Freezing in Fuxin.

Thought it might be nice to bring some life to the photos I've posted so far, by showing a few videos.  But first things first, I'm sitting here on my second night in Fuxin, feeling a little more settled in.  My first night was a bit brutal.  After a seven hour drive, we arrived in Fuxin in the early evening.  There was little time to look around, so we went straight to the dorms where we will be living for the next two months.  Things were clean and we had full amenities, but the heater in my room was broken (or chose not to work).  With the temperature being well below zero, this made my first night a bit cold.

I slept, huddled against the most feeble radiator ever, dressed in several layers of clothes, two pairs of long-johns, gloves, a hooded top, and hat.  Needless to say, I was still cold.  Our host took us to a supermarket today, where I bought an electric blanket and a space heater; only to find our host had had my heating unit fixed when I got back, oh well, I'm going to be toasty tonight.

We also managed to annoy a local on our fist day.  Whilst having lunch at the mall, amongst the stares, we had a old lady bring several plates of food to our table.  This was despite the fact we were eating our own food.  No amount of "no thanks" deterred her from bring more plates of food.  We were unable to figure out if she was being incredibly kind, offering food to guests in her country, or demanding our table.  She left the food, and on our departure, become increasing upset at us.  I can only assume she was annoyed at us snubbing her gesture.  But, as bewildered foreigners, we were too confused, and a little weary to eat food offered to us by a stranger.  Oh well, we did offer plenty of "apologies and thanks" before we made our getaway.  One day down, only another 80 days or so left to offend the whole of Fuxin.

Now for those videos:

Here is a video of a man we saw at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.  Apparently, the vast open spaces of these tourist attractions are used by locals as basically, public parks.  Thus, you find lots of people doing common recreational activities, but more importantly, you found lots of people doing nutty and bizarre things!

The contrast of this smoking bad-ass, twirling around on roller skates for example:

 Here is a good panoramic view of Tiananman Square:

And finally, some rather beautiful public singing, also at the Temple of Heaven:

Until next time.