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TRAVEL BLOGS
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June 27, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) POAC Conference and Laughs All Around at Hot Pot I have been busy at work lately as I prepare for next Monday's "progress report" presentation. It isn't that big of a deal, but I will be delivering the preliminary results of the work I have done thus far. Being the rubbish research scientist that I am, this could pose a severe problem. Fortunately, I was either blessed with or developed an extraordinary talent to feign intelligence. Here's to hoping the camouflage continues working. There is a massive international conference being held at LiGong Daxue (理工大学）this week called POAC (Polar Offshore Arctic Conditions), and it is being hosted by our head research scientist, Professor Yue. He recruited me to attend various ice-breaking sessions and other get-togethers with the many scientists, professors, and company representatives. I am having a great time with it all because I can chat with people from all over the world, and as a lowly undergraduate student I am excused from all the technical talk.
The two pictures above show what the table looks like when the cooking starts - it is a free-for-all where the only rule is to keep putting in food when you take something out. I suppose another rule is to warn your friends when they are eating meat that hasn't been fully cooked, but this rule is often ignored. It adds to the excitement - especially when people start getting drunk.
This was the first time I have gone out with my two graduate students, Baolin and Dayong, so we made sure to "Ganbei!" (干杯, or drink a toast) every chance we had. It wasn't long before Dayong's face was as red as a cherry and the laughing ceased to stop.
Both the throw-up and eyeballs are lovely, I know. June 25, 2007 UNITED STATES Andrew: Growing Up Without Me It may be time for me to go home soon: both my brother and sister have matured significantly since I left America. Seeing these recent pictures was like clicking the refresh button (F5 for techies) on my mental image of both of them. From this...
To this...
June 24, 2007 UNITED STATES Danielle: Growing Up Without Me It may be time for me to go home soon: both my brother and sister have matured significantly since I left America. Seeing these recent pictures was like clicking the refresh button (F5 for techies) on my mental image of both of them. From this...
To this...
June 23, 2007 Dandong (CHINA) Seeing North Korea and Another Hike on the Great Wall
Shortly after my 4:30am wake-up call I was showered,
packed, and hailing down a taxi for the long distance
bus station. There was a surprisingly large crowd of
people waiting alongside me, and as is always the case
in China, there was a mad rush to the ticketing counters
when they finally opened. My primary concern is always
keeping my valuables safe in such situations because
pick-pockets will inevitably single me out from any
group. In fact, of the 13 other REU students on this
trip, four have already had something stolen.
Personally, I have been in Asia for over one year now
and I have never had anything stolen. As long you
maintain a modicum of awareness, I believe China is one
of the world's safest countries, so it is frustrating to
hear other students complain about safety. The bus arrived in Dandong at 9:30am, and my first priority was figuring out a way back to Dalian. Unfortunately, the last bus leaves at 2:30pm, which is too early for me to catch. I resolved that I could always sleep in Dandong and catch a bus the following day, but there was still time to search out a better option. With my logistics settled, I set off in search of the river separating China and North Korea. It took thirty minutes of searching - mostly because I enjoyed walking the busy side streets in this growing border city - but I finally found what I was looking for.
The bridge, which was "accidentally" targeted in an American bombing raid during the Korean War, juts out from the China shoreline before abruptly coming to an end 100 meters from the Korean shoreline. Disappointingly, this was as close as I could get (other than a boat ride along the coast). I could make out the fisherman going about their daily task, and I even got a sense of what it must be like in North Korea - devoid of much growth or excitement. I didn't see a single car the entire time, and the only movement was that of the weary fisherman tending their nets.
So that's North Korea, or at least as much of it as I got to see. And it was still only 11am. What now, I wondered?
Chairman Mao once said that any man who wants to be a hero must climb the Great Wall. Well, **puffing out my chest and hooking thumbs around my suspenders** this was my fourth trip to the Great Wall, and I have now visited the easternmost and westernmost ends of it. As soon as I find a trustworthy sidekick and a proper outfit my metamorphosis will be complete. This section of the Great Wall was quite steep, but the watch towers afforded great views of both North Korea and China. I will not labor on about climbing the Great Wall, but if you are curious please read this entry, which is by far the most rewarding stretch, or see this photo gallery, which shows what a thousand-year old wall looks like.
In the end, I rode back to Dalian with several other people and paid the same fare as I would have paid on a public bus. I arrived back in Dalian by midnight - only 30 hours after I left yesterday - and no one was any the wiser. June 22, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Heading for the North Korean Border Ever since I found out I would be in Dalian for the summer I have been waiting for the opportunity to visit the North Korean border. Obviously, this is not the kind of trip that is likely to be sanctioned, so I have quietly bided my time knowing the opportunity would eventually come. Well, such an opportunity finally presented itself. The other REU students were leaving for a weekend trip to the city of Qingdao, but in my eyes, two days in Qingdao are not worth the 20 hours of travel time or the USD$100 price tag. So, I am "alone in Dalian for the weekend", and as long as I arrive back before the group no one will be any the wiser. The idea of visiting Dandong (where there is a border crossing with North Korea) didn't come to me until after lunch, so I crammed a lot of coordinating into a very small time frame. In the end, I caught the last bus of the day to the capital of Liao Ning Province, Shenyang, which is roughly four hours north of Dalian. My plan called for a night in Shenyang, and an early bus the following morning to the city of Dandong.
While on the bus to Shenyang, I struck up a conversation
with an attractive Chinese woman, Nancy, sitting next to
me. Although she didn't speak much English, my Chinese
is fortunately passable in such situations and we got
along fine. She told me she was visiting her parents in
a city near Shenyang, called Tie Ling, and
invited me to stay with them. I was obviously quite
apprehensive about accepting such an offer (we had only
just met, after all), so I sent a text message to
several of my Chinese friends asking for their input.
They were all as unsure about the situation as I was, so
I decided to wait it out and see what happens.
We
arrived in Shenyang at 11pm, and Nancy called a
colleague (both are accountants) who spoke fluent
English.
I explained that as much as I wanted to, I could not visit Tie Ling this weekend because of Dandong, but we agreed to meet the following weekend. Such are the unpredictable twists and turns in life! June 20, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Watching Dalian's Football Team, Shi'de Today didn't start off all that exciting, but luckily things picked up in the afternoon. I am still building the oil platform's pipeline structure using CAESAR II software, but I also spent a large part of the day going over a soon-to-be published research paper prepared by my graduate student. While it would be harsh to say the paper is infested with grammatical errors, seemingly each sentence needs to be reworded and modified so it flows better. Growing up in an English speaking country has its advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand I am incredibly fortunate to have a strong grasp on the increasingly pervasive English language, but on the other hand I was never in an environment where learning a second language was particularly advantageous. I have since come to the conclusion that it is better to be be 100% fluent in English, 90% fluent in an additional language, and 25-50% fluent in as many additional languages as possibly (to "get by" or show respect, when necessary). Outside of these bounds, the efforts of learning a new language can be better applied elsewhere. I got a call in the early afternoon informing me that Dalian's local football team, Shide, was playing a home game later in the evening. Although it has been raining all day (the first such day since I arrived several weeks ago), I jumped at the opportunity to see China's most accomplished team playing live. So, at 5:30pm I met Wang Bo in downtown Dalian, and we boarded a bus full of supporters for the 45 minute drive to the stadium.
As expected, there was a light drizzle for most of the match, but that didn't stop the 15,000 or so fans from coming out and cheering noisily. Despite their best efforts, all the support couldn't turn Shide's domination into a goal, and the match ended in a 0-0 draw. One thing that got on my nerves was all the cigarette smoke in the stadium, but it is the same everywhere in China. I am curious to see what happens at the Olympics - obviously smoking is outlawed, but enforcing such rules will be nearly impossible. The night ended with on last bit of excitement (if you can call it that): I was trying to catch a bus to my apartment from downtown Dalian, but it was quite late and as I began crossing a street I stepped into 6 inches of sewage water. My jeans and sandals were immediately soaked, and I could see the muck seeping out from the open sewage grate. Obviously I decided to pay the few bucks for a taxi ride home, but I had to keep the window down the entire time because of the smell. Despite experiences such as this, I still love China. June 19, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Reliving My Cousin Vinny and a Day at the Mountain
The tiny town we are staying in has one street running through it, and our hotel room was situated on the second floor facing the street - with all the windows open to battle the room's heat. By 4:30am the sun was up (all of China is on Beijing time), and shortly thereafter the town followed suit. But it wasn't the voices that had me openly cursing, it was the wankers in the over-sized trucks who spent 40 minutes honking for no apparent reason. Thank goodness I slept so much yesterday because it was impossible to sleep through the noise.
With all these worries, I hope I don't turn into one of those heart attack victims waiting to happen. Speaking of heart attacks, Chris (Lehigh University) certainly looks like he was on the brink of having one after he decided to try the USD$2 zip-line on offer. He is a damn good scientist and one of the brightest people I know, but adventure sports (if you can even call a zip-line such a thing) obviously aren't his cup of tea. The rest of the afternoon was spent on more boat rides, admiring the scenery, and savoring the time away from work. Before heading back to Dalian, we stopped at our hotel for lunch (the fourth time in the past 24 hours) and several students bought jade from nearby stores. It will be interesting to see how they manage to bring 10kg chunks of rock on the return flight to the United States, but as engineers I am sure they will figure something out. June 18, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Trip to Bing Yu Gou Mountain and Hotel Karaoke This morning our group of seven REU students met outside the laboratory and boarded a bus for a two-day excursion to the mountains north of Dalian. We were accompanied by the Chinese graduate students with whom we are working, but the best part was that everything was paid for and we could miss two days of work. After a tiring four hour bus ride we finally arrived at a shabby hotel near Bing Yu Gou (the name of the mountain). We were served a lunch that none of us were particularly keen on eating, but in my case, hunger eventually won out. I suppose it is worth recording that I (knowingly) ate my first fish eyeball today, but it was hardly what I expected - the eyeball had a bone-like material at its core with a taste-less outer membrane. I always imagined eating an eyeball would be more of a "squishy" experience, so perhaps I will have to sample a different variety of eyeball next time.
The group returned a little after 7pm, and after an unconvincing dinner we began a karaoke session on the hotel's ground floor - our group of twenty or so were the sole visitors (likely for the entire one-street town). After listening to several Chinese songs - which invariably deal with love - we entertained our Chinese friends with songs of our own. First on the agenda was "Born to Be Wild" - one that always rocks the house - and we followed it up with the more mellow "Hotel California." ** Note: Soon I will post youTube video showing us while we sing Hotel California. ** June 17, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Day-Outing with HP China
While waiting for the remaining employees to arrive Tina showed me around the HP complex, and I was surprised to learn the company was founded in 1939. Apparently, the San Francisco garage out of which Bill Hewitt and David Packard worked was the start of Silicon Valley.
Embarrassingly, we were the last ones back on the bus after cherry-picking, and the punishment was unanimous: I had to sing using the bus microphone. This was hardly the kind of situation I wanted to find myself in with a group of people I hardly knew, but I realized it was also a great chance to become one with the group. Without music or lyrics for support I resorted to the one song I can never forget: the American national anthem!
Everyone had a good laugh out of it and I was off the
hook without losing face. We ate lunch under one of those massive tents you find at weddings, but the food was nothing to write home about. Nevertheless, it is always nice being a guest in China because everyone at the table takes on the responsibility of serving you - no matter how competent you may be on your own. After lunch, there were a variety of activities to choose from in order to accommodate the wives and/or children who came along for the day. Some chose to partake in "grass skating" (shown to left) while others opted for golf. I chose golf in the beginning, but couldn't resist going down the grass slide with my camera on video mode. I have never been much of a golfer - nor do I even care for the silly sport - but I am fortunate enough to have a good stroke and I can thus look good doing it. Many of the other Chinese golfed far better than me, but it didn't matter because everyone was there to have fun. In general, the Chinese are far less open about being competitive - likely to prevent people from losing face. That is the second time I mentioned losing face today, and it is because such concerns are paramount in the Asian business world. We arrived back in Dalian in the late afternoon, and I was completely wiped out. Tomorrow I will head off for a two day outing at a mountain northwest of Dalian with the other REU students and the Chinese graduate students who work at our laboratories. June 16, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Showing Friends Around Dalian and a Sichuan Face-Change Performance I answered a call at 9:00am this morning from the group of Qingdao REU students who are visiting Dalian for the weekend. Despite being out on the town until the early early hours of the morning, I pulled myself together and arranged to meet them at Dalian's famous Xinghai Square. We spent an hour enjoying the fine weather (consistently upper-70s with a cool ocean breeze) and the kind of relaxed atmosphere one finds on Saturday-mornings at the park. Shortly afterward, the remaining REU students arrived and we formed a mob of 15 people - taking over buses, sidewalks, and restaurants in the process. We ate lunch at a 6th story restaurant smack in the middle of downtown Dalian. Despite the fine interior decor and attentive service the restaurant was an unbelievable bargain at only USD$3/person. Unfortunately, ordering for a table of seven or eight people entails leaning toward the side of safety when selecting dishes. I often feel like I need to visit each restaurant twice - once to enjoy the company I am with and once more to sample the unique specialties that make new restaurants worthwhile. After lunch there was the kind of indecision that inevitably strikes groups so large, so I decided to continue working on my Tokyo accommodations rather than tour the Xinghai waterfront. I have been been under a lot of stress over the past couple weeks as I struggle to organize the many logistical inconveniences in my life. It is the 'price of admission' for such opportunities, I suppose.
Sadly, the toilet mysteriously over-flowed at one point, but such things happen from time to time in China. The actual face-changing performance paled in comparison to that of Shanghai - which included a full stage, fire breathing, bone-rattling music, and a twenty minute performance that had the entire restaurant on its feet. I have heard there are only a handful of "masters" who can effectively perform the mysterious face-change (the dancer wears a thin cloth-like mask that changes colors and design in a flash), and from tonight's experience they don't reside in Dalian! After dinner we walked around nearby parks, and when a local gave me a free shuttle-cock I decided to knock it around for a while. A shuttle-cock is similar to a hacky-sack, but there are large feathers for balance and a spring-loaded surface for contact. I opted not to go out with the REU students for a night of partying because I will meet a group of HP employees tomorrow morning at 7:20am. Scarlett was kind enough to put me in touch with her friend (an HP employee), but I am somewhat nervous because I have never met anyone who will be going. A wise man once advised me to "always do what makes me afraid," so off I go tomorrow morning. ** I will keep said person's identity secret to keep his/her ego in check **
June 14, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Cooking Chinese, Culture Lessons at a Korean Restaurant, and a Night at the Jazz Club Despite today being another great day, it didn't have the best of starts. After stepping out of the shower this morning I noticed my left eye is now a swollen black-and-blue that would make Rocky Balboa proud. All in all, I suppose it is better than the football injuries I acquired in the past.
I wish I could say the cooking experience was a resounding success, but I am afraid I would be lying. Personally, I can eat anything. In fact, one of the Chinese sayings I use most often explains that there is nothing I don't like to eat: 我没有东西我不喜欢吃。However, a couple roommates sampled the food and immediately spit it out with a look of disgust. I found it all to be fairly amusing. After cleaning up the dishes I headed back to the office for an afternoon of work. There wasn't a whole lot of excitement, but I did get a call from Scarlett. She has a friend who is going on a company outing to a local village to pick cherries, eat traditional village food, and afterward they will all go golfing. Although I am a rubbish golfer, this sounds like a great opportunity to try something new. So, on Sunday morning I will head off with a group of Chinese people I have never met for a day of the unknown.
I always leave my Chinese friends in charge of ordering food to guarantee I try something new, and tonight's food did not disappoint. For Korean food, it ranks high in authenticity (which is often tough to accomplish). Perhaps when I was young I associated all Asians in the same general category (being unable to distinguish races or nationalities from appearances/customs), but now it is second nature.
The
only unfortunate part of the jazz club is the price of
drinks. Although USD$3.50 does not sound like a lot by
Western standards, I hate wasting such money on
something as trivial as a gin and tonic. Fortunately, a small quickie mart down the street offered an easy solution: beer costing USD$0.24 for 640ml (roughly two cans). Although the glass bottles are all re-used - and likely ridden with Hepatitis C as a result - the beer was stored alongside the ice-cream and was thus ice-cold. After the final performance of the night we headed back to the apartment to get what sleep we could. It is certainly a good thing, but I cannot remember the last time I felt like there was enough time in the day!
June 13, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) Visa Problems, Travel Plans, and Basketball with Locals Well, it isn't the first time I have had a visa problem and somehow I doubt this will be the last time. As I mentioned while I was back in Singapore, I was only granted a 30 day visa (albeit with unlimited re-entries) over a 6-month period. I was hoping to travel to either South Korea or Russia, but the logistics (and price) are steep. Plus, I am not allowed to travel on weekends for safety reasons. So, my visa will expire in two weeks and I am left to figure something out. I have been stamped into China six times already, so it is fair to say I know the system as well as anyone. I decided to go through the university I am conducting research at because they will be able to expedite the process for me - but I will only get a double entry visa with 60 days per entry. I have to pay a little extra money and re-work my end-of-summer travel plans, but other than that getting a new visa is a pain-free process. Speaking of end-of-summer travel plans, my itinerary includes the following: China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and possibly Myanmar (still Burma to many people) if time and money permit. This region is one of the cheapest in the world for traveling, and also one of the most rewarding. I am not scheduled to arrive in Tokyo until mid-September, so I will have roughly 45 days of unadulterated adventures across Southeast Asia. I will talk more about this later in the summer because there are simply too many adventures between now and then. After work today I met with the other REU students for some pick-up basketball with the locals. We played 4v4, first to 11, winner stays. Our team won five straight battles before finally being taken down by a team of all-stars who took advantage of our tired bodies. Somewhere along the way I got a black eye from a stray elbow (non-malicious), and we all had bloodied knees, scraped arms, and blisters by the end.
June 12, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) A Job Opportunity and a Steamy Dinner With An Angel As has become our habit, I headed out with my roommate, Ryan from Clarkson University, at 7:30am to grab breakfast on the way to work. We cross campus to reach the noodle shop district, but the baozi (dough stuffed with meat and juices) and egg pastries make the journey worthwhile each morning. One of the everlasting highlights of China is having a USD 12 cent breakfast on a daily basis. It was another non-stressful day at the office, which was great because it gave me time to catch up with old friends and plan out my week. The REU students who are working in Qingdao (another Chinese city near Dalian) will be coming to visit this weekend. I decided to plan out their logistics to make sure nothing went wrong. Apparently, their trip hasn't been half as good as ours. So, I emailed them a step-by-step guide detailing how to travel by boat and bus to Dalian, book accommodations, and I created a "highlights of Dalian" itinerary. It was good stuff, if I may say so, and I hope it guarantees they will look after me when I visit them (likely the following weekend). I spoke with Scarlett at lunch, and she told me about an opportunity to teach English for good pay. Ever eager to try new things (and save money for my upcoming year in Tokyo), we agreed to meet after work in downtown Dalian. There is a bus station 50 meters from my apartment, which is fortunate because the university is roughly 40 minutes from the center of Dalian. I caught bus 23 and rode it to the last stop, getting off at Da Wai (a pleasant park in Dalian's ritzy downtown area). Scarlett and Michael, the 26 year old for whom I will be working, met me shortly after and we walked to the office to discuss the details. The situation is perfect: I negotiated for 80rmb/hr (USD$10/hr), and will teach from 10:00-12:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. All teaching will be be done orally, and there is a lesson plan provided for me throughout everything. The students have all graduated from high school and want to improve their English before entering university (many students do one year in a Chinese university before trying to transfer to places like Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom, or Singapore). Thus, they need to do a tremendous amount of preparation to pass exams like TOEFL. Afterward, I headed out for dinner with Michael, Scarlett, and another girl to a famous hot pot restaurant. For any who may not know, hot pot (or "steam boat" as it is called in Singapore) entails cooking your own meats and vegetables in a large boiling pot of herbal water. It is an informal affair that is great for flowing conversations because everyone gets sweaty from the steam and reaching across the table to cook the food.
I noticed Michael had several tattoos, which is a rarity for non-gang affiliated Chinese, so I asked him about it. He explained to me that each of them had a special significance. For example, he lived in Los Angeles for several years - hating it the entire time for the harshness of life there - while looking after his cancer-stricken mother. When she finally passed away he had the date emblazed on his upper arm as a form of remembrance. After dinner we all agreed to meet again this Friday for a night on the town. Scarlett is an amazing dancer and singer, so perhaps I will finally learn the dance moves to match my unfounded confidence on the dance floor! June 11, 2007 Dalian (CHINA) A Job Opportunity and Meeting an Angel
At work I am beginning the
laborious process of learning engineering software.
Rather than delve into too much research blabber - I am
paid to do such things and even then I hardly
like it - I will summarize my immediate task with the
following: I am to input an harmonic force function
(flowing sea ice) into an existing off-shore oil
platform model using the high-powered software ANSYS.
This simulation will generate data (acceleration,
displacement, and stress concentrations) that I will
later use to locate pipeline failures atop the
platform's superstructure. So it is slightly busy at work as I read through manuals and perform tutorials, but it is not so busy that I can't chat with friends throughout it all. One of the graduate students (the same one who would later help get this webpage back online, shown to the right) put me in touch with the prettiest girl I have seen since coming to China. We chatted online for a while and I later exchanged phone numbers with Scarlett (shown below). She has rubbished all the places I have seen in Dalian and says she will show me a far better side of the city - which is no small task because I already love Dalian!
After work, I walked back to my apartment and passed out from exhaustion. I didn't sleep long though because I joined the other REU students for dinner at a local restaurant we are now regulars at. The English name of the restaurant is "Smack of Ligi", but I have no idea what a ligi actually is! One of the other students, Tyler from Virginia Tech, spent most of dinner working out a Rubbix Cube. If he wasn't doing it to impress the giggling waitresses who watched on awestruck I would have given him a good bollocking. Just because we are research engineers doesn't mean we need to act like it.
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As
repayment for my efforts, Professor Yue sponsored a
dinner outing for the REU students and our affiliated
Chinese graduate students. We decided to eat dinner at a
hot pot (
Speaking
of excitement, I decided to try something new tonight
and sampled two large fish eyeballs. This meant I
plucked them straight out of the fish head, cooked them
in the water, and then plopped them in my mouth while
the entire table watched dumbfounded.
Soon
we began playing a drinking game whereby you choose a
special number, say 7, and then some one starts a count
with whatever number they wish. The counting goes around
the table, but whenever either a multiple of 7 or the
number itself come up, one cannot say the word and must
bang chopsticks on the table. Failure to do so results
in downing a glass of beer. We all caught on quickly,
but I felt bad for the Chinese because they had to
maintain the count in English. This turned out to be a
particular problem for Baolin, my graduate student, who
seemed to drink every time we got to him. The picture to
the right shows the result of his efforts at the end of
the night...
As
expected, North Korea was not much to look at. It is,
after all, one of the world's poorest and most
impoverished nations. The waterfront, shown to the left,
is devoid of any kind of activity, and even the three
imposing smoke stacks were dormant. I snapped a few
"been there" photos, and continued along the waterfront
to the remains of a bombed-out bridge.
Perhaps
the two pictures on either side of this paragraph
demonstrate the state of affairs in North Korea - on the
right is the Chinese shoreline and shown to the left is
the North Korean shoreline. While Dandong is known for
little more than its status as a border town, the
differences in development are pronounced.
I
began tracing a new route through the city, and stopped
to chat with a few local men playing Chinese Chess
(similar to Western Chess). I learned how to play while
I was in Hong Kong, but I have since forgotten the
characters (the wooden blocks each have a character
signifying their ability, and the characters are
different for the two sides). After I told them I was
American we chatted about the typical subject of
interest for Chinese men: basketball. Invariably,
Chinese people want to know if Americans like Yao Ming.
My answer is obvious: of course!
Then
they asked me if I like "Boo She", and I was
struggling to understand the meaning. But then it dawned
on me: Boo She is the phonetic translation of "Bush." A
quick look around - North Korea, bombed out bridge,
Korean War, etc - and I guessed the correct way to
answer that question!
After
grabbing a quick lunch - where I chose squid over
chicken for safety reasons - I asked around for
directions to the easternmost section of the Great Wall,
which is only 45 minutes north of Dandong.
I
was stuck on the side of the road for nearly an hour
while waiting for the next bus to take me back to
Dandong. I ended up waving down a rickety taxi (the
driver would turn off the engine when we went down
hills, and then pop the clutch to re-start the engine),
but the fare was just as cheap as the bus. The other
good thing about the taxi was that the driver put me in
touch with a guy who knew a guy who was driving to
Dalian later in the evening. What a stroke of luck! I
was relieved I still had all my belongings with me and
didn't check into any hotels.
Her friend was kind enough to take a taxi to
meet us, and they both accompanied me to a hotel to make
sure I settled in well. All my worries were quickly put
aside as I realized what genuinely kind people I was
with.
En
route, I learned the team's fight song and although my
tones were probably off, I was happy to have something
to sing with everyone on the bus. For anyone who speaks
the Dalian dialect, here are the words: Da Lian Shi de
dui, da de ya zhou zhuan chan chan! Translation:
Dalian's shide team destroys everyone in Asia (including
poor teams like Jinan).
Anyone
who has ever seen the movie My Cousin Vinny will
understand what my morning was like today (and if you
haven't seen the movie I highly recommend it)...
Breakfast
was served at 6:30am, but I ate - or rather, drank
- mine at the shop next door as I went through packet
after packet of instant coffee. While I certainly enjoy
tea, it simply isn't strong enough for mornings.
We
were aboard the bus by 7am and entered the park shortly
thereafter. We first took a boat ride through the park, but I
was too busy chatting with our tour guide about
transport to Japan to relax amid the pleasing scenery.
After
lunch, the group headed off for nearby hot springs, but
exhaustion had a hold on me and I opted to stay at the
hotel and catch up on some much needed sleep. I feel
like I may be getting too old for all this!
This
morning I met Tina, Scarlett's friend, at the office
complex for Hewlett Packard in Dalian's Software Park.
The complex was an impressive collection of modern
buildings with household names such as IBM, Microsoft
and Neusoft.
After
a couple hours on the bus we reached our first
destination: a cherry orchard. My height (compared to
the average Chinese) put me at an advantage for picking
the best cherries - something Tina surely appreciated.
Personally, I have never cared for cherries, but these
were too fresh to pass up. Our eyes were bigger than our
stomachs, though, because our bucket was still full of
cherries when we left.
At
6:00pm I took a bus to one of China's famous Sichuan
restaurant chains - Ba Guo Bu Yi (
For
lunch I met a friend who offered to help me learn how to
cook a simple Chinese meal. We started off by
visiting the local vendors tucked away in neighborhoods
- a vegetable here, meat there, bread over there, and so
on - before settling down to do the chopping. Although I
have cooked plenty of times in my life there have been a
limited number of occasions where I have actually
prepared food. I was in charge of cutting the lamb
chops into small pieces (chopsticks require that all
food is bite size) and dicing the cucumbers into thin
strips. Afterward, we used a skillet to cook the meat
with a variety of other vegetables, and the sliced
cucumbers were mixed with some kind of gelatin and soy
sauce.
I
stayed behind at work today to make up for lost time at
lunch, but by 6:30pm I was on my way to a famous Korean
restaurant to meet a friend (of a friend) from Hong Kong.
Wang Bo (English name: Bonita) grew up in Dalian,
but she now studies mathematics in Hong Kong. She took
me to a great Sichuan (the spicy food that is my
favorite style of cooking) restaurant last week, and
this was my chance to return the favor.
After
a couple hours spent discussing Chinese culture -
something I can never get enough of - I met Gage (University
of Florida) and Ryan
(Clarkson University) for a
night at the Blossom Jazz Club.
Both Ryan and Gage are musicians so they were busy
critiquing the music and instruments while my jazz
knowledge is limited to one simple factor: whether or
not the music has me tapping my feet (which it did).
We
must have gone through 10 plates of food when Michael
had the waitresses bring out clams and wasabi. He mixed
soy sauce with the wasabi, began cooking the clams, and
explained the rules of the upcoming game. We were to do
rock-paper-scissors in the middle of the table, and the
loser had to dunk a clam in the wasabi, smear it around,
and endure the misery of eating it. For anyone who has
ever had a small amount of wasabi with their sushi you
can imagine the horrifying nasal effects of a wasabi-covered
clam! The picture to the left shows just how tough this
game was, but unsurprisingly none of us wanted to quit
playing!
