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Published: September 30th 2005
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KTV
This is my table at lunch. Well, tomorrow's October 1st. The first day of our break. I believe Cat and I will be off traveling around Dalian tomorrow. We are scheduled to have lunch with one of the people from the front desk (named Sandy) at her house tomorrow so that should be super fun. Maybe I'll have some time to get some winter clothes before we leave Dalian (as it is getting cold around here).
Yesterday I woke up late and came to meet Merry and Windy (I thought it was Wendy but she spells it "Windy" which is kinda cool) at school. Then they took me on the bus to Zhongshan square (pretty much the major downtown area of Dalian - there are TONS of squares around here). We met Julia there and the three of them had to work through a very difficult process of trying to set up a bank account for me. It's a difficult process because the language used at a bank is pretty specific and one has to know English very well to understand what someone wants or be able to explain themselves very well. I finally got an account at the Bank of China and put some money
KTV
This is the other table at lunch. in there. It's pretty expensive to take money out of my account in America so I just decided to start an account here and I can transfer the money over when I finish working. I think that's the best idea instead of have tons of loose money in my room. Anyways, they ended up doing that for me and then we rushed over to meet everyone at lunch. The school had set up a private room for everyone at a restaurant and I got to take pictures of everyone (which I will post before the break ends or the first day after the break). We were supposed to go hiking but it started pouring just as we got to the bank and continued pouring for the rest of the day. So instead we all took taxis from the restaurant to a KTV. KTV is a pretty cool karaoke place that is a major chain. We went to one of the big branches of KTV which was a very nice place and again rented our own private room. Pretty much everyone did one or two (or many) songs. I did Amazing Grace which made me feel a little sad. We got
KTV
From left to right Cat, wendy, Merry, and Angie sitting on a couch at KTV. to dance to a couple songs and had a pretty good time. The four foreigners were there with our Canadian boss Wayne and then many of the Chinese teachers were there. It was pretty cool but a little lazy at times. Craig and I got some beers. As he said they were the most expensive beers in Dalian (20 RMB per bottle - about $2.50, normally they're around 10 or 15 RMB - betweeen $1.25 and $1.50). Afterwards Merry, Angie (a Chinese teacher who works at Rockies' branch school) and Cherry took me to their dorm. They were about the same size as my freshman dorm room but there are four people that live in each room instead of two (which is a bit nutty). I met one of Merry's roommates and then Merry and Angie took me to a great little place that they go to for meals a lot. They actually knew the boss and we had a lot of fun talking to her (in my broken Chinese and her few words of English). I had a bowl of noodles with chicken there which tasted really great. Then we had to stand outside for about 20 minutes to wait and get a taxi. I went home and chilled for a bit and then Russell, Craig, Cat and I took a taxi to a hotel. This hotel had a strip of what Russell calls "girl bars" next to it. These are bars where you can go and the girls try and get you to buy them (they're prostitutes). I was a little wary about going in the beginning but the bar ended up being a great place. We went to one called Guns and Roses and hung out with the owner of the place. I didn't see a single prostitute the whole time. We played Chinese checkers at the bar with the owner and it was a great relaxing time. We ordered some jaod-zi (the dumplings) and got 50 jaod-zi for 12 RMB (about $1.50) which was a little nutty. Craig insisted that they take 15 RMB instead of 12 which was probably a good idea. Then Craig and I took a taxi home and he came up to have a cup of tea before he left and I went to bed.
This morning I woke up and did two loads of laundry (which is probably equivalent to one load in the US) then I got a call from Lucy (one of the Chinese teachers) who invited me to one of the local stores at the Wal-mart mall. It was Milly's birthday (another of the Chinese teachers) so Cat, Craig, Lucy, Helen, and I met Milly and her boyfriend there and had some great food. This afternoon one of my tutors got canceled because she's already left for Korea for the break so I think I'm going to the gym.
Wish me a good break. I will write again when I can and in the meantime will take a journal to type up when I come back. Keep sending me e-mails, I'll respond to them when I can too.
Love ya'll!
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