Sweetland Hotel Dalian

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 ...

... and the sand is white. My standards are too high and Dalian fell way short. I caught a cab back to the city and watched episodes of the Beijing soap followed by more Korean food. This turned out to be just what I needed, so it was a good day after all, despite not really seeing eye to eye with Dalian. <br><br>Later that night, I got a text message from Xiao Ma asking where I was and what I was up to. He said he was at Erdaohai with his dad and missed me a lot. I ...

... come up with the most accurate adjectives... like a little kids room, meets misprinted fabrics, meets dim lighting and an attempt at cozy. We stepped in and I howled with laughter.<br><br>On the two little cots that were side by side, lay little cotton pjs, which we changed into and waited for our masseuse. When the gentlemen came in, they introduced themselves and started by placing warm pillows on our stomachs and ...

... to look over all the 'opportunities' I was looking for something that would be small, and over quick&#8212;the festival itself was three weeks long.<br><br>One of the roles was to assist with the Opening Ceremony... which totally fit the bill. Small setup and only scheduled to last ten minutes. Well, I was kind of right.<br><br>The students who were responsible for this part were sweet, but extremely indecisive, which meant that we kept having meeting, after ...

... 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 ...

... they were almost hit by a passing truck. They resulting picture is pretty funny, Heidi, the closest to the truck looks panicked, but Daniella looks like she is laughing at her. <br><br>It was a long day, but very enjoyable. When we got back to the hotel, and we were taking stock of all we had bought, I was definitely out shopped by the others, but when I counted what money I had left, versus what I had spent, I was short Y800! What a drag. The only thing I could ...

... certainly are, the problem grows. The government has made clean industry a mandatory feature of the 5 year program (China's 11th since founding the People's Republic), and they are spending billions on environmental programs, but enforcement is a challenge. For seafood alone, the country has more than 14 million fish farmers and thousands of seafood processors. While regulation is stiff, including execution of serious violators, everyone ...

... here, but also lots of Ford, Toyota, VW. I can't find a printer here for what they sell for in the US. Lots of retail here too, but I'm getting the impression that turn over is slow. Many of the stores have had the same merchandise on display for the past month. Dalian is very safe. Everyone is on the street - kids, couples, old, young, high class and low. I saw a vagrant this week who had a pet monkey ...