Activities – Page 4 – HurricaneMaine

Harbin riverfront and central market

Harbin is the largest city in China that is the closest to Siberia.

The last day on Harbin! I’m actually excited to get back to Guangzhou and warmer temperatures. It is pretty here but the temperatures range from -15 C to – 20 C. At that temperature the air is very dry. Using lip balm and moisturizing often is a must. You also need several layers under a really good coat and insulating snowpants and boots.

We packed everything and put our luggage on the bus. We headed to the riverfront and walked to the flood control monument which intersects the riverfront and the road to the central market.

We first walked down the central market street to west 12th to see St. Sophia’s church. The architecture here is but Chinese but like any eastern european country.

St. Sophia’s is a Russian Orthodox church which is beautiful. Unfortunately they were renovating the inside so we could not enter.

From there we went in and out of shops in order to warm up a bit. Taking gloves off to take a picture left fingers numb!

Musicians took turns playing music or singing from this balcony. It was beautiful. This guy played beautiful old music on the saxophone.

One of the things people do here is buy ice cream to eat on the street. It is just ordinary ice cream, but something people do. It actually didn’t make me any colder.

We went in and out shops mostly to look for caviar. There was none to be found. I think it is banned due to covid-19. The virus had been found on fish products earlier in the year. I was disappointed in that.

I did find this bread flavored soda. I did try it. It tastes like that yummy taste you have in your mouth after you eat really good bread. It is a lingering bread taste and actually quite tasty. It is a favorite in Russia.

We found a Russian restaurant that had good food though I did not find the potato latkes I was looking for. I had a beetroot salad and potato mushroom soup.

Next we took the cable car across the river. The number of things you can do on this completely frozen river is amazing. Skating, sledding, pulled by dog teams, and other fun activities. If you love winter and outdoor activities, you will not be bored! The spaces they have created here is amazing. The ice is 1 meter thick.

A walk along the river back to the bus to look at smaller snow sculptures.

We also saw construction of the sculptures in this temperature. It was amazing.

A street food market for stinky tofu. It is just fermented tofu. Yummy but had to eat fast before it became cold.

Now back to Shanghai and then on to Guangzhou!

Sun Island, Siberian Tiger Park, and Volga Manor

Sun Island

It was cold. We started the tour at -20C and finished at -16C. There are a few coffee shops around to get out of the cold. Of course if you keep moving and don’t take your hands out of gloves to take pictures it is easier.

These sculptures are made by making artificial snow as that snow is wetter and sticker than the snows that falls on Harbin. They place the snow in big wooden boxes to pack then use the block to make these incredible sculptures that are the largest in the world. All of this is made from packed snow.

It started out at -20C and when the sun was shining warned up a bit.

You could ride this vehicle and soon around on the river ice.

This one is still under construction and looks like a little mushroom house village.

Siberian Tiger Park

The siberian tiger park was pretty cool. People move through the various paddocks in caged vehicles. Some tigers are in cages if they are not acclimated to weather, weak, pregnant, or young. They can get enough nutrition that way. There are over 1300 tigers and the park is very large.

You can pay to feed them by holding meat through the bars or even feed them a live chicken which is dropped through a chute.

Some of the buses also will be used to feed the tigers. You can always tell which bus.

They are such beautiful animals.

Volga Manor

This was a Russian village created by a wealthy entrepreneur in the turn of the century. It prospered until the cultural revolution when it was destroyed. Since then it has been rebuilt on the actual style of the original buildings.

We took a bus to the castle at the end where you took a freight lift to the 5th floor. There you could lay on an inner tube and hold on to each others legs to sled ride down this impressive ice chute. It was so fun we did it twice.

We looked at the Russian church.

There were many other buildings that were not open.

Of course there was a vodka chateau. We learned about vodka.

Sampling the vodka was fun. It was poured in ice cups. I sampled an amber colored vodka that had a definite spicy kick at the end. I also tried a dark colored vodka that had a really full flavor. You could buy your favorite vodka in the gift shop. I purchased the two I tried!

Walking back to the bus was beautiful to see the lit houses.

Afterwards some pedestrian street shopping and food at a Japanese restaurant. On the way back to the hotel we saw this sign which is so very covid-19. It is a little blurry as the bus started moving.

Friends and the week before Christmas

I am grateful to have a variety of friends and activities to keep me occupied during this holiday season. Even though it really does not feel like Christmas and just another week in this crazy ridiculous year that was 2020, it helps to keep my mind off the fact that I had planned to be home in the US this holiday season. Of course now, no one really should be getting together in the US as the virus cases are out of control.

I am equally blessed that my family is healthy even if my brother was potentially exposed at work. So grateful that his covid-19 test came back negative.

The combined Christmas concert at school featured choir, band, and orchestra. As usual it did not disappoint.

My legs were better midweek after the marathon to play in the girl’s teacher-student basketball game. It was called the Christmas chocolate classic. Teachers wore ridiculous clothes. To make it fair, teachers had no rules. We could do anything. We still lost. It was a blast though. Even though my legs didn’t hurt, they didn’t want to run back and forth across the court either! But honestly, those girls can sprint.

The coach is so fun and everyone was great as a team!!

Book club was held where I used to live in Clifford mansion. Tatz made a carrot cake for my birthday, we swapped books for Christmas gifts, and we were surprised by carolers!

We closed out the end of school for the holidays at a 90’s themed holiday party. It was fun despite losing my voice voting (screaming) for my friend Trisha and Dan to win best couples contest! They won and I did win the trivia contest as well.

The first weekend of break I decided to relax. I was originally supposed to travel to Chengdu to go hiking with my friend Morgana before traveling to Shanghai. Unfortunately, Chengdu went red with a covid-19 case that infected multiple places (a young person going from bar to bar…). I cancelled that part of the trip. Money was refunded easily.

Instead I stayed in Guangzhou and ate food and other things. Brunch at a Christmas market and movie on Saturday and dim sum on Sunday with Jack.

At the lobby of the grand international hotel where we ate dim sum.

After dim sum we took a walk around Tianhe park.

Artist who is famous for depicting the mood of the times.

Soldier who led the battle against the Japanese and is buried in the park.

Jack had never tried stinky tofu. It is fermented and has an off smell but tastes like regular tofu. Very spicy sauce.

Great start to my two week vacation. Next on the agenda is Shanghai to visit a friend and then off to Harbin. I really have no plan and am just winging it for this vacation.

Guangzhou marathon

An item that was on my bucket list many years ago that I discarded was running a marathon.

In training for one I ignored all the pain signals and now have a lasting hamstring injury. I could still run half marathons but I routinely would reinjure it and have to take time rehabilitating. I didn’t think I would be able to train.

I really couldn’t train fully. But I worked with the athletic trainer that helped me in the last injury and decided that limiting training to 35km per week might be a plan. That is barely enough for a half marathon training but running the half marathon the week before on Dec. 5th was plenty.

Picking up the race packets the day before with Carolyn and a new teacher Justin.

For covid-19 precautions we had to sign a health declaration, have a negative covid-19 test 5 days before, and fill out online temperature checks two weeks before. The day of the race they had put 1 meter apart dots we were to follow and separate. No one did.

Race day December 13th

Police runners to make sure everyone is sportsmanlike and watch for medical and other issues.

I went into the race feeling the best I have in awhile but it was brutal. The first half was fine but the third 10 km was rough and my quads were really tired in the end.

My goal was just to finish even if I had to walk. I was able to finish in 4 hours and 46 minutes. I could have shaved twenty minutes off, but it is that thinking that always leads me to an injury. And this time I walked away injury free.

At the end of the marathon, my friends were waiting for me. Such good friends.

Going to the local mexican restaurant for food was next on the list.

The international choir singing Christmas carols!

And the medal was the coolest. Purely Chinese with the lion.

Active weekend with a surprise exclusive visit

The weekend started out with Japanese food with a couple friends. I played it safe on the food but did have sake. I was to travel the next morning to run a fun half marathon with friends for charity and needed to be good with what I ate. We ran so that a few new runners could set a goal of running their first event and then we added raising charity for food banks. My friends Trisha And Daniel had this great idea months ago and I was keen to join in!

The next morning I drove with two friends, Jack and Claire to Huadu which is the north part of the city. I attended my last class for the leadership assessment class as we drove using zoom. It was beautiful sunshine but much colder of late.

We ran through the ecological park that connected with other parks. I couldn’t help but stop and take a couple pictures. My time was still 2 hours and 7 minutes trying to take it slow. However I made a wrong turn and ended 2 km away from where I needed to be so had extra amount of running.

We went afterwards to a nice restaurant (Sean was gracious to let us shower at his apartment.)

After the lunch Jack drive to the Imperial Springs. It is a hot spring resort that is pretty pricey. 400 USD for a standard room and much more for the villas that have their own hot spring in the residence. Jack had a personal connection to one of the dignitaries in charge and we were given permission to enter. It was beautiful but it had much more history than its beauty.

It also has a presidential palace that dignitaries use when they visit. We were allowed to walk in the upper floors. The actual loving areas need an elevator to go below. The top buildings are meeting rooms and in the typical Chinese style of the Tang dynasty. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have stayed here (Obama after he left office.)

A video of the view off the balcony of the main meeting room over top of the presidential quarters: https://youtu.be/wx7yFMRG2u4

We ate at the hot pot buffet restaurant. Pricey but very good food.

The next day I went for a hike with my friends Joanna. We started at baiyun and found the elevated walkway to the 5 rams park. It was beautiful and we passed through some parks I had not been to yet. The elevated paths connect the parks and then you walk through portions of the parks.

One of the parks that we went through was the Sculpture Park. We only walked along the part of the park that took us to the next section of pathway. There were quite a few sculptures in this part alone.

We also enjoyed noodle soup for lunch with handmade pulled noodles. So yummy and good on a cool day after walking.

a great weekend and my legs felt great as I have been lowering my weekly amounts to keep my hamstring healthy. It was great to spend time with friends!

Thanksgiving 2020

This year for Thanksgiving I did not host a dinner like last year. Killian instead hosted at his place on actual Thanksgiving day. I had PD that day as well as a fall celebration so made cornbread and pies as my contribution. I think these were the best pies I have made.

The Thanksgiving dinner was great. Killian has an 0ld but cool apartment in Dongshankou which is a historic area of the city.

The Thanksgiving celebration before the holiday weekend was fun with corn hole tournaments, food and drink and live music with a teacher band.

We may not have had Thursday off, but we did have a three day weekend. Of course, I scheduled doctors appointments and tests for that day! But before that, I ran 17 km to train for the marathon I signed up for then went to my appointment. After leaving the Imaging center where i had a mammogram, I walked through Martyr’s park that commemorates those who fought for the current form of government. Even if it was communism it was better than the Qing Dynasty which ruled before that. Martyr’s Park is really beautiful and many people writing poetry with water and practicing TaiChi.

I took the subway to the sports center as it is a beautiful walk around there. My friend Elaine messaged me, so I went to see her at PoPark to grab lunch and walk around before my next appointment.

I’ve been eating out more than before… there is so much good food here! My favorite is Thai food and there is a great place in PoPark near the East Railway station. A good vegetable soup, Pad Thai inside a thin egg omelette with coconut jelled dessert.

We walked around and visited some of Elaine’s other friends that had rescued kittens. They are so adorable.

Over the weekend I also met with some other friends to hiking in Baiyun. I had not seen Joanna in some time! Morgana is also very busy at the Canadian school. Whenever we can make schedules work, it is amazing.

Afterwards, we traveled to Dongshankou to go to the Owl’s Nest whcih has a really nice brunch and coffee shop.

This is really reminiscent of the types of houses in the area at that time. Very romantic and beautiful.

It was a great holiday weekend and the start of the week was pretty spectacular too. Elaine, Killian, and I met near the river for Vietnamese Pho and then walked along the river to look at the light show. Some of it is paid entrance (in the amphitheater), but the rest was the pedestrian area of Huacheng Square.

It also was the first time that Book club met in person now that more of the teachers are back in China. Yummy food of grilled vegetables, an eggplant dish, and rice. The discussion was of the book Lizzie Borden which had some great analysis of all the past information about that famous persona.

Xi’an city wall and the Big Goose Pagoda

The Xi’an wall is the most complete city wall that has survived in China. It is also one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world. It was originally built in 1370 after the establishment of the Ming dynasty.

Every 120 meters, there is a rampart which extends out from the main wall. All together, there are 98 ramparts, which were built to defend against the enemy climbing up. Each rampart has a sentry building, in which the soldiers could protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to the enemy. Besides, the distance between every two ramparts is just within the range of an arrow shot from either side, so that they could shoot the enemy, who wanted to attack the city, from the side. On the outer side of the wall, there are 5,948 crenellations, namely battlements. The soldiers can outlook and shoot at the enemy. On the inner side, parapets were built to protect the soldiers from falling off.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/citywall.htm

Walking from the apartment we passed the bell tower, which has shows.

We also walked past the moat on the outside to get to the ticket office on the south gate.

They have floating gardens using hydroponics.

After paying to get into the wall, we looked at some of the artifacts then went on top of the wall.

The original wall which stands about one story tall.

You can also rent a bike to cycle the 13.7 km around the top. We rented the bikes and bikes the whole way around. Pretty hot outside.

Really and stairs for horses and soldiers.

The original city is to the right of all the pictures. The expanded city has taller buildings on the outside than the buildings on the left.

These are pictures of a Buddhist temple inside the old city wall.

Preschoolers were walking in the wall as well.

Walking at the bottom of the north side of the wall.

Soldiers and horses can make it to the top of the wall.

East wall

Later in the afternoon we went to visit the Big Goose Pagoda. It was closed but we walked around to visit the sights.

Columns depicting the various dynasties

We walked through the area around the pagoda.

There was a performance that showed the east meeting the west on the silk road.

At night we went back to the Muslim Quarter to find dinner. These dragons caught our eye. They were putting out water droplets to cool people off. The second one led to a store behind it.

Silk road tour, day 7, Gobi Desert

We left to visit the Gobi desert after a brief rest from the caves. It was really hot out (34C) but at least there was no humidity.

The first thing we did was to ride the camels. It was a 40 minutes trek through the desert with a guide leading a string of camels. Pretty fun and relaxing. Yes this is a tourist trap but now I can check riding a camel into the desert off of my list!

Afterwards I found a couple people from my tour who wanted to ride the helicopter and would split the cost. It was a quick ride but easy to see the crescent lake oasis from above.

Two videos from sections of the flight:

I did not have enough time to do some sand sledding or hike up the dunes as a lot more tourists showed up. But I went to the oasis to get more water and walk with new friends from the tour for awhile before heading to the bus.

Back at the hotel for a shower and then walk to the night market to look around.

We are a local spicy potato dish with some beer and stopped at a seller of black Jade. I bought 3 glasses with lids and a Black Jade bead bracelet. In the light you can pick out there green though the rock itself is black.

Melbourne, Australia

Agenda: Elton John concert, free street tour, online work…

I landed in Melbourne but spent my first day getting ahead online. That has been my strategy. Work like a demon to plan further out before doing anything else, build quizzes, look at the resources I had already had in place for the rest of the school year and adjust… I also created screencasts of a simulation I wanted them to use but they may have trouble opening in China.

I’ll start with Elton John. It’s the reason I flew here as I saw I could see one of his shows before I move on to another area. Earlier in the day I stumbled on this street art from his last world tour.

The concert

Amazing. 3 hours with no other band and no intermission. I am so glad I went. All my favourite songs!

My favourite is Philadelphia freedom. It brings back good feelings.

Free tour of Melbourne

The first person to establish a settlement was named Batman. He was the only one in Australia who made a treaty with the aborigines. But the settlement was not sanctioned by England. He called it Batmania and looked like a shanty town. It was later renamed after the prime minister of England. And then there was the gold rush.

The design of the city was based on neoclassical architecture. This is the Treasury building.

The Parliament building was the first capital for the 1st 30 years in Australia. Now it is Canberra as Sydney and Melbourne fought for the right to be the capital.

Windsor hotel

House of Pisco which is a Peruvian cafe and bar.

ACDC lane features grafitti art as the murals have bands represented such as Rage against the machine, Beatles… Though the grafitti is illegal it keeps it off the main streets and some are even commissioned by businesses.

Lanes like these kept the rubbish and deliveries and human waste off the main streets. The city’s nickname was Smellbourne.

This purple rat stencil is from Banksy.

The glass room.

St. Paul’s cathedral.

Flinders Street station

This Lisa King art is in Centre Place where restaurants are.

The Block Arcade. This is what the inside of buildings back then used to look like.

Inside, the Tea House is exactly the same since late 1800s. The treats look yummy and they serve high tea. This building is in the Milanese style. Its purpose was a place to meet people you want to date. They would walk past each other. Men line on one side and women on the other. They then walk past each other and if you liked summertime you talked. If you weren’t the best prospect you would leave and walk around the block to go through again! Block arcade!

The royal arcade was the first arcade with shops. 1870.

Bourke street. This shopping area had a saying that caught my eye.

This used to be the post office. When posts came in they would run a flag up the pole to let people know. It is a very large building that wraps around the block.

This Chinatown is the oldest continuous one in the Western world since Gold Rush. It is also the oldest immigrant group here. Some came from CA after that gold rush.

This restaurant is called Section 8. It has an Orphans Christmas Day for those people whose family is on the other side of the world. It is found on Tattersalls lane.

State library of Victoria which is a library, gallery, and museum. This is also a place for protest action. Today was Climate change protest.

RMIR architect university. This is a sustainable building and interesting architecture.

Front gatehouse of the Melbourne jail. 1840. All prisoners kept together in one big pen whether female, male or child. Many died of violence and disease.

1880, Ned Kelly and gang became an infamous prisoner. He was a Bush ranger, then a term for criminals on the run. He was a poor Irishman and the oldest of 8. He started with Petty crime and then a policeman was shot in the arm when confronted him. He then became roadside robbers with 3 others. They made iron suits of armour from stolen plows. He was liked by people even though he never gave money directly. He would burn all the loan receipts in the banks. No evidence left of what people owed. Farmers helped them then!

The telegraph invention could tell police where they would go and they caught up with the gang. The gang took the town hostage and there was a gun battle. Many died. He got away but ambushed the police. They noticed his armour did not protect his legs and he was shot in the knees.

Ned Kelly to hang in Melbourne. Took him to the pub to hide in case of jail break.

Why this story? He was taken to Captain Melville’s hotel when they feared people would try to break him out of the jail. It is the oldest pub. Ned’s last words: Such is life! His quote.

Bondi to Bronte beach coastal walk

After a morning of work for online learning, I headed to Bondi beach. It is a train/bus ride to the outskirts of Sydney. I finally linked my cards to Google pay ( a luddite I know but we don’t use cards in China). This allowed me to pay directly on the bus or train.

I took a train to Bondi junction and then the 333 bus to the beach. They packed as many people on the bus as they could including squished in the aisles – it is a popular place to go. It could be like a bus in some countries except no fast turns on curves overlooking cliffs or live chickens on board!

Once at Bondi, I went down to the beach. The waves are large as there is a big storm of the coast. The water was also cold.

I walked along the edge to get my feet wet then perused the shops of the town.

I walked along the coastal path. Such beautiful views the whole way!

Mackenzie’s Beach

Tamarama Beach

Bronte Beach

In the path up the hill, headlines from past newspapers were painted on the sidewalk. They were very interesting and included the year it appeared.

I also walked through a nature reserve area after Bronte which is a coastal swamp with many small shrubs and species of frogs.

I reached the end (or maybe this was supposed to be the beginning?)

A skywriter made this heart in the air. I thought it was for Valentine’s Day (which is today) but it had a web address after so must have been a stunt. It did get a lot of attention.

I walked back to Bronte beach. This worked out perfectly as that beach has a different bus stop there. The 379 is a pretty short distance and also is very light in passengers. It goes back to Bondi junction.