Blogs from Dongbei, China, Asia - page 3

On our way out of the apartment, Wesley and I noticed some branches outside of our neighbors' front door. I asked Wes if he knew what they were for but was met with only a blank stare. I'm not one to be overly superstitious, but I got a little worried. These branches somehow reminded me of the Biblical story about the passover. Either we put some mystical markings outside our house or evil spirits will come and haunt us till days end. Right as we entered the classroom, our teacher started talking about a special type of branch called "Ai Hao" that is placed outside of people's houses during Duan Wu Jie. So it's true. These branches do serve special purposes, and that's to ward off bad luck. Oh well, I guess I can get some ... read more

Having a bit of trouble with everything at school and home. First of all no one seems to understand my relationship with Cam. Everyone thinks we're having an awful relationship and doesn't know why I'm in it. Just to let you know first of all I'm not masochistic and from past experience ya'll should know that I've stuck to relationships that I benefit from not ones that harm me. Yes Cam and I fight and yes that aggravates me and I do end up complaining about it a lot to others because most of the time I don't understand why it happens. But just because we fight doesn't mean we don't love each other. Cam has been extremely sweet lately and he's even told me that he's fallen more in love with me than he was ... read more

By this time I think I've tried all variation of Ce Suo (washroom/restroom) along the various roads, highways and attractions. They range from behind a bush, a hole in the ground with 4 walls, a sliding channel lined with heavy plastic with 4 walls, a bigger room with a gutter separated by walls, turkish squat toilet, and all the way to 5***** self-flushing urinals with soap dispensers and running water. Do bring your own hand sanitizer and toilet paper! Before I tell you about my day I think some history of Lushun is in order. Lushun literally means "smooth journey". It was/is called "Lion Mouth" because of its difficult access. It is situated in the southern most tip in the 3 NE provinces and had long been a strategic location for military operations. In 1882, ... read more

This morning we cruised around Jinbro Lake. It's 46km long, the second largest volcanic crater lake in the world. The largest is somewhere in Switzerland. The rich and powerful have villas around the lake. Some universities also have cottages here for summer retreats. Some of the highlights include crocodile islands and a mountain that looks like a supine chairman Mao from a certain angle. Afterwards we got on the bus again, this time heading for Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province (literally translated as Black Dragon Province). Harbin is about 200km from the Chinese-Russian border. Heilongjiang is the 3rd longest river in China, after the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. It originates in Mongolia, flows through China and Russia. 1/3 of it courses through China. Ethnically Harbin is a bit like the other cities close to ... read more

Lately I have been getting more and more frustrated with the Chinese way of doing things. They do some things that absolutely don't make any sense to me. Today, for example, the security man who works for the school (Jason) walked into the foreign teacher's office and turned on the flourescent lights (which we never use) instead of the halogens (that we always use). He told Yuki (one of the students who is always here and kind of like a friend to me) to translate to me that the reason he was doing it is because the halogens are more apt to cause a fire when they blow out - they're not used to being on all the time and so we need to use the flourescent lights more. Now here's the thing, in our office ... read more