Harbin, Day Two

I spent the morning of Day 2 on a three-hour drive to a mountain resort called Yabuli, which was the site of the 1996 Asian Winter Games.

The place was nice enough but, sad to say, it looked to not have changed very much since '96...I set my things down in my hotel room and wasted no time getting geared up to hit the slopes! 

I like to start off with the warm-up runs, like the photo below, before I do any tricky runs :-) 

As I mentioned in the Day 1 post, Harbin is cold! I remembered my Boy Scout days when I proudly earned my 'polar bear' badge for braving the elements and camping in -17 degree weather for a night with my dad and the troop in Fraser, CO. Well, it's a bit different for people who grow up in this climate! The next morning, I went out early to snap sunrise-over-the-hills pictures, and, much to my inner Boy Scouts dismay, I see a crew of workers who spend every night in tents in below 0 weather! They were moving about like the 6:30am cold was nothing at all!

Harbin, Day One

I spent a few days on a real wintry getaway and headed up to the far northern city of Harbin which, if my map is accurate, is somewhere between Winterfell and The Wall. The first day featured a visit to a tiger park to see cute, furry faces like this guy: 

 This park is unique in that it is, essentially, a Jurassic Park for tigers. Tourists load up on buses that have bars installed over the windows and drive around open 'safari' land where the cats roam. So I got to see somewhat nervous people, like this guy, as a big cat walks right past his window:

In the evening, I went to Zhaolin Park where blocks of ice, delicately assembled, come to life at night:

I particularly enjoyed the ice sculpture competition pieces, like these:

 

The weather was sunny all throughout the day, but even then, lots of warm layers are required, and all the more so at night!

B-day in China

Sunday marks my second birthday spent in China, which I suppose is why I ascribe any significance to it in the first place, other than the fact that I share this b-day with a couple of really cool people: my twin bro, Michael Jordan, Denise Richards, Michael Bay, to name a few. Of course, I do appreciate any good chance to get together with family for food, but after passing the 18, and then 21, age milestones, the actual act of growing one day or one year older does not seem particularly significant to me. And since I can't be back home for the food with family (siblings and parents will recall the tear-jerking b-day at my favorite Ethiopian Restaurant!), then the point is altogether moot. I guess one cool thing that comes from living in China on my b-day is that I get to be the first to call and wish my twin a happy b-day, since I'll be celebrating our day 15 hours ahead of Colorado time.

That being said, I was very pleasantly taken aback when my co-workers made a very big deal and threw an incredible surprise party for me last Friday.

Since my actual b-day falls on a non-work day and in the middle of a week-long holiday (Chinese New Year), my boss made a strategic decision to hold my party early- when I least suspected anything! I arrived at work, prepared for a "quarterly meeting" between my Marketing Department and the Admissions Department, at our second campus, only to receive a call that the meeting had been shifted back to our office at the first campus. So I hailed a taxi and arrived back at the main campus a few minutes later. I was completely surprised to see my co-workers, as well as some of their families, gathered around a chocolate "smorgasbord" and surrounded by decorations! By this time, I realized that the meeting was a ruse all along!

 

The chocolate came at a price, however, and my penance was to take in a helium-balloon mouthful and make a speech! Everyone had a good laugh!

Eggsceptionally Eggspensive, and that's no yolk!

I do apologize for the bad pun. There really doesn't need to be much said for this blog post, because the pictures say it all. I went to the Shanghai Museum after another expat told me about the incredible Fabergé eggs that are temporarily on display. Seeing these certainly fried-up my interest in jumping on any boats that are Russia-bound this summer!

Chocolate World!

The hunger for chocolate runs deep in my family...indeed, it is almost as deep a heritage as the Twilight vampire family has for their preferred food. So you can almost taste the excitement I had when I found out that there was a World Chocolate Dream Park in Shanghai. While it was not quite what I had hoped for (I expected an actual chocolate volcano, not just a painting of one...) it was still very interesting and there were some truly fantastic chocolate sculptures. The art was treated with chemicals to keep it from melting and otherwise discoloring over time and with lighting, etc., but you can bet I was still able to get my chocolate fix and stock-up at the gift shop! To give you an idea of the life-size type of art that was sculpted in chocolate and placed on display, here is a picture of me modeling a Ronald McDonald-size pair of shoes:

I want to try and share the chocolate art with family by picking some that I think they'd like to eat:

For Ivan:

 For Jill: 

 For Ryan, who is going skydiving with Jill soon:

 For Mel:

 For Shannon:

 For the aunts, who might love shopping more than chocolate:

 For dad, as a challenge to Christmas lights on the house next year:

 For mom, to encourage her Easter egg hunt tradition:

 For Mel and Ivan, and also Miranda and Russ:

Bon appetit!

Homecomings

This blog is dedicated to U.S. Army Captain Bryce Markiewicz who, after several long hot months and, surprisingly, cold nights deployed in Afghanistan, is returning home. Bryce is one of my oldest friends- we have known each other for about twenty years. Welcome back, Bryce!

I was happy to celebrate my own, brief homecoming in Colorado for Christmas this year. As my mother was quick to remind us, this was the first Christmas in four years when the Doherty clan was able to all be together and not have anyone skyping from abroad. The highlight of the Christmas presents this year was a new puppy- ok, a big puppy, for my parents!

We got to share family time in a number of really memorable ways. For starters, Melanie and Ivan surprised us all with tickets of White Christmas at the theater downtown. We spent Christmas at Aunt Sheryl’s house with my mom’s side of the family, and made calls to my dad’s side in the afternoon. Movies were also on the agenda: an afternoon showing of Les Mis, and then a late night show of The Hobbit, joined by our cousin Will. Then, to get in touch with nature and our sweet teeth, we drove up to a beekeeper’s shop in Fort Collins, where we learned how to make honey! And for New Years, we got together for bowling, laser tag, air hockey, and DDR dancing!

Family time during the holidays was such a much needed break from cultural and language immersion in Asia and from working long hours. This trip gives me the fuel to keep going through another year abroad, complete with plenty of photos to turn to when I start to feel homesick! 

2013 - Year of the Snake

It’s New Year and I am proud to release the newest version of me, fully-upgraded, supporting open-source software for continuous development. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the redesigned, Sean 2.0. Sticking to my theme of upgrades, I decided to make some big changes and really ‘trade-up’ in just about every aspect of my life. Take it from a sales guy, a good amount of what we buy is “sales pitch,” so be sure to fully read the “reality check” section! Single women will need to submit their own, current product version information to judge for appropriate compatibility! (pictures of my new apartment at the end)

downstairs living room:

the lab:

hallway, with bathroom on the right, my door at the end, with another small hall to the left for French roomie:

my bedroom, looking into my bathroom

truth be told, I only made the bed for this photo: 

places where I put stuff (can you spot the new traveling hat?)

 staircase!:

upstairs living room / laundry room 

upstairs living room / laundry room: