Oh aren't they beautiful?

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I am pleased to to bring into the spot light the 2 cheapest, last minute purchases that have served me so well on this trip. First I would like to introduce my $20 running shoes that I picked up at SAAN right before I left. They have not only aided me to climb the great wall etc for the last 2 months but have kept my feet in less pain then any of my other shoes, hands down. Secondly i would like to bring into the lime light my watch, I picked it up on the way out of Overweighty grocery store for $10 bucks. Dispite the dust gathering under the face & the patially broken strap, apparently it looks like a very valuable watch to the Chinese. I've had various people comment on how rich I am because I am wearing that watch, even to the extent to having people grab my arm so that they can get a closer look at it. I almost gave it away the other day, maybe I still will! Being the cheap-skate that I am, it gives me great pride to have such good luck with my thrifty purchases.
Well at this point along our travels Megan & I just arrived in Harbin on a night train. At 7am it was very warm already. Megan was able to locate a phone & we found out that we would have to wait for at least 3 hours before my sister Colleen & her friend/room mate would arrive from their home town via train. I had also searched for a phone but I was by no means tempted to use the one I found due to a human turd right next to it. We sat down on a tile wall that smelled of urine & brushed our hair & teeth, applied deoderant & some perfume in an effort to be presentable, all done with an audience of course. Apparently people here don't sweat stinky stinky because there isn't a deoderent to be found in this country & even though they only shower about once a week even the guys hardly smell. Megan went in search of some eatibles & while she was away a lady motioned me to get away from the wall so I put on my pack & carried/dragged Megan's pack & our dead weight laundry bag until I found a place on the ground that looked only semi filthy. I sat down on the bag of laundry & started to write in my diary. To my surprise I had a gathering of people behind me so they look at what I was writing. Then there was some annoying guy who stood next to me watching my every move, I felt really ackward like I was on display or something. Finally he brought some friends & they sat down on some newspapers a few feet directly in front of me so that they could observe me without any inconvinence to themselves. Maybe they wanted to be friendly but I was quite turned off by their obnoxious attention. I personally saw a guy reach into a girl's purse & get something out, then another guy that was with the girl started to fight with the thief. I put my diary away & sat with one hand on Megan's pack & the other on my own. As people walked past me they seemed to get a serious case of whip-lash, stopped, turned around & looked me up & down without shame before continuing on their way. The way that people look at me in China is different then anyother country, it's like they can see right through me as they analize everything about me. In Thailand & Malaysia people look at me with curiosity but without making me feel so uncomfortable. In Mexico...well that was a different story altogether. Mexican boys even have a name for themselves way over on the other side of the world with anyone who may have met some. I am adjusting, albeit slowly, to this new method of scrutination. Then a beggar came by & stood a few inches in front of me, towering over me. I said 'no" many times & finally he touched my face with his filthy hand with bird like claws, my instinctive reaction was to hit him but it didn't seem to have any effect. I took off my sunglasses & drilled him in the eye "NO! GO!" ...he touched me on the face again & I hit him again. I felt very helpless as I was sitting on the ground below him & I couldn't run away because of all my luggage. I was also really angry because the guys that were sitting in front of me started to laugh at me. I started to stand up because I was going to give him a piece of my mind, good thing for both of us, he left. I sat there, my hands shaking like leaves until Megan returned. I always feel like we can take a lot more, together. I think that I probably could have reacted better to the situation, I could probably even have made friends with the guys but I was in the most culture shock that I have ever been in. I just saw so much in such a short time, I could only think "wow China is such a rough place". But in reality, it's the train stations that are a rough place to hang out in. Now that I look back at how I have reacted to different situations along my trip & I am disapointed by myself some of the time. I am the only Canadian that some of these people may ever see & it is always a better idea to assume the best about someone. Megan tends to give people the benifit of the doubt more then I do & that is a good lesson for me to take note of. By the time Colleen & Tracy arrived, I was almost ready to climb into a hole so that not another person could inspect me. Tracy is a co worker of Colleen's. She's from Canada & got thrown in together with Colleen once they were here in China, they are very special friends now. I asked Colleen what her first impressions of China were, but she said that she was so sick that the only thing she noticed was that they do have red Chinese lanterns in China after all.
Once at our hotel we opened the laundry bag, wow what a stink. I hung up my stuff so it could start to dry in the bathroom & the whole room recked. It was only wet for a couple days but it was warm so I guess that did the trick! I guess the shirt that I had been wearing for the last 4 days was still the best choice! In Harbin we wandered around like real tourists. It was nice that the girls knew how to direct taxi drivers, even when we didn't really know where we were going. Megan & I never knew exactly where we were going so the only solution was to walk, so this was a nice change! We spent quite a bit of time on the walking street, the architecture there is beautiful. Megan bought a little bit of some seedy stuff simular to a granola bar, it comes in a huge block about 2 or 3 feet long & 8 inches high. We bought some tea. First on Tracy & Colleen's must do list was a "more western" grocery store. There they bought bread, chese & coffee as well as some things for other pining teachers at their school including English breakfast tea for an English co worker, & margerine for an American one. I found some tea sets but I didn't want to pay the equivalent to about 70 bucks for a set. We went into the oldest standing Russian church in China. The interior has been transformed into a museum of photography of the history of Harbin. I am amazed by the stories of this area during the winter. It sounds like our winters in northern Alberta, but with a stiff wind. I don't know how the nomadic people can live, well maybe they don't, at any rate it looks really brutal to me. Colleen will have to tell me what it is like here in the winter, but from what I hear it seems like a sad & serious situation to me. In Harbin we saw Russians & Russian shops. Everybody assumed that we were Russian too, although I have no idea how they could confuse us with them. I hate when people group all people from a country or region together so I will be careful not to say "Russians". However the Russians that I have seen; were very recognizable by their hair dyed in vibrant blond & red hues, their scanty clothing that is like nothing that we would ever wear & loads of make up.
After our days in Harbin were up, we strapped on our packs & we headed back to the train station. As we were walking along, completely unknown to us, a lady reached into Colleen's purse & grabbed the cell phone. She clumsily dropped it on the ground & we started to chase her down. Colleen did catch up to her & grabbed the lady's arm & she threw the cell phone away. The look on that lady's face was so sour, completely filled with discust like we were the thieves causing her the inconvinience. We would never have caught up with her if she hadn't been a rather stocky middle aged woman. She looked like the age of our mom, I can just imagine my mom saying at dinner one day "oh honey, I almost got you a new cell phone today..." On the train some fellows helped put our packs up on the rack & several people were very kind & friendly to us. I think it was a wonderful thing that they accepted us because I was getting a very negative feeling for the country otherwise. It wasn't until then that I was sitting on the jam packed train that I thought "yah, ok, I could fall in love with these people". I guess Megan was thinking something similar because as she looked around the crowed train filled with dark shinny skinned people she said "oh aren't they beautiful?"

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Photos

Harbin
there were older fellows writing on the side walks with water while people stood by to watch

Harbin
our boat ride

Harbin
Some actors in a performance

Harbin
museum

Harbin
a glass lettuce anyone?
lettuce is a common symbol of good luck

Harbin
Russian lunch (Chinese style)

Comments

[Ina]

your mom...
Somehow I can't see your mom getting you a new cell phone that way! Love reading your blog, glad we're finally getting up to date news, it was a bit confusing. All the lovely photos really add to it, thanks! Ina

[anonymous]

PS
re the beggar: I think your reactions were quite normal, I'm sure most of us would have done the same. Ina

[fourdutchies]

Wow, Anna, wow!
Truly descriptive, Anna. Thanks. It's a very enjoyable read. Anne from Creston