I'm sopping wet, but at least there's A/C.

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So today was pretty simple. It's Sunday and in China that equals nothing spectacular. I ate a very Asian breakfast at the stationary "revolving" restaurant in the non-international "international" hotel. I WILL NEVER STAY THERE AGAIN. Breakfast wasn't too bad and the view of Dandong and North Korea was pretty cool. I'm literally less than 1 km away from it. Creepy..... Breakfast was from 7 to 9:30 because it was Sunday so I decided I'd beat the rush and get there a few minutes after 7. Of course, Chinese people are always on time for one thing, and that is food. There were people already getting seconds or leaving when I rolled in at 7:09. Ridiculous. It was hard not to get my hands chomped at in the bowl of conghee.

I checked out soon after and ran over to Home Inn where I checked in early at 10 am. Room cleaned, internet accessible, A/C and oh, did I say it was CLEAN?! The last hotel smelled of smoke, had peeling wallpaper, stained carpet, a sterilized comb that said (NOT A GIFT) on it, and a discolored bathtub--need I say more? And this new place was the BARGAIN hotel that I couldn't find on the internet. That nasty place supposedly had 3 stars...in the Stone Age. Though, I'm pretty sure the Stone Age didn't smell like cancer and piss.

Anyway, I decided to go exploring, so I found a Xinhua bookstore and bought a map. I ate lunch at the Europaër café that had the umlaut on the wrong letter (should be ä) but whatever. The pizza was decent and the hazelnut gelato was LEGIT AS CAN BE. So happy. At this point I was ready to pack it in because I was lonely, tired, and had no appetite. Need I remind you I only ate once on Friday and once on Saturday. I headed back to the hotel and decided it would be great to go to the Peter's Coffeehouse again and just hang out. Of course, it started raining, and not following suit like all the Chinese people, did not stand under the awnings or seek shelter in a building but continued to run to New Mart to buy an umbrella because I was gonna go to that coffeehouse goshdarnit and I was gonna enjoy that rain.

NEVER walk in the rain in China, at least not in Dandong. Rain = torrential downpour & puddle = flash flood. The city instantly turned into Venice and I was ankle high in wet tennis shoes. No fun at all. The Chinese people looked on as if I were a crazy person but apparently I wasn't the only one because I saw a couple get off their motorbike sopping wet without any cover; it must have been a wild ride. I finally got to Peter's with a soaking wet bookbag, shoes and shorts, because it was raining laterally. Lovely. I had a huge hamburger and a salad to counter my anorexic weekend and hung out there till close. I met a fellow expat at Peter's who was also a believer, so that was pretty cool and I found out the history of the shop. It apparently opened 2 years ago and is still run by white Canadians, not Chinese, which explains the extensive offerings in the menu, decor, and the pleasant contemporary Christian music played inside. Definitely gonna become a regular here if I ever sort things out with work. I'm going to search for it tomorrow morning but out of fear of night finding it right away, I'm gonna book an extra night at the Home Inn just in case.

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Photos

少数民族
One of the 50+ Chinese minority populations in traditional garb

Yalu Jiang (Green Duck River)
also known as MiG alley because of all the dogfights done by Chinese, N Korean and Russian MiGs over North Korean air superiority during the Korean war.