Scavenger Hunt

Saturday was the first of our CET organized weekend activities. All of the CET students participated in a scavenger hunt around the city. We divided into 6 teams of four to see which team could answer the most questions in three hours. My team included Cortne, Andrew, and Laura (Cortne's suitemate who goes to Northwestern). We were more excited about seeing new parts of Harbin than searching for specific items on the scavenger hunt list, so we set out for Zhongyang Dajie in the Daoli district. This pedestrian street is the center of the remaining original Russian architecture of Harbin. Today, it is the main upper class shopping street in Harbin where you can find almost any Western brand. Of course that means that it is also the site of Harbin's only McDonald's location. We just had to stop for some ice cream cones. I never thought I would call McDonald's expensive, but since the prices are standardized around the world, food at McDonald's is quite a bit more expensive than food you can get elsewhere in Harbin, especially for its quality.

Anyway, we walked the length of the street to the Songhua River bank at the end (pictures above) and then decided to take a taxi back because it was about a 40 minute walk there, and for part of it we were walking over this bridge that should not have had a pedestrian sidewalk on it because it was literally an expressway, so we didn't really want to go back on foot. Hailing a cab wasn't too much of a problem; getting the driver to take us back to HIT was. As soon as we said where we wanted to go, the taxi would drive away, so finally we decided to get into the cab before we told the driver where to go. That way he couldn't get rid of us. It worked, and thankfully the second time we went over that treacherous bridge was in a car.

In other news, I would like to comment on some interesting observations I've made in the past week or so. I have found that the Chinese are very welcoming towards foreigners, most of all the middle aged women. When I first moved into the dorm, I wanted to get a key chain for my keys (there's an inner and an outer door to my room), so I went to the chaoshi on campus. It's like any supermarket in America with pretty much anything I would want to buy, except a key chain. I showed a store employee my two keys and attempted to ask for a key chain. She took hers out of her pocket and asked if that was what I wanted. She said they didn't have any in the store, but she took the two keys she had off hers and gave it to me. I was kind of embarrassed because I didn't want to take this woman's key chain, but she insisted so there was nothing I could do. Now almost every time I go into the store (which is more often than you would think), she comes up to me and tries to help me find what I need. She even puts things in my shopping basket that she thinks I might like. I have to discretely take them out before I check out so as not to hurt her feelings.

There's another woman about her age that works at one of the cafeterias on campus. She makes the actual version of what Americans call fried rice. I like to go to her because she makes it right in front of you, so it's hot and you know it hasn't been sitting out for hours. She definitely recognizes me by now. Today, I went to the cafeteria around 10:00. On Mondays, I have an 8:00 class and then I have a break until 2:00. I don't really have time for breakfast, but after going to class I feel like eating lunch food even though it's only 10:00. I heard someone in front of me in line ask for chicken chaofan, and she said that at that time of day she was only making egg chaofan. I figured it was worth a try to ask for spicy beef chaofan myself. I expected her to say no, but she made it for me without any problem. She put it in a plastic bag (no box or anything - at least it cuts down on unnecessary waste!) as they seem to always do here, and I took it back to my dorm to eat and write this blog post.