized it was too cold to be standing still and the line was not moving fast enough we jumped out of line to get some frozen fruit and see the other sights.

Check out the photos from our time there:



Want more photos? View our complete collection of online photo albums at PicasaWeb. Click below to view.

Tuesday Morning Image (TMI)

At the Ice Festival, we spotted a giant snow sculpted Buddha. While it is not odd to see Buddhas in China, it still sends chills down my spine watching so many people burn incense and bow down before the idol. Please remember all those around the world who are bowing down to idols.

Crazy Taxi Day

We went out on our Wednesday morning date this week and walked around in the snow. We saw the snow sculptures on campus stopping to take a lot of photos. You can check out the photos by clicking the link at the top of the page. We were just generally out and about and decided to go to a great import store just up the road from our apartments. We jumped in the taxi and slowly drove the straight shot to the store (slow because of the extra icy and slick roads).

We ran around the store to grab the items we needed and rushed back to catch a taxi home. Our babysitter only has so long with the baby before we needed to be back. We walked to the corner and tried to hail a taxi. Several empty taxis simply waved as they drove past us. Then some stopped only to wave us off after learning where we were heading. (We only wanted to go back home straight down the street for maybe 5 minutes, a minimum ride of 8 RMB.)

We were beginning to think that maybe the USA did something that China was protesting by not giving us a ride. We waited some more only to see a Chinese lady and her small child denied access to a taxi. So now it was not because of being a foreigner.

Needing to get home quickly we just decided to jump on a bus to come home. But there is no bus that goes straight down the road to our apartments and we didn't know where we might end up if we got on the wrong bus. So we asked some Chinese friends which bus takes us to Wal-Mart (located about halfway home) and jumped on that bus. We then changed buses and made it home. While waiting at the second bus stop, we say 4 elderly Chinese men refused a taxi ride even after one of them was already in the back seat.

Talking with our teammates we learned the phenomenon was city wide as he also had trouble getting taxis. We will never know what the issue was, only that it affected us and our mobility around town.

Update: The taxis have since returned to full and normal operations.