Welcome to the North

Just in case you ever come to Harbin, here is a little tid bit to know. The sun rises at 3:15 am! So if you plan on sleeping much past 3am, you might want to close your blinds. What was I thinking, it is next to Russia and Mongolia.

The last few days we have spent loading in our show and surprisingly the locals here are very good. They are from a local theatre company and actually have some knowledge of how to load in a show. AMAZING. Unfortunately, the loading dock in the theatre is a set of stairs... so that took a while to pull crates up. Above, you can see our translators for Harbin. The picture was taken at 9am, because we were still waiting for the 1st thing to be unloaded an hour into load in (loadins usually start at 8). The picture pretty much shows you what we deal with to have things translated, including high heels, purse, and all. Here is how my first conversation with my translator goes:

Me: Hello I am Doc. You are going to be following me around alot today and we will put in the show. Have you ever done theatre?
Trans: No
Me: If you would like i can put your purse in a safe place, and then you won't have to carry it.
Trans: No, i will just carry it. I might need it later.
Me: Ok, well we will do alot of walking around. Let me fill you in on some helpful terms. Stage left, upstage, fly system.....
Trans: fly what?!
(it isn't that bad, but it is funny)

Harbin has a very famous music festival. We really didn't see any part of it, but we were the closing attraction to it. One night when we went out to the local street walk, we saw the symphony playing.

As the closing night to the music festival, the theatre decided to bump up security for our show. It was kinda funny. They set up metal detectors to get into the theatre, the had bomb detectors, bomb dogs that walked all over our set for over an hour, many government officials, and these guys (see next picture) that sat backstage during the show...We really have no idea what they were doing, but they sat there with fire extinguishers i guess in case there was a fire.

Soon enough we decided we need to take a picture with them. And they were so bored, they agreed.

One night on tour, we all decided to go out to this American style country/western bar one of the actors had found in a travel guide called "Arbucks". About 20 of us had gotten really excited for "western food" and were ready for a night of fun.

As you can imagine, it left alot to be desired. It did prove to be a good place to have a beer, but the food was horrible. And the themeing was in no way western. I order fries and chicken curry rice. This is what i got...

It was more like some tomatoes and spaghetti(no chicken at all). Needless to say, they couldn't even get the curry part right. At least i was able to have a few Corona's. I did however have to take a picture of the bathroom. It was filled with naked ugly chicks, pretty funny.

And PS. this is a "squatty" as we call it. If you ever here me wanting a real toilet this isn't it. Any time we come upon one of the these we A. stop breathing and B. RUN!!!!!!

I must say that in Harbin I am very much a celebrity. In one day's time i had my stomach rubbed 3 times. Just random China peeps walking up to me, rubbing my "Buddha" belly, and giving me a thumbs up. So i got kinda creative, and thus started rubbing there belly's back. And when they rub mine, i lift up my shirt and pat it. It's made for some fun times.


When we went out to the Sun Island one woman grabbed me and started taking pictures of me. And the best is at work. I have set up my work area upstage left and it seems the locals love to come around me and watch me work. They always check in with what i am doing, check out my computer, and stand literally inches away as i repair moving lights. (As noted in the picture below).
And finally for this post a picture of our fruit bar at breakfast. Some oranges, watermelon, and cherry tomatoes. Enjoy!!!