DAY 14

Anglia has officially been in Dalian for 2 weeks but no shopping (aside from grocery) has been done before today. The テルテルボーズ seem to have taken total control over the weather thus yours truly could go out with only 2 layers of clothes instead of the usual 4. The 10 of us took a bus down to Dalian Railway Station which was an hour’s ride away. As usual the bus was packed and we had to stand (and get pushed around) the whole way.





First was mild shopping for 2 hours after which we decided it was time for lunch. I exploited the chance of eating outside of campus by ordering something non-Chinese again. I had teriyaki chicken rice which tasted fantastically not salty.




After recharging we embarked for intensive shopping and bargaining which lasted for about 3 hours. To my delight I found a shop of tote bags and couldn’t resist buying one since it was only 35 RMB and the quality of the fabric was reasonable. The second purchase of the day was a purse which surprised a friend. I have to agree that it is uncharacteristic of me and I still don’t know why I had the whim to get such a feminine purse. The last purchase of the day was a t-shirt. It was all right, not wonderfully cheap but I was so attracted to the graphic I just had to have it.






For dinner we decided on KFC upon exiting Dalian Railway Station and spotting the all-too-familiar logo. I had the set meal on promotion which consisted of Zinger burger, Pepsi, popcorn chicken and egg tarts. Of all places it had to be KFC where I had my first egg tart in this country.




The evening view of the city; sadly the Friendship Square wasn’t lighted up yet.


Upon reaching the campus, a friend’s local buddy invited us over to her dorm room. Regrettably Jonathan who is the only guy in our group could not set foot in the dorm due to obvious rules. The dorm room housed 4 people and is primarily made up of bunk beds. I heard that there are dorm rooms which house 6 or even 8 people within the same floor area. Frankly speaking I don’t think I would survive living in such a place.


I salute the local students who live in the dorm.

DAY 13

The day kicked off with a visit to the Golden Beach. Anglia wasn’t sure why the organizers brought us to the beach when a theme park was just across the road. Speaking of the theme park, it looked like a mock of Disney Land with a name like Discovery Land.











Obviously the place was very windy and my unprotected eyes started to water. Nonetheless, I had a nice walk along the beach and spotted a few people fishing. Is it possible to fish in such shallow water?







Once bored of the beach, many started to rent bikes while some attempted to fly a kite. Our lecturer joined in the fun too; he was able to get the kite to stay in the air for a record of 5 seconds.


Next was lunch and to everybody’s horror surprise, it was held in the same restaurant as last week. Thankfully there were new dishes though curiously I didn’t eat as much as the previous week.








After fuelling our stomachs, we headed to Dalian Niuqi Qi Jing which is basically a horse ranch for policewomen where we were supposed to be able to watch a performance. Ridiculously today is Labour Day, a major public holiday in this country, so the staff had the day off. The substitute entertainment were watching an officer train a horse, visiting the barn, taking pictures with a friendly horse and of course going crazy over dandelions.


There was also a rather temperamental Chow Chow which looked lonely.




Horses are often said to be majestic creatures but it seems that they can be silly creatures too.








Next destination was Dalian Sightseeing Tower which is insanely tall plus it is located on a soaring peak. I am semi-phobic of high places but ironically I love the view from such places.






Way below the sightseeing hall was a gallery of coins, insects and butterflies. I found an old Indonesian coin being displayed and suddenly missed my home country.



Outside the tower, a jumping fever started to spread. It felt good to jump while looking at the city way below.



Last stop for the day was the Olympic Square and by then the jumping fever was still going on. The Olympic rings reminded me of onion rings; I was hungry already.


For the first time in 2 weeks, my group of 7 friends and myself had something other than Chinese food; McDonald’s. I had the McSpicy which was not spicy at all, at least to my standard. Singapore’s version is way hotter. Even so I tried to savor the rare Western taste by eating the burger slowly. I want more already.