Dalian Zhong Xia Hotel

Ok, I did it, I ate some western food. I still haven't eaten at McDonalds or KFC yet. KFC is everywhere. I wonder if they were the first American chain to come to China. McDonalds are prolific as well. No, my roommate and his friends wanted to go out for a western meal and we headed down to a place called "The Real Eddies" Not sure of the story behind the name. But here goes - Eddie was trained as a cook/chef in the ...

... watch for glare as I took the pictures. I took the pictures of my favorite picture taking spot in Kai fa qu – The UFO mountain – and then decided to ride to the top. Jason’s bike is a mountain bike so I had the climbing gears and they were definitely needed. I climbed up the side of Mt. Crumpit, I rode with my load to the tiptop to dump it. Oh, sorry, that's another story. Back to my bike ride. I did ride to the top and took some pictures. I wasn’t quite to the ...

... slang for bimbo) stakes&#8230; nowadays, I may well make the grade.<br><br>Offloading the books (which still haven't arrived in Jinan 2 weeks later, I might add) took up a fair bit of time because I am out of writing practice so it took me ages to write my address in Chinese. This meant that I had to catch a taxi to the airport bus stop, instead of a bus, to save time. This ended up being rather ironic, since my flight was delayed by an hour. The flight stopped in ...

I gave in to two vices today... melted cheese and a massage.<br><br>Kirsty organized for us to go to this little place in Jinshitan for a message, and I was really excited. For Y80, we would get pampered for nearly an hour&#8212;one of the strongest motivations to moving to China.<br><br>We walked there after school, and I wasn't totally sure what to expect. The lady led us to this backroom that was decorated... I am trying ...

... One student was in charge of the banners, one in charge of the t-shirts and one in charge of the music. By the next meeting we have 30 t-shirts for 45 volunteers, and no design. My first complaint was how did they think 45 people were going to fit in to 30 t-shirts? Daniella and I were volunteered to try to track down some extra black t-shirts in a market near our house with the instructions of not spending more than Y5 per t-shirt.<br><br>As for the ...

... br>Before we arrived in China, the one thing we were told was that it was really hard to get the students actively involved in the class&#8212;that they remained stoic, sombre, and serious. That was NOT our experience. With very little prompting, students were up, out of their seats and rapidly trading, wheeling and dealing. <br><br>One student I watched kept making deals right before whatever stock he sold went up by hundreds of dollars, groaning at his misfortune ...

... paint was peeling, but it wasn&#8217;t hard to imagine how it would have appeared in days past. There was also a dried out fountain with broken tiles that kids were playing in. <br><br>We stopped in a shop with some edible goods, and bought some chocolate and vodka. Neither turned out to be very good... but I guess the price should have been an indication.<br><br>When it was time to leave, I was trying to get a photo of the girls in front of the entrance sign ...

... 25% of the total, is imported to China, cleaned and processed, then shipped internationally. Between 1996 and 2003, Chinese meat production rose by 51%. Pigs and poultry are the most popular, with increasing portions of beef and lamb. KFC likes China. China's agricultural production comes with some serious environmental consequences. One report I saw estimated that 45% of all China's sewage goes untreated. As industries gear up, and ...

... Dalian was the termination of Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad. They tried very hard to keep it - too hard in fact, so the Japanese booted them out in 1905, and would not let China back in until after WW2. Furniture, computers, and cars are almost the same price as the US, though I did buy a computer table for $15 in a supermarket that would probably have been $100 in the US. Audi's are very ...

... do all the knock off shopping! Then off to Japan to visit Todd for a weekend trip to Tokyo (Asakusa, Shinjuku, Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya and Roppongi Hills) Then finally....back to Canada for 3 weeks, then off again to Thailand! Gosh, my summer hasn't even begun and it feels like it's over!