Haerbin Ice Festival 2005 -- Entrance 

Haerbin Ice Festival 2005 - View from atop tallest building -- ice bridge in an earlier post is near the center. 

Writing in a guest book at a "Western" cafe on Zhongyang Da Jie/Street. 

Boris said, "Nay! Too cold to walk around in a maze." However, he was undeterred from jumping upon the wall and taking photographs of unsuspecting citizens. 

An ice bridge in Haerbin, "Build it and they will come."
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Boris contemplating an ice rendition of St. Sophia's in front of St. Sophia's.
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HOW IS CHINA DIFFERENT?

Well, the stairwells in modest-to-good apartment buildings are "unfinished" concrete, cleaned about every other month by the women we see on the streets, sweeping in green uniforms, scarved heads and white masks covering their mouths.

Trash is left in the center of the courtyard behind the building. Recycling? What? Vegetables have been decaying since autumn after appearing in window sills all over the city.

When you get into a taxi, if the driver turns on the meter, you hear a familiar .wav sound. What's that sound? It took a few weeks to get but it's Windows 2000 or XP login or logoff. But it's familiar. Occasionally we get a message and greeting when the meter goes on, but we're still illiterate so we don't know what it says.

I hear private homes have bathtubs but our apartment doesn't. I miss my baths, terribly. Almost more than some people. Definitely more than many.

THE F*cking cold before the government turns on the heat Nov. 15th -- yes, October 1st was not just National Day -- The weather turned, as if on cue, from summer to fall. We spent the next 6 weeks living with a space heater in the bedroom. I remember that there was no where warm, not at work, not at home. And when will they decide it's Spring? The weather isn't too bad for a gal from SoCal. If it is cold, it's usually sunny.

OH, THE STREET MARKETS! THE FOOD SURPRISES AND INTERESTING FOLKS!

NEXT BLOG WILL BE PHOTOGRAPHIC. IT'S LATE.

FIRECRACKERS IN STEREO -- AS I WRITE

We're in for a lot of gunpowder tonight! As I write, firecrackers are being set off -- behind the building, in the distance, every few minutes and have since earlier today.

Carrefour, almost always a source of frustration at the dinner hour, was not unusually busy, but everyone's cart looked like they were hosting a party, especially those near the liquor section.

Piled up around the freezer section were packages with photos of foods we didn't recognize. What a night to be tired of Chinese food and shopping for a salad and burger.

We wouldn't have known it was a mini-holiday, but our new best friend/restaurantuer par excellence, Mr. Wong, informed Mr. T. that tonight is "pre-New Year's"

The Chinese New Year is eight days from now, February 9th, but firecrackers are being sold and popping off everywhere -- main streets, local neighborhood bodegas.

Just now, coming home in the taxi, we heard a racket and saw, as we passed a deserted nondescript dwelling, the jerking movement, pinpoints of lights jumping off the pavement.

Who could mind the racket? We're hanging with the folk that invented the shite! We walk through our courtyard with our groceries, and look for our keys as we walk through wasted red paper debris.

Five months to the day since we came to China, and still, it's hard for me to believe we're really here. Except that logging on to Blogger (for the first time since we got here), I found the Home page loaded in Chinese. Had to feel my way around from memory.

Rattatatatatat -- Another round from the building next door!

I'm getting offline and going back to the kitchen/balcony over the street with a view of sky, help the man make dinner and look for more exploding fireworks!

It's in stereo now, from the front and back of the building...It would appear this is their holiday and they're stickin' to it -- not too colonized by the Christian calendar -- right on! And hao-le, hao-le, hao - le (Okay, okay, okay. Good, good, good.)