January 23rd, 2016

January 23rd, 2016

5:45 am

I'm surprised that I'm awake so early, but since I'm up, let's get to work.

Yesterday was the day I agreed to cover classes at Wanda Plaza- everyone says it like "Wan da", so it looked a little weird to me to see it written as one word on the building. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My beautiful voice is still on hiatus- getting better, but still croaky. In general I'm much improved (that seems to be even more true this morning than yesterday, which is good). I've cracked open the cool mint licquorice soap, and it doesn't have as strong a smell as I expected, but that's probably for the best. It's a light green cake of soap, so I'm not rocking the boat in the soap department. The funny thing is the soap is a little too big to easily remove it from my soap dish, and it seems to almost adhere to the bottom. So every time it lays flat in the container I have to pick up, flip over, and give a little hammer with my fist to drop the soap into my hand.

I had a few options for travelling to Wanda Plaza, I had the name of the place helpfully written by Bradley into my notebook in Chinese characters, and Vicky told me to take the 202 tram, which would get me there in about 30 minutes for 1 Yuan. Leo wrote down the actual address of the place in my notebook in Chinese characters, with which I could show a taxi driver and arrive straight away- I had assumed having the name of the plaza would do that trick handily enough, but I'm told there are a number of places named Wanda Plaza.

Having taken note of where the tram stop was on Xi'an Lu the night before, about a block north of the Roosevelt, I left at just past 11:45. Vanity still smarting from the day before, I opted to not wear my tocque, despite it being so cold that I was becoming a frost-bitten victim of fashion. I found the tram stop, with a short line up of people, and pulled out the 1 Yuan coin from my pocket.

The tram appears to have its driver in a compartment separated from the rest of the riding population at the front of the train, with an identical compartment at the other end for when the tram reverses. No surprises there. If I noticed properly, there were four doors on a side, two to enter, and two to exit. I never saw anyone leave out of the entrance doors (with one exception I'll talk about come evening). The front of the tram had poles to hang on to while standing, but in the area I was in, with seats, if you weren't sitting, you were in for a tough time hanging on, there didn't seem to be enough places for people to hang on there. 

I fell into an empty seat, having misjudged the distance- the seats were very low to the ground, and seemed to be formed over the wheel-wells of the vehicle-- but it's a tram, it doesn't really have wheel-wells. For whatever reason, they went with low, boxy seats, like sitting on the front steps of someones house. By the two entrance doors there was a box to accept fares with a person at each entrance to make sure you paid what you owed. The fare box had two openings, side by side. I didn't know if there was a difference, one for coins, one for bills, so I tried to mimic the person in front of me, while moving methodically, in an obvious manner, so that my coin was visible to the fare-watcher and clearly being deposited. Methodically, but still quick enough to not hold up the line and get everyone upset at me. Obvious, but unobtrusive.

Also by the entrance, at maybe low chest level, was a panel attached to a pole, the purpose of which was for pass holders to swipe their card over the panel and thereby register their fare.

There was a single televison that I remember, about 2/5's back from the front of the tram. It played advertisements, and had the time, a few minutes slow, at least compared to the two digital clocks attached to either side of the door just in front of the tv. I assume they were clocks, they changed numbers like a clock, but they weren't in sync. 

I took my cell phone out to check the time(juggling in my hands as well was my music player and my notebook with the address for my destination)- remember, my cell phone is little more than a glorified clock, alarm, and short note keeper at this point (granted that amount of functionality isn't all THAT different from its abilities in the west... and honestly I probably could still make a call with it, but the last text I tried to send kept failing, and I've given up on it ever since) and it was about 12:05 pm. I set an alarm for 12:25 when I should be approaching my destination, 12:35 when I should, in theory, have arrived, and 12:45 when I should be looking to maybe escape and grab a taxi.

Also of note is that I kept an eye on when and where we stopped, to see if there was any pattern, to help me decide if, for example, we were to hit a stop at the 12:28 mark, I should get off because experience tells me the next stop won't be until 12:48 and I'll overshoot my destination. I didn't find any pattern.

I think I mentioned the tracks going south along Xi'an Lu in my post for the 12th- I'd almost started walking along those tracks, then decided against it and continued to follow Xi'an Lu south, and then kept going south until I hit the waterfront. Obviously, these tracks are for the tram, and now I got to take this other path, veering west, and very quickly going up and over the river. I hadn't realized how close the river was at that point.

I've already written at some length about the southern end of Dalian, how it is thus far my favourite area of the city- the tram travelled south enough that I was firmly embedded in that territory, and I kept an eye out for the familiar. Unfortunately, Castle Dalian was obscured by skyscrapers, but I could see the ferris wheel from the small amusement park behind me, just to the south east, and I could see the water.

Soon we hit a stop at the second Dalian medical university (I believe I remembered that correctly), only notable for being an obvious landmark. And it's good to know someplace where I could receive medical attention- I saw one other hospital on my way to Zhongshan Square, but I couldn't tell you for sure whether it was on Huanghe or Zhongshan street.

The tram rose up, easing around the contours of the mountain I had wanted to investigate on my journey to the west. If I didn't have to worry about finding my correct stop I'd be having a wonderful time- it was still pretty great, but this was now the longest time between stops, and it confirmed for me that I couldn't guarantee that missing my stop wouldn't trap me on a tram for a while. We came to a stop at around 12:25, and I used that oppourtunity to get up and stand ready be the front exit doors- if I tried to get up and walk past my neighbor while the tram was in motion it would have been a disaster.

Approaching the next stop, I saw a center of some kind with a very prominent "Starbucks" sign- the Web location I was looking for was supposed to be directly above a Starbucks, and they weren't THAT common here. I exited the tram at about 12:33- I'd have to tell Vicky how spot on her timing was. 

It was something like six lanes of road to cross to get to the otherside, with no chickens to lead the way- my side was empty (for now) and so, as though I was born and raised here, I walked out into the middle of the road and waited to cross through the last few lanes of traffic. And waited. And waited. And now the lanes on my side, previously empty, were now full of cars.

"Please don't tell me THIS is how I die." I thought to myself. It's, uh, probably not good how often I think that.

Finally there was an opening, and I raced across. It was incredibly cold, and I wanted to find my way in as soon as possible. Naturally, as I approached the entrance I looked back over the street that I had just crossed, I saw the giant words "WANDA PLAZA".

I veered back towards the road, this time heading directly towards the crosswalk (which was in the direction of Wanda Plaza, but after my last crossing adventure I'd have probably gone for the crosswalk either way) and it took forever to give us the go-ahead. I rushed over but, true to it's name, this was a plaza- the entry to anything mall like was a little bit further ahead.

Entering with about 15 minutes to 1, I immediately saw the Starbucks to my left, and the Web International location above it. That freed me up to do some scouting. Above the entrance was a sort of video game-less Chuck E. Cheese, and to the right of Web was a very tempting Dairy Queen. Deeper into the mall there was a high end coffee shop with books in it to make it look smart (there was a similar cafe across the street, before the Starbucks, in what was otherwise a fairly non-descript grey monolith of a center- Wanda was not at all non-descript from the outside, red with some horizontal cuts in the building, it was a far more expressive design, though still monolithic. I may not be being literal here, this is just what I remember), and there was this electronics store that was running with a blue steel, alien-tech theme, everything inside was dark or electric blue. It looked more like an arcade than a retailer. No, I didn't see any video games inside. In the distance I could see that familiar "M" for McDonald's- was today the day I tried Chinese McDonald's? I was kind of hungry... ah, there's the bathroom. Besides the familiar restroom sign, stick figure guy and girl, I probably could have found the place by tracking the cigarette smoke all the way to the no-smoking sign. However, this bathroom was very different to the Roosevelt bathroom- cleaner, with a hand dryer that actuals blows a noticable amount of air (and warm too- I stuck my hands under for a bit... and then crouched down to get my frozen-red ears in there too), and- Faithan'begorrah! Hand soap! Wow, this place IS fancy. Lah-dee-dah, Guv.

That last line mixed so many accents and characters for no real reason. I kind of love it.

It's 8:16 am, and probably time and past time for me to be getting ready for work. Don't get too amazed by how long how I've been writing just now- even more than usual I've taken copious bathroom breaks to blow my nose and try to cough up junk, and I had breakfast and medicine breaks. Not as much writing has been done as I'd have liked, but still, some good work so far!

3:29 am I got home and had to sleep. I'd like to keep sleeping, but it's not happening.

I went in to the Wanda Web location and was surprised to find the receptionist at the moment was someone from Roosevelt pulling double duty. It was good to see a familiar face, whether or not I know her name or she speaks any useful amount of English (no to both). The set up of Wanda is less open concept than Roosevelt, though the classes are still performed in glass cases (of emotion- joke reference) to show off/keep under surveillance the teachers, with the end effect being a slightly more claustrophobic space, but with more twists and turns such that the place may actually be larger. 

Well, maybe not larger, but slightly more confusing. To really break it down and over simplify, it's the difference between an L shape (Roosevelt) and a T shape (Wanda).

Right beside the reception is the English Corner space, and behind reception, with a wall dividing it, is the work space for the teachers. At the time I could only make an educated guess about which computers were for foreign teachers and which were for native- surprisingly both sets of computer areas were a mess- the foreign teacher area at Roosevelt is very tidy, highlighting that come-and-go, in-and-out drifter impermanence of the teachers here. There was one person facing away from me, typing on her computer, that I decided to let be while I continued to gather the lay of the land. Walking past the teachers work area, straight ahead there were the smaller glass cases for private classes, and to the left you could see the larger salon class rooms. I noted which were which for when I needed to know later. There were also some closed doors, offices for who knows who.

Walking down the right was the longest hallway, with the collection of computers for the students private courseware work, the water dispenser (high priority item to find), but, even as I walked to the end of the hall, no photocopier. Great, so now I can't just appear to magically know where everything is- preparation is the key to both Batman's success and Bill and Ted's. The end of the hall did have a tv area that, as far as I know, Roosevelt doesn't have. I think it was English with Chinese subtitles, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I haven't mentally reversed it, like it was actually Chinese with English subtitles. The movie was definitely Jupiter Rising, which is for sure a bizarre choice of movie to learn English from. Almost any science fiction movie, especially in a post William Gibson's Neuromancer world, is a terrible choice for English- they always have so many made up words that you would end up learning confusing gibberish. At least The Next Generation mostly used real words in its technobabble- if you had to go popular quasi-modern sci-fi, that's probably the way to go.

The Christopher Nolan Batman films would be great for learning English- PLENTY of talking, fairly minimal technobabble  to explain, and the action would give some context for the words as well as spice things up for the viewer. Plus, Batman.

Walking back to the teachers area, I saw Micky (Mickey? I only just for reals learned her name today, from Dany, a day after the fact of working with her) arriving with some of the other native teachers (I mean they're from China, in case that isn't clear). Micky is in charge of the teachers here in the same way that Vicky is in charge at Roosevelt- don't their similar names give you that Nurse Joy vibe? The two look very different, but it's still funny.

I was given my lesson plans and schedule for the day, as well as all my class lists at once! This allowed me to check to see how many photocopies I actually needed for the day, and so I could actually completely prepare for once. Surprisingly, both my schedule and class lists were hand written instead of printed off- perhaps they ran out of ink? Or is this the norm at Wanda? I figured out how many copies of whatever I needed, then asked Micky about the photocopier. She led me back down the hall, past the water dispenser, and just before the movie room, she pushed in the wall- what? secret door!- to reveal a cramped lunch space, the biometric scanner check-in point, and the photocopier.

Micky left me to photocopy, a relief considering my famous inability with photocopiers- are we noticing a pattern of myself striving for the appearance of competence? It isn't actually a bad thing, my image effects my work, just so long as striving to appear competent takes the form of actually improving my competence.

While I was working at keeping straight which class sheet went with what lesson plan, and which lesson plan required which photocopy (wait, did I actually leave a lesson plan in the photocopier, and get it handed back to me? Yeah, that did happen, right. Man, so much for that appearance of competence.) one of the native teachers, Eva (Or possibly Eve, or Ava, but probably Eva), a short girl with large round glasses, librarian-cute, came in and introduced herself. And the first thing she said after exchanging names was that my students today will be happy to have such a handsome teacher. I thanked her very much for the compliment- remember it's come on the heels of some self image rocking events from the day before, so this was a great boost.

I returned to the teachers desk having claimed a computer on the far end of the line. The web browser at Roosevelt that allows me access to facebook and youtube was not here, so I wouldn't be sending posts to get uploaded here that day- and lets me know that I'm lucky to have ended up at Roosevelt, where I can keep in touch with so many people, even if it is just through a janky facebook connection.

About now is when I met my first foreign teacher at Wanda, but I'll be back to talk about it later. - 4:58 am

8:38 pm I'm back. I hope I can finish this post and the one for yesterday, otherwise I may have to come up with a new naming system. I can't very well refer to posts by the date after the events if I'm a couple of days out of synch. I could just switch over to titling based on the actual date events occured. Ah well.

The first and only foreign teacher at Wanda I met was Ronan, an Irish man of Taiwanese parentage (I couldn't figure out the proper spelling of "descent" for this usage) who was asked to be in a photo right when he arrived. I imagine this picture will be for the same thing that my photo was for from the day before: to go up on the wall with our biography and picture of our respective degrees/certificates/education. The first thing he said was that he needed to go put his face on before any picture could be taken, so I guess he likes make-up, which is fine. He's a very handsome man, though in an artificially sculpted manner, an effect mostly achieved through his sharp eyebrows.

More importantly, he was very friendly. We struck up a conversation about how much money we spend on food in a day, and his report of a fairly modest 50 Yuan (He said Reminbi, or whatever RMB stands for, but it's the same as Yuan- similar to our dollar/loonie divide I imagine) endeared him to me as someone mostly relatable. For example, if he said "oh, I spend 200 RMB on food a day, but I throw out half of it" I would quietly die inside and resolve that this was a person I could never relate to or really speak to again. (I just did the math- if they had no outside expenses like bills or whatever, and their housing was completely covered by the housing allowance, then it would be possible for a Web teacher to spend 200 RMB on food a day. But even so, it would be nearly impossible and, again, I wouldn't talk to that person)

I checked out the English Corner area, cozier than at Web, with no little podium from which to use the computer and speak. Instead, the keyboard was sitting in front of the screen, and just below was the CPU behind a cupboard door that couldn't close because of the snaking cable that led to it. There was a small plastic ruler people could use to reach up and turn on the projector. Slightly ghetto. 

I mentioned to Ronan that I was checking out how everything worked in preparation for my English Corner and he understood not wanting to flail around with an unfamiliar system. He left for a quick smokebreak minutes before the first classes were to start, so we're not completely sympatico. I'm talking about the smoking thing, last minute doing something before class is an area I'm all over.

My class had to do with e-mail: when to use it, what it's for, classifying certain headings (Re:, Urgent, etc. etc.) and also I briefly explained some slightly less common emoticons. In short, it was a class for old people that all the youths in my class were too hip for.

"Emoticons... like emojii?"

Yeah. But it was cool, I still probably taught them a thing or to, or at least I was entertaining enough. Of the four I can recall present, and I'm pretty sure there were only four, the two guys were fairly quiet. I mean, it can be hard to get anything from these classes, sure, but I had to drag these guys into the conversation a lot more than the girls. Of the lot it seems I can only remember my man, Vincent. He was the first to arrive, he was slightly less quiet, and he had the looks of a "the quiet/smart one" in some Chinese boy band. Mop of hair, very flattering glasses. But based on his quietness maybe he's of the type that don't realize they have good looks?

Regardless, it was time for my English Corner! For once I could just be excited for English Corner, as I had all my previous English Corners in my back pocket to choose from, and I had gotten to see what worked and what didn't already. 

I told the class I didn't want to butter them up but... I asked the class if they knew the term "butter you up" and after explaining I said... but I heard that the students at Wanda were really good! (Some laughs- they were a good audience) And that because they were so good, I would give them a choice of English Corner, mentioning the Simpsons one, the Trudeaus, and my presentation about songs that get you pumped up for a challenge. Full disclosure, I kind of pushed for the Simpsons as the best one.

After getting the go ahead for the Simpsons I told them "okay, okay, now forget you know what's coming so I can give you the introduction I have for this" and then I basically did what I did when I first used the Simpsons as an English Corner. Although my very first question of "where do you learn your history?" was answered, instead of "school" with "movies" which was basically like saying you learn from pop-culture like the Simpsons, so that student was already on the ball with the whole point of my presentation. "Wow, they said you guys were good, I was expecting you to say 'school'"

So I ran through the "April Fool's Day" clip and was about to start the "Homer Forgets to Pick Up Bart" clip when I gave the same disclaimer as before: I was going to stop the video just before the very end because there was a very scary image at the end that, honestly, even I find disturbing. Okay?

And this woman at the front, stage right- striking and beautiful, ever drawing my eye, who has been paying attention and participating all throughout the English Corner says to show us, that we don't need to be protected. I was convinced.

"All right everyone, I'll show it- if you want to close your eyes at the end you'll know it's about to happen based on this face." Then I made a scared face type of look. "Like that."

The clip played on, and there was a slightly strong reaction to the dream sequence that had Bart as a skeleton, so I was re-considering up until the last moment whether or not to censor the Homer's-face-melting part. 

I slightly regret showing it, but they'll live.

And that was time. The woman on stage right asked me for help with a grammar question, and I was going to do my best to help. What was the question? Ah, come on man, I can't be expected to remember the little things.

Jennifer was her name, she had long hair, wore purple, thin-framed glasses so that you weren't hit hard by the colour but knew there was SOME kind of flair going on, as well as a  mustard yellow, button-up top with an antique looking broche hanging from a necklace (or just an antique necklace). Surprisingly, she wore no jewellery on her hands. She had a just-above knee length, form fitting, navy-coloured skirt with dark stockings that had an ornate design on them. Finally she had black high-heeled shoes with some studs attached.

She was dressed as someone who knows what she wants, and goes after it. Confident and powerful.

What was I doing now? I had two hours until my next class, so I had to figure out where to get some lunch. Could we eat together? SURE we could eat together. You're friends with a guy that owns a sushi restaurant here? Even if I hated sushi I would go (I didn't say that, plus I like sushi)

We walked out of Web, and finally I asked where we were headed, and it turns out we were going to the plaza outside. I didn't have my coat with me, I wasn't expecting to leave the building. Jennifer suggested going back, but I said, nah, I'm Canadian. (I'm lucky to be as healthy as I am considering how careless I can be about the cold)

Prefacing my next statement by saying how humble Canadians are considered, I told her it was a shame my voice was so bad right now, because I have a beauitful voice she's missing out on. She laughed and said that wasn't humble. 

We entered the restaurant, her owner friend wasn't there at that exact moment, but we were seated on the second floor, the only ones in the restaurant (it was just past 4 after all, post-lunch rush, pre-dinner crowd) only having to wait a short time before the owner, Ken, did arrive.

Ken was an attentive host, with a friendly grey smile. Having spent years living in America (Tennesee?) his English was on par with Jennifer's. We looked over the menu all together, Jennifer specifically asking for things that would be easy on my poor croaky throat. The items looked pricey to me, but I can be a bit reckless in situations like this (I just looked at my current state of funds, it's not a pretty sight). We had tea. Do I often drink tea? When I'm sick- usually I just have water.

I made myself out to be an avacado afficionado(sp?) just because I had an opinion on them, and could commiserate with Ken over how you had to wait for the perfect moment to eat them, and if you missed it, well, they're rotten now. We ordered some avacado sushi, some salmon sushi with salmon eggs on top (with that almost artificial red colour, they're great unless you breathe them in and choke for a while. I mean, so I've heard, I didn't do that, I'm smoother than that obviously... at some point I'll learn how to get through a public meal without nearly choking to death.)- it had a sweet sauce over top, and something in the middle gave a crunch as you ate it. I don't usually like "crunch"- crunch means crumbs or a trip to the dentist or something, but this was some small thing embedded in the sushi, a thoroughly contained crunch that was very satisfying. We ordered some shrimp sushi, heads and tails still attached- Jennifer laughed at me when I picked it up and told me to remove the head and tail. I was probably going to do that... well, wait, maybe not. I didn't mind getting laughed at here. We also had some miso soup, and Jennifer specifically had some sweet egg sushi, and some other thing I'm forgetting.

Both Jennifer and Ken were very interested in the writing I was doing here, bridging the gap between Canada and China in some small way. Then Jennifer kind of shooed Ken away so we could eat, or perhaps she wanted a more private conversation.

We talked about our names, her Chinese name is apparently somewhat unique, referencing the Spring and the beautiful view her mother had when Jennifer was born. She looked a little sad when she said this, her eyes watered a bit, a slight waver in her voice, before she slipped back into her original persona. I was curious about that, but decided these signs were slight enough that they weren't an invitation to ask for information. Besides, there weren't that many different scenarios she could have been thinking about, I already had an idea of what she was thinking. Maybe I'm projecting. I considered letting her know that I noticed the look, but I wasn't sure if that impulse was just me wanting to prove to myself how clever I was in noticing, so I moved on.

We talked about books and poetry and entrepreneurship (come on, man, you're killing my flow, you know I can't spell you)- I talked about my history getting to know Hemingway, who she was already familiar with, I gave my negative opinion regarding the insularity and self involvement of most poetry (I'm looking at you, Howl) but spoke positively about the Romantic, Keats (I admitted to always confusing Keats and Yeats), and his assertion to drink in all of life. 

In short, we had a wonderful time. I probably talked too much about myself as usual. 

I had set my alarm to warn me when I had half an hour and then 15 minutes until my next class. I think I ended up staying until I only had 5 minutes to find my way back.

Jennifer had earlier assured me that the meal was on the house. Perhaps. She's certainly charming enough to finagle free meals from someone. More likely she said that so I wouldn't worry about the bill and paid it after I left. I hope that's the case! I don't want Ken to be taken advantage of. 

This situation was of course the negative side of having basically zero contact information. She seemed to think she'd never see me again (I'm almost always at Roosevelt, you could come by anytime) and now I rushed off to class. What can I say? I've got a lot of strengths, but appropriate good byes aren't one of them. I'll use my apartment hunting detective skills to find her again in the future.

Somewhat distracted I taught my next class- um, an older engineering student and a teen who spent his morning watching an NBA match. I think he said NBA. It makes sense, they like basketball here. We ran through the "you live on a deserted island for two years, what do you bring" class, and these two had, overall, the worst list of items to bring with you. The first run through neither had a good method to grow food after the initial supply ran out, the kid brought "meat" which we decided would be good for about 5 days before it went bad, as well as a telephone and charger AND what amounts to an SOS flare to escape with, despite the rules specifying that you are here for two years. They were fun guys, good sports when I told them they had the worst lists- finally they joined forces and created a list that included seeds and stuff. I congratulated them on the improvement.

Then I had a beginner level class, with three students, two of which arrived a bit late, leaving me with Takoyama (I think I'm getting his name wrong now) a Japanese man who seems to have some trouble expressing himself (I mean beyond the language barrier- stuttering, rubbing hands, excessive blinking, lack of eye contact. Something was up there.) but was an absolute sweet-heart as far as I'm concerned. He did a lot of work in the class, he had to, he was the only one for a bit, and then we were joined by a student who hadn't done the homework. We moved from Classroom B back to where my last class was, D, because the one had heat, and the other was the surface of the Moon or some similarly cold place. And of COURSE I told Takoyama I loved Kamen Rider- he didn't know what I meant, so I drew a quick face on the whiteboard and he said "ah, Kamen Rider". A response that is always so gratifying to hear.

Soon we were joined by a kid that had come a little late, but since arriving had been sitting in the cold class D until someone delivered him to us. He HAD done the homework, so all together we had plenty to work with.

Finally I had a salon class about Role Models that had one younger girl apparently with her mother or something, and I kept directing slightly easy questions to her, but after the class was over she got up and was totally taller than I expected. I'm sure she was still very young, but I was still like "wait, what?"

I divided the class in half to go through some questions, and I started by monitering the group with the not-so-little girl, then joined the other half where this one young woman was talking about not hearing anything bad about someone, so she thought there must be some hidden downside. So I got to explain the word "cynical", and I admitted to the group about my friends and I joking about me getting "disappeared" while in China. They had a suprisingly rouugh time coming up with a Chinese person as a role model.

Also interesting is the idea of China as a "developing country". This isn't the first time I've heard a citizen here describe China as such, and it always surprises me. Do we think of China in Canada as a "developing country"? We think of it as an economic superpower. So where's the disconnect here? Can it be both a developing country AND an economic super power? Well, I thought it was interesting.

My last class over, and apparently only 40 minutes before the trams stopped for the night (that number may not have been entirely accurate, but I have no way to check), I took one last cold walk around the outside of Wanda Plaza to see if I could spot Ken's sushi place from here. Nope, without the lights, and leaving from another  door, I wasn't sure which one was Ken's. That's all right, I'll find it next time.

I found the tram stop after navigating a number of agressive drivers (so what else is new?). Waiting for the tram was Raymond, who I wasn't introduced to, but is an older white guy from Canada that also teaches at Web, slightly heavy and with a goatee. I don't know if he'd have known who I was, and I didn't feel like talking anymore today (again, my throat was in rough shape) so I didn't bother making my presence known. I didn't even head nod! Scandalous. It was standing room only on the tram, but I had lots of energy, so it was cool.

Just west of the second Dalian Medical University the tram stopped, and everyone moved to get off. I considered doing some mime to the ticket taker to find out what the deal was, but I knew how that played out- it could be English, it could be Chinese, either way it would have been something along the lines of "service interruption, this way sir, off the tram" we've all danced this dance before.

Exiting the tram there was a bus waiting to take everyone. People dutifully loaded on, there goes Raymond getting on, until the doors could barely close. I think maybe the dictionary needs a new word for what those doors did, it was more like they molded around the passengers having poking out the door frame. I don't do sardine-can, so I let them enjoy the busride without me. And when the bus started it kept driving in the direction it was facing- it took off back towards where we came from? What was all this about? I thought it was kind of hilarious.

Now, how should I get home? I waited for a few minutes to see about any new trams, I considered grabbing a taxi, it was fairly cold... but I was feeling good, and as I threw my gloves on Stan Bush's "Dare" came on my music player, so you know I just went for a run to get home.

My southern trip through Dalian prepared me well for this journey, I easily recognized when I was back on the bottom end of Xi'an Lu despite there not being a street sign. On my trip obviously I passed by a number of cool sights, the most remarkable was the place with the English word "Playground" largely written on the front (I think I'm remembering that right) with statues of people rockin' out on top of the building, and also there was some kind of governemental building that had these barriers in front of the gates the had these large, intimidating spikes. I gave one of the spikes a testing kick with my foot, and it was very solid. I moved away a bit- tripping onto one of those could definitely be fatal. Scary.

I ran most of the way to Xi'an Lu which impresses me considering I was sick (and still am). The running kept my temperature up, and I was mostly comfortable on my trip back. Returning to my apartment the manager gave me a hard time in Chinese for asking to be let in to the elevators- listen man, it was your system that failed to register me, this is on you dude. He had someone there with some English and they agreed to let me in, but I resolved to talk to Vicky about this incident (I haven't yet, actually). Finally getting home, I saw that, despite my comfort on the trip, my legs were really red, and gave a bit of a buzzing burn.

Like I said, I can be careles about the cold.

11:53 am Monday morning (I went to sleep last night and started writing again in the morning, I didn't mention it to you because the flow was too good to ruin with time stamps.)