Blogs from Dalian, Dongbei, China, Asia

I realize this is a late posting... my apologies.. A group of teachers at my school have been practicing volleyball 2 days a week since the beginning of school in preparation for a tournament in Beijing. This past weekend was that tournament (November 19th and 20th). The weekend had many high points and a few very low points. On Friday night we all went for dinner at a Spanish restaurant called Tapas in downtown Dalian. The food there is delicious and the atmosphere is great! We even had a cello player playing in the background! This was a ‘high’ point. Our time at the Dalian airport was a low point. The Dongbei (east north) winds were acting up which prevented the plane we were supposed to take to Beijing from landing in Dalian. Instead, it turned ... read more

I spent a Sunday afternoon with a new friend of mine exploring the surrounding areas near our apartment complexes. We started the chilly autumn day going up UFO hill. UFO hill is a park very close to my apartment complex. It is almost exactly as it sounds: a big hill with a UFO on top of it! The locals call it a mountain, which is a bit overkill in my opinion. The park is actually quite large and full of tons of green space. There are trails intertwining throughout the area which look very fun to spend some time on. However, the focus of our day was to make it to the UFO! On our way to the UFO we were treated to some great views of the city, the ocean and another hill ... read more

The plan was to start the day at 5am and get moving for the Dalian City Marathon. everyone except Uncle Leslie was off to run a Mini-Marathon 3 miles. They volunteered to lead legally blind people who wanted to walk/run a marathon but needed help. The plan was to leave the house at 6am but time passed on and on and on so we ended up leaving at 6:40. The traffic was heavy so we finally made it to the start line with the 30 other volunteers at 8:00 am which was the start time of the race. The Intel group were nice enough to wait on us so we could still run and find the right location. God worked it out but the next day being late caught up with us. So at the start ... read more

Today is my last full day in Dalian. Tomorrow I will fly back to Shanghai in the evening. I have had a good time here with Shengjie’s family. Communication was a little difficult at times but I understood how to communicate the essentials such as sleep, eat and bathroom. The family was very welcoming and made sure to keep me full. I have not been hungry since I arrived. On the second of February we stayed up until 1:00am to bring in the lunar calendar New Year. There were fireworks going off all over the city for this is the biggest legal holiday celebrated in China. On Friday we went to see Dalian’s fireworks show which was very impressive. The Chinese know how to organize a show. Shengjie’s mom and I took a photo with a ... read more

Ok. So since Cam and I are engaged to get married I've decided to drop the idea of not talking about him on this blog. It's impossible. I live with the man, almost every cultural issue I have is with the man or his friends, he's my life. If you don't want me to talk about my life then I can not talk about him, otherwise it's not going to work. Anyways, a lot's been going on over here recently. Today is the 10th anniversary of China getting Hong Kong back from England so last night at midnight we watched the changing of the flags with the English national anthem playing as the English and Hong Kong flag went down together and the Chinese national anthem playing as they went up. A bunch of people talked ... read more

I just went to buy a printer for the computer. It's 75$ for an HP printer, scanner and copier all in one and I'll be able to use it here and in the US. Right now I need to do a lot of printing and copying for the visa so it's important for now. If I copy and or print up to 500 things then I've already paid for the price of the printer so it's worth it. Anyways, I was at the shop buying it with Cam just now and afterwards I had to go pay for it and get the waranty put on it with one of the salesmen. When I was getting the warranty he asked me "So who was that just now, your student?" "He's my ..." I stopped mid-sentence. How to ... read more

On our way out of the apartment, Wesley and I noticed some branches outside of our neighbors' front door. I asked Wes if he knew what they were for but was met with only a blank stare. I'm not one to be overly superstitious, but I got a little worried. These branches somehow reminded me of the Biblical story about the passover. Either we put some mystical markings outside our house or evil spirits will come and haunt us till days end. Right as we entered the classroom, our teacher started talking about a special type of branch called "Ai Hao" that is placed outside of people's houses during Duan Wu Jie. So it's true. These branches do serve special purposes, and that's to ward off bad luck. Oh well, I guess I can get some ... read more

So I've been going through a bunch of tests in the past couple days. First of all I took a Chinese test this morning. It was a bit rough! There were two parts of this test, the first part was listening and the second part reading. The listening wasn't too bad. I know I made a couple mistakes - one I chose the wrong answer and it kept going before I could change it, two I didn't write one of the characters properly and third there was one where I didn't take notes on a long passage. I often have difficulty with listening for one main reason - I understand everything the people are saying in the listening, but when I have to read and answer a question based on it it's a bit more difficult ... read more