May 23, 2009
16:40 (4:40 PM)
We are waiting in the Beijing airport awaiting transfer to be transferred over to Dalian on I think a 7:30 flight. After passing through thermal heat scans to be checked for swine flu, not all of us made it and Jessica got left behind. So we are waiting for her and Dr. Hill to get through.
The airport’s architecture and cleanliness puts Dulles to shame. I can’t wait to see Dalian. I couldn’t sleep on the plane (it was a 14 hour flight) and really just want to chill in a hotel.

11:00 PM
We made it to Dalian and are in our hotel. It was a very long day. Our 24-32 (something like that) hours without sleep. You have to pay for everything in the hotel and I have yet to convert my money over to Chinese Yaun. I’ll worry about it in the morning, I’m going to bed.

May 24, 2009
11:30 AM
Today I woke up with the sun. Unfortunately it happened to be a lot earlier than I expected, at 5:45 am. I went downstairs and got some money exchanged as well as an internal account. Jeff and I went to breakfast and it was pretty good, lots of interesting stuff. Eventually we ventured outside.

Chinese traffic is insane. We wandered about a circle with a ship in the middle and into an industrial area. After that we headed to a more commercial looking area where a monkish looking guy solicited me, and wouldn’t leave me alone until I said “Boo”! We wandered into a fruit market, meat market, seafood market and other various stores. The smells here are very strong. In a lot of places it really stinks like a sweet garbage smell.

7:30 PM

It has been a long day. We went on tour through Dalian to a water show with dolphins and to see various aquatic animals. That was really random, I did not expect to be going to the Chinese sea world but that is basically what it is. We also got to do bumper cars which his awesome. We went hiking through some bird nets on a mountain and then we went to eat at a Korean BBQ. Oh but first we ate lunch at some Chinese restaurant across the street and we ate a bunch of different food. There were dumplings, pork, and some stuff that I thought was seaweed salad but turned out to be jellyfish. It was really good.

At the Korean BBQ, it was really awesome. They brought us out some beef, lamb, and squid to cook ourselves in the middle of the table. The tea wasn’t as good, it smelled like corn chowder apparently but everything was very tasty. Including the ox tongue we tried which was too then to the better than the other beef. We had some sushi with very spicy wasabi, which was also pretty amazing. After being on my feet for so long, I am pretty beat and should sleep like a rock tonight. But tomorrow we go off to some mall or something, should be fun!

May 25, 2009
8:00 PM
So I am sitting in the hotel room, with some strange Chinese folk polka music playing outside and am going to write about my day.

We started out, went to breakfast, la ti da… and then we eventually got on a bus to go and visit the “country side”. Now this was a big tour bus, the same one from yesterday and our driver took it on back mountain roads that were barely big enough to let two cars pass and yet they did.

Before we got there though, we went to a park where they charged us to get in because of a flower festival. It was pretty cool, there were different statues of the different Chinese years and a big soccer ball. There were some flowers around but not enough to really get excited about and call it a “flower festival”, maybe there was some kind of performance that they were going to have later. People were doing some kind of exercise, like a type of tai chi around everywhere, and it seemed to be a pretty relaxing place.

When we first got out of the city, we went to this country folk’s restaurant for lunch. Steve said that he didn’t normally like to come out to the countryside for food and I could see why. It was simply not as good out here but it was still pretty decent. There we got some fish to eat, some chicken, salad stuff, and spring onions to dip in a really salty sauce. The strangest thing there was chicken liver and the eyeballs of the fish, neither of which I ate but other people did.

After that we headed to the largest Buddhist temple in the northern province where there were a lot of steps to climb and some strange statues of Chinese gods. The views from the top of the temple and where the big golden lady statue was were breathtaking. I didn’t particularly care for the temple though. The statues kind of creeped me out and were strange. They were painted in a gaudy manner I thought and usually crushing some sort of demon at their feet. Also, they always had a weird looking mean expression on their face.

We then headed to the Centaury memorial in Dalian, which you could tell that it was the richest part of Dalian. The circle there was surrounded with five star hotels, really expensive condos (although comparable to those in the DC area), and even a castle (which use to be a shell museum but was converted to a five star hotel). We hung around here for a bit, took lots of pictures with local Chinese people until we got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel.

We ate dinner at Pizza King, basically what the Chinese think American pizza is like. I tried it all including: Pizza King special seafood pizza, Hawaiian pizza, Tokyo Temptation, salmon pizza, fish pizza (tuna), straight up cheese, whoa… I just fell asleep mid sentence. Must have been a food comatose. That’s when you know it was good. It is now 12:30 am. I am going to bed. Tomorrow we transfer over to DUFE. Jamie and I want to room together.

May 27, 2009
9:00 AM
We are now moved into the university and it is so nice. The suites here are like “beach cottage” apartments say Jamie. All the students are always playing sports outside on the different fields right outside our window. We went to the cafeteria yesterday and it was small but pretty good for being commons food. Then we wandered across the street to the Trust Mart, the supermarket owned by Wal-Mart. It was crazy in there. There were a ton of people and they were all staring at us.

I really want a Dunkin Donuts right now. I just ate a pastry thing that I got yesterday thinking it had cream cheese or something good on top but I bit into and there was some kind of fruit inside. It was like a kiwi that tasted like a banana, not something I’m really too happy about eating.

11:30 PM
Wow, what a day. We did a lot. First we went to a pancake house that served a spring roll mushu pancake type deal. It was sad though because Steve said that they will tear it down soon for a stadium renovation and that they will lose the best pancake house in Dalian. No more Chinese tacos.

Then we made it to the Dalian Forest Zoo. This was not like any American zoo. I actually got to touch a tiger here and have my picture taken with it. The animals were everywhere and the zoo spanned a huge mass of land. It was very impressive as we took the cable car to different parts of the zoo. We even got to feed chickens to lions. Very crazy and impressive compared to the American zoos I’ve been to.

Also today we had our first class. Having spent a lot of time at the zoo, we had to rush when we got back to campus in order to be on time for class. We ate at the cafeteria and then met in the pink piano building. Dr. Hill seemed pretty anxious about class and much of the class was review for me.

It was really cool to meet the Chinese students though. They all seemed so excited to have us in class and most of the students I talked to were very friendly and spoke very decent English. The girl I sat next to, Snow, was very friendly and interested in where I had come from and all about America. I talked to her most of class and we had a very good and engaging conversation but most of the Chinese students were making fun of us by the end. It seems I was a big hit with the Chinese girls as they kept fighting for my attention and a mom even came up to me after class when we were leaving and told me her daughter thought I was very handsome. I don’t really know how to take all this attention.

My group that I have to work with consists of Aaron, Andrea Black (my fellow SU student), Blue, Helen, Mandy, and Snow. I thought their names were very interesting and Snow told me her name was Snow because she was born on the first snow day of that season. At first, we had group issues with the number of people in our group but we figured it out. Talking to Snow though, I got to see a very interesting perspective that American students would very rarely ever have. Turns out that she used to be a biology student and then she bought an economics textbook in English and a Chinese version and then she taught herself Economics. That kind of drive is unheard of to me. The rest of the group I really didn’t get to know, except of course Andrea, who I already know.

Tomorrow we get to go to the Dalian Development Zone which Snow told me is very commercial and industrialized so that should be fun. We don’t have class for quite a while (until Sunday), but our free days are probably going to be with the Chinese students. They seemed to want to plan out our life for those days.

May 28, 2009
8:18 PM
Today was a rather dull day I thought. Steve turned our activities over to a tourist agency because he didn’t know the Dalian Developmental Zone that well. They took us through the rather spread out area to touristy places, or rather how the Chinese view tourism. We went to two creepy museums, one being a wax museum and the next being a type of art museum/gallery/model school. The wax museum had famous Chinese people throughout it as well as some other historically important people; in one exhibit there was Stalin and Hitler and two other people you could act like you were playing pool with, only the table was a map of the world. In other exhibits they had Einstein, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Mr. Bean and even Charlie Chaplin, but my favorite was Jackie Chan.

When we walked in the model school, there were supposedly beautiful Chinese people just standing there waiting for someone to take a picture with them. It was creepy just like the wax museum only these were live people. I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could so I just stuck with Steve up at the front. Once we were waiting for everyone to come out, I actually got to talk with Steve about how he felt about politics. He told me that the US politics don’t matter to Chinese, that whether the president is a democrat or republican is not important, they all still get along with the Chinese regardless. In China, he told me that people are either Communist or they have no political party and don’t care. He said that people didn’t really care too much about politics as long their standard of living continues to improve. Makes sense.

We also got to see a Kung fu show at a martial arts school. It was pretty cool, I don’t think I was really up for it though, the lunch that the agency setup for us really wasn’t too good. The students certainly had a lot of talent though. They would each show us their skills with their particular weapon and do crazy moves. I thought the coolest thing was when the teacher took a throwing spike and put it through a piece of glass to pop a balloon on the other side.

We also went to a Chinese driving range built on the coast. We only got three shots though and I sufficiently embarrassed myself on the first two until I wacked the ball out of anger on the third try. I don’t want to talk about it.

The final thing we did was to go to a shooting range. They only had us do two shots though, and the guns were pitiful. They were like pellet rifles. I think it reflected the states view on guns, and how they are illegal to own. They did let us do paintball though. I didn’t play; I didn’t think it was worth getting dressed up for. They only charged seven dollars but only gave 25 shots and the guns looked really terrible. Turns out I was right, they ended up spraying paint a lot.

After all this we got back on the bus to head about an hour or two back to the campus. On the way back I saw a guy lying by the side of the road with people around him, I think he had just got hit by a beamer stopped a little bit a ways. A taxi driver pulled out from behind a bus and almost right into the side of us also almost hit us. This really angered our bus driver as he yelled something out to the guy in angry Chinese. We asked Steve for a translation and he said “moron”.

Steve hooked us up for dinner tonight. We went to the cafeteria and he appeared out of nowhere to order us some delicious food cooked just for us to eat. It was wonderful.

Before I did all that today, I walked over to Amici Coffee house with Jamie, Emily, Koza, and Justin. Poor Justin didn’t bring a laptop because when we got there, we all just feasted on the Internet there and tried our best to get our fix before we had to leave for the Developmental Zone. Sorry Grandma, I couldn’t email this to you before I had to leave; I’ll put up some pictures for you soon.

Tomorrow is our free day. We should be going to the underground mall. Unfortunately, because I haven’t had the chance to get much Internet, I haven’t gotten anything straight with a “Chinese buddy”. We might be just winging it.

Oh and one last thing. I broke the camera. It dropped and no more camera. So now I really need a new one.

May 29, 2009

So I just bought a little notebook for 10 yuan. The guy was playing hardball and wouldn’t bargain with me. Hopefully now I can keep up with things and stop forgetting everything.

We are just leaving the mall, well the new mall apparently, and we have visited many stores today. I didn’t get anything but his book, but I didn’t see anything I really wanted.

We started out by getting lunch with Jerrie, Gabrielle, and Lionel, and Katy, Emily, and Jamie were with me. Turns out, Jerrie really liked spicy food so I ordered food with her. But I didn’t realize that I would be getting so much and that it was so spicy that it would open up a “whole new world” for me. I thought my tongue went numb at one point.

Next we traveled to the underground victory mall (I believe it is called Victory Plaza) where Jamie decided to get lost in the shoes. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a pair his size. The big hair giant had humongous feet.

Eventually we wandered into an electronics store, looking for a camera but I decided an American store price was too much to pay so I‘ll wait to buy a used one back home for less money and maybe another lens.

Then we went to the “New Mall” and looked at all the expensive clothing. It looked like Arundel Mills. Here we got some DQ Blizzards and I bought for Lionel because he had paid for our lunch. They really are reluctant to let us pay for anything. Now we are riding the bus back to campus where I plan to take a quick nap, then off to an amusement park with our new friends.

10:45 PM
So we just got back from our adventure. It wasn’t necessarily like an amusement park but more so like the boardwalk by ocean city. We rode a Ferris wheel and just walked along the coast, looking at the various sites on the beach.

At this one place on the beach, which was rather stony, people had made a heart out of candles and naturally, the girls wanted a picture in the heart. Another one, people were lighting sparklers and let us join in as well.

We ended up in Xianhang Square, the one we were in before when the flower festival occurred, I believe 3 days ago. It had the statues of various people playing different sports around it and was prettier at night. We had to take a taxi back to campus because the DUFE students couldn’t get back in the dorms after 11. This was fine for me because the lunch from today is starting to take its toll, as I write this while sitting on my throne.

Tomorrow we meet up at 12 to do something but nobody knows what yet.

May 30, 2009
3:25 PM

Today we met up with our Chinese buddies outside the dorms but only Gabrielle and Aileen were there. Aileen had joined us at the park last night.

We went and had lunch at a restaurant by the Trust Mart and they ordered us a lot of food, only it was the stuff they liked, so it was very good. The strangest thing we ate was a soup that was sweet and had some kind of “glutinous dumpling balls” in it, at least that is what Aileen’s phone translated it as. They had gotten us some beef stuff that tasted like chicken and that was my favorite.

Outside the dormitory we played Frisbee and showed them how to play. That was a lot of fun and they learned pretty quickly.

7:00 PM
We ate dinner just in the cafeteria as a group of Salisbury students and then went to the Trust Mart again. That place is terrible and just like Wal-Mart but I needed some batteries.

I’ve had my first problem so far on the trip. The stomach issues have been pretty minute thus far but I noticed right after I ate the soupy stuff at lunch with the sweet balls in it, I started to get little bumps on the palms of my hands.

The soup tasted real sweet. Apparently it was a dish only made during this holiday time of year (dragon boat holiday or flower festival, which one I cannot remember). The balls were like a tapioca consistency in a way that they were squishy but I really don’t know how to describe them. It had wine in it and Dr. Cotterman had said that the balls were cooked by balling up gluttonous rice and then cooking them over in something even more gluttonous so it was like straight gluten. I have never been allergic to anything before but I think the straight gluten got the better of me and went straight to my hands.

My hands started to get worse when we were playing Frisbee and I started to freak out about my hands a little bit. I had put them on the hot marble stone next to the stairs and I think that had made the bumps more prominent. I used Sarah’s computer for the Internet and found all this stuff about different skin rashes and stuff but I don’t think that it is really a rash, it doesn’t itch like one and isn’t red. My hands are more like calloused with little skin colored bumps in the palms that are a little darker in the middle I guess, but not too bad. While on the internet, I came across one account that mentioned a disease that would cause symptoms in certain people if they ate gluten and that led me to realize that it had happened right after I ate the strange soup. So I think it was the soup that got to me. No biggie, I think it has gotten better already but we’ll see what it looks like in the morning.

May 31, 2009
2:20 PM
We are at some mall that is very westernized with American brands and American prices. Steve took us to one of his favorite places to eat where we got Korean and Japanese food from a buffet. It was good but this mall is not really what I wanted to come to in China. I much prefer the cheap underground Victory Mall.

Russian Town was also something I could have lived without. Steve had never been there and didn’t realize that it was basically a tourist attraction with trinket merchants. He apologized for this.

My hands are still all bumpy from yesterday although I am not really bothered by it.

Soon we get to hear Dr. Claggett speak and then off to class. I hope from now on we get something to study or something because have been so busy its crazy.

June 1, 2009
9:30 AM
So yesterday we got back from doing our thing at the Russian Town and the expensive mall and we had a little time to kill. I thought I would sleep but that wouldn’t happen so I started to do some academic work for the first time on the trip.

Eventually we went to dinner before class and Jamie, Emily and I ate with Snow in the cafeteria. We had our class that seemed very long and covered over two chapters of the course. I noticed that Dr. Hill had stopped referring to us as the U.S. and I thought that this was appropriate because of the Chinese students in the class. Snow told me that she had asked his age and that Dr. Hill is 31. She also asked me if his wife was beautiful and she said that she wants to see his wife.

After class Snow and I walked around the campus. She showed me the various parts like the gymnasium where you could see a room filled with ping pong tables and people playing at every one. There was a wall that displayed Chinese and World history on it that she was very interested in. It had the solar system on it and different pictures of planets and animals embedded in tile with Chinese symbols. Snow taught me to read these symbols and what they mean although I don’t know how much I remember. She also taught me some Chinese pronunciation of words.

I had tried to tell her what Chinese I knew and I had been told that my pronunciation was very good from the other students like Jerrie and Gabrielle. Snow on the other hand corrected me in my simple words. It turns out that that they have different “standards” of Mandarin speakers and that Snow is a standard 2, meaning she speaks Mandarin very well and can teach it.

We also went inside the graduate student building because Snow thought it was very pretty and it was. This was the cleanest building I had seemed so far and reminded me of a hotel lobby at first, a very nice hotel lobby. There were Chinese symbols on the wall that translated to “Knowledge for a better world” and a walk inside led us to a very tranquil pond with bamboo, running water, and coy. Very relaxing and pretty.

We ended up meeting a bunch of SU students outside the dormitory and going to McDonalds with them. On the way there, the girls were being loud Americans and I made fun of this whilst talking to Snow. She thought it was very funny but admired their outgoing nature.

At the McDonalds, I got an Asian mala chicken sandwich that was very good but very different from an American McDonalds. Snow got some chicken wings, who knew they had that? The SU students made some crude jokes and it was funny to see their reaction compared to Snow’s. She just did not understand them, it makes this culture seem so innocent.

After all that was said and done, I smoked a cigar with Jamie just because I had never done so.

Update on the bumpy hands. It is now spread to most of me which leads me to think it was the soap I was using that they had given us, or the body wash. So, I have switched to a bar of Dove soap that Sarah gave me and hope that will fix me. The rash is just uncomfortable, it doesn’t so much hurt, and it seems different on my hands then anywhere else. Justin says the soap did that to him too and he switched and is better now. His hands weren’t like mine though. Right now, I just really want to go home but I must finish out my trip.

11:00 PM
Well today we went to Dalian Software Park where we got taken into a conference room in this military-esk building and got shown a DVD. It talked about how Dalian is the center for international software development in China and its hopes for one day being the world center. I thought it was pretty cool to see the different numbers shown in the presentation, particularly the salary numbers for what they pay people who speak different languages. I thought it was a pretty good salary, considering how much money buys here but compared to US salaries for say, a project manager, it is not much, probably a third.

We left there, went to some fancy restaurant not far from the University and I ate some squid and various other seafood, some of which I did not know what it was. They had some soup with mushrooms in it that was very good.

After all that, I just really wanted to sleep so I did. I almost missed the Chinese paper cutting but Jamie woke me up and we walked in together, a bit late though. It was funny because the old Chinese man kept talking to everybody in Chinese even though nobody understood what he was saying. We would just fold what he folded, although many of the students were having a hard time following and he would come around and just fold whatever it was we were making for them. I made a few small chickadees, a butterfly, a fish that didn’t turn out right (I didn’t use the stencil he gave me), and something that ended up looking like a nun.

I thought all that was kind of silly, and after all that had ended, I went and finished my nap before class, waking up late for dinner and having to rush through it so that I could be on time for Dr. Clagett’s lecture.

His lecture was very well put together. It compressed a lot of information and delivered it in a good, clear manner. He started by talking about the history of US financial thinking and what matter of thought would have to be overcome in order for us to overcome the financial crisis. He integrated globalization pretty well in the presentation, stating how China and the US need each other in order for one another to prosper. Talking about the imbalance that has occurred over the last thirty years, Dr. Clagett said that this crisis could mark the end of an era.

Snow had saved me a seat in the lecture and we went to Subway after the lecture with Jeff. I had really wanted to see what the Subway was like here in comparison to America. It was not as good, unfortunately. It was almost the same, but not quite. The ingredients seem much fresher in America.

I just took three Benadryl for my rash. Hopefully that will take care of whatever I have going on. Allison was kind and gave some to me. She thinks I’m really gross but prepared for allergies by bringing a box and a half of Benadryl. She didn’t want the shellfish to get the best of her. But we will see what I look like in the morning.

June 2, 2009
11:30 AM
So the Benadryl I took last night didn’t have too much of an effect if any at all. I feel like it did do something, but I don’t know how much.
We go to a music class at one. I think its Classical Chinese music, so I don’t know how interesting it will be.

11:30 PM
The music class today was really cool. Seeing all the Chinese instruments being played with such skill and finesse was pretty amazing to watch. Those girls really knew how to handle their instruments and you could tell that they really have practiced a whole lot. I asked to see if they had a cd I could buy and the guy misunderstood me and wanted to take me to a cd shop, but the girls who played for us did not have one sadly.

We had our first class with Dr. Wu today. He was very passionate about his teaching and it seemed as though he was yelling at the class when he would talk. The Chinese students told me that they did not like his Chinese accent when he would talk and could understood Dr. Hill more clearly, even though that is how many of them sound when they speak English. I thought he came across clearly but I hope I can understand the subject matter a little better than what I did tonight because I have never taken a finance class before and that is what a lot of this delves into.

I feel like something finally is working on my rash, and it is starting to lesson on my hands. It could have been the Benadryl I took last night starting to take an effect or me wearing fresh clothes, rewashed, I don’t know though. So I took another three Benadryl tonight and put some Cortaid on my hands and am about to pass out.

June 3, 2009
9:00 AM
Yep, the Benadryl and Cortaid defiantly worked. I can see the rash on my hands is starting to dry out.

Today we go to the commodity exchange and Jamie says we have lunch with the dean. So we put on nice clothes and are looking spiffy.

11:00 PM
So its almost 11 PM and I am writing this from outside of the dormitory. I forgot to take my key card when I left for class so I’m stuck out here until somebody decides to come out.

Today was a rough day. Although my rash is getting better, the class keeps getting more intense. The stuff Dr. Wu went over just went by so fast I had a lot of trouble keeping up. I’ll have to do the homework and pray it all makes sense by then.

Well that was fast, not five minutes and somebody already came by to let me in. It was a guy from Canada. He said he worked for the Canada postal service for 33 years and retired 7 years ago. He took a class on how to teach English as a second language and came here 10 months ago with his wife. Interesting guy… now where was I?

The commodity exchange we went to was very different from what I had expected. Instead of having people all on the floor being very noisy and yelling and talking and all the commotion I have seen on TV about American exchanges, it was very quiet. Apparently because this one was fairly new, especially compared to its American and European counterparts they have further adoption of computers and almost all of the exchanges are done by computers rather than by telephone or open outcry that is seen in America. It was very nice in there though, very clean.

Next we walked over to what apparently was a “furniture expedition”. It had a lot of really fancy, gaudy furniture in a mall like atmosphere. We were the only people in there so it was kind of weird but Steve said that because he couldn’t really take us to someone’s house to see how the Chinese people lived and what their furniture looked like, he took us here. It was pretty modern stuff for the most part, some of it kind of stupid looking, like some chili pepper leather chairs they had, but most of it defiantly seemed out of the price range of the average Chinese family.

We had lunch at a fancy restaurant that looked exactly like the restaurant we ate at yesterday, so much so in fact that I thought we were in the same one (it was in the same area too). But we ate with dean Wang who was a pretty cool guy I thought. His English did not appear to be too good but he talked in Chinese to Dr. Yao and Dr. Wu. He was a tall, strong Chinese man and you could tell by his voice and the way he carried himself that he was a man of great stature and took pride in this. He kept drinking too. He would say “Gombei!” (which sounded like Gumby!) and then chug his cup of beer. He told us that this meant to chug but Snow told me tonight that it just means cheers. But yea, he drank a lot, it was funny. Lunch was good but I’m getting tired of just eating Chinese food and I really want some fat people American food.

We worked on our group project after that. It was Aaron, Andrea, Blue, Helen, Mandy, and Snow. I feel like the Chinese students were much less knowledgeable about how to explain certain things and answer the questions but I think I can equate it to the language barrier. The slides we put together I am not too confident in and I think we are going to have to advise them and fix one of the topics we addressed in particular where the question wasn’t clear to begin with. I have to ask Dr. Hill about that one. I wish the students would speak up more with some ideas because I feel like Andrea and I were dominating the project. We did play some classic American music for them though and I think they liked that.

Snow and I went for a walk after class and talked about various things that we have come across. A lot of what we usually talk about involves the various differences between cultures something I think we both find very interesting. I got to show her some words she didn’t know by typing them into her translator, a very helpful tool. We saw this one thing on campus that supposedly represented the students holding a high moral for themselves and it had ancient Chinese characters that Snow said she didn’t know what they were until she read the description. I told her what I thought they were and apparently I was right for a few of them. It helps that they were pictograms. We got some chips and something to drink, talked for a while and that’s how I ended up locked out of the building.

One more thing. In class today during break, we went outside and Gabby told me about some little kittens that were hiding in the bush. She wanted me to try and get them out. Apparently she thinks I can attract the cats or something… They wouldn’t come out for me but Gabby thought me saying, “kitty kitty kitty!” sounded pretty funny. I also had some cappuccino wannabe type stuff during break that was pretty terrible.

June 4, 2009
11:30 PM
Today we had our last lecture going over new material and it was crazy. I couldn’t even follow Dr. Wu. It was just too much to digest on top of what we had already learned. I hope I can study and do ok on the test.

Earlier in the day it was pretty unexciting. I just went over homework and that is pretty much what consumed my day. My rash is now getting noticeable better. Not only has it not bothered me on my body today but also my hands are really starting to clear up.

I just tried to call my family but they didn’t pick up. It took me like 15 minutes to work that phone too!

June 6, 2009
1:15 AM
I’ve just finished studying for the night for my exam tomorrow. We also have our presentation finished and are ready to go. I feel pretty confident about the presentation, I know that I am going to be ok with the material and I can help with anything the Chinese students need help explaining in. As far as the test goes, I know that I am going to be ok with the stuff that Dr. Hill has taught. That came pretty easily for me and seemed like a regurgitation of most economic concepts that I have learned. But Dr. Wu’s portion seemed to entail a lot more new material and I am not as confident for that. If I can manage to create a graph depicting each situation he gives us tomorrow I’ll be fine but hopefully I’ll get some time to do some studying beforehand.

Today was basically a study day. We had our review in class and I went over a lot of paper. We did have that basketball game. I managed to get out of playing which is fortunate for me not only because I really don’t like playing it but because of my hands. They are so dry right now its ridiculous but other than some minor discomfort, I am feeling fine.

11:30 PM
Well today is over. We had a presentation and exam for a three credit course on one Saturday. I think we did a pretty good job overall. The presentation went smoothly, everybody did their part and I did my best to sum it up in the end. And when the questions came, I thought it might be only Andrea and I answering them but to I was happy to see and be cut off by a few of the Chinese students eager to share their view on the subject.

The test was very hard. I was really not ready for it and I did my best to answer every question fairly well. I think that I did ok though and should at least pass the class, possibly get an A.

I’m back at the dorm now writing this because I just left from a five star hotel bar/night club. The only real reason I went is because everyone else was going and begging me to go with them. It really isn’t a place I would normally like to go. But Allison really wasn’t too happy being there and her stomach was acting up so I came back in a cab with her and Snow. I really didn’t want her riding back in a cab all alone, not knowing the language and being in China of all places.

Allison told me that she has had this stomach issue for like two days now and that it comes and goes. I asked her if she has had a good time so far and she said for the first week she had a great time but this last week has been rough. I don’t blame her though, I know when I had that rash for a span of like three days I was just miserable, but I’m better now and am having a great time. I hope she gets better soon.

We have to be downstairs tomorrow at 6 to leave by 6:20 and catch an 8 o’clock flight to Shanghai. Allison says that we only have a dinner planned for tomorrow after we check in so it shouldn’t be too busy a day.

I’m really going to miss the Chinese students I’ve met here. They are all some really great and interesting people and are a lot like us in America. Poor Jerri looked like she was going to cry when we had to say goodbye.

June 7, 2009
11:00 AM
I am now in Shanghai riding around in a bus with a tour guide who keeps talking through an unnecessary microphone. Shanghai is very big and hooks like a even bigger Dalian. There is a lot of construction going on, apparently they are preparing for the 2010 world expo to be held here.

I woke up this morning at 5:55 AM AM and had to be downstairs by 6. I wasn’t even finished packing so I threw all my stuff, including a few damp clothes in my duffel bag and rushed downstairs. I tried to clean up a bit too but I didn’t really have enough time to do a really decent job.

We just left from lunch at a restaurant that our tour guide Estella, took us to. The food wasn’t too inspired though and I miss Steve already. He was so hospitable and always took us to the best places, the ones he liked.

Oh, I forgot to write about our interesting dinner last night. It was at a “German buffett” that had German food and beer. A lot of the food from the buffet was ok but there was some that was terrible. I put this sauce on a type of salad and it was absolutely horrid. I also ate this one thing not knowing what it was but upon close analysis fof the dish I cam to the conclusion that I had probably just ate a big bug, a type of grub in fact. Like Timone and Pumba like. But the best stuff there was the meat they brought out to the tables. It was quite delicious.

Now we are on our way to some “ancient village” place and I’m pretty excited to see some cool architecture and stuff. After that, River boat cruise and dinner. The Shanghai lights should be pretty awesome.

10:00 PM
The ancient village we went to was really not that old I think. We got to meander around the “local rich guy’s” house that was built in 1911. It had fancy traditional Chinese rooms and a huge rock style Chinese garden all around. What had happened was this guy put all this money in his estate to have it built but didn’t even live to see it finished. Now the Chinese government owns it and let people walk around. The rocks were built up like caves in some spots and even had steps that you could take to walk to the top of them. There were also coy ponds with really big fish you could feed if you wanted to. We wandered into this one room with wax models of ancient Chinamen. That was pretty creepy but better than the museum we went to. We also found a pergola, but unlike the one in Salisbury, this one was older so it had a lot more coverage over top.

The village was thriving with all kinds of people everywhere and tons of little shops. Dr. Yao had warned us not to buy from there though because she said that they were a tourist trap. There were more white people here then I have seen in a long time so I could see some truth in that. So, I didn’t buy anything, not to mention the fact that I don’t have any room to put anything else. My suitcase is very full and I cant get another until Beijing. Only one suitcase is allowed on domestic flights versus two for international flights. So, I still have one more domestic flight to go. I had the chance to get a custom tailored suit at lunch but I didn’t want it. I wasn’t too sure about and didn’t want to wait any longer at that restaurant having my measurements taken.

There were boats like they have in Venice with guys paddling them through the village and we took one of these back to the entrance. But, why we were waiting we were hassled by a few of the same people multiple times. They were trying to sell us watches, goldfish in bags to be set free, or just begging for money because they didn’t have any teeth. They just don’t take no for an answer. Dr. Wu stepped in and told them to leave us alone. This one lady wanted to read me my fortune from my palms so I showed her my hands trying to surprise her with all the peeling they were doing. I wish I had gotten more shock out of her though.

After this we went to a silk factor and got to see how silk is made. It was pretty gross. It is literally the cocoon that silkworms make. They boil the cocoons and take the worms out and then spread the silk out so it can be like a fabric. It was pretty strange to see the little cocoons bopping up and down in the hot water not only because of the boiling water but because the worms were bopping.

I almost bought a quilt but again, the packing issue prevented me. But really, I think the silk stuff is too nice for my tastes. I would grab the stuff to feel it and it would snag on my hands.

We had dinner right next door and it was pretty tasty. They had some good fried fish and fried chicken stuff. We made sure to get Allison some soup she could handle and that wasn’t bad either

Shanghai seems to be different from what people have been telling us. Dalian is supposedly the clean city in comparison but where we have been, Shanghai seems pretty clean. Also, Dalian seems to be on top of itself in places and I have yet to see that here. Except on the “19th” street we passed earlier. Apparently it is the best shopping in Shanghai and there were a lot of people there. Almost like a sea of people but I get the feeling I haven’t seen anything yet. There were a lot more foreigners here, in comparison to Dalian at least.

The river boat cruise we went on was like a show of this one strip of coast that had huge buildings along it that would light up and give a crazy show. There was one really cool one I liked that looked menacing and like it was alien. It light up in blue outlines and would glitter at the top. The TV tower was cool too. It had a few big spheres in the structure of it and just looked silly and very colorful. I liked the architecture in Shanghai’s financial center better than the light show though. They were really old style buildings, not even Chinese style though, more like Russian and English.

Before we had done the cruise and gotten on the boat this guy had come up to us and tried to sell some wheels that you can strap to your shoes and have them light up as you roll. He seemed like a pretty funny guy, especially for an annoyingly desperate street vendor. He wasn’t bothering us long before this guy comes up to him and grabs the back of his shirt collar like picking up a cat by the scruff of his neck. He dragged him away, the guy being silly and rolling a little on his shoe skates as he is pushed off. We see him get shoved into a doorway the guy smacking the back of his head as he is pushed in and then another guy in a blue police uniform close the door behind the two. You don’t want to cause trouble here.

Well, now we are in our hotel and it is really nice. Jamie and I got the pimped out corner suite again and have some windows open with a nice breeze blowing through the seventh floor room. I just wish the beds were softer.

Dr. Kathie Wright has also snapped some photos of the Chinese students they all have come to know–explore all of the Flickr photo albums they are well worth a look! Also, our students were treated to a concert of traditional Chinese music. Check out the Youtube channel to see new video uploads!

In just a few hours our fearless students will brave the airlines once more on a trip to Shanghai, and then off to Beijing…. check back for more updates on their adventure!

Today was our first free day to roam the city on our own. Two of my new Chinese classmates, Aaron and Kira, took four of us girls out shopping to victory plaza for the day. It was my first experience with public transportation in Dalian, and what an adventure it was. Public bus drivers are even crazier than our tour bus driver! Once we got there I didn’t realize how huge the shopping plaza was. Thank goodness we had those two because we would have definitely been lost without them! They also helped us haggle and told us what was a good deal and what wasn’t. They were lifesavers!

After shopping, we decided to take Kira and Aaron out to dinner to thank them for helping us out. At first they didn’t want to let us pay, but after we insisted that it is an American tradition they finally gave in. This goes to show how important customs and respect are to the Chinese culture.

After dinner, we all went to Xinghai Square to hang out and ride the rides in the park. It was here that we finally really started truly bonding with Aaron and Kira. Throughout the whole rest of the day, we had been talking about all the differences between our lives in China and the US, but by just hanging out and having fun, we realized how similar we all actually are. After today, I have started to understand that, despite differences in cultures and customs, humans in general share many similarities. We all share the same dreams, we all like to have fun and enjoy ourselves, and we all have the same emotions. Today was one of the best days so far in China!

Sunday May 24th

My internal clock is still a little off. I am operating on pretty inconsistent sleep, but, I’m still fairly wired, mostly out of the novelty of the whole experience. Dude, I’m in China. I’m fairly certain I got swindled within the first 4 hours of my arrival. 15 Yuan for a game of pool–no way! I consider this a positive though. I taught me two things I’ll need to work on right out of the gate, getting around the language barrier (bu=no!), and raising my overall awareness. They will kill you with kindness and hospitality here if you are not careful and nothing is free.

Woke up at 5:30am here. Walked around the hotel and found the place to be dead. I had my first meal at the breakfast buffet today. It was a surprisingly rounded meal with eggs, sausage, some kind of Salami I have yet to identify, what I think are hardboiled pigeon eggs (still working on this one), some neat little cakes, and awesome fried rice which is completely different then American fried rice. This was a nice shot of energy. I’m ready to go for today.

That means it is time to explore! John, Jeff, Nick, and I set sail from our hotel around 8am to go explore. First thing I notice is the sun. It is going to be difficult to tell time for a couple days here. It’s 8am and the sun is directly overhead. I feel like it is noon right now and it’s still early morning. This is kinda throwing me off. So, we start walking towards the water. We can see the docks from a distance in our hotel room, we figured it would be a neat place to check out.

On the way we encounter our first flirtation with traffic here. The drivers here are insane. Pedestrians are even worse. The traffic circles have cars shooting off in all directions at 60kmph. We watch the first pedestrians cross the streets to see if there are any tricks involved. From what we gather the rule of thumb is to go balls out. If you are going to cross the street, then cross the street. If you hesitate, any oncoming traffic will take it as a sign of weakness; that they can blow past you without remorse. Another thing, it is common practice to stand in the middle of the road and wait for the opposite direction of traffic to pass. I’ve never seen anyone look so comfortable as a 1500 pound car passes 8 inches from their waist. The traffic circles are a maze of lane dividers and “pedestrian areas.” You have to walk out between the traffic and then stand in 3 ft. wide islands amongst a sea of cars, busses, and weird three-wheeled “trikes“. Needless to say, it is a nerve wracking experience. Oh, one final thing, in America you blow your car horn when someone does something stupid. Here, they treat car horns like some odd form of Morse Code. They use it to warn pedestrians they’re coming, to blow at the guy who just ran the red light, to say hi to their buddy, to order food, to curse the bus that just jumped 2 lanes, or to signal the car that is driving against the traffic they are coming. Drivers here do not care.

Monday, May 25th

Was walking around the city today when I saw something odd. I tend to glance into shops as I walk by them just to see what they are offering and if I may be interested. I had been searching for a watch to keep track of time, as my cell phone was on the fritz. Well, I glanced into the back of what I assumed was a pharmacy and saw an odd looking entrance in the back. Being the naturally curious person that I am, I slipped in and went into the back expecting to see a storeroom or maybe a back alley. I guessed wrong. Behind this pharmacy façade was a 5 story marketplace filled with every conceivable ware that one could want. Pots, pans, clothes, glassware, trinkets, kids toys, shoes, day cares, foods, jewelry, hats, statues, chopsticks, fabrics, were amongst this markets vast assortment of knockoff goods.

Then I found it. Along one of the path ways was a watch vendor. So, I ventured up and started looking at the wares in the glass case. Next thing I know an old lady creeps up to my side and the older man working behind the counter pulls up a suitcase loaded with, at first glance, look like rolex’s and other high end timekeepers. Next thing I know the old lady is yanking watches from the case and slapping them on my wrist. As she violates my arm I spy a nice looking “Patek Philippe,” I have no idea what this brand is but the watch looks cool. Time to bust out some negotiating skills. I examine the watch in attempt to show like I knew something at all about what I was looking at and then ask her “Doushou?” Upon asking her how much this thing costs she pulls out her trusty calculator and types in 450 yuan, about $66. I look at the watch further then drop the well-rehearsed “Tie-Qui-La” on her. This was way too expensive. So, I take the calculator and type in 40*6.8 and get 272 Yuan and show her this back. She quickly counter back with a 400 Yuan offer. Not wanting to push my luck, I agree, and so ended my first Chinese haggling experience, probably over paying for a knock-off Patek watch, that, as I found out later, did not respond well to humidity.

Tuesday, May 26th

So, this was my first time using traveler’s checks. Yeah, definitely should have reconsidered this. Evidently, if they are signed in front of someone who after-words reneges on their agreement, they become ill-liquid. Not even Bank of Construction, the bank in China that has direct ties to Bank of America, the same Bank of America where I bought the things from, will accept them now. Blower.

Oh yeah, I ate a fish’s eyeball and a chickens heart today. Allison just kind of poked the fish’s eye and the thing popped right out. The eye ball was surprisingly hard. Kind of like chewing on a ball with a soft outside with a thick rubber interior. It kind of got stuck in my throat cause you couldn’t chew it. It took a couple of swallows to get down. Otherwise, I’ve had worse. After this I ate the chicken heart that had been dug up from the mixed pot of chicken parts that we were served. Not surprisingly, it tasted like a piece of chicken. A very gamey, muscle-y piece of chicken that felt like it was beating every time you bit down on it. Eventually, I got through the though the outer part and tasted some roasted artery before I swallowed. Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 though. It really wasn’t that bad, I’ve had worse.

Wednesday, May 27th

Went to the Dalian Forest Zoo today. The place was gigantic. The zoo was the size of small town. You needed to climb up a mountain on one side. If you wanted to get to the other side you had to ride cable cars over top of a mountain and down to the other side. This created an absolutely gorgeous view of Dalian.

So, I got the impression lots of things went on in this zoo that would cause people in America heads to explode. After we passed the birds that were chained to their sticks, but otherwise were just sitting out in the open (and not small birds, I’m talking about predators with some nice talons), we came across a tiger. This tiger was not in a cage. It was sitting on a table leashed to a 150lb. Chinese man who had two others in tow with him. The tiger was obviously young but was still sizable, probably around 250 lbs. worth of cat. This cat was pretty obviously stoned out of its mind in order to keep it docile. As we approached we found out that you could pay 10 yuan to take a picture standing next to the damned thing! Name me a place in America where you can stand next to a freakin’ tiger, I’m talking about petting the thing close. So, in order to make the thing look fearsome for a photo these 3 (or maybe 4) guys would sit the thing up and then hop behind a camera. One guy would wave a red pad in front of the thing and another would open and close an umbrella in order to mess up the tigers buzz. Dude, what the hell. I’m pretty torn about this one. My inner hippie was not happy.

Thursday, May 28th

Played my first game of basketball with some students today! It was easier to pop in a pick-up game here than it is in America and I can’t even speak the language. I just walked up and pantomimed a jumper and I was in. It doesn’t seem like the students here have played against bigger guys. We had a couple laughs about that. All-in-all the games were very friendly and everyone had a blast. The guys are some spark plugs, I didn’t see much quit in them. Overall, I was very impressed.

Friday, May 29th

Ate dogs blood today when Caouri and Eric took us out to a hot pot. It tasted a lot like good tofu. Probably one of the most nutritious things I have ever eaten. The whole meal was delicious. You would take pieces of raw meat and veggies and drop them in a small boiling pot of water and spices that was being heated by a small burner placed in front of you. It was very novel. We got a case of 22’s called Snow and made a party of it. I’m noticing that a lot of places are big on having customers cook their own foods. That sounds like a hell of a business model. People pay you to cook their own food.

More photos and videos from China soon to come!