Spring Festival & Harbin

The Chinese New Year marks the start of the Chinese Spring Festival. It is a week long festival that welcomes the beginning of spring. We had 7 days off from school, and all of us interns traveled to Harbin. Harbin is a city NE of Shenyang, about 400km (250 miles) away. It was a bit colder, and we spent a lot more time outdoors...so most of us gained a lot of weight in layers...I was wearing 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, a fleece, ski coat, 2 pairs of gloves and 2 hats..haha, it was chilly, but worth it!

I kind of talked about it before, but the Chinese New Year was amazing. The guys' apartment has roof access on the 20th floor, so we were able to go up and watch all of the fireworks go off across the city. Seriously, everywhere you looked, fireworks were going off. I am so glad that we were able to be here for the New Year and watch all of the craziness happen.

A few days later, all 10 of the interns went to Harbin. It was an AMAZING trip. We left the morning of the 26th, and man, getting on the train was an adventure in it of itself! We were all standing on the platform, trying to get in the door of the train and there was just this mob of people trying to squish into the door. Well, next thing we knew, the train started moving and people were all yelling (in Chinese, of course) and we just all smashed in. Apparently, if you travel via the hard seat train cars, how the average Chinese person travels, you don't have to have a ticket to get on the train, you only need a ticket to have a seat. So, people will get on the train to stand and then just pay the fare to the train staff once they are on. So, after some how finding where we were supposed to sit and kicking people out of our seats, and 7 hours later, we made it to Harbin. We spent the first day just finding our hotel, finding an open restaurant and playing cards/games in the hotel room at night. Oh, and, Andrew and Shaun ordered DOG at the restaurant...I don't think I will need to order it again, but I am definitely glad I tried it...even if just to cross it off the to-do list!

The next day we spent the morning at the Buddhist and Confucius temples. I wasn't that impressed, and thought it was a little of a tourist-trap, but it was fun to get out. That night, we had planned on going to the famous ice and snow festival, but due to an out-dated guide book, ended up at a ice amusement park. SO FUN. There were 3-story-high ice slides, traditional Chinese outdoor activities, swings, roller coasters, bumper cars, Ferris wheel, and lots of ice sculptures. It was so fun, and it was very refreshing to be child-like and just play.

The next afternoon, we went to Sun Island Park. This is where the ice and snow festival actually is - the festival is the main reason Harbin is famous and why we went there. However, after walking across the frozen river to the entrance to Sun Island, we could only find the snow festival. Most of the group went to the snow festival, but Shaun and I were determined to find the ice festival - we had been talking about going while we were still in Portland. So, we kept walking down the street and found some other English speakers who told us it was just further down the road, and finally made it! WOO! It was AMAZING! There were tons of HUGE ice sculptures and it was so cool to see the detail that went into each of them during the day...there were also free sports! So, we got spun in 360s when we went inner-tubing down the hill, and rode quads for the first time! At night, all of the sculptures lit up and so it was like exploring the park all over again at night. Definitely glad we kept going to find it, I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of it.

That night we got the sleeper train back to Shenyang. It left Harbin at 840 at night and we didn't get back to Shenyang until 340 in the morning. It was cool though - there were rows up bunks that were 3 bunks high, and we all just chilled out, slept, and listened to music.

Here is a link to a Picasa album of pictures from Chinese New Year and Harbin:

Chinese New Year and Harbin

Even though I was on vacation in China, it just felt like a normal vacation. China, and Shenyang, is feeling like home. And, friendships with other interns are starting to get stronger. I love spending time with my roommates, we get along great and it is a perfect fit. It is my home away from home and family away from family..I love it here. I am still looking forward to my language skills to get better, so that I can communicate more easily at markets, restaurants and just with people that you meet on the streets.

Alright, this is long enough, and even though these are all of the events and what we've done, I am sure that I will start to post more soon of the emotion, cultural differences and other aspects of living in a foreign country, less of the events. It has been a big adjustment...but I am glad that I get to spend the next 5 months here. Our Internet at our apartment is still very temperamental, so blogging, emails and Skype have been hard to access from home.

Mom, Dad and Em - Miss you all heaps, I will write you guys an email in the next few days and hopefully Skype soon. Love you lots.

Much love.