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The Diaries |
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June 23, 2009Last days in ChinaPosted by Samantha SmithMonday morning we had our Chinese language assessment. Joe and I had our conversation memorized well; it was the pronunciation that was trouble. We couldn’t have been too bad because Grace said “hen hao” when we finished which means “very good.” Monday night we took the hotel’s kitchen by storm, bringing all of our foreign food and ingredients in while the cooks protested in Chinese. They had not been informed that we had permission to use the kitchen and spoke no English. After they were informed what was going on they were a huge help. We had tons of eggs to boil and potatoes and apples to peel and they were much faster at this process than we were! They were sure wondering what we were doing adding all this mayonnaise to the eggs and potatoes! We let them try our deviled eggs and after one polite bite, they chucked them over the fence. Not for them I guess! Our grill out went well. We learned that we had to do some demonstrations after we saw the students piling apple crisp and potato salad on to their burgers. Yuck. Tuesday went fast. We did one last global skills exercise and had a dinner at a very nice restaurant overlooking the sea that evening. We had all of the Chinese students, all of the Chinese faculty who helped us, and even the President of DLNU. All in all there were about 30 of us which made for one HUGE table; the biggest one I have ever seen. After dinner we lit Chinese lanterns and set them off over the ocean. It was so pretty! It was a wonderful way to end the trip, but a little sad! I will really miss these people and I feel like I have gotten to know some of them very well and we have become good friends. This makes me really hope that the program is successful and that they will visit UNI next summer so I can see them again and show them Iowa. This has been one of the best experiences of my life and I would not trade it for anything. It will not be my last time in China and definitely not my last trip abroad! I have learned so much about China and its people; I only wish everyone had the opportunity that I did.
June 21, 2009Thursday-SundayPosted by Samantha SmithSunday morning I went to my fitting for my suit. It looks great and fits awesome. I can’t believe I paid $300 for my current suit in the States and I hate it! I feel like a man in my current one but this new one is fitted so well to my shape and looks very sharp. The skirt was perfect and the jacket just needed to be let out a little. I can pick it up tomorrow for $35. We went to the downtown area in Dalian to a marketplace similar to the one in Beijing. I finished picking up souvenirs for family and friends. Unfortunately the customer does not have as much bargaining power at this place as in Beijing. In Beijing you could throw down any price you wanted and when they said no you would just walk away and then they would chase after you and give into your price. But here I tried that a few times and they just let me walk away. So I ended up paying a little higher than what I wanted to but it was still cheap by U.S. standards. I am going to be so spoiled when I go home. I’m going to think everything is so expensive and overpriced! I’m used to paying 15 cents for a bottle of water. Chris, Joe, and I took the railway over to Metro, a European grocery/superstore chain. They had many familiar products and brands for us to get our ingredients for the American grill out tomorrow night. We felt like such Americans filling our cart with potatoes, mayonnaise, butter, cheese, etc. We got a good laugh out of it. The railway is jam packed and everyone is shoving and pushing like crazy. You have to understand this is just how it is here, otherwise you would get pretty mad and think people are being rude. It’s back to the hotel now, where I am planning to take it easy. I may go get a message tonight because you can get one for an hour for under $10. Then Joe and I will have to go over our Chinese conversation one last time for tomorrow morning’s assessment.
June 18, 2009Tuesday & WednesdayPosted by Samantha SmithWednesday after classes we toured a clothing factory outside of Dalian. They actually manufacture men’s suits. It was very interesting to see what the inside of a factory looked like. They employees were working very hard and fast. I have to say, as ignorant as I may sound, that I did not even know clothing was sewn by people anymore. I always pictured a bunch of machines pumping clothes out and an employee here and there to make sure the machines operated smoothly. Shows how much I know! Anyway, when I do think of factories, I also think of horrible working conditions, but this was not the case. I learned that a mere .03% of fabric goes to waste! They are obviously utilizing every inch of that fabric; I was impressed. I also learned that the $280 jacket you bought the other day? That cost about $50 to make including materials and labor. Another eye-opening piece of knowledge was that these workers were making about 1500 RMB per month which is equivalent to about $215 U.S. dollars! PER MONTH! It sad to me and I realize how much I take for granted seeing as I just took that out of an ATM the other day…So many people raise families on a lot less. When we got back into the city, John (one of the Chinese students who is kind enough to let us call him an English name) took us to a tailor where we could be measured, pick out fabric, and have a suit custom fitted and designed for us. This was fun and I got a jacket and skirt. The best part is that this will only cost me around $35 U.S. dollars! You can’t beat that. We will go back on Sunday for a fitting and then can pick them up Tuesday before we head home. So, after John translated to the tailor for all 8 of us, he was pretty exhausted. How can we thank him we asked ourselves? Take him to McDonalds! So that’s just what we did. He said he likes it but hopefully he wasn’t just trying to be polite. After that Chris and I went on a search. We are going to cook the Chinese students a typical American meal. The hotel has a grill area outside and agreed to let us use their kitchen. So the menu includes: burgers on the grill, potato salad, apple crisp, and s’mores. We had some trouble trying to find some of these ingredients, especially mustard and cinnamon. Also butter is hard to find, and the closest things is labeled cheese, so we are not sure about that. We ran into a guy from Texas and he told us where he goes that you can find some Western foods. We found our ketchup, mustard, and graham crackers there. We are still having some trouble with the marshmallows though and how do you try to explain that to someone at a grocery store who barely knows English? After that it was time to head back to the hotel and work on the presentation again and do some last minute editing.
June 15, 2009Saturday, Sunday, MondayPosted by Samantha SmithMonday we toured an Australian company who recently relocated from Hong Kong to Dalian. The company, Automated Systems, manufactures garage door openers and security systems for gates. They own a large market share in Australia but are not yet prevalent in the U.S. This is the first time that I have seen any sort of assembly line. It was very interesting to see this because you know when you buy anything technology-related in the U.S. it was probably made in China. So it was nice to “put a face with a name,” if you will. After the tour we had the afternoon free. I decided I needed to do some laundry so some of the students here showed me how and where to do that. Then they took us to a BBQ restaurant and it was awesome! It was German themed and they barbeque your table about 20 different kinds of meat and bring them to your table on these long skewers. We had chicken, pork, beef, sausage, shrimp, crawfish….a bunch of the regulars that you would expect. But then there were also some crazy things like cow tongue and chicken hearts. They also grill you pineapple, which I love! We walked around the mall after that. We have been getting a huge kick out of the mistranslations into English that we see here. For example, in the mall there is a big poster advertising sportswear and an athlete which reads, “Impossible is Nothing.” Shouldn’t that read, “Nothing is Impossible?” But the BEST one came when I was browsing the women’s clothing. We found a shirt that read “Super Wood Panel.” It was all decorated with rhinestones and glitter. Seriously, what is that supposed to mean?! I have no idea how that shirt could be mass produced without someone catching this. It must be popular to wear shirts with phrases in English because you seen so many of them but I don’t think much thought goes into the translation. It was too funny I almost had to buy it. Now we are back at the hotel, and it is time to get working on our presentations. We have a lot to live up to as the Chinese student’s presentations were very impressive. The one I found especially interesting was on relationships in China. The slideshow was not only aesthetically pleasing but the content was also excellent. It really explained to us Americans the huge differences that encompass Chinese relationships. Sunday we went to Xinghai Park. There is a large monument of an open book there on the ocean. Leading up to the book is footprints from various important people of Dalian. The sides of the book monument are raised…probably about 20ft. off of the ground. So we climbed up to the tops of the book pages for some photo opts and couldn’t help but think, “If this were in the U.S., there would DEFINITELY be some railings here so that people do not fall!” Also at the park is some amusement rides. I surprised myself even when I agreed to go on one of those balls that slingshots you into the air via bungee cords. This is not like me but I was feeling it was the thing to do at the time. I ended up being very glad that I did it. It was scary but a blast and you got a great view at the top! After it was over, I could finally let my body relax as I was incredibly tense. We had lunch at a buffet-style restaurant. I have to admit, I did not think that buffets existed in China. I thought that was just an American thing that made us all get fat! Nat ordered a dish and did not know what it was. Turns out, it was pig’s ears. Mmmmmm….delightful. Luckily, he is not a wimp like myself and this did not bother him. We then visited the Russian district in Dalian. This is where the Russians built a bunch of building while they controlled China for a short while. The architecture was cool and it was filled, as with most streets in China, with vendors. Pig must have been a theme for the day because I found some packaged pig snouts at a convenience store. 3 per pack and very reasonably priced…So after a fun day, we headed back to the hotel where most of us rested. That night we went out to karaoke again, this time with some of our Chinese friends. It was the same place that we went last time but I am apparently the only one who was able to remember this. Our Chinese friends showed us a good time as usual! Saturday was a busy day. We began at the aquarium here in Dalian. It was a very nice park and we got to see a couple shows with whales, seals, otters, and the like. Unfortunately I did not put on sunscreen which was a mistake! I never learn. We explored around outside and came across a zip line beginning atop a mountain/large hill and shooting across the bay to the other side. Most of the boys took part in this, but I opted to hold their junk for them and take pictures. They insisted that I missed out but I am ok with that. Before leaving we watched a show with a walrus and some seals. It was cute and entertaining. In the United States we have people walking through the aisles selling popcorn, cold pop, candy, etc. Well here in China, they walk around selling dried fish. David bought some, only because he thought it was bread. It was described as tasting “fishy.” We got a good laugh wondering if they were selling that for people to feed to the seals and here we are the dumb Americans eating it. But alas, we saw some other audience members eating it so we knew it was safe. We headed back for the bus and had lunch on the way to the Peking Opera. I enjoyed the detailed costuming and makeup in the opera, however the high-pitched signing is something I hope to enjoy only once in my lifetime. Following the opera, we shopped around an underground mall for a few hours. I indulged in yet another Coach purse and some more knock-offs to add to my collection. I’m convinced that I will have to go buy another bag at Tesco to check for the flight home due to all of my shopping! I love shopping here because I love the bargaining. Even in the clothing stores they will come down on the price! Now why can’t it be that way back at home? Shopping was followed by dinner at another little dumpling restaurant and then a sightseeing tour of the city at night, which was very beautiful. I was mad that my camera had died by this point so I did not snap any pictures!
June 12, 2009Painting our A, B, C'sPosted by Samantha SmithThursday was a relatively uneventful day, and it was kind of nice to have a break. We had class as usual, followed by a Chinese painting class. This was very fun but the technique was difficult to master. We had a very nice artist teaching us. We painted fish using this black in technique. We also painted our Chinese names. We found this hilarious because us painting our Chinese names is the equivalent of kindergartener in the U.S. painting, “A, B, C, D, E, F…..” Glad we didn’t have to hang ours on the fridge! The afternoon was free for us to do what we wanted. I walked with Joe to a mall and we looked around there. Customer service is NOT lost in China. In the U.S. if you are at a store you have to run around trying to find a sales person to help you if you have a question or can’t find something and most of the time you can’t find anyone. Here, there are SO many people in one department, you can’t escape it. It’s borderline annoying how many sale people are in the stores. It’s almost as if there is too many people in this country and they have to make jobs somewhere for them so they fill up the stores. They always come up to you the minute you express remote interest in a product and then they start showing you all of these other products that you were not looking at. Imagine the Buckle back at home how when you are in the dressing room they start throwing 5 pairs of jeans and shirts over the dressing room door that you didn’t ask for…take that times 10! I guess it is probably a good thing though. We then headed over to TESCO, a European grocery/discount store, similar to Walmart. I wanted to find a phone card but no such luck. We met up with Chris and David there and looked for ingredients to s’mores. We wanted to show them some sort of American food that they have never tried and figured that S’mores would be simple to make. We found some crackers similar to graham crackers and the chocolate, but no luck finding marshmallows unfortunately. We then had KFC for dinner followed by Dairy Queen, bad I know!!! The KFC chicken here is gross; it’s not good quality. We headed back and saw an Irish Pub with a Coors light sign outside. Jackpot, American beer! So we got back to the hotel and I announced my find to the others. We walked back over there and asked for a Coors light. The bartended was very confused…and said we do not have that here. We pointed to the sign hanging outside to which she simply shook her head. So much for that! We played pool and still had a good time. Today, Friday, we had class as usual. We had lunch in the cafeteria and I had my first bad reaction to Chinese food. I have not had any problems so far but I knew it was coming sometime! I had sort of a tomato and egg soup-like dish. It was pretty spicy and I actually really loved it. Right after I ate it though I could tell it wasn’t settling well in my stomach and I headed back for the hotel. My suspicions were correct and my stomach was feeling very torn up and I laid down only to get right up and spend my afternoon in the bathroom…..you can guess the rest! I had to skip out on the tour of the candle factory today because I did not want to leave my bathroom! Luckily it has passed now and I am feeling good. I took about a 2 hour nap and drank a lot of water. Also, I am very glad I got the medicine from Student Health before I left.
June 10, 2009A birthday today!Posted by Samantha SmithToday we began our usual language lessons. I am just terrible at Chinese! I keep wanting to speak Spanish because it is the foreign language that I know and it makes me feel better that I at least know that! I can repeat the words 100 times and then 10 minutes later when our instructor asks me a question using those words, I’m blank. Everything sounds the same to me. Chinese has four tones. This means one word can have four different meanings depending on the tone used. When using the first tone, you say the word flat with no emotion. The second tone you start to pronounce the word in a lower voice and then raise your voice higher toward the end of the word. The third tone you start your tone high, become lower, and then high again. The fourth tone you start high and become low toward the end. One word that we have all been able to memorize with no problem is “Pi jiu.” Translation: beer. It has been handy. We ate lunch in the cafeteria again today and I had my partner order for me. I just said that I trusted her to get me whatever because it is too hard to explain what you want! After lunch we toured a Canadian company in the free trade zone that is trying to develop a market for pre-fab houses in China. I have to say, the place looked pretty dead and I am not surprised. I have seen no houses in this country other than the countryside, and those are huts whose owner’s cannot afford a pre-fab home! It is not like the U.S. with neighborhoods and housing developments. There are two places people live: either in the city in a high-rise apartment, or in the countryside in a hut. There is no middle ground. From what I gathered, the company is not having much success here and their only clients are the wealthy looking to build a vacation home. The houses they make are beautiful and look very Western. I hope that I am wrong and that there is a potential market for this kind of thing, however it gets sticky when the government owns all of the land and they push for more apartments, more apartments, more apartments! The houses were anywhere between 1200-5000 sq. ft., which is much larger than what I would have expected. Today is Chris’s birthday, and our Chinese hosts went all out! They gave her gifts, flowers, a card, and even a birthday cake. We are not talking a HyVee sheet cake here either. This cake could be used at a small wedding! They also took us all out to a dumpling restaurant. Dumplings are the restaurants specialty and they serve you many different kinds filled with chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetables, eggs, prunes, you name it! They were very good. Now we are all back to our hotel relaxing, blogging, reading, and studying our Chinese. I am looking forward to tomorrow afternoon because we will be taking a painting class here!
June 9, 2009I still can't speak MandarinPosted by Samantha SmithToday was another full day. We began again with Chinese language lessons. I think we may have improved a little from yesterday, but we probably haven’t. Afterwards the Chinese students again joined us for Global Skills. We are getting to know them more. Before I left, I really thought that Chinese people were extremely different from Americans. I also thought that I was going to go through “culture-shock” upon arrival but that is not the case. I have found more similarities than differences between myself and the Chinese students. We have many of the same hopes, worries, hobbies, and dreams. They took us to eat in the cafeteria for the first time today. There is NO WAY I will be able to order something for myself. There are countless choices and windows of food, but even if I was able to figure out how to order something, I wouldn’t know which plate is mine when it is done! Luckily Emma took care of all that for me. I told her I like chicken and spicy so anything you get me is fine! After lunch we went to a beautiful hilly area where you could view the city. It is a nice park area for people to retreat to and be around some greenery. We also went to a museum about the city of Dalian. Dalian had developed extremely rapidly within the last 20 years. They had a slideshow with before and after pictures of the same area and it was amazing the difference. 20 years ago Dalian was a small fishing village and it literally looked like a third-world country with no modern conveniences, except maybe paved roads. But that was where the luxuries stopped. In 20 short years, they are now a city of 6 million people with skyscrapers and every modern convenience you would find in Chicago. The museum also showed the plans that Dalian hopes to have achieved by the year 2030. I have no doubt that they will reach their goals. We headed back to the hotel for a rest and then decided we really needed some American food tonight. Pizza Hut is only a short walk away so we decided to go. The Pizza Huts in China are much nicer than in the U.S. The interior, décor, and menu is much more upscale. This is because, for Chinese, Pizza Hut is a more expensive meal than what they are used to. In China, a typically meal will cost you about $3 U.S. dollars and bottled water or pop is only about 14 cents! So when Chinese go to Pizza Hut, a $15 pizza is pricey. This is ironic because our American cheap, fast-food restaurants end up being the more expensive option in China. The menu is also completely different but we were still able to find what we like. They did get our order wrong, but can you blame them? The waiter had to wait on seven people speaking in a foreign language and pointing at 15 different words on the menu! I’m sure it was chaotic for him! We then had to make a stop at Starbucks. This sounds bad, but I felt really good in Starbucks, like I was at home. As pathetic as that may sound, it is simply the truth and I’ll be the first to admit it without an ounce of shame! After Starbucks, it was off to McDonalds for ice cream. You can tell we have not had anything remotely American since we left and now we are like kids in a candy store. I found a very nice shopping mall in Dalian that I want to go to and Emma said that she will take me so I am excited about that!
I can't speak MandarinPosted by Samantha SmithMonday was our first day of Chinese lessons. We have a Chinese instructor and she must be laughing hysterically inside at our attempts to speak Mandarin. For our first lesson, we focused primarily on sounds. There are so many sounds and pronunciations in Mandarin that we never have to make in English. I am literally having a hard time figuring out how to form my mouth and tongue to make the sounds. It is very difficult but we are all getting a good laugh out each other. Our instructor also picked Chinese names for us to call one another by. The name she picked for me is “Shi man Sha.” It was pretty funny because when spoken it sounds like Samantha, only by someone who can’t pronounce their S’s correctly. But I am told it means beautiful so I’ll take it! After language lessons, about 12-15 Chinese students joined us for our “Global Skills” class. It was very interesting and fun to meet them and their English is excellent. I am amazed at, not only how well they speak English, but how well they can participate and understand a college course being taught to them in English. I can’t imagine taking classes in Spanish…and I studied Spanish for 4 years! It was then time for lunch. We kept hearing “pancake house” and “pancake king” so we were getting excited thinking, “Maybe we are going to IHOP!” Of course, the pancake house was full of seafood haha. They did have some very thin wraps to put your meat in, and some desert-like cakes, which were the “pancakes” they were referring to. It was very good nonetheless. We then headed to the Port Authority. I have never been to a place like that in the U.S. even so it was an interesting operation for me to see. They were so many crates, if you will, full of good either waiting to be exported or being imported. One thing they talk about quite a bit in Dalian is the Intel plant. Intel is in the process of setting up a location here and we toured one of their warehouses. After these tours, we headed back to get ready for our very important dinner. We had dinner with not only the Dean of the College of Business from UNI, but also the Vice Mayor of the city of Dalian. It was very fascinating to listen to the dialogue being exchanged between the two. It appeared that UNI is very anxious to have students from Dalian come and study at our university, however, the Vice Mayor seemed very vague and non-committal. Dinner was great; the restaurant had an outstanding atmosphere. I also learned what a heavy role alcohol plays in business dealings in China! After heading back to the hotel, a few of us students decided we were not ready to turn in. We wanted to really immerse ourselves in the culture here so we went to a local karaoke bar. Karaoke bars are very different in China from the States. You are given a private room to sing in with only your group. I suppose this was probably a good thing, considering our singing was mediocre at best. Also, karaoke is taken seriously as a hobby in China, and not merely a drunken sport as it is in the United States. Many Tiger’s Crystals (Chinese beer) later, we grabbed a cab for the hotel.
June 7, 2009first day in DalianPosted by Samantha SmithToday we arrived in Dalian. We were greeted immediately by our Dalian Nationalities University hosts at the train station. They are the most welcoming people I have ever met. They really made us feel like they were so happy to see us and wouldn't allow us to carry our luggage. We hopped on the bus and headed for the university. Dalian is a new and beautiful city. A lot of people liked Beijing better because of its character, but I have to say that I find Dalian more attractive. Perhaps this is because it is a new, young city and the modern buildings remind me of Chicago or something back home. Their English is excellent and I can't help but feel guilty that I don't know any Chinese. I felt unprepared! The university is very nice and about the same size as UNI. They had a very nice breakfast waiting for us when we arrived. They even tried to incorporate some food that we like in the U.S. such as eggs, bread and jam, and popcorn! It was kind of cute that they had popcorn. We cleaned up, rested, and headed down for lunch. After that we got a full tour of the campus. We then headed for a very nice seafood restaurant overlooking the Yellow Sea. I have been surprised by how much alcohol they keep feeding us. We have beer at nearly every meal, and have had shots at a few. I did not expect that. They even try to serve Nat, who is only 13! After dinner it was back to the hotel and time for bed. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming.
another full day in chinaPosted by Samantha SmithSaturday I awakened much more energized then the day before. We started off at the Forbidden City. I was so amazed at how huge it was! I never imagined a palace to be that big. We then went to Tiananmen Square. Our guide told us that there was over 2000 police in that area in civilian clothing. It was also interesting how she spoke about the area. She did not talk about the massacre that happened there, instead she spoke about how foreign media reports “distorted news” and that the area is very sensitive which is why there are so many police. I was also surprised we had to but purses and such through security before entering. After that we visited a silk factory. It was interesting and if I had money I would definitely have bought some silk bedding! We then went to lunch, which was a great restaurant but I have to admit I wasn’t really a fan of the food. I’m still very skeptical of everything I eat which I need to get over! It’s hard though because you really don’t know the English translation for what kind of meat it is. I like to try new things but eel noodles were just too much for me to handle. The beer in China is surprisingly ok and we have had it at most meals! Following lunch we went to Summer Palace, where the Emporer’s vacationed. This sits on a lake and we got to take a dragon boat out on it. We then visited a pearl factory where I bought a necklace for about $30 US dollars. She opened a clam right in front of us so I’m going with they are real. We then went to a flea market. It was not what I pictured it would be like at all. It was a 3 story air conditioned building with vendors selling anything you can imagine. Fake ofcourse. I went on a short shopping spree and got 3 purses, a wallet, uggs, and ed hardys for under $100 US dollars! That was fun! We ate dinner at the same place as lunch but ordered different things. I liked these dishes better. It was then time to say goodbye to Jesse, our guide, and head to the train station. Here, my frustration began. I already had heavy bags and they were now heavier due to my shopping. Apparently elevators are not as abundant in China. So, picture me dragging 4 bags and a purse up curbs, upstairs, and into the train. I was miserable. Luckily some of the guys helped me out! It was even worse trying to fit four people’s luggage into our little sleeper rooms on the train. I was under the impression we would check baggage like an airport and it would be off our hands. But, no. I was sweating profusely and very irritated at this point! Finally I settled in on the top bunk and a restless sleep.
June 5, 2009Busy dayPosted by Samantha SmithToday was our first full day in China. It was very busy too. We started off at a jade factory, where they had many beautiful jade products and we were first introduced to bargaining prices. I don't think that I am very good at this, but I should not feel bad because they certainly don't feel bad charging us huge markups! We then went to the Great Wall and that was the best workout I have had in months, maybe years! It is very steep and not all of it is stairs which actually makes it hard to climb. It was very worth it however, and the view is awesome. This is also where I learned to walk away from people trying to sell you things and they will run after you and accept the price you offer. It's funny. After this we went to another factory, whose product/technique I cannot remember! But they also had many pretty things and it was a great lunch too. After this we went to the Ming tomb and Sacred Way. I was very surprised at these places to see how few tourists were there. It felt like we were the only ones at Sacred Way which was really nice. We drove by the Olympic sites on the way to dinner. They were impressive but I have to wonder if they are practical. I don't think they are really used at all now. The show was funny and Alex was called up as a volunteer. It was hilarious watching him up on stage, not having a clue what he was in for or what these Chinese people were talking to him about. Our tour guide is great and very knowledgable. Right now I am so tired that our rock of a matresses look amazing! I could sleep for 20hrs so I'm going to go and get as much of that as I can!
May 31, 2009Getting ready to goPosted by Samantha SmithToday I have spent mostly getting things ready to go: laundry, packing, walmart trips, etc.! It's hard to believe at this time on Wednesday I will be in Beijing. This will be the first time I have been outside of the United States, other than Mexico, which doesn't count. I'm very excited and a little nervous. Mostly I am nervous about the flying part because it will be a 13 hour flight from Chicago. I hope to meet a lot of new and interesing people, which I don't think will be a problem! I think my parents may be a little more nervous than I, however, because they both felt it was necessary to get their passports and visas too, "just in case." =) I think maybe they shouldn't have rented the movie "Taken" before I left.
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China DiariesKellyChina TourSamanthaNickStewartJoeAlexFaculty MembersChristineGordonDavidMap of ChinaJune 23, 2009Last days in ChinaJune 21, 2009Thursday-SundayJune 18, 2009Tuesday & WednesdayJune 15, 2009Saturday, Sunday, MondayJune 12, 2009Painting our A, B, C'sJune 10, 2009A birthday today!June 9, 2009I still can't speak MandarinJune 9, 2009I can't speak MandarinJune 7, 2009first day in DalianJune 7, 2009another full day in chinaJune 5, 2009Busy dayMay 31, 2009Getting ready to goSyndicate this site (XML) |
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