Knock It Off

There has been some scepticism expressed by a few of our regular readers (all two of you) that there can not be that many onions available to the residents of Harbin. So to put your mine at ease, please accept the following photographic proof of how onions have taken over the streets of Harbin. They are peaceful for the most part as long as you don't spook them. We found that if you tip toe through the onions, you can avoid many nasty incidents. Just makes you want to cry, doesn't it?

Guchi, Tommy Hilfinger, Dioer, Channel, Nikee, Faberg, all brands that are readily available on the streets and in the markets of Harbin. Students tell time with the Bolex Oysters that can be found on many of their wrists. But if you think this kind of thing is just for those expensive name brands, think again. You can also find Mr. Kleen, Sarah Lee cakes, Crust Toothpaste and the ever popular Krapht Dinner or KaiDee as it is affectionately known as here. We want for little here in Harbin.

Thanks to the kindness of strangers Nonie and I were gifted with a voucher for one night
with breakfast at the five star Shangri La Hotel here in Harbin. We quickly booked ourselves a room for Saturday and quit living Chinese for 24 hours. No Chinese spoken here, just English! Traditional North Americanesque food (Salmon Fettucinni for Nonie and Fish and Chips for Brett)! English TV News (Sadly only BBC and CNN) and the piece de resistance HBO showing movies we had already seen. We may do this again if we find living Chinese becoming wearisome. It was a nice escape. We also enjoyed the first snow squall of Harbin winter from the comfort of our 15th floor, centrally heated suite with a fully stocked mini bar. Returning to the real world the next day, Nonie made a new friend along the way. In a city of 9,000,000 you would think ducks would have something better to do then accost people on the streets. Don't get me started on those crazy gangs of chickens.

For the last few weeks, the students have been preparing formal presentations for class. So this past week, we have been listening and listening and listening some more. With more this week. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Some have been very inventive while others culled directly from the internet. More on that another time.

Signs of Winter

Sadly, it seems our Indian Summer has drawn to a close and we are starting to see minuses showing up in the weather forecast. We don't need to read the forecast to know that winter is coming. Trucks overflowing with onions and cabbages have started to show up on every street corner and any flat surfaces along the streets and alleys are covered in these onions and cabbages. Harbiners are drying them in preparation for storage and use during the winter. When they run out of street space they squeeze the onions and cabbages into every window ledge or balcony in their apartments. Even high end condos have onions and cabbages sprouting from their windows and balconies. Strata councils in Canada would have serious reservations about this practice but not a problem in Harbin. Cabbage and onions are a staple of most dishes in North East China cuisine which is also known as Dong Bei cuisine. The cuisine has become a favorite of Nonie and mine. For more signs of winter check out our October 2008 blog. They're baaaack!

Dumplings, comfort food for those long cold winters. It is the Canadian equivalent of a hot bowl of pea soup and crackers. Tomato soup for those of you with out any french heritage. The dumplings come stuffed with every kind of filling you can imagine. From simple pork stuffing to exotic vegetable and spices. Served steaming hot from the wok to your chopsticks. Add a little vinegar and soy for flavor and you can make a meal of them. They look easy to make but beware, fold them incorrectly and you will have a wok full of broken dough and stuffing floating around in the water. A lesson I learned the hard way.

Happy Canadian thanksgiving to you all you Canadians and wanna be Canadians out there. We hosted our second almost annual Thanksgiving dessert soiree this last week. A gathering of multiple nationalities enjoyed Nonie's cookies, carrot cake, lemon loaf and homemade bruschetta. It was enjoyed by all and included an impromptu singing of O'Canada by the resident Canadians (Brett, Nonie, Armin) Sadly no turkey but the American thanksgiving is coming up and we are pretty sure we can find a turkey feed somewhere.

Nonie and I will be attending another trivia night this week to defend our title. Keep posted. We are feeling invincible.

Pedestrian Perils

The China Daily (China's only English language daily) recently reported that private car sales have been increasing by double digits annually for the last several years. We can certainly vouch for that. During our last stay, the campus was relatively clear of moving and parked vehicles. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a parking spot anywhere on campus. Off campus, it is just nuts. Pedestrian rights do not exist. You may be fooled at first by the wide hash marked cross walks, pedestrian crossing signs and the little green men signs found everywhere. But once you been grazed by a kamikaze taxi or two, you quickly realize that these pedestrian accouterments are suggestions only and not taken seriously by Harbin drivers. The only thing that will stop a vehicle (that includes police vehicles) turning left is something bigger than them coming through the intersection. Sidewalks are just an easy and quick way for motorcycles, gas and electric scooters to avoid busy intersections and traffic jams. The electric scooters or stealth scooters as I like to call them, can sneak up on you quick especially when you are a law abiding Canadian and are under the mistaken assumption that sidewalks are for pedestrians. But on the plus side, you get a great workout just walking to the market.


The past few weeks have been very nice only having to work eight of the last 15 working days. We celebrated a national holiday, 61 years of communist rule in China. Enjoyed a free meal on the provincial government and rubbed elbows with some provincial muckymucks who tried to get me drunk on Chinese shooters, a delicious alcoholic drink that can be bought in various strengths from 25 to 80% alcohol. A week after drinking the stuff, you can still burp and taste it. I was told the stuff we were knocking back was 38% and had been made special for the provincial government to serve at dinners that would be inhabited by foreigners. Left unsaid but inferred was that foreigners could not handle the good stuff. (80%) Little did they know they were dealing with a 1/4 Newfie who had just been screeched a few months before, so I could laugh at their meagre attempts to get me drunk and lose face. That and the dinner was over in less than an hour, which when you subtract the time to eat over 12 of the tastiest dishes we have had in China, did not leave a lot of time for knocking back shooters. Take that Chairman Mao. One for the Canucks. But who's counting.



We finished the week with some bowling, a pasta dinner with Janie and Justin and a brunch with a few of our fellow teachers to celebrate our last day of the National Holiday. Nonie took advantage of the time off to throw a coat of paint on our livingroom walls. Thanks to a helping hand from Janie who left each day covered in pale blue spots. Nonie had asked for white paint but I guess the paint store person thought blue would be a nicer touch. She is learning to live with it.

A little late with this blog but will catch up in the next week. Congratulations to the Warner's who successfully answered the skill testing question in the last blog. Staves is the plural of staff. Not quite grammatically correct in this context but hey, they were trying. The Warners have won an all expense trip to the wonderful Hawaiian islands which they are currently enjoying. Aloha, Warners.