Rub Down

A massage parlor somewhere; they're so common in China that I don't even know in which city it was that I took this. If ever there was a good impulse buy, this is it.

They're not always the cleanest establishments, but the service is fabulous; even at 20 RMB (~$3) an hour you get some quality foot-rubs, often with a bit of head and shoulder massaging thrown in too. Actually, even writing about it makes my shoulders ache for one...only 11 more weeks til I go back!

Shiny Shopping Street

Nanjing Lu, the famous pedestrian shopping street, Feb 2008.

Kind of a cliche photo to post, I realize, but ooh look! Pretty lights!

/Edna runs away to finish her thesis

Barbie's House

The Barbie flagship store on Central Huaihai Road. Six stories of pink girliness.

Lantern Festival Three-Fer

1: Lanterns within the center court of Yu Gardens (note the Dairy Queen)
2: The massive lines for tickets at only one entrance gate of several
3: Glowing zodiac animals on the water

This could have easily been a 20-fer post; I took so many photos that night. Yu Gardens was so grandly lit you could see it from blocks away, and they had set up entrance gates and charged 50 RMB for tickets to get in (usually it's free).

The place was ridiculously packed with people- imagine Times Square on New Year's Even, then multiply that by about 13. I probably could have just moshed on all their heads to get around, instead of trying to fight my way through the crowds.

Balmy Nanjing

A balmy summer night in Nanjing. I had taken off on a spontaneous two-day trip here from Shanghai; once I arrived and felt the cool temperatures and experienced the laid-back feel of the city, I knew taking off was a great choice. Gorgeous.

Still Open

Wulumuqi Lu, Shanghai

This shop is located a block away from where I grew up in Shanghai, so it's a staple image of my childhood. I always see it on my way to the (not so super) market next door, or when I'm out getting my 70 cent, totally legal DVDs.

(This picture specifically was taken the night of my 20th birthday, while walking home from having drinks down the street at Zapata's. I celebrated becoming an adult, then went home via the streets of my childhood.)

Light the Night

Zhongshan Square, Dalian. The citibank was actually in Zhongshan; the Intercontinental and other building behind it were branched off of Youhao Square, one block west.

One of eighty-some new photos I uploaded to my flickr set of Dalian night scenes, which begins with this picture here.

Yay for catching up on pictures! I'm only 13 months behind now.

Forlorn Vegetable Vendor

A night street in downtown Dalian, tucked behind the Zhongshan Hotel at Victory Plaza. Unlike some other shopping streets, this one offered solely foodstuffs- vegetables, fruits, chestnuts, noodles, pastries, chicken heads...you know, the usual.

But of course, with that much variety and competition on one street, times can get boring, and you're left staring at tomatoes as you wait for customers.

(I never came back to this street after the first night. I meant to, though. Shame.)

The CPC Building

At least, that's what I always assumed it was. Located in the middle of Zhongshan Park, Dalian. 

The night I took this, my two best friends and I were walking back to Dawai from the place where they tutored (coincidentally, where I would end up living the next semester- Xinghai Ren Jia). They walked the route four or five times a week, and it took about an hour and a half. By the end of that semester, both of them had lost significant amounts of weight.

Paper Cuts

Vendor at the Muslim street market in Xi'an, February 08. I believe the woman cut at least some, if not all, of these herself. Paper cutting is an incredible art, especially at such a large scale, because it requires a good deal of foresight and nimble dexterity.

"Bottom of the Hill"

The "bottom of the hill" referred to the street at the base of the hill where Dawai was located. (For example: "Wanna grab lunch at bottom-of-the-hill Chinese?") There was a 24-hour karaoke place always brightly lit up- even though its sign proclaimed "25 Hour KTV". Every night the street vendors would face the KTV and ease their boredom by watching the music videos playing on the enormous outdoor screen.

Photo of the Day: Steamy Street Food

A common type of street vendor is the hot pot man (or woman, or family). They have a cart with multiple comparments filled with hot water, then sticks of meats and vegetables to boil. Oftentimes half the comparments would be for spicy sticks, and you could also add spices to your food after the boiling was complete. It usually cost 1 rmb for two sticks (0.15 USD) and while not filling enough to qualify as an entire meal, it was definitely a delicious snack.

Photo of the Day: Just Browsing

Taken at Victory Plaza, which is basically the main shopping area of Dalian and located right next to the center Square. It spans a good four or so floors underground. I know people who have lived in Dalian for years and still get lost in the massive expanse that is Victory Plaza.

This, however, was taken above-ground. It was a friend's birthday, so her coworkers and I met here, then proceeded to walk together over to Tapas, a (really nice) Spanish restaurant.

Random note- a lot of the bits and bobs for sale in Dalian are shell-related, since the city is on the seaside and obviously never short of marine paraphenalia.

Photo of the Day: Soup for sale, Xi'an

February 08; on Xi'an's Muslim Street- My relatives and I had stopped in Xi'an on our way home to Shanghai after spending Chinese New Year in Sichuan.

For about 50 US cents you'd get in a bowl the sweet date broth, as well as lemons, dates, kiwis, sweet fungus, etc. and a freshly cut up pear (though it tasted like a pear/apple hybrid). Sugary and warm, and perfect for a winter stroll.

(As an added bonus, but more because I find it hard to describe, here's what the final result looked like:)

Photo of the Day: Hopscotch

[Apologies for no picture yesterday, computer had a virus and wasn't letting me update]

Hopscotch Bar in Dalian, a chill dive bar and my favorite spot to hang out with friends. I like this picture because all I used was a simple point and shoot with a low ISO setting (and me standing extremely still) and I think it turned out well.

The city's a different place at night. Dingy lights and shoddy craftsmanship sometimes lead to the coziest hole-in-the-wall bars and restaurants. Down a few feet from Hopscotch there was a Muslim family running a noodle shop, and chuanr (kebab) stands are everywhere, adding to the smoke and dim lights of the city. I've also never felt safer walking through a city at night.

Photo of the Day: Nightly Exercise

Zhongshan Square, Dalian. However, this is a scene played out every night in all cities throughout China. (Apologies for the quality; it's a night shot and my camera was in its dying stages by September)

Photo of the Day: Chuar!

Seriously, NOTHING beats eating chuar on a warm September night. I mean come on, it's food on a stick! Though perhaps the memories I associate with chuar, especially the night of this picture, can't really be described....Fall was a good season in Dalian.
(This particular stand is by Olympic Square, next to JD's)

The First Month

I've become quite fond of life in Dalian.

My foot is healing slowly. I've been invited to the Beijing Games for gaelic football June 7th and 8th, which would be totally awesome but I have to first play the game and NOT take myself out. Is two months enough? Don't know.

I've been making progress on my Chinese; not as much as I'd like with vocabulary though. If I made a conscious effort to pick that up, then I'm sure I would, but I'm focusing mainly on recognizing characters so my spoken Chinese is still only conversational. And I refuse to pick up speaking errrrrr hua, pronouncing Ws like Vs, and actually saying the H in any word that starts with Sh or Zh. After 15 years in PA who thought I'd actually prefer being a "southerner"? haha.

I should probably hang out with more native Chinese speakers, but
1. there are none my age here since everyone here at Old Dawai is a Chinese language student and therefore...not Chinese
2. that basically means hanging out with Andrew and Caleb, since I think they know the most, but they're actually from Jersey and Baltimore haha
3. hanging with expats is terribly fun. There are few Americans here in Dalian; it's a lot of Europeans and Canadians, which I find incredibly interesting. Plus the expat community is pretty small so everyone knows each other; it's not like Shanghai where you can meet someone and never see them again (that's right, I actually listed a negative aspect about Shanghai haha). Most everyone I've met is around 23 or 24 and is here to teach English, while either learning Chinese or just trying to explore the country because they've just graduated.

I've also been teaching for the past month now at an elementary school every Tuesday and Thursday, on top of my tutoring job on Saturdays. I get only the minimum wage for English teachers here, 100 rmb/hour (14.28 USD) but it's nice to have a little extra spending cash. I was going to quit after my first couple days because it's a 40 minute commute one way, and I don't like children, but my five year olds really took to me and then I couldn't bring myself to quit. Even still some days I go thinking, I really hate this job, but when I arrive, they all start yelling to each other, "Ed-i-na's here!" and come hug me and I can't bring myself to leave.

It's been interesting though observing how the Chinese interact. The teachers can touch the children and it's not considered inappropriate- I can hug them, they give me kisses, we take pictures all the time before and after class. My Chinese counterpart Elva has smacked the kids a couple times when they're not paying attention, or being disruptive. At least once a week she will completely lose it and single out someone and give them a good berating in front of the whole class. Then she'll turn to me and say in a normal voice, "I'm sorry. Continue." And I just stand there like OH MAN and these five year olds are like, whatever. He had it coming.

Elva and I might go out to dinner one night though; I asked to exchange numbers tonight after class (which was me acting like a total buffoon trying to teach the kids the words "fly" "jump" "run" and "swim") and she gave me a hug she was so happy. She's 26 and I think she wants to improve her English, even though her English is decent already. Oh, random sidenote: Our principal studied in London, so when she speaks to me it's with a British accent. I love it!

So the weeks have just been flying by. I mostly stay around Dawai; the only time I go out is for a Carrefour run or when I go to work. The weekends usually involve going out Friday or Saturday, and then always Trivia Night on Sunday at Hopscotch. The nightlife isn't much, but now I think it's kind of cozy actually. Hopscotch is definitely my fave.

Thursday I'm finally going on a trip! Ever since last August, I haven't gone more than three weeks without traveling somewhere (last semester was chock-filled with traveling- I went to DC four times in one month), so being stationary for five weeks in one place has me aching to pack up and go...so I'm visiting Sarah-Laura out in Taiyuan. I've heard it's a horribly polluted city, but I'm excited nonetheless to take that 19-hour bus trip and spend the weekend with her. Plus my grandmother's little sister lives out there; I plan on visiting her as well since Saturday would have been my grandmother's 88th birthday. I'm also doing something else in memory of my grandmother but that's a surprise for now....

I think I've struck a balance between being comfortable, and still stepping out of my comfort zone here. I could manage to put myself out there a little more, but hey, baby steps. I'm having a blast and wouldn't change anything about my experience so far....now back to the mountain of homework I have to finish in order to enjoy this weekend.

Nightlife

I went out last night with an Etown alum who lives in Shanghai; it went down exactly as I imagined being an expat in Shanghai on a Saturday night would.

For dinner, he and his wife took me to this pretty posh looking sushi place where we had to take off our shoes to sit down; they also invited along a couple other friends they knew. The sushi was great, the sake was sweet, and I liked listening to them talk about their different projects in Shanghai. All four of them know more Chinese than I do.

Then we walked down a couple streets to the Eager Beaver, which was full of expats; it seemed the whole area we were in was marketed towards foreigners. Directly across the street from us was Abbey Road, which looked like a Beatles themed bar. Back in the Beaver, I watched rugby on the TV and played some foosball; some guys started playing though who were way too hardcore about foosball, so I just talked to some more people, and observed the others in the bar. After one rolled around, I just grabbed a cab home.