Saturday, March 10, 2012
A Real Day Off!
4:51 AM | 
Posted by
Eric |
Hey!
I had a day off finally. I've had other time off, but I usually spend it writing lesson plans for my classes. Since I am new, it takes me forever to write my lesson plans. Most teachers spend only about 10-20 minutes doing what I do in 2-4 hours. (it's already getting much quicker though).
Anyways, I've taught some high school classes this week which don't need lesson plans. This really freed up a ton of time for me. So I took full advantage of my day off on Friday.
I really wanted to go to the aquarium here, Harbin Polarworld Aquarium. I hopped on an extremely packed bus. Some of the buses get so crowded that you don't even need to hold onto anything. People are so packed in that they keep each other upright. The bus took me up to the bridge crossing the river, which leads to the newest section of the city. I could have found another bus to go across the bridge, but I felt like walking it anyways. On the bridge I walked past an old city worker that was cleaning the street. He was so excited to see a foreigner. He was waving excitedly and saying probably the only English word he knew, "Hello!" I returned the greeting and continued walking. At the end of the bridge I found where the bus would have dropped me off. At that point you need to take a right and walk from there to the aquarium, park, or science museum. It is a super long walk to the attractions. I was surprised that the city didn't have some kind of shuttle that went up and down that street. There were parents, grandparents, and children walking back from the aquarium. Here's an interesting thing though...people in China walk...a ton. They start early and often. I actually have never seen a stroller. Very young kids walk with their parents. Every morning I see the tiniest kids walking to pre-school with their parents. I think it's great.
Well, I finally made it to the aquarium. The price is a little high, about $25. Compared to aquariums that I've been to in the USA, it's a fine price...but for China that's pretty pricey.
When I walked in, they ushered me into a, "Sea Lion Theater." The lights were out and you absolutely couldn't see a thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I was thinking that there was no way they could actually want someone to find a seat like this. Well, that's what they were going for. Luckily, the lights came on after about 45 seconds, so it didn't get too awkward. I just happened to get there right as they were hyping the crowd up for the big intro of the show. The show ended up being pretty funny. They had a walrus that played the harmonica and did situps. The superstar is the seal that swims around, catches rings on its neck, and balances a ball on its nose while doing a flipper-stand.
The other big attraction is the Beluga whale show. Watching these two creatures swim around their tank before the show started is hypnotic. They are just amazing. It's just something you have to see. If I go again, I will be shooting video for sure. The show starts with a little music from the Jurassic Park score and then goes into everyone's favorite, "My Heart Will Go On," from Titanic. Two divers swim with the whales, have them push them around, launch them from the water, etc... It was well worth the money, and I'm going to recommend it to people I know here.
The rest of the aquarium is a little small, but there were a few really cool things penguins, polar bears, sea lions. The sea lions are out where you could actually pet them if you wanted to get your hand bitten off. You can buy some little fish to feed them, and there are commands you can give them to do tricks too. The polar bears are huge and they swim around their tank. You are only a few inches of glass from them and you can compare your hand size to their massive paws as they push off of the tank to swim to the other side. The penguins are my favorite. I always wished I could have had a penguin for a pet. They're very active and always jumping in and out of the water and swimming around.
I left the aquarium and walked down past this giant park, which I will definitely be revisiting when the trees come back to life. I knew I was walking away from the bridge though. There is only one bridge that goes across the river. There is also normally a ferry that you can take across though...just not when the river is frozen. I kind of wanted to experience walking across the river and I figured with the weather warming up, this would be my last chance. I kept walking away from the bridge because I kept seeing more interesting sights. By this time, there was no turning back. I saw a few other people out on the river as well as a well-traveled path in the snow. I felt it was safe enough. I have to admit though that my heart was beating a little quicker than usual. It's a freakin' huge river and it hasn't been all that cold the last few days!
When I got to the end I saw a couple of people flying kites. Some of them were having a little trouble because there wasn't much wind. One guy had his so far out there that it was barely visible. There was a photographer taking some shots of the setting sun on the frozen river. He spotted me and suddenly had a new focus. I'm not very comfortable on the other side of the lens, but I let him have a good couple of minutes with me. He spoke a little bit of English and asked me where I was from. He, like almost everyone else here, had never heard of Arizona.
After crossing the river, I decided to walk around the city for a while. It was getting dark and I was hoping to see some more interesting things. I ran into some weird underground passage that had a guy singing and some other people selling toys. It was a strange place to set-up. I continued walking and saw a bunch of people heading into a door. I followed along and ended up in some kind of big food market. There were all sorts of crazy things in there. I probably could've taken a lot of cool photos, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with shooting random people. I just need to start doing it. I bet they would actually think it's cool that the foreigner is taking their picture.
I walked so far that I actually ended up at my local Wal-Mart. PS. Wal-Mart here is just another Chinese supermarket...it's really not very much like a western Wal-Mart. I was getting very close to the point of having walked too much. I went into the store for a minute and found some Birthday Cake flavored Oreo's and a bottle of water. Yum! I left to get a cab the rest of the way home and stopped at a street food vendor making some weird snack that I had not seen before. The stand was very popular, so I figured I'd better get in on the action. It ended up being pretty good and a good way to end the day.
I'll add a few photos from the day. It's really still a little too cold to comfortably go out to take a bunch of shots. I'm wearing too many uncomfortable clothes, and my hands and camera get pretty cold when they come out of their pockets.
I had a day off finally. I've had other time off, but I usually spend it writing lesson plans for my classes. Since I am new, it takes me forever to write my lesson plans. Most teachers spend only about 10-20 minutes doing what I do in 2-4 hours. (it's already getting much quicker though).
Anyways, I've taught some high school classes this week which don't need lesson plans. This really freed up a ton of time for me. So I took full advantage of my day off on Friday.
I really wanted to go to the aquarium here, Harbin Polarworld Aquarium. I hopped on an extremely packed bus. Some of the buses get so crowded that you don't even need to hold onto anything. People are so packed in that they keep each other upright. The bus took me up to the bridge crossing the river, which leads to the newest section of the city. I could have found another bus to go across the bridge, but I felt like walking it anyways. On the bridge I walked past an old city worker that was cleaning the street. He was so excited to see a foreigner. He was waving excitedly and saying probably the only English word he knew, "Hello!" I returned the greeting and continued walking. At the end of the bridge I found where the bus would have dropped me off. At that point you need to take a right and walk from there to the aquarium, park, or science museum. It is a super long walk to the attractions. I was surprised that the city didn't have some kind of shuttle that went up and down that street. There were parents, grandparents, and children walking back from the aquarium. Here's an interesting thing though...people in China walk...a ton. They start early and often. I actually have never seen a stroller. Very young kids walk with their parents. Every morning I see the tiniest kids walking to pre-school with their parents. I think it's great.
Well, I finally made it to the aquarium. The price is a little high, about $25. Compared to aquariums that I've been to in the USA, it's a fine price...but for China that's pretty pricey.
When I walked in, they ushered me into a, "Sea Lion Theater." The lights were out and you absolutely couldn't see a thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I was thinking that there was no way they could actually want someone to find a seat like this. Well, that's what they were going for. Luckily, the lights came on after about 45 seconds, so it didn't get too awkward. I just happened to get there right as they were hyping the crowd up for the big intro of the show. The show ended up being pretty funny. They had a walrus that played the harmonica and did situps. The superstar is the seal that swims around, catches rings on its neck, and balances a ball on its nose while doing a flipper-stand.
The other big attraction is the Beluga whale show. Watching these two creatures swim around their tank before the show started is hypnotic. They are just amazing. It's just something you have to see. If I go again, I will be shooting video for sure. The show starts with a little music from the Jurassic Park score and then goes into everyone's favorite, "My Heart Will Go On," from Titanic. Two divers swim with the whales, have them push them around, launch them from the water, etc... It was well worth the money, and I'm going to recommend it to people I know here.
The rest of the aquarium is a little small, but there were a few really cool things penguins, polar bears, sea lions. The sea lions are out where you could actually pet them if you wanted to get your hand bitten off. You can buy some little fish to feed them, and there are commands you can give them to do tricks too. The polar bears are huge and they swim around their tank. You are only a few inches of glass from them and you can compare your hand size to their massive paws as they push off of the tank to swim to the other side. The penguins are my favorite. I always wished I could have had a penguin for a pet. They're very active and always jumping in and out of the water and swimming around.
I left the aquarium and walked down past this giant park, which I will definitely be revisiting when the trees come back to life. I knew I was walking away from the bridge though. There is only one bridge that goes across the river. There is also normally a ferry that you can take across though...just not when the river is frozen. I kind of wanted to experience walking across the river and I figured with the weather warming up, this would be my last chance. I kept walking away from the bridge because I kept seeing more interesting sights. By this time, there was no turning back. I saw a few other people out on the river as well as a well-traveled path in the snow. I felt it was safe enough. I have to admit though that my heart was beating a little quicker than usual. It's a freakin' huge river and it hasn't been all that cold the last few days!
When I got to the end I saw a couple of people flying kites. Some of them were having a little trouble because there wasn't much wind. One guy had his so far out there that it was barely visible. There was a photographer taking some shots of the setting sun on the frozen river. He spotted me and suddenly had a new focus. I'm not very comfortable on the other side of the lens, but I let him have a good couple of minutes with me. He spoke a little bit of English and asked me where I was from. He, like almost everyone else here, had never heard of Arizona.
After crossing the river, I decided to walk around the city for a while. It was getting dark and I was hoping to see some more interesting things. I ran into some weird underground passage that had a guy singing and some other people selling toys. It was a strange place to set-up. I continued walking and saw a bunch of people heading into a door. I followed along and ended up in some kind of big food market. There were all sorts of crazy things in there. I probably could've taken a lot of cool photos, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with shooting random people. I just need to start doing it. I bet they would actually think it's cool that the foreigner is taking their picture.
I walked so far that I actually ended up at my local Wal-Mart. PS. Wal-Mart here is just another Chinese supermarket...it's really not very much like a western Wal-Mart. I was getting very close to the point of having walked too much. I went into the store for a minute and found some Birthday Cake flavored Oreo's and a bottle of water. Yum! I left to get a cab the rest of the way home and stopped at a street food vendor making some weird snack that I had not seen before. The stand was very popular, so I figured I'd better get in on the action. It ended up being pretty good and a good way to end the day.
I'll add a few photos from the day. It's really still a little too cold to comfortably go out to take a bunch of shots. I'm wearing too many uncomfortable clothes, and my hands and camera get pretty cold when they come out of their pockets.
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3 comments:
Sounds like you are having quite the adventure son. Your stories are very amusing. Love you.
What a great adventure! I love every word of it!
Thanks Y'all