Dalian Coast

beautiful!

Homework? just another "China moment"

Nicole sat down to do her homework and there was a knock on the door. There was a leak in the condo above us, and so they were going to fix the problem apparently that our leaky pipe had.

After viewing the pipe from the laundry room the fix it guy called his buddies, and they took turns sawing the ceiling right above the kitchen sink. The dry wall was flying all over my kitchen. Nicole continued to do her homework as we were wondering how many guys could actually come "help".

It was one of those "China moments". We come up with these almost daily and laugh about them with other expats. Things happen here, and we just shake our heads and say, this only would happen in China.

Another "China moment" in the same week....the dishwasher door wouldn't open because they installed the dishwasher lopsided. When they came to "fix" it, they took off the baseboard and cut a hole in it so the dishwasher door could open. I guess this was easier than straightening the dishwasher. Something funny too, we were only putting clean dishes in the dishwasher, it was only our drying rack since I couldn't find soap for over two weeks.

Lantern Festival and Random comments by a guest publisher

Lantern Festival or Yuanxiajie (pronounced yew an.. er ... oh never mind) is the final event of the Spring festival. It is on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. Ok, think about this for a minute. The New Years celebration is 15 days long! Day 1 - exciting, Day 2 - neat, Day 15 - If I hear one more loud explosion from a firework I'm gunna...


We went to Labor park with about 300,00 of our closest friends to celebrate the Festival. Being the big spenders that we are, we dropped the 20 yuan (~3 bucks) for parking directly adjacent to the park. Here is a picture of the one spot in the park where there were no other people.






High above the city, we were able to look down on the park below


We have many more pictures but it is entirely too painful to post them as it takes too long. Check them out in slide show form either in the current or archived slide shows!


Alright, so a little more about Dalian. I have many ideas for posts that I just haven't gotten around to writing. Here are some titles / ideas

• The rules of the road are not bad once you conquer your fear of dying
• Rare steak is for pre-sick people
• Pineapple Pie at McDonalds - taste that tropical goodness
  
• Free is not a good enough price
• There are no bike lanes, just skinny car lanes
• There is common disregard for the American concept of danger
• Calories make you fat not Kilo Joules, right?

- guest publisher Damon