We're Back!

Hello all,

We made it to Harbin after a great trip to Beijing -only to find out THEN that we didn't have tickets to Harbin!  Our bag tags said Harbin, our confirmation said Harbin, and my receipt said Harbin... just Air China didn't have us anywhere in their computer!!!  It only took 4 hours to straighten out the mess.  So, we left Friday morning at 6 am from Logan and got to our Hotel at 10 PM Saturday night.  That's like 30+ hours! It's crazy.  But it was better than what the rest of the cast had to go through. Due to delays in Shanghai some of them didn't get in until 4 am on Sunday and they left Friday from the States too!  The kids started rehearsals Sunday at 1 pm.  Us parents walked around Harbin.  It has a lot of Russian influence so it is different from the western cities that we have been to. We visited beautiful St. Sophia Church, which was located at Zhaolin Park, which is where Harbin holds their annual Ice Festival it is so famous for.  Next to the church there are these two "bird ladies" that sell food to feed the pigeons.  The also have trained to pigeons to fly up to the stoops of the church as well as fly in a group around the park.  The funny thing is there is NO pigeon poop around! HHMM?  We walked toward the Songhua Jiang (Songhua River) down Toulong Jie (Toulong Street) to Stalin Park which runs 26 miles along the riverbank so needless to say we only saw a small portion of it.  However, we did see the Flood Control Monument, which was amazing because it represents the height the floods in the 50's reached!  We went back to pick up the kids for their dinner break and we went to an absolutely delicious Dumpling house!  The following day, the kids had rehearsal again from 11-6 so we just went around town... always the adventure!  The buildings are really pretty here and you understand why Harbin has been called "Little Moscow" and "Paris of the east" in the past.