I saw white people!

So I'm at the university in one of the english department offices. Outside it's about 75 degrees out and there are people EVERYWHERE. Today is the first day all the students are on campus. It is like going to college in ths US, most people have their parents with them and are moving all sorts of stuff into the dorms. It's a madhouse. In the last ten minutes I've heard a chinese pop song, n'sync's bye bye bye, backstreet boys' larger than life, and that annoying song about a tattoo, all played over the loudspeakers outside. Apparently China never left the boyband scene behind...

Yesterday I ventured out on my own to downtown Harbin. It was overcast and sprinkly when I left but I had high hopes it wouldn't rain on me. I took the local bus to its final destination, about a half an hour away in the downtown area. Downtown Harbin is pretty big, there really isn't one major central point. On the way we went through a more rural area once we turned off university street (where my school is). I need to find a map of the city because I'm still not sure geographically where I am in relation to the city I know I'm to the north, because we crossed the river, but that's about it.

There's a big river that runs along the northern part of downtown, the Songhua river. Last time I was in Harbin, June of 2006, there was juuust a trickle of water running through, and there were people selling stuff and flying kites all ove rthe riverbed. August is generally wetter, and this time there was plenty of water. In November of 2005 there was an explosion of a chemical plant that sent a slick of benzene down the river, including the center of Harbin. Benzene isn't good to drink. Ever. Since the city gets a lot of its water from the Songhua, they had to shut down the water to the city for four days. Eew. Yesterday I saw a couple people using nets to fish in the river. Thaaat makes me mildly uncomfortable.

So I made it on the bis downtown, and luckily remembered to note the name of the bus stop so I might have some chance of getting back there. I took a cab to Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, pretty much the biggest university in the city. I was going off a tip from my friend Charlie that there was a big place to buy DVDs in the basement of an electronics place across the street. I found it and bought some lost and the office. Score one for me. The cab driver on the way there kept talking to me. I understood very little of what he said, but I tried really hard. I answered a few of his questions, but the rest of the time just smiled and nodded. I've got a lot of work to do with this language thing.

Then I took a cab to Zhongyang Dajie, which is the major touristy-esque street in Harbin. In 2006 the DIS stayed at a hotel on that street, and I was excited to recognize where I was even a little bit. I was even more excited to eat stuff on a stick outside the hotel, since that's pretty much how we lived while we were here. I think mine was chicken on the stick. I saw some squid on a stick, but I wasnt feeling quiiite that adventurous just yet. I saw five white people there! Just in passing though. And one chinese guy asked me, in russian, if I was russian. I think I answered him with the funny look on my face. Oops. Then I walked down to the river at the end of the street, and where they have a monument to the people who saved the city from flooding a couple times. Then I went for a leisurely stroll along the riverbank in Stalin Park. Enough said.

Then it started to rain. I ducked into a building where the second and third floors are a Walmart (they're everywhere- this is the same Walmart I helped Kim buy a new digital camera at a couple years ago!), and bought a shiny purple umbrella. I had been told the bus number that would take me back to the bus I needed from Zhongyang Dajie, and after wandering up and down the street a bit I found the right one, and the right direction. It was raining a lot harder when I got off at the stop where my bus was, and I couldn't find the stop to get on it. Since it was the end of the line, the place to get on wasn't exactly where I got off. Not even just across the street. Then the skies opened, the intersections flooded, and I was a wet panda. I stepped in a puddle up to my ankles, I'll probably get SARS. Oh well. I eventually spied one of the busses and followed it until it stopped for people to get on, and I made it safely back to the hotel just in time to get my bag! Now I have my cellphone charger and my pants and my sneakers and I'm wicked happy about that.

Today I have to go pick out a book for my classes. I thought they had one for me, as did Kelly, unti today when we went to get it and they told us I had to find one. So we're going back downtown to a bookstore to find a book. This time I won't be alone, and it's not raining. Huzzah. Maybe I'll try that squid on a stick...