Harbin Ice and Snow Festival

Today was our second day off. We had our meeting at 10:00, then a bunch of the girls decided to go to the flea market Laura and I went to yesterday. I hadn't purchased anything while we were there yesterday, I was too busy taking it all in and watching the guys bargain so I went with them today to pick up some stuff to bring home. When we all got there, the rest of the girls had the same reaction Laura and I did - shear and utter amazement. Words really cannot describe how crazy this place is. It is funny the way it works - all of the shopkeepers have a calculator that they punch the price in. You then take the calculator and punch in a counter offer. You basically get a thumbs up or down. If you walk away, often times they chase after you and agree to your price. One of the big things they sell is designer handbags, some real some fake. I saw this awesome Louie Vuitton bag that I am pretty sure is real - you could see the differences when you held it up next to a fake one and it has all of the authentic markings on it. When I asked the guy how much he pulled out his calculator and punched in 750 yuan, which is $115. Now in the US I know that would be a steal for a Louie bag but here in China that is an absurd amount of money - many people don't make that much in a week. I bargained hard with the guy and said 300 ($45) and he said no. I wasn't going to pay any more than that so I started to walk out. Meanwhile Tara and Stacey were discussing how I would never get it for that low. They walked out ahead of me and as I started to walk out the man grabbed me with his calculator and said ok. I just yelled to them "I got it" and they burst out laughing. So from then on I became the bargainer for the group - if someone needed something they got me to help them buy it. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff to take home but I'm not going to mention it here because then it wouldn't be a surprise. Just know that I bargained hard for everything and got really good deals on all the stuff I bought. I think pretty much everyone had a successful shopping trip and we all walked out with bags of stuff that we have to somehow fit in our suitcases.

We were scheduled to go to the Ice and Snow Festival at 5 so we were going to miss dinner. All of us have been craving western food so we decided to go to the Pizza Hut we found the other day. This was the nicest Pizza Hut I have ever been in - it looked like a real fancy restaurant. We ordered 4 "american specials" aka large pepperoni pizzas. It was fantastic - tasted just like it does at home. We all ate way too much but it was well worth it.

After Pizza Hut we headed back to the hotel to change into our red outfits. While they might not be the prettiest looking things they sure are warm and everyone decided to sport them tonight - even Stacey. Once we arrived we were all glad we had them, it was freezing out. The festival was unbelievable - it is ranked as one of the top ice festivals in the world and I can see why. The only thing I can compare it to is Disney World. They have these huge, building size sculptures that are lit up beautifully. There is even a restaurant made entirely of ice! There are also these huge slides made of ice that we could slide down. On the smaller ones you just slid on your butt or stomach but they had this one huge one where they gave you a sled. You lay on the sled luge style then the men working give you a big push so you go flying down it! At the bottom is this huge snow mound that you crash into and hit hard. Everyone who did it got snow all up their jackets and and down there shoes -not good when it is that cold out. They also had some other cool things there to play on as well - a lake type area with bikes with skates on them and little chairs where you use ski poles to propel yourself, in a way like sled hockey. Naturally the competitiveness in all of us came up when we were playing on this stuff and we had to race around the lake. The people watching must have thought we were a freak show - 10 western looking women in bright red jackets and pants flying around this ice surface. It was hysterical and so much fun. There was also a white fox you could hold and a camel from Mongolia that you could sit on and ride. Can't say I have ever sat on a camel before tonight...only in China!

After the Ice and Snow festival a few of us went to the rink to watch the US men play Russia. They got demolished but it was a very physical game that was fun to watch. The most interesting part of the night however wasn't the game itself but the cab rides to and from the rink. I thought the cab driver on the way there was just going to dump us on the side of the road after Stacey tried to give him directions multiple times. He definitely started to pull over at one point and I think the only thing that stopped him was that we wouldn't pay him if he just left us. On the way back we gave the driver the card with the hotel address in Chinese and he pulls a lighter out of his glove box and holds it next to the card to read it while he was driving in a tunnel. Again, only in China...

I posted a ton of pictures from the Ice and Snow Festival as well as pictures from around town. Check them out at www.picasaweb.google.com/connolly.kate.