Skiing in Yabuli

Noah doing a great job with too much ski for a little boy!


Thomas having braved the line at the rope tow.


Sophie, trying to stay warm


The view from the hotel was the best part.

Day 2 Tuesday, February 5th

We got up and met our guide Galen, (a delightful guy to spoke english pretty well) who had arranged a car to drive us the 200km west to Yabuli International Ski Resort. We had lunch at a road side restaurant. I think we were the first westerners they had seen in a while. Lots of staring and smiling. We had a kilo of dumplings (a lot!) and a huge bowl of chicken fried rice. We all had tea and sprites. We paid the bill and Galen apoligized for the next 15 minutes about how expensive it was. The meal had been about 18 dollars for 7 of us (our family and the guide and driver). We assured him it was ok. The dumplings were delicious!

After arriving at what looked to be an enormous ski resort, still largely under construction, we went to the smallest hill at the resort and rented some skis. Either they never had or were all rented out, short enough skis for Sophie and Noah. Their skis were easily twice the lenght they should have been. We had about 12 men surrounding us, either disbelieving that we were going to be able to ski or just anxious to see westerners try their hill. We slowly made our way to the rope tow. The conditions were really pretty terrible. Apparently this has been their driest winter in a long time. We basically skied on ice which made us happy that the hill wasn't any larger than it was. (Basically a learners slope with a rope tow.)

Noah made two or three runs on his enormously long skis and decides playing in the snow at the bottom of the hill was more fun. The rest of us skied until our time ran out (we had to turn in the skis by 4pm.) We are now anxious for some more "real" skiing".

After a similar entourage as the team that helped us get our skis helped us check them back in we were off to the hotel. We quickly learned that a three star hotel in China is too few stars! The rooms were small, dirty and smelly! Had there been any other options we would have moved but since there weren't ,we stayed. The kids were relieved that we were going back to Harbin and the Shangri-La (a five star hotel!) We have spoiled them!

Lunar New year

We spent the Chinese New Year up in Harbin which is the capital city of Heilongjiang province, the northern most province in China. To say it was cold was an understatement! Daily tempatures ranged from -15 to -30 degrees celsius. We stayed warm and had a wonderful time adding lots of memories to our China experience. Here are a few highlights.

Day 1 Monday February 4th.
We arrived about 5 hours later than planned since our flight out of Shanghai was delayed. We checked right into our hotel and put on a few extra layers and headed right over to Ice World. Ice World is just what it sounds like, a world of ice. Although not the warmest time of day, it is best visited at night as all the sculptures are light up in day-glow colors. There were dozens of ice sculptures, replicas of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Acropolis, London Bridge, and lots of slides and snow castles. The kids had a blast racing up and sliding down all the snow slides. They also got to toboggan, ride ice bikes (bikes with blades instead of wheels), snowmobile (around a track) and eat frozen fruit kebabs! Noah was the first to cry mercy and the other two weren't far behind. I think we stayed about 2 1/2 hours! My feet were frozen!

Thomas trying to slide without sitting on the ice!






"I double-dog dare you!!" Don't do it Sophie!


Jon trying the ice wall. He is climbing up after Sophie who nimbly scampered up and waited for dad at the top!

Hawaiian Luau Night

Last night we had a Hawaiian Luau, complete with a roasted big and hula dancing! Sophie went up and joined the dancers. Noah was waiting for the promised fire eaters but they never showed up. Apparently they couldn't get the right fuel. He was very disappointed! Thomas had fun with the coconuts!

Christmas at the compound (Catch up post)

There was a station where the kids could make their own noodles and then they would cook them for you with veggies and meat. Yummy! Sophie made some with her friend Rachel.


Thomas danced the night away. Here he is doing the Macarana.


Noah and his buddies waiting for the band to start again!


Noah with his best buddy, Aleski.

The compound that we live in held a christmas party for the residents. The food was fabulous and the kids had a great time dancing to the band. We are living in a newer compound and they really seem to be trying to be family friendly. We are fortunate. Not all compounds are.

Sophie's birthday (Catch up post)

Hard at work


Opening presents


The gang


I am 8!


Sophie with her good buddy Mikaela




Sophie had a birthday party with a few friends from the compound we live in and a few friends from school. It was an arts and crafts birthday party. She came up with 6 different art projects she wanted to do. We had different stations set up around the house and the kids went to each table and made the project. Lots of fun. It was a truly international affair. When we sang Happy Birthday it was sung in English, Chinese, Finnish, German, Italian, Malaysian and Korean! Three of the friends from school spent the night so it was a long party. I can't believe she is 8!

Snorkeling

On the boat getting ready to snorkel





Proof I do more than take the pictures!



Noah and Dad swimming with the fishes!











This morning Thomas had his second and last dive. He is already talking about when he can get fully certified. He really enjoyed it!

We then took a boat out to a coral marine sanctuary about 15 minute ride away where the boat anchored and let us snorkel and paddle around for 2 hours. Really fun. Noah was a little freaked out by being surrounded by fish of all sizes. They clearly associate divers with food. He prefered to hang out on the boat. We talked him back into the water by convincing him just to swim without his mask. The "What you can't see can't frighten you" theory. Jon and Thomas discovered the edge of the reef-the big drop off. You could see large schools of fairly good size fish swimming around. Sophie snorkeled for awhile and then decided she liked just swimming better too. Lots of fun and an activity we will try again! (Pictures would have been better if I had an underwater camera!)

Flips and slides

Thomas flipped like this....

So I hurled myself in like this....












The sun came back our today and was very warm. The kids have been bugging me to go off the diving rock so I told Thomas if he would do flip off the rock I would jump off. I was assuming that he wouldn't do it. I was wrong. So he gracefully flipped off the rock and I not jumped off, not so gracefully. When I surfaced, Sophie asked, "Mom how do you make that shriek noise when you jump." Last time I make a bet with Thomas!











After the rock we spent some quality time on the big slide. We tried various ways of going down seeing how fast we could get going. I may have won this bet although Jon claims he flipped Noah onto his side when going down with him on his lap. Sophie and I tried to see if we could get that kind of speed too. All we got was bruised elbows! Clearly weight plays a factor.