Wang Yan was busy at school that morning, and by the way, here is a picture of us and her and a whole bunch of the teachers that we didn't really know at the front desk of the school. She had to name this school "English Bridge Language school" because "New concept" was already take in Dalian.
So anyway, Gordon and I went off to find someplace to eat and wander around for a little bit and it just so turns out that we found the best Di San Xian that I've ever had.
Di San Xian is, next to dumplings, my favorite dish in China (Huang Dou follows in 3rd). It's made with potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers and super yummy sauce. I've tried to make it at home on a few occasions and it just never tastes the same. And I can't get it in any restaurants here because it's Northern cuisine, and everything around here is Southern style. So we were ordering it a lot throughout our trip but this one was by far the best. Truly exquisite. It was made even better because of the fantastic modern decor, i.e. Christmas tree.
As we were waiting for Wang Yan to finish up so we could go play, I noticed that my phrasebook gives a couple of literal translations. I always love translating things from Chinese to English literally- they make great sentences- I'll share a few.
As we were looking for an activity to do later on that day, Wang Yan suggested we all go to the Dong Wu Gong Yuan, which translates to "Animal Park". If I would have been thinking clearly at the time I would have further translated that to " the zoo" and declined. But for some reason I thought to myself, "sure- animal park. I like animals. let's go see it". And it is for just this reason that I would have felt differently had I realized it was actually a zoo. I love animals and can't stand to see them mistreated or disrespected and I just know that China is not necessarily up to date on all the animal rights issues. Gordon went to the Beijing zoo 5 years ago and the awful stories that she relayed were the extent of the zoo experience I wished to have in China. She said people were throwing candy bars to the animals, and pouring sodas on the polar bears because "it was a hot day and they liked to be cold", and of course just leaving litter everywhere, hitting the glass cages to get the animals attention which scared them, etc. etc.
Anyway, I have no idea what I was actually expecting, but we were here. This was another exceptionally cold day. The sun was shining but it was freezing and the wind was really strong and damp, so needless to say- there was barely anyone there aside from us.
At first we just saw some dogs, both ceramic and real, and birds.
But then when we got to the elephants I realized "oh, this is a 'zoo'". The elephants were in a really small enclosure and were pacing back and forth the entire time (with the three steps of room that they had), even when another guy in there who wanted to feed them, did so by throwing apples at them, and repeatedly missed and hit them in the head. Gordon then hit him in the arm and told him to stop. He and his company thought it was funny and we left. Yuck!Even though I wasn't much in the mood both because of that experience and the cold, we saw a few more animals.
In the end I was actually glad we stayed because I was able to witness this. In the midst of being totally irritated with "these people" in my head, my new friend Wen Wen was bent over in some corner trying to help a little butterfly get out of the sticky stuff it was drowning in, speaking kindly to it. I kind of love this picture.
So after that very cold activity we were walking to the bus station when a bus was coming. Wen Wen, Gordon and Akonga ran ahead so that they could hold the bus for a second since Wang Yan wouldn't have been able to make it to the stop in time because her leg doesn't allow her to walk very fast. Then right as her and I were getting to the bus it pulled out and speed away, almost hitting us in the process. Apparently the bus driver refused to wait just a few seconds and demanded that they get off the bus. I know he even saw how close we were and that he would have only had to wait a few seconds and it was a nearly empty bus. I just couldn't understand how he could be so rude and was obviously frustrated when discussing this with Wang Yan, and she just told me how her disability makes a lot of people mad. They don't like to be inconvenienced by it. And they don't really like to see it. She told me how she had recently tried to donate blood in Mudan Jiang, but the person working there wouldn't let her. She insisted on talking with the person in charge but even he refused her too. She tried to explain to them that her leg is bad but her blood is fine- that they are not related. But still, they refused to let her give. There are so many situations like this and it's maddening for me but she is just so used to it. There is nothing she can do, no other power to appeal to, so she just moves on. I know America has so many problems and is far from the perfect example of ideal human rights, but on this day I was just so grateful for the progress that we have made, however small it may be.
So after that second very cold activity, we went back to the school where Wang Yan's friend picked us up and drove us around for the night. We didn't know this man at all but he is apparently the head of the Disabled Person's Association in Dalian, just like Wang Yan is in Mudan Jiang (he has the same disability as her but more severe and needs crutches/braces to get around), and he was very nice to take us out. First he took us to this place where we all got foot massages, and pedicures. Very nice and relaxing and warm.
Here is my masseuse. He was way better than the one Gordon had. Gordon also unfortunatelygot the worst manicure ever. Really.
After that we went to dinner at a noodle place.
As we were all walking down the street together we were getting a lot of stares, which is nothing out of the ordinary at all. I was just figuring it was the usual "wow- foreigners" stare. It felt like a very normal situation, but we seemed to be getting even more intense stares than usual and as I thought about it some more I did realize that we must look like a freakin' circus walking down the street compared to what people are used to passing by:Two white girls- weird, but not unheard of.
One black man- weird and unheard of.
Not one, but TWO Chinese people with very obvious disabilities- weird and uncomfortable to watch.
One 20-something cute girl- weird-what is she doing with them?
Anyway, after dinner we wanted to go to a local hang out. We found Noah's. My lonely Planet book wrote of it as a cool joint with live music from local bands.
Wang Yan and her friend stayed in the car but Gordon, Akonga, Wen Wen and I went in for about an hour. It was a very westernized place, which is first obvious because of the Christmas decorations.
and second because of the cool band playing mellow Guns-n-Roses' Sweet Child of mine and Bon Jovi's It's My Life.
Behind the band there was this screen that played music videos from India where all the actors/dancers were performing scenes from Greece. it was a lot to take in.
The prices were more than they would be in the states- I couldn't believe it. My milk and microwave popcorn were like $30RMB! (appx $4 dollars) .
The going rate for something like this should be about $6 RMB (.70 cents. It was definitely a young working hipster scene, which I'm sure there's lots of- I had just never been anywhere like this in all my time in China. Wen Wen says there's a a lot of places like that in Beijing though. On our way out, Akonga gave us a small performance on the little drum set sitting on the patio.
And to top the day off we used our new toothpaste. At the store earlier today Gordon was trying to pick a flavor but because we can't read she just had to go by the pictures. It was a tossup between outta space spaceship flavor, exploding pink bubbles flavor and this, which looked safe enough to be spearmint flavored.
Turns out we chose poorly- It was green tea flavor.
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