Dalian Guomao Jiari Hotel

If you come to Dalian, pls...

by tierneyli

If you come to Dalian, pls DONT miss a western road of
this city, Ying Bin Rd., which means 'Welcome' in English. Rent a Taxi, go along this road will be the most romantic thing you can do in a seaside city.

Coral Hall at the Ocean Park

by meteorologist1

The coral hall at the Laohutan Ocean Park is another attraction featuring lots of marine creatures on display. There are some really strange fish here. There is also a diving performance given here. I recommend this attraction in addition to the pole aquarium. Admission is 35 yuan (+ 15 yuan to first enter the park).

Diary

by BigXey

"Teaching"

2/25/02
Today was the first day of classes. I don't really have much to say about it. The students are a lot more stoic than I expected, but I'm just going to have to work with it..and just keep trudging on. To celebrate, we went out to this restaurant in Victory Square called Papa's. Bleh. I also talked to Dustin today. I miss that guy a lot. I also talked to Brian. He said he found a receipt on the floor that I had left at the apartment, from the time I bought that shirt at American Eagle that he hated. I really miss all those carefree days of hanging out, doing our thing, thinking we would always be together and things would always be the same. Sometimes I really hate change.

***Time Discrepancy***
Lack of motivation and effort made me lose about 2 weeks of diary keeping. To summarize, the biggest event was getting involved with an Australian I met at Dave's Bar.

"Diary, Revisited"

***No Dates***
For some strange reason, the following excerpts have no dates. There were also no spaces in the entries. Strange? Yes. Evidence of a psychological disorder? Maybe
***

Okay, here goes Attempt #16 to keep a diary. Okay, so that's really just a rough guess. Like most people in the world I've attempted to keep journals many times in my life and have failed miserably. Most of the time it's because I sound so incredibly stupid when I write that I can't bear to have to be reminded of how stupid I sound when I reread diary entries. This time, I'm going to force myself to be diligent about keeping this journal. Why? Because I have to stay SANE. I guess another problem I have with keeping journal entries is that whenever I need to write the most is when I feel the least like I want to. Well, here goes. This is my attempt to keep a record of my thoughts, hopes, musings, and adventures while I'm in China. I just went to the store by my apartment building and saw this really ugly journal sitting on the shelf for 8 yuan. I bought it. Yay, China. I have to say that I was pretty homesick at first. I missed Brian, Dustin, Dr. Pepper, and drivers who were relatively considerate on the road. Now that I've settled into my life, I'm actually very content here. I think it helps that I feel like my life is here, not back in the States. I was telling Dad the other day that the last time I was here, it was smack dab in the middle of summer break. I had a life to get back to. I think now since I've graduated, I can transplant myself somewhere and have my life be there, rather than feeling like my life is passing me by.

My life here has been pretty settled now, despite the turmoil at the beginning. I'd like to say first off that we are a bunch of idiots. The four of us, Bethany, Birvon, Corbin and I have been trying to find Dave's Bar for a week. Every foreigner we run into always throws in the "Hey, I'll see you this weekend at Dave's!" and we just didn't understand why, every Friday, we go there and there is NO ONE. Well, I guess it doesn't help that there's a huge building off Zhong Shan Lu that says David Bar, and the real Dave's Bar has no sign and is actually off Zhong Shan Guang Chang. Grr...anyway, after we met this really random Australian/French/Russian/Jewish guy at a tea shop, he showed us where it was and now it's our watering hole. I think we've been there a good 5 times now in the past 2 weeks. Sad, yes, I agree.

I guess I should recap what I've been up to. I remember being so freaking bored in my room everyday, and now I think my life is just a little too crazy. Here's a fast recap: I hooked up with Timma, an Australian guy, I've been getting drunk like a rockstar every weekend, and I've gotten hooked on old reruns of Days of Our Lives on Star World, one of the only English speaking channels on cable.

"Saturday Morning Hangover Routine"

Right now, I'm in the middle of my Saturday morning tradition: being hungover, watching Days, and eating Ramen. God, how sad am I? I guess sometimes it's the mundane drivel that make the good things in life better. So, yeah, I hooked up with this Australian guy, but we both discussed that we don't want to be with each other. It's kind of difficult to be here all alone, but ultimately, I don't feel like he's right for me. I'd rather be good friends with him and make fun of all the stupid stuff he says (like duner instead of blanket). On a different note, I'm going to Thailand! Yes, I found out a couple days ago that I'll be there for about a week for Spring Break. Score. I'm so excited. Just writing it send shivers down my spine. It sounds so beautiful and exotic. I can just seem myself soaking in the April sun, staring out into the vast expanse of beautiful water. God, I'm so hungover. That's the last time I drink 5 quai beer.

"Running around Dalian"

Okay, so last night we went out and spent a ***load of money. We stopped by Noah's Ark, and the Shangri-La Hotel bar, with all of the Russian hookers. It sucked because after all that, we ended up at Dave's Bar again. I'm so glad we found that place. I think from now on, I'll stop complaining that we need to go somewhere else. I didn't drink much last night because I was still so tired from the previous night. David from Hawaii was there. I think he was hitting on me! I could have been hallucinating, but Bethany noticed it, too. Eew! He's a married man, too. I'll never understand the deal with men.

It's surreal how memories and dreams blur together sometimes. I have a hard time imagining myself at home in Springfield, or in Boulder and even seeing myself in Thailand. I wonder if I can appreciate seeing something if its memory is no more real to me than the dream I had the night before. Speaking of dreams, Bethany keeps talking about this dream she had about masturbating with the remote control. Wrong, wrong! I won't even go near her remote now. I know, it was just a dream. David seemed really intrigued by it but Birvon, Corbin, and I were just horrified. Bethany is such a cool girl because she just doesn't care what anyone thinks. I completely admire that. Like the *** sex thing and the farting thing. Okay, enough of that stuff.

"1 month, 7 days"

So, lately we taken up drinking 1.25 quai beer in Bethany's apartment. Not that we're sick of Dave's Bar, which I will now call DB for simplicity's sake. We've just gotten really lazy since we've been here. We can get HUGE bottles of K-Lion (the Chinese beer of choice) down at the corner market for practically nothing. They're never cold, because Chinese people don't really drink their beer cold. I have no idea why. So, to speed up the process of getting drunk, we've been playing "I Never" a lot. Bethany had a good point. She said we should play "I Never" at the end of our time here and see what new things we have to drink to. Seeing as how I Never always turns into "What kinds of weird sexual things have you done?", that may not be a good idea. Given what Bethany has already told me about her sex life, I don't think I want to know what she has planned for this experience.

I'm going to a water park near Lushun this weekend. Lushun is the military base about 40 km outside of Dalian. Foreigners aren't allowed there...including myself since technically I am a foreigner. But the water park is near there. Should be interesting.

"Stupid Skinny People"

Buying a swimsuit in Dalian is an exercise in frustration. I'm not what you would call a big girl, but compared to these tiny Chinese girls, I'm like Godzilla. Sucks. Nothing ever fits me. I see some fat people every now and then walking around. Where do they get their clothes?!?! Tell me! I tried on a couple swimsuits and nearly fainted when I saw myself in the mirror busting out all over the place. Maybe I can buy one in Thailand. Damn you skinny people!

Okay, so I've realized that the longer I'm here, the more embarassing stories I seem to be accumulating. Here's one. The water gets shut off in our building around 9 am. Being the lazy ass that I am, I of course never wake up in time for that. So, this morning, I wake up late and not only do I have to take a cold shower, I don't have any towels because they're all in the washer. Okay, I think I'll just use this sweater in my closet. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but oh man, it was NOT a good idea. I'm standing in my shower, dripping wet screaming "THIS SUCKS!!" So there I was, hair wrapped in a sweater, and then I realize I have nothing to wear...except my SWEATER. I am seriously screwed up.

"Melancholy and French Boys"

You know, amidst all the excitement of being abroad, there are moments of such mediocrity that I could just die. Grr...why can't I be happy right now? Be happy! Bah, that never works. I'm supposed to go out tonight. Let's hope it helps.

Oh, crap. Last night was absolutely crazy. I think I'm still drunk. I don't remember much, but I'm sure I had fun. So, in my drunken stupor, I bump into these guys and start talking to them. Their names are Christophe and Nicolas. Christophe is from Lyon and Nicolas is from Clermont-Ferrond. Or something like that. I'm supposed to call them tonight and go out. Bethany was talking all night to this British guy named Allen. He's like 54 or something and I'm trying to get her to go socialize with me, but she just stayed at the table talking to him. Then, when I looked back there later, she was KISSING HIM. AAH! He's like my Dad's age. Blyech. Okay, not my business. I can still rant about it. Yikes. So, before I left, the French boys wrote down their phone number, only now I have no freaking clue what it says. I can barely make out that it says "French Peng Yous". Isn't 411 the area code? Why is their number 411-1738? Hmm...I wonder if they gave me the wrong number on purpose. That would be really horrible! :) Let's hope not.