Dalian, China

I am currently on a Tour of Asia with several short jobs in the Far East. First stop Dalian, China. Long flight...upstairs Business Class of the plane...same crappy movies as the flight back from Argentina (I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and Why did I get Married...yeah it was that bad)...arrive in Beijing to stay the night. I step off the plane onto the jetway which is lined with advertisements. The first two I see were for the Beijing 2008 Olympics; one with Yao Ming and the other with Jackie Chan. How stereotypical. I met with some lovely United flight attendants at the Holiday Inn Lido and walked around Beijing for about an hour. It was too late to see anything worthwhile by the time I got in, but I REALLY want to go back. The next morning I got back to the airport to take a domestic flight to Dalian.
Dalian Pictures
A driver from the hotel picks me up and takes me to the hotel: Shangri-La. The nicest hotel I have probably ever been in, and its where I am staying. To put things in perspective, there is a Louis Vuitton store in the lobby. Upon arrival, a bellhop opens my door and takes my bags and greets me by my name. Nice, he has done his homework. Then I walk inside to a Gauntlet of hotel staff who all know my name, which I really didn't expect. I relish the coincidence that my last name starts with an 'L' as it resonates through the lobby. "Good Morning, Mr. Resniak." "Herro, Mr. Resniak." I try to smile politely and say good morning behind my clinched teeth hiding a huge grin. Then, apparently a Chinese tradition, I take a picture with two ladies from the hotel staff by the elevator "as remembrance." Again, strange, but very welcoming.

The town is alright, but the streets are really dirty and weird smells slam you from around the corners sometimes. The food at the refinery is edible if you choose wisely. I am working through the hand cramps from chop sticks every day. There are lots of foreigners here due to refinery work, the shipyard I can see from my window, and international hotel staff. There are plenty of restaurants close by, which is nice since the hotel is outrageously expensive. It costs $1.70 just to wash a pair of socks, so I went ahead and bought some new socks instead. Here are a couple pictures from walking around town.

One of the nicer aspects of this particular job was the people to hang out with. A couple of coworkers as well as contractors from other companies were on site and we all stayed in the same hotel. Here is a shot of Nick from Denmark, and my coworker, Mariana in the hotel bar, F2. There is more about the Filipino band that played at F2 if you look at the rest of my pictures.

The Chinese people seem to add "err" on the end of words ending with k, so this was Nickerr, and we sometimes rode in a Buick-errrrrrr. On a related note, instead of saying um, er, or uh during pauses like in English, Chinese people say the words for "and." So basically when thinking, stammering, or at a loss for words, they fill the gaps with and, and, and (and thennnnn). All of this is fine, except that the words for "and" translate in English phonetics as nie ga. So these people are talking all day long, and to me it sounds like nigga, nigga nigga...filling the gaps of their sentences. It's unbelievable. I can't keep a straight face while they are talking.

Anyhow, on my last night, Nick-err, William (another contractor from Houston), and I went to Olive Garden, which was lovely. No, its not the Olive Garden from the US...just an Italian restaurant with the same name. Afterwards, we went to Alice Bar which turned out to be pretty dead when we got there. Apparently it was too early, because this place turned into a hopping place. (Don't you mean jumpin, like 21 Jump Street?) There was billiards, the place was packed, they handed out fireworks, and live entertainment...and by that I mean a singing group and a 2 scantily clad dancing groups...which danced on the bar...and on poles. It happens. We went into the place just to see what it was like, and I would definitely go back.

Buuuut, I don't get a chance to go back now, because I have to go to Korea.