{"id":121,"date":"2011-08-21T05:29:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T05:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/?p=121"},"modified":"2011-08-21T05:29:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T05:29:17","slug":"dalian-days-and-dalian-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Dalian days and Dalian nights"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three weeks? I thought it was just a few days ago that I wrote a bit of a blog. It has been such a full-on section of life with non-stop everything. I look out the window and see (and hear) the 24 hour a day building across the street with eight cranes in one area and several a block away along with jack hammers, lines of trucks, and just so many workers and just like life in China it just does not stop. On the way to nearby Kai Fa Qu, Dalian counted 41 cranes working on buildings in the 25 plus story range \u2013 apartment buildings, then I saw as many a few kilometers further. And there is the new city they are building nearby that will not only host the new China movie industry but will have a yacht marina and housing for zillions or so people. The area across the street from us\u00a0 will be million dollar homes (yes this is China) in a walled-in area called \u2018Chateau de Burgundy\u2019 and a block away what they are building is identical to where we were touring a year ago in southern France. It is even being built to look old.\u00a0\u00a0 \"french<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n
french chateau next to Dalian American International School<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

As I sit here trying to get caught up from the past three weeks I hear the
\nfireworks. It is 6.30 AM Sunday. This is China \u2013 fireworks and more fireworks.
\nThey love their fireworks. Anytime of the day or night there will suddenly be a
\nbarrage of them. Whether here in the countryside, or in downtown Kai Fa Qu or
\nalong Golden Pebble Beach, downtown Dalian, or where we shop locally in Jinshitan
\n(which is also Pebble Beach \u2013 go figure) there will be smoke and ashes and
\nnoise of the fireworks.<\/p>\n

The water to Pebble Beach (Dalian Golden Pebble Beach National Resort is the
\nfirst National Resort approved by the State Council of P.R China, the main
\nfunction of which is for hosting foreign guests) was turned off for a couple of
\ndays. We filled our bath tub and every bucket we could find but since it was
\nFriday we decided to go into Dalian City (about an hour away) for the weekend
\nwhen school let out. Two other couples went with us. We took a car in (our driver
\nwe call Jack, not that we know who Jack actually is, we just all have Jack\u2019s phone number on our phone and we ring Jack wherever we are and a car soon arrives and we are taken where we want to go. It is often a different driver each time. We just go up to the car
\nand say Jack? and they nod and off we go. We try not to look out the window when in a car. It is the scariest thing you could imagine. Where there are three lanes marked, \u2018Jack\u2019, or the shopping bus, or whatever we are in, often makes a fourth lane. Drivers rarely signal and everyone goes really fast, beeping horns and coming so close to constant disaster. I had to go into Dalian for some medial stuff last week and my driver was easily doing close to a hundred coming back \u2013 it was a van. We came to a blocked area of the freeway so instead of patiently (there is no patience in our neck of the woods) he made a sudden turn off the freeway up a dirt construction road around a hill and got
\nback on the freeway further up where there was no traffic jam. It was absolutely terrifying. Oh, and he was on his cell phone most of the time. I suppose he felt he had to have me back at school as quick as possible so I won\u2019t miss any work. And of course there are no seat belts.<\/p>\n

So this past Friday, with no water into our building or the whole area we went
\ninto downtown Dalian. Outside of too many dealings with government officials to
\nget my working visa finally through we had not been in Dalian, except for one
\nnight we had a school trip to Brooklyn, the expat pub and pizza diner in downtown Dalian. Once our driver fought his way through the heavy traffic going into the city (we went in two cars for eight of us, four couples, and six of us ended up at the same hotel) and dumped our bag in our rooms we went out in search of a meal. Our Chinese lessons begin next week so for now we depend on our electronic translator. We went into a restaurant that covered several stories. When we made enough gestures to prove without any doubt that we were starving we were sent up to about the fifth or sixth floor. After being herded
\ninto a small room the food started coming out and we cooked it in boiling somethings on our table. I have a video (and photos) that I will post soon on my Dalian Page http:\/\/dalian.neuage.us\/ <\/span>that<\/a> shows what would be too difficult to explain. Needless to say the food was really good and we had some of the best laughter up to that time.<\/p>\n

So after dinner everyone seemed to be in the mood for a drink (it is difficult to
\nkeep people over 55 from partying) and we went off into the night. Near our
\nhotel was a 30+ story hotel with a name very similar to ours (so we initially thought
\nwe had booked into the wrong place) and we were riding up and down the elevator
\nlooking for a pub type of area and on the fourth floor saw a sign that seemed
\nto mean a place to have a drink. We barged into a room that had a bar and lots
\nof alcoholic bottles on the shelf only to instantly be met by about a dozen
\nwomen with tight red dresses. Realizing that we must be in the wrong area we
\nlooked into another room with the same response. (I have a video of this too
\nbut I think we were laughing so hard \u2013 damn rude Westerners, that it may be a
\nbit shaky \u2013 it will soon be on my Dalian page in the video section). The third
\nroom seemed better as no women in red tight dresses greeted us. We sat down at
\na long table on comfy sofas and hoped that someone would soon be in with the
\ndrinks menu. Instead two people came in and started handing out microphones and
\nput on the large TV screen, we realized then that this was actually a karaoke
\nbar\/room and Shawn, one of our traveling mates\/teachers\/new found friend, said
\nthat we had a friend downstairs waiting for us and off we went into the night
\nagain. We never did find a place to drink. Like pirated DVDs prostitution is\u00a0illegal in
\nChina and like pirated DVD\u2019s they are everywhere. We saw girls with flashing
\nneon badges dressed to the nines and signs that read \u2018sex\u2019 with large arrows.<\/p>\n

The next day, Saturdaywe headed to Zhonshan Square and had lots of fun shopping,\u00a0 hopped on a falling apart bus because we were so tired to go to the Ike store outside of downtown Dalian. We showed the driver an Ike shopping bag and he held up three fingers
\nso we paid the three yuan (47 cents USD, 45 cents Australian) and as all drivers he made his own lane which in our case was the opposition direction lane. Somehow he squeezed back into the lane that was our direction as cars came racing toward us and next we knew there was Ikea. I wanted to go see the aircraft carrier that China is building which is only a few blocks in back of Ikea but with all the bags of stuff we had purchased and five tired old
\npeople trailing behind me it was not going to happen. We ended up just buying lots of Swedish food because we need a change from Chinese food and then Narda and I went to the Decathlon sports store next to Ikea and bought really good bikes and helmets an locks and etc. which will be delivered in a couple of days. Hopefully we won\u2019t get killed ridin our bikes on these incredibly dangerous road ways. We plan on doing lots of riding. Then we took the light rail, so crowded that we barely got in \u2013 New York City subway you hold nothing on a crowded Chinese tram. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
our new red-star hats<\/dd>\n

The shopping bus leaves Campus Village (where we live) on Tuesday and
\nThursday evenings and Saturday morning. It stops in Kai Fa Qu on the way into Dalian. We use to go in during the week but after a day at work we just go in on Saturday to Kai Fa Qu. Two weeks ago we walked the hour hike to the light rail that starts in Jinshitan
\n(there is a planned station for our school but it may be another year or two\u00a0 before it happens) and took the 4 yuan half hour ride and fortunately got a seat in and after buying way too much stuff we took the shopping bus in the afternoon back home. Home is great. It is like living at a four star (five star for China) resort\/hotel. We are sparsely furnished but it is OK\u2013 our heap of junk we shipped from NYC won\u2019t be here until October. We have a two bedroom apartment with a balcony (there is or will be a video in our video area of my Dalian site) for some photos see http:\/\/dalian.neuage.us\/photos\/Aug%2012%202011\/<\/a>
\n(sorry about the URL will fix it sometime). We have a gym on the first floor,
\nit is not the New York Sports Club which I took a liking to for the past five years but there are some machines and heaps of free weights so I get to stretch and groan every day. Then there are the guards. Not sure why. It is safer here than most places we have lived. The whole property, Campus Village and the school have a large fence all around and there are guards at every entrance and every building. Twenty-four hours a day. They are not the doorman they are guards usually dressed in army uniforms. Whether they are protecting us or being sure we do not suddenly move out I am not sure but they are friendly and we have learned to say ni hao (hello) but I said hee haw for the first couple of weeks \u2013 probably means something not nice.<\/p>\n

Narda and I found a small shopping area twenty minutes walking away. It is so local, and so cheap. We both got haircuts for 15 yuan \u2013 about $2.50 both haircuts look quite Asian.<\/p>\n

School so far is great. After teaching at the NYC Charter school, Ross Global Academy (the Courtney Sale Ross, widow of Steve Ross, the former C.E.O. of Time Warner, experiment in education which was closed down by the city of NYC for its momentous failure) this is such a contrast. The kids are behaved, want to learn and we are having a great time. I make big mistakes such as asking if anyone could speak Korean as my student was not following me at all only to be told by a Korean student that \u2018he is Chinese\u2019. And names? \u00a0Forget it. Most of the Asians have taken on names like Tony and Oscar. Our life-saving secretaries, Snow and Sunshine keep things rolling. I still have not had time to set up a VPN so I can get on Twitter and Facebook and post my new lots of video on youtube but I have an eighth grade student who has found a Japanese VPN that he is setting up on my
\nmachine. I have several students whose parents work for Intel nearby. Campus Village not only houses the teachers for DAIS but for the big overseas companies that are moving into this area which is kind of a Silicon Valley of China. They live in townhouses and we live in apartments so there is a difference but we are not complaining. Narda likes having a maid and getting our house cleaned and clothes washed and ironed but I am not sure \u2013 though it is cheap, it seems a bit unnatural to me.<\/p>\n

The building around our area makes me dizzy but in the midst of it all, across the road,
\nfive minutes away, is the Blueberry Farm. A very large area with a pub, tea rooms, lake, streams and a great restaurant. Nine of us trekked up to the restaurant a couple of Fridays ago. Nothing was in English, fair enough, this is China. I managed to get across I was a vegetarian and the first eight or nine dishes that came out were so amazing, some of the best food I have ever have had. There was so much food, and beer, and soda and at the en it came out to about eight dollars USD each. I have a couple of photos http:\/\/dalian.neuage.us\/photos\/BlueberryFarmDAIS\/<\/a>
\nand will put a video soonish in the video area of my Dalian page.<\/p>\n

We rarely watch the news. There is just too much going on here. We get about 35 channels, mostly Chinese but we do get HBO, BBC, CNN and an Australian channel so I have gathered some of the males over to watch Aussie Rules Footy. It looks pretty grim in the States. I know we have lost about 15% on investments in less than a month and we have no intentions of selling houses.
\nWe are becoming quite removed from the rest of the world and we are happy with
\nthat. We have a two year contract which we may or may not renew or maybe they won\u2019t want us. It does not matter now. We feel like we are on a holiday and life is just great. We have begun planning our trip to Hanoi for our October week break. Everyone here, being from the States, or in our case, Australia-States, the talk of travel is the number one conversation (after the academics of course \u2013 hey we are working) and where everyone is going is compared and shared. We are off to Australia for Christmas than to the ice festival in Harbin in January and maybe India for spring break then the States for a couple of weeks for summer than on to Australia then back here. I am so happy I managed to stay alive this long. There were some very rough years and for now life is great.<\/p>\n

Well Narda is off with some \u2018girls\u2019 to get a foot massage in Jinshitan. They have rung \u2018Jack\u2019
\nand several cars are on the way to collect them. Me? I am finally having a bit of time to myself, think I will work on so many dozens of videos I have started and perhaps do some lesson planning for next week and edit some photos, go to the gym, take a walk, take a nap \u2013 it has been such a full-on three weeks, make tofu burgers for din din and try to figure out how to use my soy milk maker that Narda bought for my 64th<\/sup> birthday eleven days ago.<\/p>\n

Next weekend we have been invited to a Chinese wedding so that will be fun. Apparently
\nit is a good thing to invite or have westerners at a Chinese wedding and these are big events here.<\/p>\n

Narda has a great blog \u2013 well she has posted some and more is waiting to
\nbe posted after her foot massage today. blog.narda.us<\/p>\n

\"tri<\/a><\/dt>\n
just a pub in Kai Fa Qu<\/dd>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three weeks? I thought it was just a few days ago that I wrote a bit of a blog. It has been such a full-on section of life with non-stop everything. I look out the window and see (and hear) the 24 hour a day building across the street with eight cranes in one area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,27],"tags":[39,38,36,41,37,31,40,29,35,34,28,32,33,30],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-china","category-dalian","tag-aircraft-carrier","tag-aussie-rules-footy","tag-bbc","tag-campus-village","tag-cnn","tag-courtney-sale-ross","tag-decathlon-sports-store","tag-golden-pebble-beach","tag-hbo","tag-japanese-vpn","tag-kai","tag-ross-global-academy","tag-time-warner","tag-zhonshan-square","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terrell.neuage.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}