Day Two in Dalian

I wrote some stuff for my blog last night on my laptop using Word but I have no way to trensfer it to the internet. Can't use USB key in this internet cafe.

To summarise, Dalian is a lovely and clean city compared to Beijing! Two guys (students in the uni) picked my up from the airport and brought me to my apartment, which is nice and spacious and well equipped with big TV (that I can watch English football on!!), fridge, microwave, rice cooker, kettle, electric cooking ring, hot water, air-con in bedroom and a PC.


The day broke in true Irish fashion again. Pissing rain! The 2 lads picked me up in the morning and we went to the police station to fill out some sort of residence form.I told them that they should use the word "cop shop" instead of police station. I am teaching them English that is useful. Then we went to the uni to see about some stuff. There will be orientation on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Only in the mornings. I briefly met two of the other foreign teachers. One Amerhican and one Australian guy.

Som after lunch, we hit for town. First was the seemingly easy task of getting ADSL Internet. As I've heard before, the old language barrier can be a big obstacle. First there was confusion cos my landline was some sort of prepaid type, where you buy creditm like a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Then, I was trying to find out the upload and download speeds. More confusion insued! After nearly two hours, we sorted it out!! Could have done with a pint after all that.

We took the Dalian equivalent of the LUAS into the city centre. Very cheap, even considering that my salary is around aeven times lower in China! It is 1 yuan (around 10 Euro cent) for a bus or tram ride.

We went to a big electronics place (where you can bargain) so I could buy a cable to connect my laptop to the TV so no need for DVD player. More inter-language problem hilarity insued!! We then went to the giant Carrefour to get some necessities for the apartment.

Came back and got some cheap food in the local restaurant on the corner. Becoming a regular at this stage!

So, from my day out, it seems like Dalian is a lot different from other Chinese cities. It's luxury in comparison to most of them! However, some things still remain very Chinese, i.e. the people. Most people in shops can't speak English. I wouldn't expect them to and it also helps me with my Chinese!

Hopefully I will like this place when I get to know more people!