The pig is a sign of good luck and prosperity in China. Also, a small fern provides a breath of fresh air in a land of smoke. My window cill at the office.



I am forced to cook, so I might as well make the best of it. I made this omlette, using a recipe from a website that Jacquie gave me. I love that site babe, thanks. Check out the site guys, just enter the ingredients that you have on hand, and you can have an awesome meal in no time! (And yes Chris Chow I use chopsticks all the time, just not for omlettes)

http://www.recipezaar.com

Here is a small street market on my walk back home from the university. With winter and the cold weather beginning, street vendors have started piling frozen goods on the streets for us to buy. Like frozed squid, fish and shrimp. Things are pretty dead at the time I took the picture. Shortly after I snapped this, I found a little store around the corner of my place that has everything I need including all of the veggies and canned goods I like. I will definately be going back there....oh, and they have rock'n good tufu. (Don't tell Barb I said that).



And this is a view looking Westward, towards you guys at dawn. Taken from my enclosed balcony. I just saw the smoke billowing from the smokestack in the distance, and thought it was a good representative of this city. I think I might buy a donkey and rent it out to people...just a thought.

Another view of my classroom. All of the students choose English names for themselves. The guy in the middle there named himself Snoopy. A few other names are Flower, Kitty, XY, Smile, YoYo, King, Evening, Medicine, Shine, Toy, Seven, Summer and Kuku.

I need an "english" name, any ideas anyone?

Another view of my classroom. All of the students choose English names for themselves. The guy in the middle there name himself Snoopy. A few other names are Flower, Kitty, XY, Smile, YoYo, King, Evening, Medicine, Shine, Toy, Seven, Summer and Kuku.

I need an "english" name, any ideas anyone?

This is the view from the back of my classroom. The building we are in is brand new. As a matter of fact, its still under construction (see bruised ribs in October). Anyways, I have 52 students divided between to classes. I teach 5 days a week, 3.5 hours a day.


So this picture was taken at 8am, before I started class. I have a projection system hooked up to a blazing fast computer. Its a pretty nice set up, with 36 student computers each with a 9x12 Intuos and a 3TB server.

Well surprise, surprise. Here I am. Gather 'round the warmth of the old CRT monitor and listen close. For old Robinson's got a story that'll send shivers down yer spine.


The reason I haven't been posting is not because the internet is too slow out here in Harbin, China. The reason is because they have blocked selected web traffic for users, including blogs. It is clear that Communism is still festering beneath the transparent brown film of Capitalism. The government simply wants to constrict information going out of, and coming into the country. Another example is on my tv. I get 2 english speaking chanels, Discovery and the BBC World News. About 3 weeks ago when North Korea launched their successful nuclear tests, the media flooded the airways and our livingrooms with reports and newscasts of the birth of a new world super power. But not my living room, and not my neighbors. The government wasted no time in cutting off the audio feed to the BBC television signal, in an attempt to retain their ignorance and prevent its citizens from knowledge of an outside world. I am living very close to North Korea right now, and it pisses me off that they would try to keep us from information....thats the deal with the internet too. You can't find any information on communism or anything too sensitive tlike that. They monitor, restrict and filter EVERYTHING that you do on your computer.


I clued into this and did something about it. I found a program called Privoxy. It's kind of like a plugin I use with firefox which provides online annonimity. It routes your IP address through a different server everytime, allowing you to surf and skip without being noticed. It is the only reason you are reading this now. As soon as I installed it, I was able to get back onto and update my blog site....those fuckers. I have never seen anything like it.

Anyways, it looks like I have won the battle for now and will continue to keep you updated with exiting news here in Northern China. In the meantime, check out some of the new pics I grabbed recently. It snowed last week, but it didn't stay on the ground....its getting cold though. And the ice festival is coming soon! Talk to you soon. I hope everyone's life isn't too "Chaotic" right now. (Hang in there guys). Later.

Arron

An eagle wood carving, 8 foot wingspan.
The giant bansai trees here are unreal, this one was so huge, too bad we cant take them home to Canada, they were really cheap here!
This is a local couple playing ping pong on a permanent outdoor table in a park.
This guy is always here just outside the gate of my apartment grounds. He fixes tires and wheels for passersby.
I have never seen anything like these carvings before. They had dozens of stores like this at this market we went to.

Some MORE pictures

These are some sort of mushroom bansai thing. It just looked cool, I had to take a picture. I am at a local flower market.

Some pictures