New year, new apartment!

So, my friends, it’s official: I’ve now been here in Dalian a whole year. I cannae believe it. And as Chinese New Year has just passed us (I didn’t do anything very interesting I’m afraid – just moving all my stuff) that means my new contract with EF has also started. But a new contract means (due to some heating problems) a new apartment!

I was initially pretty sad to be leaving my old flat as I loved it so much, but it did have it’s share of problems so on to better things hopefully! And the idea of flat hunting was an exciting one. Unlike last time, I didn’t want to have an apartment I liked swept up from under me, so that meant that I’d have to make a very quick decision about any I did like. And I found one! Saw it one day, paid and signed the contract the next. It’s much smaller (mainly storage-wise) compared to the old place, but so far I’m very happy with it! One of the main highlights being it has a REAL shower! Like back home! No more wet rooms! I’m so happy. It’s also in a MUCH fancier building and busier area for restaurants/markets AND has a Starbucks just downstairs. Perf.

Anyway, pictures are much easier to show the new place to people, so here they are:

Path leading to my building

Courtyard outside

My building - I'm on the 15th floor

The lobby

My corridor

Into the flat!

My 'kitchen'. Ha

The bathroom and...

the shower! Hallelujah

The living room!

(Yeah, I'm watching The Hobbit)

I went there with the Union Jack cushion

My bedroom - not separate this year, so using curtains to divide

And again

My view - apologies for the very dirty windows

So that's that! All settled now apart from my fridge/freezer not working, but that'll get sorted soon hopefully. Then all systems go! 

Bye for now!
xoxo

The Ice and Snow Festival - Day 2

Alright guys, ready for Day 2?! Me too!

I’ll start saying now there won’t be an awful lot of writing this post as we didn’t really get up to too much on our second day in Harbin. With temperatures reaching -20 degrees during the warmest part of the day, we did not want to hang about outside at all!

We began with a typical Chinese breakfast of rice and fried vegetables/noodles from our hotel (included in the room package) then headed straight to the Snow Festival at Sun Island Scenic Area (right next door to the Ice and Snow World actually). Today was MUCH colder than the day before though (like I said, around -20 degrees), and after re-assessing my outfit, I left the hotel wearing nine layers on my torso, five on my legs and three on my feet – then with all the heat pads again. And I was still bloody cold! Now, after researching the festival online I was led to believe that from 9am to noon the ticket price dropped to 150 kuai. Alas, this was not the case! We got there for about 9am wanting to beat the crowds and pay less, but were told that it actually costs 240 kuai per ticket (it is an all day ticket but who’s going to stay outside all day in that temperature?). A little annoyed, we paid of course, and definitely weren’t disappointed. Though there were still a fare few snow sculptures unfinished, we still saw a lot of amazing ones! Again, it was just so impressive! Similarly to the Ice Festival, we spent between half an hour to an hour outside then sought refuge in the heated food huts just to get our core temperatures back up (not sure how we’d have coped without doing this!) Here are the photos:

Another Year of the Goat themed sculpture - entitled 'Auspicious Goats Bring Opulence' (at the entrance to the park)

'Ark of Happiness' - note the Disney they've got going on!

Close up of the 'Ark of Happiness' (The Cheshire Cat, Ariel and Winnie!)

'Family'

Under construction!

'Kingdom of Minions'

Adorbs!

Cute!

'Peace'

'Present for Halloween'

'Pigtails' - I found this one quite disturbing...

Didn't catch the name of this one!

'Pursuing Dreams'

'Discovery' - one of my favourites!

Again, didn't get the name of this one, but really liked the wolves here

'Darwin'

'Genesis'

The robot man from 'Genesis'

'Primitive Tribe'

Didn't get the name

'Gifts of the Apple'

Adam and Eve making an appearance!

'Dating Back'

Classic Chinese dragon!

'Traversing to the Future'

'Dreams of Summer'

A jungle-themed one - angle 1...

... and angle 2

'The Fireman and His Sniffer Dog'

German Shepherds - that well-known sleigh dog

And when you run out of dogs, there's always goats

Giant snow slide - again, not bloomin' likely

The whopper!

To show you the scale, there I am!

Dancing bears!

Reindeer!

Damn it woman - but a lovely cottage sculpture! The trees behind it too!

Moby Dick and friend?

These smaller sculptures were part of a competition:

'Mario's Expedition'

'Years of Charm'

'Harmony'

'Tale of Spring'

'Exploration of Seabed' - got first prize! - angle 1

'Exploration of Seabed' - angle 2

'The Era of Network'

After completing our tour of the park, we headed back to the city for lunch and had then planned to go to the Japanese Germ Warfare Museum (just outside the city) but after spending the morning outside and freezing our butts off, we decided to sack this off in favour of restaurant/coffee shop hopping until it was time to catch our overnight train back to Dalian. 

So that’s my Harbin trip! I really, really enjoyed it (though more so in hindsight), and would recommend going to everyone, but I’ve never been so cold in my life and never want to be again really – so I won’t be repeating this adventure! 

That’s all folks!

xoxo