OK, a few more pix before I collapse from exhaustion tonight . . .

Here's the little bed wherein I will collapse from exhaustion:

And here's my living room:

(It's much messier now.) Notice the big honkin' registers . . . Harbin gets really cold in the winter - like, -30 degrees Celsius cold. I can well imagine the cold coming in through those walls . . .

And here's the kitchen, before I, er, gave it that lived-in look . . .

I've rearranged the furniture a tad. To wit: I moved the fridge so that I can plug it in to the sole electrical outlet in the kitchen. (I cannot simultaneously cool the Coke, make toast, and heat water for coffee . . . I don't think we need to worry too much about the Chinese using all the oil for a few years, at least. They haven't really gotten the hang of hogging energy.)

I'll take a picture of the washing machine tomorrow. It is a total hoot.

And here's the outside of our dorm:



We share the dorm with a bunch of undergrads who are here for summer camps (not sports camps - Human Language in the Information Age camps,and like that), and with a bunch of Russians who may be grads or undergrads, it's hard to tell.

A trash can outside our dorm:



Some trash cans look like soccer balls. I'll get one of those tomorrow.

One of the classrooms:



That furniture is HARD to move! When it's arranged the way we want it to be for classroom interaction, people end up having to climb over desks to get where they need to be . . .

The view out of a classroom window:



And look at the street sweeper here:



Last night we went out to dinner for hot pot and Harbin beer. The idea with hot pot is, you get a bowl of broth on what looks like a fondue stand, with sterno underneath it:



And then they put all kinds of food on this big glass lazy susan in the middle of the table, and you add what you want to your hot pot. When your hot pot boils again, it's safe to eat whatever you've put in.



(Those are fish balls, and very thinly sliced beef - and sauerkraut. This town has a lot of Russian influence.)

And these are mushrooms:



(They look a lot like something that Emil and I inadvertently grew in a diaper pail years ago . . . )

And look at these little guys:



I should really have taken a movie, because those suckers are ALIVE. (But not after they hit the broth, of course.) I learned to peel and eat prawns in Australia, so that wasn't so bad . . . but I respectfully declined to put the whole prawn in my mouth, shell and all - although I was told that I would get lots of calcium if I did. Meh. I think I'll take osteoporosis . . .

And what could be better after dinner than a little karaoke?



They have a popular song that's sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, and after they sang their version, I got Chris and Susan to sing the English words with me . . . I think we got major points for that . . .

Oh, yeah, and then we played drinking games. Luckily, Chinese beer isn't as potent as American beer . . . I played more drinking games last night than I've ever played in my life (which isn't really saying much, I'll admit). It was one whale of a good time!

Then this afternoon we got the students playing Scrabble:

It was totally cool. They were completely engaged in the game. The teachers just stood around and answered the occasional question about the rules . . . I am SO happy that the afternoon language activities I've brought and that we've made up on the fly have turned out to be real hits.

All in all, it's hard to imagine how things could be better, either from the teaching end of things or from the socializing perspective . . . I am just indescribably glad that I decided to do this! And I'm really happy that we have a whole month here, because we're just hitting our stride . . .

More soon. Stay tuned.