January 1, 2018

This week will cover Christmas and New Year 2018!

When Kristina left, we spent our first Christmas ever without any of our children around!  It feels very strange! We had made our English toffee and Swedish Tea Ring while Kristina was here. We usually go out for Chinese food on Christmas eve, but it was Sunday, and one of the ways we observe the Sabbath is by not shopping. So it was a very different Christmas.  On Christmas Day, we slept in, had a private Christmas celebration, then went out for Chinese food.  Do you know what they call Chinese food here?  "Food."

After Christmas we got busy teaching classes and working to catch up from all the playing we've been doing.  We did buy some quail eggs and beets and pickled both. Because it seemed like something we needed to do.

But we couldn't stay home for long.  About 30 of us who are English teachers from Brigham Young University met in Harbin, China - way up north near the Russian border - to see the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. We had three separate parts of our tour: The ice sculptures, the snow sculptures, and a visit to the tiger preserve, where we saw Siberian Tigers. 

It was so cold! But so amazing.  The ice sculptures are best seen at night due to the light they place within the blocks. The sculptures are crafted from 2-3 feet thick blocks of ice that have been cut from the frozen river that runs through the city. Many of the creations are full-size buildings!

John was born in the year of the rooster!

One vendor was charging for pictures with a white fox.

This is to give some perspective as to the size
of  these creations.  Notice the people climbing
the tower?

A whole city built from ice!

We saw an ice version of the Temple of Heaven we saw in Beijing!

Hundreds of people packed like sardines waiting to slide down the ice.
Standing in one place for that long took more footwarmers than we had!

Even an ice carriage to ride on (okay, sit on). 

The tiger preserve has accomplished a lot to expand the population of the endangered Siberian Tiger. We rode in reinforced buses through various fields of tigers and lions.  It was amazing to see these tigers up close!

To protect the tires from tigers? Or for dramatic effect? 

The tiger was licking the tree. Not sure why...

You could buy chicken meat to feed to the tigers, or a whole
 live chicken, or a ringed-necked pheasant because
 it would fly and provide guests with more entertainment.

They don't seem to mind the cold.

And a visit to the snow sculpture park!

Our tour guide had a little monkey on the top of her pole, so we
would be sure to see where she was in the crowds.

A massive sculpture under construction.

2018 is the year of the Dog!

The river where the ice comes from is used for play-- tourists come
from warmer parts of China to let their children experience ice and
snow. We also saw lit paper lanterns floating over the festivities.

We finished our day in Harbin with a quick march behind our tour guide's monkey down a very crowded  pedestrian street, Central Street (after our bus tried unsuccessfully to navigate rush hour/tourist traffic going the wrong way down a very crowded non-pedestrian street). We didn't walk for long. Most of our group were pretty cold. We did visit a sausage museum, though, because it was near a restroom. Have you ever traveled with a tour group full of people? Restroom stops are a major deal. It was handy, though, because one of Kathy's Uggs (from the Shanghai "fake mall") lost half of its sole, and the nice lady at the sausage market loaned us some packing tape to reattach it. Ate Russian ice cream (it's never too cold for ice cream!).  And when everybody else boarded the bus back to the hotel, the other couple from Shanghai stayed back with us so we could experience a Russian restaurant. We were determined to try some good Russian food while this close to the border.  

So we had Americans in a Russian restaurant in China (and Tammie eating Italian food). How international! We had a few communication challenges ordering, however. We ended up laughing a lot, eating good food, and having about four of the serving staff trying to help us - sometimes hitting each other for misunderstanding and bringing five dishes to us when we THOUGHT we only ordered four. We ate them all, anyway. 

Continuing our walk down Central Street until the cold finally won.

There were still ice sculptures underway.

Matryoshka doll

We saw an elaborate marriage proposal, complete with music,
an emcee, a ring, and tears.

All in all, a very different New Year's eve than we've ever had. We ended up going back to the hotel, where we saw some fireworks from our window at 10:00, then slept the new year in. What old fogies!

A big loaf of Russian brown bread
followed us home from the airport.