Golden Horse Go Boom!!

The building across the street from us has been undergoing demolition work since November. The going was fairly slow, and we kept waiting for something really exciting to happen. There had been a few exciting moments when they would cut chunks from the facade and let it fall 25 stories to the ground. A few days ago, they put up a notice that the building would be explosively demolished on Sunday morning between 6:30 and 7:30am. They told us that we would have to be >200m away from the property, and that those of us who's apartments faced the building would have to leave. So of course I did the only feasible thing one can do when faced with a 6:30am evacuation order; I invited all my friends over and we set up cameras and made Bloody Mary's. 

Double click on this to open a new window. It may take a min to load, but it should be a looping mini movie made from my still photos. 

At about 7:15 with no real warning what so ever, and with a local transit train about 100m away (they never stopped the trains), the explosives went off and took the building down. I had a video camera on it as well as my wide angle lens on my SLR. I got 18 shots of the process before the cloud of dust completely covered the window and made it as dark as night inside of the apartment. When the dust settled people swarmed in to start cleaning the dust out of the street with brooms. There was some dust blowing into our house through the horribly sealed windows. 

You can click any of the photos to open a much larger view... it is worth it

total black out in the apartment... 3sec later it was literally pitch black

Aftermath

Dust that blew into our window though the shoddy weather stripping 

Bunch of guys with brooms to clean it up... and a random car driving through... it is ok though, the car had his hazard lights on so it is fine. 

The comfort of the U.S.

I was fortunate enough to spend the entire month of December in the U.S. visiting friends and family. I was pretty excited to return to the U.S. only after a little less than 2 months in China. When arriving I had a six hour layover in Los Angeles and my friend Dakota picked me up. We went to Applebee's, Target, and Starbucks; I don't know how much more American you can get. I was elated to go to Target, one stop shopping and no haggling. Finally after 36 hours of travel, I arrived at my first stop on my U.S, tour, Austin, TX where my friend Richelle was getting married. She was a stunning bride. After Austin I flew to Omaha, NE and stayed with my friend Cara and her husband Blaine. From there I rented a car and traveled in Dubuque, IA to visit Jessica and Gary, then to Madison, WI where I used to live. My time in Madison was cut short after learning a huge snow storm was going to be hitting the area. I left early and drove home to Spring Valley, MN where 20 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, welcome home! I had a great time enjoying an early holiday celebration with my family there. From there I was transported to Hudson, WI to visit more friends and finally I flew to Arizona where Andrew joined me to spend the last two weeks of my U.S. tour and Christmas with the Bain family.


Here are some photos from my tour of the U.S.:

Richelle & Terek

Go Longhorns!

Enjoying some wine with Cara & Blaine

Jessica & I 

Jenny, Renee & Britt at one of my favorite
Madison spots, Eno Vino.

Buchholtz Fam

 

Me, Megan, Hannah & Bridgett

Arden, me, Freya, Hannah & Megan

 Bain Fam

 Although I really enjoyed my time in the U.S. it was nice to return "home" to China to continue our adventure.

Would you like cupping? Okay...

Andrew and I went out for dinner in downtown Dalian Friday evening. After dinner he suggested that we go for a massage. For me, it was very strange to think of getting a massage at 9:00 p.m., but thought what the heck, the place was right down the street from the restaurant and massages are inexpensive here. Andrew and I were in the same room and at the end of the massage Andrew was asked if he'd like cupping. He said "okay." The masseuse then asked if I'd like cupping. I said "okay." We're not sure why we both said okay. I guess we were just feeling adventurous. Thankfully Andrew went first. Basically, they put a lit torch and placed the lit torch in a small fishbowl and adhered the fishbowl/cup to Andrew's back. Instantly the skin within the cup turned bright redish purple. I quickly decided that it wasn't going to be such a good idea for me; besides realizing I didn't know what the benefit of cupping was (later I discovered that although the Chinese think cupping can cure many things, there isn't any scientific proof that it has any benefit), I was going to be in a wedding wearing a strapless dress in two weeks and clearly cupping leaves bruises. The masseuse adhered 21 cups on his back. After Andrew convinced me it didn't hurt, I found the sight of him laying there with 21 cups and large bruises forming very funny. The masseuse also found it very funny. He was pointing and laughing at him. I wonder if he was laughing because they found a westerner to actually do cupping. 

The cups adhered to his back.

Removing the cups.

The result.

 Lesson learned, if someone asks if you want cupping, the answer should always be no, thank you.

A Day in the Life of a Stay-at-Home Fiancé in Dalian

The most challenging aspect of moving to China for me has been transitioning from a full-time career focused person to a stay at home fiancé. Honestly, I don't exactly know how to be a stay at home anything; I've always been employed since before I was 15 years-old. After moving here and realized I wouldn't find a position in my career field, I found I'm not the only person in this predicament. I've already met a great group of friends who have about as much time on their hands as I do. We have extended lunches and coffee hours and just hangout and chat. As an example, we had an exceptional extended lunch this week hosted by my friend Leon of leg of goat curry. It was intended to be leg of lamb, a common piece of meat in Ireland, but instead of lamb we got goat. Our Chinese friend who acquired the leg of goat said Chinese consider a sheep and goat to be the same so that's how we ended up with the leg of goat. I find leg of goat a bit chewy, but the curry was delicious.

In addition to just hanging out with friends, several organizations sponsor activities for ex-pats with time on their hands. I play mahjong Monday and Thursday morning. Mahjong is a Chinese game very common amongst Chinese. It typically involves gambling for the Chinese, even though gambling is illegal in China. It is similar to the card game rummy, but is played with tiles. Tuesday is coffee hour at Starbucks. This week I also started Chinese painting lessons, which are held Wednesday mornings. Being an "artist" is a bit of a stretch for me, so I was a bit intimidated when I saw the painting I was going to recreate. Surprisingly the painting isn't horrible. There are also sponsored monthly lady luncheons and cooking demonstrations. I have only substitute taught 3 1/2 days, but plan on doing some more when I return in January. I also plan on volunteering at an orphanage. I haven't volunteered yet because there was a scabies breakout. Scabies I learned is similar to lice, but the bugs barrow under your skin. I also find I spend more time acuqiring things. For example, there is no one stop shopping like you'd find at Super Target in the U.S.A., if you want meat you need to go to the butcher, vegetables, to the vegetable market, finger nail polish remover to a store that sells cosmetics, spaghetti sauce the import store, athletic apparel a special sports store, etc. Finally, I try to fill my days with daily workouts and enjoy having time to read.

Mahjong game

1st Chinese painting

Although I would prefer to work, specifically in my field of HR, and don't think this will be a permanent gig as a state-at-home fiancé, I'm appreciative of the opportunity for the "time off" and the slower pace of life.

Super Steve's Visit

Andrew and I were fortunate to have our first visitor last weekend. Andrew's good friend Steve from Arizona, who currently resides in South Korea, visited. Andrew had to work all day Friday. This was the first time I met Steve so we bonded by having having a western food for lunch followed by a tour of Five Color City. On Friday night Andrew and Steve had the pleasure of trying baizhou, a Chinese alcohol, for the first time. We had a fun filled Saturday night celebrating our friend James's birthday in downtown Dalian, there was food, drinks and dancing. Andrew was even shaking his booty on the dance floor for a minute. We hope Steve makes it back to China for another visit. We also hope to visit him in South Korea in July.  Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Steve in front of a large snail house in Five Color City.

The birthday boy James, and his wife Susy.

This is what Andrew thought of baizhou. 

Steve, Andrew and I

A special treat at the hot pot restaurant, duck blood.
Something I never thought I'd eat.

Silly boys

The dance floor at the club.
I'm sure this is exactly what Mao wanted.

Fun times

Super fun times