Answer Key to: Family in Ice and Snow

Mom for her favorite flower: lilacs (this flower is not a lilac, but close in color)

 

Ivan on his motorbike

myself (of course!)

Melanie (the ever watchful and all seeing, wise big sister)

Jill (for the horses!)

Shannon (a dancin')

Ryan (a bit tricky, because the snow rifle does not have a full barrel, but this is a snow hunter)

Dad (and his birds)

Polar Yin Yang

I spent some time in Polar Land on my recent visit to Harbin, and the majority of that time watching this particularly fascinating polar bear. He spent the entire time I was watching - about 30 minutes - swimming the same lap circuit, back and forth, 10 meters each way. His friend, also equally adorable, did not catch my attention as mush so since he chose to spend the same time sleeping. As I observed the bears, I had to wonder at how much their captivity influenced their behavior. 

Bear 1: Was it his anger at captivity or his joy for life that moved him to a constant swimming motion?

Bear 2: Was his slumber guided by his sadness at being in a cage or his acceptance to be calm in life?

And a question to readers: if, heaven forbid, you should one day find yourself in a cage, surrounded by people who holler and take pictures throughout the day, which bear would you be?

Harbin, Day 3

The morning of Day 3 began with another car ride as I returned to Harbin from the small 'hills' where I'd been snowboarding. Then, I visited "Sun Island" to see many impressive snow carvings. There was another international snow sculpture competition here, with teams from around the world (even Thailand!).

 This was also where I was to go on my 'dog sled' ride, which was supposed to be one of the major highlights. However, the sled ride was not at all what I imagined in would be. There were certainly dogs, but not much to say about a sled, and it was nothing like the grand Iditarod that I was hoping to recreate. I sat down and two German Sheperds pulled me around a frozen lake for a grand total of two minutes, with the 'driver' running alongside guiding the dogs for the full two minutes. I could have accomplished the same but for a longer period of time with a pack of dogs I know back home...So disappointing!

Next I went inside to warm up: into Polarland, an indoor aquarium / zoo that is famous for it's choreographed water dance with beluga whales. There was also a pretty entertaining show with some seals.

 After the shows, it was time to get back outside in the cold. You can gauge temperature from this ice tower thermometer here:


The thermometer and the next pictures are from Snow and Ice World, where I spent the last evening. I could only manage my gloves off to take photos for about five minutes, then wander around for about ten more minutes, before having to go inside one of the cafes to get hot tea or to eat some warm dumplings. After heating up, I could go take more pictures!

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!