Around the World Cheers!Representative from Canada, England, Australia, Italy, South Africa and Russia were a part of this epic event!
Bonjour everybody!
Everything is still going great over here on the Asian frontier! Except for the ridiculous amount of rain we have been experiencing. Pretty much everyday it absolutely downpours for hours. I can honeslty say the amount of wet could be comparable to home. One of Jeff's co-workers was talking about how in parts of China it is legal for them to sent rockets into the atmosphere which release some type of certain chemical that induces rainfall. I couldn't explain it to you in any further detail then that, but supposedly a small group of farmers have been trained on how to launch these rockets themselves in an effort to prevent drought. Whether or not this is true, it was an intriguing story and possible explanation of the amount of rain we have been getting. Despite this, our train ride to Beijing has been booked for Monday evening (it's a 13 hour overnight ride) then from there its all sunshine and blue skies! I had a dream the other night about lying on the beach drinking an icey cold pina colada and I have to say, it got me excited!
Despite the all the rain, we've still managed
Oscar the Grouch wasn't this dirtyIt's not uncommon to see piles of garbage and left over food scraps just lining the city streets. I wouldn't exactly call it sanitary...
to have a good time and enjoy ourselves. My bowling game has definitely improved from my first outting last week, I've sharpened my Super Nintendo Tetris skills, and my Chinese vocabulary is also constantly expanding word by word. The food is all still great. I am yet to have a dish that I have disliked, but then again I haven't tried the silk worms and BBQed beetles either. I plan on saving all of that wild cuisine for Indonesia. Unfortunately, I really don't have a lot of exciting adventures and stories to write about in this entry so I figured I would just post a bunch of pictures instead and give them brief captions. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
"Russian Size"A local bar in Harbin that we checked out during our quick visit. Every time foreigners come in they are well taken care of and greeted with a bunch of complementary beers and a bottle of vodka.
SunriseA late or early (which ever way you'd like to look at it) night at the bar allowed me to capture this beautiful Asian sunrise.
Hamamas: Take 2What would a trip to Harbin be without breakfast and coffee at Hamamas?! I was just as good as the first time.
City WildlifeA street vendor that was came across was selling rabbits, hamsters, turtles and cute little puppies.
Electronic Extraveganza!This mall in Harbin was full of electronic goodies ranging from MP3 players to cameras to the most useless gizmos you could imagine. It was a bit of a frenzy to say the least.
Street WriterA group of men had writing sticks and small buckets of water which they use to create Chinese characters on the sidewalk. It was interesting to watch their specific techniques.
River shotI have forgotten the name of this river, but I probably wouldn't be able to spell it properly anyways! There were tiny ferry boats which you could take a quick tour on, but we decided we could see eve
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Chinese Fan DanceIn the local parks and squares a large group of Chinese practice their traditional fan dances. The abundance of neon definitely caught my eye!
Green Eggs but no HamA local street vendor was selling green eggs on a stick so we had to try them. They were suprising delicious although a little strange.
Trick Shots!What would a round of bowling be without a couple of trick shots? We received a few glares in the alley, but were without a doubt having the most fun out of anybody there.
Night LightsThis is a neat statue/sculpture/piece of art that lights up in the evening. I thought it was cool so I took a picture of it!