Well, I'm all set and rarin' to go, here . . . got my internet connection yesterday, along with my pool pass, so life feels almost normal now. I have today to myself, and most of tomorrow: The other teachers arrive tomorrow night. I'm torn between wishing they were here right now, and wishing I had the whole month to myself to learn Chinese. As I had hoped, simply being here and being surrounded by the language is helping enormously.

It doesn't hurt that I have several willing and able tutors from last year, either. Since I've gotten here I've spent a good whack of time each day with friends from the program last year - On Saturday I went shopping with Lei Lei, one of my favorite students from last year.



He was a grad student, but he has graduated now, and left Harbin on Sunday.

Then I had dinner with Yurong and her husband Jiaqi on Sunday.



After dinner they invited me to play badminton, where I met two of Yurong's grad students who want to learn English. On Monday I went to her office and studied Chinese for several hours, and then on Tuesday, the grad students (Xiao Zhen and Xiao Men - they're not related; "Xiao" is a title) took me to Sun Island, where we rented bikes and rode around.



(Already, three days after arriving in Harbin, I have rectified the two great gaps in my last China experience - I've gone swimming and I've gone bike riding. :)

We also went to Polarland, which is an aquarium on Sun Island. It was awesome! My favorite part was the seal exhibit. You can buy fish to feed them, and they've got these guys trained so that when you clang the tongs on the cup, the seals flap their flippers on their sides. You can also get them to roll over. I've never been to an aquarium where ordinary people could do this sort of thing - usually it's just the trainers. I was quite taken with the whole experience.



And I got a kick out of the polar bears, too.



Today I'm on my own. I haven't done much of anything, really . . . just hung around the room, and I've also gone to the store to get some supplies for the other teachers, who will arrive in the evening tomorrow, and be totally whipped and ready for bed by the time they get here. I think I'm going to call one of the Xiaos to see if he can take me to buy bed sheets for the teachers; Lei Lei said there are cheap ones at a nearby underground mall.

Other than that, I'm studying Chinese, preparing my classes, and just generally loving the sights and sounds:







(Yes, that's right, Rob. I can get a Double L polo shirt if I want, but you cannot get a decently-prepared plate of fried eggplant with pork. Is this a great country, or what??)

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe I'm really here . . .