Why I love my dorm

 

Aside from a billion other reasons, of course.

Harbin

Is so ridiculously cold I don't know how I made it back alive without missing a ear or anything like that. 

It's the notoriously cold city that anyone in China knows of because, well, it's so cold. That and the snow and ice sculptures it's extremely famous for.

Despite wearing 2 layers of socks, 3 layers of pants and 5 tops (1 heat tech from Uniqlo, 2 thick wool sweaters, 1 puffy vest and 1 ski jacket), I was still cold. It was pretty interesting though, pushing our limits to see under what temperature it would take for us to lose a toe to frostbite. Plus, with the cold, Sean and I had perpetually frozen eyelashes. Well that's one thing off the "Must do before I'm 50" list.

The frozen eyelashes led to freezing the viewfinder in the DSLR when we tried to take photos. One night, Sean was rolling around in the snow and somehow magically got snow on the screen and lens. Do not, and I repeat, do not try exhaling onto it because it all just instantly freezes and that camera is also instantly useless. At least until you give it an hour or so in a really warm place for it to warm up and defrost.

Anyways we did a whole ton in subzero temperature (it was -30ish most of the time. But really, it felt like -9999999), like see the famous Saint Sophia Cathedral.

Drank at an ice bar,

Saw the Siberian tigers,

Went to a polar aquarium,

Okay it looks fake. But it isn't. It's just dripping from its dip thanks. 

We saw the ice sculptures which although were pretty grand wasn't something you could stand around and admire for more than 10 minutes each time. Unless you have frostbite- proof toes and hands.

Loved the blue skies, white snow and bare naked trees,

And visited the snow sculptures too,

 

 

We were there for 3 days, which although is incredibly short for a holiday was just enough for Harbin. I found it really funny though that the attractions were the same few. Ask anyone who went and they'd say the same:

"Oh yeah the tigers, snow and ice sculptures, polar aquarium and yeah yeah that church too"
"Me too! Oo what about the ice bar?"
"Of course!"

I'm never going back there though. Don't get me wrong. It's real beautiful, and with it being completely dark at 4.30pm, you get beautiful sunsets when its close to 4. That with the snow and blue sky, just makes you go "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" or "Ooooooooooooh". Whatever you're used to saying. But I'm Singaporean and my body was not made for such unearthly temperatures.

Harbin

Is so ridiculously cold I don't know how I made it back alive without missing a ear or anything like that.

While I wouldn't say it was the worst trip of my life, it wasn't the best either. It was pretty interesting though, pushing our limits to see under what temperature it would take for us to lose a toe to frostbite. With the cold, Sean and I had perpetually frozen eyelashes.

Which led to freezing the viewfinder in the DSLR when we tried to take photos. Don't even try breathing onto it to get it to melt so you can clean it off. It just freezes the whole damned thing. One night, Sean was rolling around in the snow and somehow magically got snow on the screen and lens. Do not, and I repeat, do not try exhaling onto it. Worst night ever.

Anyways we did a whole ton in subzero temperature (it was -30ish most of the time. But really, it felt like -9999999), like see the famous St Sophia church

F is for fortunate

A few days ago while in Suzhou, Shohei, Angela and I made our way to Walking Street for our favourite ma la tang. It's good, cheap and non-diarrhea-causing spicy soup with whatever you choose to have in it. So what they have is a bunch of freezers with food on sticks like crabsticks, mushrooms, intestines, meat and other food that isn't on a stick like vegetables, silky tofu (how one would have that on a stick, I'd like to know) and noodles. 

By cheap, anyway, I mean that it would cost 10-15RMB for a bowl, depending on how much you'd like to stuff yourself. That makes it relatively cheap considering that when we eat out in China we always head to restaurants. Some paranoia we have (passed on from parents) about eating street food, getting food poisoning and, I don't know, have it be fatal. 

So about three quarters into slurping up our noodles we notice a man who's standing about 6 meters away, looking at us. He stopped looking after awhile, only to keep glancing back at us. 10 mins later when we give up trying to stuff ourselves and sit around doing what teenagers do, which is to, y'know, chill, he starts walking over. That creeped us out a tad bit and we decided to head off. As we were walking off, we saw him pick up Angela's spoon and bowl and carry that over to another table, sit down and eat. 

Okay yes, we were shocked, freaked and somewhat traumatised. But that scene stuck with me and it made me pretty sad. A bowl of noodles which we consider rather cheap - he can't afford. That made me think about all the "I can't be bothered to walk that 1km, imma take a taxi", "Mom but this is only 79rmb", "Mom I need another pair of jeans because this is different from my other 10 pairs", "Yeah I need a new sweater because my 30 others are so boring and I've worn them over and over the past 3 years" moments. (Yes I'm materialistic and a shopaholic, get over it.)

There always will be some who are richer and others who are poorer and the idealistic but impossible mission to rescue the whole world out of poverty (bell curve, statistics, 'nuff said), which makes it all the more important to be thankful for and cherish what we have, even if that happens once in awhile.

But that's not to say I don't have a massive list of things I want/"need". If you're feeling rich and charitable, drop me an email and I'll send you that list. 

The Bund

Shanghai's Beanstalks