Saturday saw us at Ice Valley. The weather was bad. The rain has caused the valley to be misty and thus there was nothing much we could see. We took a 3 hour bus ride there. It was a pity that the scenery was not as good as we thought, due to the rain.

We were told that smoking is not allowed in the valley. However, we still see old uncles smoking. I thought that was very inconsiderate of them. What if the cigarette was not put out properly? It could have resulted in a forest fire in the valley. (Anyway, the ones in our mouth are just sweets.) I suppose the fine penalty over here is not as strict as what we have back in Singapore. Over here they just close an eye if you smoke? I really do not know. Afterall everyone should do their part to conserve nature.

Wednesday 6th May 2009

A few of us went to the IT mall near Wal mart to do research. Apparently every shop we went to they could recognize immediately that we were students from Singapore doing research. Well, after which we went to explore places. We walked for hours and passed by many places.

One of the places which we happened to pass by and explore was the wet market. The market was almost empty by then because it was near to evening. Stall vendors were busy clearing their stalls and cleaning up. We were very disgusted at one particular point of time because just before we could cross the path to get out of the wet market… a pail of flirty water was being splashed over the floor. The market’s smell was lest bearable and the floor then was filled with unwanted vegetables and meat. A dead rat was spotted amongst all those rubbish on the ground. We totally freaked out as we tip-toed or use our best possible way to carefully walk across the road. The condition was far worse than Singapore’s in terms of hygiene level. The rat could have been crawling around the stall before it died. I just feel that whatever we eat here, we got to be really careful because you never know if the raw food has been contaminated. It could have been on the ground being trampled on before it was actually sold to be cooked. Who knows?

Well, after having dinner, we went to the park nearby and it was bustling with life! There were elderly dancing in pairs to the melody of the songs and youngsters playing sports like rollerblade, chapteh and many more. Ivan bought a chapteh and we started playing. We were beginners so it was no surprise that we did not play well. (My shoe even flew when I tried to kick the chapteh!) It was so embarrassing! Anyway, I was amazed by how youngsters/strangers just join in the circle to play the game with us. We were obviously way more shy as we could not play well. Furthermore, to us, it was the impression which came first. After failing for a few times, we pulled out. That was how shy we were. It was a Singaporean teenager thing I guess. We tend to shy away when we are not good at a particular thing. Perhaps if we had more courage, we would have mastered the skill by now! ;p In anyway, we are still learning the skill..

It was a fruitful day on the whole as we had fun experiencing the different types of places and people of Dalian.

Monday, 4th May 2009

We ended lesson at 12 noon. After having lunch at a nearby restaurant, Eunice, Pei Yu, Wen Zhen, Chloe, Si Ying, Ivan, Rui Hon and I were intended to go to a place, or rather shopping mall which was supposed to have shops selling printers. Ivan remembered his buddy telling him about a building which had printer shops and he was to lead all of us there. However somehow along the way, we got “lost”. We ended up at Bin Hai Road.

The uber nice scenery at Bin Hai Road



We made many calls and found out that the building was actually located near Victory Underground Shopping Mall. We could have taken bus no. 414 all the way from school but instead we took BRT and changed to tram to reach Bin Hai Road. Then we took bus no. 22 back to Victory. Those were unpleasant rides as we had to squeeze with the crowd half the time on the bus, without knowing when the bus will jam break, stop or move off.

By the time we reached the area which Victory was located, it was already near to 6pm. We could not contact the buddy which pointed the mall with printer shops in it still, so we decided to have dinner before continuing the search for the mall. Dinner was a good one. No Ajisen this time, it was some Japanese Ramen stall too though. We have never seen it in Singapore before. Perhaps it was time for a good change.

It was just hours before shops closed for the day and we only managed to see a few fax machines at the departmental store. Exhausted we are, but we chose to take a bus ride home. It was the first time I took a bus at night. We decided to give the first bus a miss because it was too crowded. Little did we know that the next bus which came, there were also many people.

When the first bus arrived, we saw the ugly sides of people as they all ran frantically towards the bus door even before it opened. Shocked by the actions of these people, we have made up our minds to be part of them just for that moment when the second bus arrived. We stationed ourselves right at the door where it would open. Even then, people stood in front of us on the road! They did not really care what others would think of them. It was perfectly fine to just cut queue and push and squeeze your way through using your bag, hands, just anything! That we have all accepted their actions. It was just how they fight their way up to survive in the crowd. If not, they would perhaps have to wait for the next bus, the third or the fourth. Don’t you think so?

In all, it was a “packed” day in a sense, we more or less became a sardine after a day of taking more then 3 rides on the public transport..

I am rather glad that the Singapore government impose fines on people who spit in public back home. This, we seem to have taken for granted. In Dalian, people, especially men, spit as and when they feel like. I can even tell you boldly that they are good at it, by observing the distance the "spit" travel and they way they do it, it is like part of their daily routine. It is just like how human beings need to drink water everyday, and they would just die without it. This came across my mind while I was waiting at the nearby bus interchange yesterday as an uncle spitted from inside the office through a window out to an open space.

Yesterday it was a pity that our trip to some valley far away was been cancelled due to expected rain later in the day. Anyway, we had backup plans and we saw ourselves at the same place we were last Saturday. We went to Victory Underground Shopping Mall again, but this time round it was only Eunice, Pei Yu, Wen Zhen and me.

We had the same food for lunch as Pei Yu and Wen Zhen have not tried them before.

(Lychee Rose Drink)

For dinner, we had Pizza Hut. The outlet we went to was very big and we had the usual stuff, hawaiian pizza. It was like the classic food on the menu. We tend to relate back to what we used to eat back home in Singapore. Food outlets like MacDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut, we all know them and there bound to be comparison. I guess that is part and parcel of how we can slowly start to adapt to the food culture in Dalian..

Wednesday 29th April 2009

We did a presentation for IDT on creating new experiences for the blind. It was an enjoyable assignment on the whole because we had a lot of fun discussing and coming up with interesting ideas.

There was still time before night falls, so Eunice, Pei Yu, Carolyn and I called our buddy up and tried to ask if there was any good hair salon around. We followed her directions and on the way we saw quite a few but they did not look welcoming enough, due to the fact that the store was small and gloomy. They looked very sloppy from the outside. We walked quite far, past the bus interchange. The store which stood in front of us was now more decent, but we were not too sure if it was a hair salon. We hesitated for quite some time before heading in to ask.



What I realized was that we mind a lot about the appearance of the shop. This salon, as compared to the rest, was more spacious, and it had a clean look with white paint on the outside. It gave us a feeling that it was trustworthy. I guess it is because we have all heard about Eunice’s mother’s friend’s encounter. She had a haircut at a salon in Chinatown which was set up by a lady from China. Days after, she realized a lot of hair has dropped. Unsure about what was wrong with her scalp, she consulted a doctor. She was told that the scissors might have been dirty, thus causing her scalp to get infected. It has caused her to be bald as the scalp needed time to recover. It frightened us quite a bit. After all, who would want to have their scalp infected by just merely cutting and trimming?





Nevertheless, we were all very satisfied with our haircut. It was a man who did our hair. He was very meticulous and patient. He was also very friendly as he initiated a conversation by asking where we were from. I noticed that people in China, no matter what job they are holding, whether is it a salesgirl, taxi driver, or stall vendors, they are very friendly and they love chatting. Everywhere we go, there will be traces because we are not locals and people here are very amazed by the way we speak (they claimed it was like Korean), we behave and dress. So, word spreads fast in Dalian? Maybe.

I shall end this post with a few photos taken during our free time. ;)

Monday 27th April 2009

In the evening after class, we headed to Carrefour to get grocery. We finally found Milo. I have been drinking it from young, and it just feels weird without this chocolate drink. We could not find it at other supermarket like Wal Mart and in school. I have no idea why they do not import Milo. It is probably because people in Dalian prefer to drink cereal and milk tea. Milk tea products are rampant in Dalian. There are so many brands and choices to choose from. They include bottled milk tea, canned milk tea, packet milk tea and milk tea in cups. Milk tea lovers will definitely love the huge range of varieties. In anyway, I am just satisfied to have bought a bottle of milo powder home.

Something to note, we are currently addicted to “shou zhua bing” (a roti prata like snack).

Saturday 25th April 2009

I started my day off with having a light breakfast with Eunice in our room. We met Wee Tyng and Lee Peng and our china buddies in the lobby and headed towards the bus stop. On our way, we got ourselves "bao" to eat. The "bao" was different from those we had back in Singapore. The filling was great. We tried all 3 flavours (chicken, pork and beef). The skin was bad though. It turned soggy and oily after awhile. Having stayed here for almost a week, I would say the food are mostly prepared using quite an amount of oil. Nevertheless, the bun kept us warm in the cold weather.

Then there was the bus ride. It was the 2nd time we took a public bus (no. 414), and the experience is still like a roller coaster. Due to some parts of the road which were uneven, the bus ride was a bumpy one. I was observing our 4 buddies' expression, and I realised they were shocked by the bumps too. It was a rather cute scene as we would expect them to be used to bumpy rides.

After about 40 minutes of bus ride, we reached the place. It was an underground shopping area. It totally threw us off our feet because there were so many shops! Too many to even finish shopping all in a day. Initially we thought it was a totally different place from the one the rest have been to on friday (underground shopping). However, only at the end of the day, Wee Tyng and Lee Peng then realised that it was the same underground shopping centre. You can imagine how big it was! It was really huge, as if they have a north, south, east, and west wing shopping centre and 5 basement level. We can never finish all in a day!

We started from the last level up. There were around 50 shops or more on this level alone, all selling apparels, head gears, accessories, bags. A pattern was common amongst these shops. They categorised the area into different sections in such a way that there was a level for shoes, near to 6 rows of shops selling bags and one level for apparels. The design of those apparels did not repeat much, like Singapore's Bugis Street. In fact, they are so many different designs to choose from.

We had lunch with our buddies later in the afternoon and we continued shopping. Basically it was quite a good shopping experience because of the low prices. However, some of the salesperson did frighten us because they do not like it when we lower the price to an extend that they cannot accept and they will start cursing and swearing. Our buddies helped us to bargain and we were of course thankful for that. We bought them drinks in the later afternoon because we could see that they were very tired.

(Something I did not mention was, my clumsiness caused quite a lot of trouble for my buddies. I was browsing a shoe from a display shelve which was facing out. I was curious and wanted to see what was the base like, then disaster happened. Just as I was about to put it back, it toppled and fell into a bucket of water which was just right next to the shelve! My reaction was "oh my..!" My buddies immediately told me to put the shoe back onto the shelve. I am so glad I listened to them and acted fast, because the next moment when we pretended to walk away, a salesperson came out. She tried to arranged it and was angry to find that it was dripping with water! She was also once again, cursing and swearing, demanding to know who wet the shoe. We obviously did not admit it as I would probably have to pay for it. I felt really guilty to have caused my buddies so much trouble. They are really a bunch of kind and helpful people.)

We ended off our day with grocery shopping and quick dinner. We thanked our buddies before we bid farewell to them in the cab...