Wu Yi International Hotel Dalian

... mushroom. OR, shave off one side of your hair, and have a long emo fringe that covers your face. (These styles were very popular at the hairdresser I went to (where no one spoke English) so as you can imagine, I was very nervous. But coming out looking like I just come from a preppy private school in the English Countryside is better. Phew way to dodge a bullet Peter J.)

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 ...

... ship and I noticed it was open today, but now because I had the bike, I couldn’t walk up to it. There was one more road but it had some barriers set up. Maybe I can ride up there and come out by the space ship. I thought I would give it a try. I started riding through the parking lot and up to that road and just as I entered, I heard someone yell behind me. I don’t know what they yelled but by the way they yelled, it sounded like – Don’t go up there. I turned ...

... that I would feel happier living on the coast. Even after I made the decision to stay working in Jinan, I figured I would go to Dalian for a weekend to relax at the beach at some stage. The weekend never came around, until arrived in Shenzhen. So, fleeing the humidity of the south, I packed my bags and headed for the airport, for a flight to Dalian.

Unfortunately, on the way to the bus stop, I decided my pack was much too heavy and lugging it around was ...

... didn’t fess up right at the beginning. She was happy with her massage, but after some comparisons I definitely think I got the more skilled masseuse.

To top off the evening, we headed to Susan’s, one of the only true western restaurants in this part of China. I went all out and ordered an orange Julius and a poutine. It is not quite the same, but a pretty darn close replica, especially for China. The ...

We have all been volunteered to help the school put on an English Festival. I was very reluctant to get too involved in something I had no interest in, because there is a lot of other activities the school does that is more up my alley... but we had no choice.

The most Chinese thing about the whole event was that the slogan was incorrect grammar, for a festival celebrating English. Classic. We will, we will English You! Good lord.

So, when given a ...

... 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—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.

One student I watched kept making deals right before whatever stock he sold went up by hundreds of dollars, groaning at his misfortune ...

... been good enough to compete in the professional leagues in the US. The US is, of course, the kingpin politically, technologically, and financially. Our economic cycles are the world's and our interests are theirs. A Chinese friend asked me the other day, "Do Americans really care about money? I mean you have so much - you can spend a billion ...

... we ordered, we drank green tea instead. It was good. We got two extra bowls of rice too, but oh well, we had it for breakfast this morning! We had the pork again and also ordered a plate of sweet and sour shrimp. We weren't sure what we were ordering, we just pointed to a picture on the menu and that's what we got! It was good. After dinner, we decided to explore the neighborhood right around where we live. There are a lot of people in China! It ...

... and we ate some cold steamed buns (i cant remember the pinyin spelling) from the previous day. anyway we spent about an hour and a half in mcds and after having stowed our bags away in a bag depository at the train station we headed for the park and the north tombs. the park was a nice gettaway from the dirty and car-crowded streets. full of people doing early morning exercises, dancing, kung fu, tai chi, that hake sak sport. we even joined in on a big group of dancers ...