Winter Break

The first semester is officially over.  Finals are done and grades are recorded.  It's a great feeling.  There are things that I've learned and things I want to change as we contemplate the next semester, which doesn't start until March 5.  So until then, let the travels begin....

Our first adventure took us to Harbin, in the very northeastern part of the country.  Harbin is up by Russia.  The high temperature was 4° F.  We lucked out and were there when they were having a warm spell.  😊😬  As we drove out of the airport after landing, we saw our first ice sculpture.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  This was just the beginning.  They build these amazing buildings with big blocks of ice that they have cut out of the river.  AMAZING!

 This one was in the middle of an intersection.

 This huge city wall was in the middle of a round-about.

Stopped here for dinner.  I hate to say it, but they had a small stream that ran through this front room and there was a dead rat in it.  I should of taken a picture but at the time I just couldn't do it.  

When it got dark we went to this ice sculpture display.  It was huge.  We were there wondering through it all for about 2 hours.  All the buildings are made with big blocks of ice from the river and accented with colorful lights.  We were amazed at how clear the ice was.  You would expect it to be brown and muddy but it definitely wasn't.  We had come prepared for the cold and did just fine until we stopped at the exit and while waiting for everyone in our group to get there, we eventually got cold. We took soooo many pictures it's hard to pick just a few.  

 I thought maybe you'd be able to see my breath--but the camera didn't pick it up. 

Sorry for the overload of pictures of me but it was too much work to get my phone out of my pocket and it was too cold.  So I let Kim have the honors of taking the pictures.  😃

 Every once in awhile we do selfies.  We're not super good at it.

They had a whole circle of these flowers frozen into the ice and then they'd change the colors of the lights on them.  It was beautiful.

 Here you can see how crystal clear the blocks of ice were.

 

It's hard to tell, but this was a Christmas tree on top of this tree shaped formation.

 They put together a whole little village inside a building.  It was a little warmer in here and the sculptures were colorful and made differently--not all just blocks of ice.  They were more sculptured.

 It's a little hard to tell...this is a horse with a man in a carriage.

Ice Piano!!

The Buddha is a snow sculpture.  The official opening of the park was actually a week after we were there.  They were just starting to build some snow sculptures.  But the next day, we went to a snow sculpture display.  This park is only open during the day.  I wish I had more pictures of the small sculptures, but here's a few....

 These are the people we traveled with.  They are all English Teachers in various cities throughout China.  A pretty impressive group.

 This whole area in front of these 3 huge sculptures was ice and there were all kinds of activities going on.  I wished we'd had more time to do some of them but we only had an hour here.

They were sliding down the hill on tubes.  Looked like lots of fun.

They were working away on this sculpture.  I don't know what it is going to be but I'm sure it will be awesome.

Then we went downtown to a shopping district.  This was New Year's Eve so it was a pretty hopping place.  We saw some beautiful things along the way. 

 We stopped for 5 minutes to take pictures of this cathedral-a very rare commodity here in China.  It isn't used anymore and we didn't go inside because everything has been stripped bare.  I believe it was built when the Russians controlled this city.

Saw more ice block structures along the street as we drove.

The traffic was horrendous and we needed to get on the other side to unload us, so what do you do??? Well just turn onto the one-way road going the wrong direction until you can find a place to turn and go back the other way! 😮😬😳🤔

The cars will get out of the way!

The bus let us out by the river.  There were 1000s of people sliding, sledding and having a great evening on the ice. I could have just watched here for a very long time, but when you're with a group you have to stay with the group.  That's the disadvantage...

Allison, our cute tour guide with her red monkey on a stick.

Sliding down he bank on tubes and then across the river.

Then they started sending up Chinese Lanterns.  AND WHAT?? We can't stay and watch??

The little specks in the sky are all lanterns.

Add a full moon and it was a great way to end 2017.

...walked down the central street...

 ..saw many more ice sculptures....

..and a Russian sausage museum.

Went to this mall by our hotel where they have the largest indoor skiing in the world.  It's pretty impressive.

This is an escalator on the right taking them up to the top.

Had some dinner with some friends...

This adorable Chinese girl kept staring at me so I asked if I could take her picture and she made this pose!  😂😍

And finished the night watching fireworks from the hotel window.  I know, pretty lame...but it is what it is.