Alive. Well. In China

Hello again friends and family. Sorry it's taken so long to let you know we are alive and well. Just got internet in the apartment this morning...yippee. We have been having a really good time here and have had tons of great experiences already.

We arrived in Dalian after transferring from Beijing on Friday night. Completely skipped over Thursday when we crossed the Pacific, and we are now 15 hours ahead of West Coast time. So if you want to call or Skype us, keep that in mind. (skype name is daliandaniel). Pretty crazy dropping out of the sky into a completely different culture where you don't speak the language and can't read a thing. We were saved at the airport by our interpreter/guide Harry and taken to the college that night. Stayed in the College Hotel "suite" until Tuesday. The campus here is pretty nice. Some massive buildings that remind me of Cal Poly. THis pic here is the main student building.

The city here is very large, goes on forever. Thought there were 2 million people before we came, but found out it's 5 million. As if we can tell the difference. All we know is there are a lot of Chinese people, and very few white people. Didn't see another white person in fact until probably Sunday, and that was downtown. None where we live accept 2 other foreign teachers from New Zealand and Australia. Have toured the city a bit so far, and it is fascinating. Sort of San Franciscoish with a little Portland here and there. Some beautiful tree lined streets and a huge green park near the beach (largest green square in China apparently). The beach was nice, water wasn't too bad, but no waves as we are in a bay.

We live about 15 minute taxi (side note: taxi drivers here are insane. Stop lights, lane markers, direction signs, are viewed at as mere options/suggestions with the pedestrians serving as bright orange cones to avoid by centimeters as they swerve around them in the street) or bus ride from the main downtown. And discovered today we can take the bus downtown for 1 yuan, which is about 15 cents. Everything here has been insanely cheap. We will go out to eat and get lots and lots of amazing food at little hole in the wall restaurants for about 3 U.S. $ each, or less. That's with a beer. Bought some great shoes for $10, and that was in a mall. Lots of massive malls here, that are just like the U.S. only we can't read anything except the occasional GUCCI or ADIDAS. Pretty westernized city. Hoping to do some travelling soon to see some of the more ancient regions of China. Possible Great Wall trip next month. we shall see.

I'll try to keep these things briefer, but there is a lot that has happened. Every day we learn so much and experience so many new things it feels like we've been here for months sometimes. AManda and I are still kind of feeling like this is vacation, but I'm sure that will fade soon as we start teaching our students on Tuesday! should be fun. Trying hard to pick up on a few key survival phrases and words. Very hard language so far. But we have managed to get food, shelter, and water, so we are surviving. Hoping to stumble upon an "essentials kit" soon. haha. For those of you still reading and who know Brian Regan. Key phrases include, how much? duo shao qian? that's too expensive. tai guila. Waiter/waitress- fuyan. Check please- Mei dan. Numbers and hand signals for 1-10. Do you speak English? Ni hue shua Enguen ma? and I don't know- basically I can't speak English, stop staring at me, I'm an idiot- ting bu dong.
I get a lot of stares. AManda can pass as Asian almost, and insn't quite so conspicuous. But I don't have a chance of blending in. It's not so much that I'm tall, there are quite a few tall Asians.
Anyway, having a great time. Had McDonalds. Went to Wal-Mart. did all the American stuff. Have now retreated to our pretty darn nice apartment which we share w/ the Ostinis. More posts to come soon. For now, keep us in prayers. LOVE- Dan and Amanda
p.s. THe two above pics are from downtown Xinghai Square, right near the ocean.