15 Jan 2011: Ice festival in Shenyang

15 Jan 2011

Greetings all from Shenyang, China,

It's COLD here...really cold! Today, as I write this, it's 12 noon  here in the city, and it's still only -4F.  Over night it got down to -27C (-17F)...now that's cold, no matter where you are!  I know my friends in the US are also dealing with cold and snow especially in SC and GA where it's rare to get so much snow!  We haven't had any more snow (I think it's too cold to snow!) so for the moment, it's just the cold!  This morning, we went to the Shenyang Ice Festival site.  It's just what it sounds like...ice and snow made into many different sculptures. It was cold...even though the sun was shining brightly, there was no risk of melting the sculptures! There is a big light show at night and from the pictures I saw it is spectacular...but you really have to be die-hard to brave the cold at night there...so we opted for daytime!

It was cold out there...so after walking around the village of sculptures, we had to stop by the bicycle vender and get some glazed frozen strawberries on a stick!

No risk of the glaze or the strawberries melting!  Notice the mask on the lady selling them...this is common place here in China both summer and winter, but mostly winter.  1 skewer of berries was relatively expensive (5 RMB..or about $0.80), but we certainly didn't try to negotiate with her...anyone who would peddle out in the cold trying to make a buck, we think deserves every penny!  Here are the photos of our time at the Shenyang ice festival:

Some snow sculptures at the Ice festival

Frozen Sarah & Mr. Sun at the ice festival...thank God for my UGG boots!

Sarah at the ice festival

Rod at the ice festival

Frozen Sarah & Rod at the ice festival

An ice temple

Sarah in front of an ice temple tower

Sarah in an ice maze at the ice festival

Rod & Sarah in front of the ice boat at the ice festival

The year of the rabbit

Rod buying a skewer of glazed strawberries from a vendor at the ice festival

As some of you may know, we are coming up on the Chinese New year (2 Feb).  This is cause for great celebration here in China.  More about that in a future note, but for the moment, the hotel now has it's traditional New Year tree up with little red packets and firecrackers (to scare off evil spirits) and presents below.  It reminds me of a Christmas tree, Chinese style!

Sarah & Rod in front of the Chinese New year tree

Every year around this time, the hotel has a “Thank you” dinner for various businesses and long term guests.  This was a very nice dinner with lots of entertainment (musicians, magicians, dancers, and I’m not sure what all else…we left at 8:30 before I’m sure they got really wound up!  It was a traditional Chinese dinner, quite tasty…and yes, we really have gotten the hang of chop sticks!

Joe & Karen (our neighbors), Sarah & Rod and Guido (our friend and work colleague)

So, that's about it for now.  Thank you for your continued prayers, and yes, keep those emails coming!

Sarah & Rod

9 Jan 2011: Going to Flower market in winter and Church in China

Greetings all from Shenyang!

As I write this at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon, it's a chilly 12F outside with bright sunshine.  It's been cold all week, with some nights at -10F...a light dusting of snow but no major accumulation...that said, there has been no major thawing since the snow of last week, so as my dad used to say it's "hanging on, waiting for more".  We haven't had the freezing rain like they have in the south of China!  Good thing we have our winter clothes for the outside, and we are warm here in the apartment!  Last weekend, we went back to the flower market I had visited just before Christmas.  This is always a delight for my eyes..lots of color and wonderful smells when you walk in the door!

We bought some nice Orchids and brought them back to the apartment.  They crammed about 7 orchids of various colors like the ones above in to a pot....just the way I like it!  Lots of color!  I've never been much of an orchid keeper, but at the price we bought them, if they die, I'll just go back and get some fresh replacements!  At the flower market a phenomenon I've noticed at the plant section of Lowes or your local Nursery, also happens here in China...all the women are smiling and pushing the carts...and the men walking dutifully around somewhere..not nearly the same sense of urgency in their stride!  Why is that?!  Here are the photos from our trip to the flower market in the winter:

one of the booths at the flower market in Shenyang

Rod beside one of the flower market booths

Sarah found the bromilliads and orchids

Sarah with the orchids

Building an orchid arrangement

Orchids in the apartment from the flower garden

 

Some of you have asked about the Christian church here in Shenyang.  There is one and it's a Catholic Church. We've been going there for a little while even though we are not Catholic.  There is an english speaking Chinese priest plus an American priest.  The congregation is small by Chinese standards (I would guess somewhere around 100 people) and I believe this is the only organized church in Shenyang (a city with about 8 million people).  It's a very diverse congregation,  several Chinese people, several westerners and a contemporary service.  We enjoy going to a house of worship and are thankful that the Church exists and seems to thrive.  All worship in China  must legally be conducted through State-approved churches belonging to the something called the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association which, incidentally, does not accept the primacy of the Pope.  I'm not sure how this church gets around that but they seem to!  

Catholic Church building in Shenyang...although this building is not used for worship services...this building is used solely for commercial purposes...rented out for weddings!  It's much too big to heat in the winter, but it's sad that a nice building like this is use solely for commercial purposes...I'm sure it wasn't built for that!

The worship service is actually held in a small Chapel section of the Nunnery.  I don't think the Nunnery is actually functioning now.

The chapel is normally not heated much, but today it wasn't heated at all due to some problems with pipes freezing.  We never take off our coats and you can see your breath when you sing...but that somehow makes it all the more special for me.

Here are the photos of our worship area: 

Catholic church building in Shenyang...but open mostly only for weddings..not for worship

Sarah Miller in front of the church

Repairs needed at the Catholic church

So that's about for this week!  Wishing you all to have the best 51 more weeks in 2011!

Rod & Sarah