Hotel Oriental Palace Dalian

... restaurant and I really couldn't decide what I wanted. Burger or Enchiladas and somehow I had a vision of Randy Hansen telling me to order the Enchiladas. So I did. On the menu it says (all in English of course) that I would get three chicken enchiladas served with rice, beans and tortilla chips. Count the chips in picture. Tortilla chips must be very valuable in China. In case you don't see it, I received three (3 ...

... saw some security guards sitting in front of their little station. So I asked Wo keyi ma (Can I?) They yelled – Bu keyi (No you can’t) Clear enough for me. And I headed down the hill and back home. Maybe I can get up to the space ship before I leave. The ride down the mountain was definitely more fun than the ride up.

On the way back to the apartment I had to stop for one more picture. One thing you do notice here is interesting translations on signs and shirts ...

... the first item on the Dalian agenda was laundry: happily the chap at the laundrette near my hotel was happy to do my underwear too, after sprawling it all over the counter and personally counting the number of pairs, without embarrassment or hygiene concerns.

There isn't a tremendous amount to do in Dalian except go to the beach. So I went to the beach. My first choice turned out to be rather posh, evidently a favourite of high ...

... to make me burst some internal organs. It was starting to bulge in an unseemly manner having acquired about 4 fat books, cds, a pair of high heels, a handbag and fluffy Australian animal toys for Tie Shifu's daughters (care of my Mum). After the burst zipper incident at Huashan, I decided emergency offloading was necessary. I found a China Post (not difficult since they are just about everywhere in most Chinese cities, just like China Mobile, unless of course you are ...

I gave in to two vices today... melted cheese and a massage.

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—one of the strongest motivations to moving to China.

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.

As for the ...

... would have felt was bang on. One student said: "If this had been real life I would have jumped from the building." The dejected way he said it was pretty funny, but under the circumstances, that is exactly what some people did.

Certainly some of the students did make money, but there was enough variety that it better demonstrated the result across the nation, rather than for a few individuals. One of the best parts was the first and only person to go ...

... a day on a war and still maintain a thriving economy." He was serious, completely befuddled by the wealth of the US, even more so than we are about what we should be doing with it. Except for the airlines, neither country is outright about their reliance on US technology, which is endemic and universal. There are many individuals and ...

... really neat. At one point we had some little boys (around 7 or 8 years old) yell hello to us. I said hello back and they said something in Chinese to each other and laughed. I think they might have been saying something about us being foreigners, but I'm not sure... :) After we got home we hung out in the living room and did homework and discussed watching a movie, but we finally went to bed and I journaled. Yesterday, we went to the bank and got ...

Mr. and Mrs. Incredible visit China! Our costumes were made by our awesome tailor here in Kaifaqu, every Halloween she must think "Who are these crazy Canadians who get dressed up in these ridiculous costumes?" We bought the spandex material (oh ya, spandex is always a good time!) and then showed ...