Year of the Ram

Dear Friends,

This is our first "Year of the Ram" in China. It is a bit confusing as sometimes, the images actually look like sheep or goats. When I ask local friends about it, I get a variety of responses. It seems that goat, ram and sheep are not clearly differentiated in Mandarin.

Love,
Heather

Penguins

Dear Friends,

Snapped this photo at a rare time when there was no one jumping in to get their photo taken with the penguins.

Love,
Heather

New Year Blessings

Dear Friends,

Wish I was able to read and understand all these new year blessings.

Love,
Heather

Ice Cone

Dear Friends,

While there were many more fancy ice sculptures, this was my favorite. I am sure it wasn't nearly as nice during the day without the lights.

Love,
Heather

Horse Riding

Dear Friends,

Couldn't believe there were not more people trying to push their way on to these for photos. Maybe we just came at a good time.

Love,
Heather and Bradley

Ice Slides

Dear Friends,

The slides were by far the best part of the ice park!

Love,
Heather and Bradley

Ice Castle

Dear Friends,

This was one of the larger ice sculptures at the park. I hear we missed the "ice bar", maybe it was in here?

Love,
Heather and Bradley

Seated Ice Skating?

Dear Friends,

There were many fascinating winter activities taking place on the frozen Songhua river. This seated ice skate and the whips and cans seemed to be quite popular.

Love,
Heather and Bradley

Harbin Street Market

Dear Friends,

The array of dates and nuts at Chinese markets are always interesting. I am just glad to find non-meat products anywhere in China.

Love,
Heather

Valentine Boquet

Dear Friends,

We arrived in Harbin on Valentine's Day. It was difficult to walk down the street without someone trying to sell Brad flowers for me. It was hard to resist these natural looking blue, glitter roses, especially with the lovely bride and groom teddy bears on top.

Love,
Heather

Harbin Pedestrian Street

Dear Friends,

This pedestrian street in Harbin was a little bit of Eastern Europe in China. Our hotel was at the end of the street and we spent quite a bit of time walking up and down the road, enjoying the excellent people watching.

Love,
Brad and Heather

Unfamiliar Vegetable

Dear Friends,

I find all sorts of interesting veggies here in China. As far as I could understand from the lady at the market, this is some sort of Taiwanese kale.  Anyone know how to cook it?

Love,
Heather

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Dear Friends,

In preparation for the Year of the Goat, our school held its Chinese New Year celebration today. Our amazing front desk staff wanted to be sure to get a photo of us all dressed up.

Love,
Heather

Dragon Dance

Dear Friends,

This year for the Chinese New Year assemblies, some colleagues and I get to perform the traditional dragon dance. Luckily, I am the tail so I just have to follow the others. Lots of laughter going on here with a VERY patient local colleague trying to teach all of us foreigners.

Love,
Heather