Near Second Week.

Haven't blogged for a while. Internet connection isn't that great here, and VPN is flaky 99% of the time. Had a Skype meeting yesterday with one of the persons in charge of the Wuxi program. We discussed the CETI program and the curriculum we'd be doing while at Jiangnan University. It was exciting to think about Louis and I starting the first program in Wuxi for MIT, and future students will be able to travel here because of us. Things have been nice and chill here in Dalian. Weather has been gorgeous every single day. And the guys here in Dalian have become bros to me. Even worked out with them at the gym the other night, and got to show them some exercises for their backs and abs, which they seem to really appreciate. Got another 9 weeks here in Asia. Initially I was really homesick and wanted to go back home. But I think this journey was the right decision for me, despite the fact I could have spent an entire summer in beautiful paradise. If anything I will definitely appreciate every little thing after going back home. I do feel a lot at peace with myself since coming here, especially since there are no outside distractions for me anymore ( for the most part. ) Signing off, over and out!

Church in Dalian.

Tried finding a church today in the city of Dalian. Boy was it tough. First off not sure why my confidence and abilities to speak Mandarin is slowly deteriorating. Second, not sure what the second is. Went out around 10a.m., took the bus all the way to downtown Dalian, and walked around, asking people if there was a church in the area. What do you know, there was one only a few blocks away from the bus stop I got off at. Problem was 1) EVERYTHING was in Chinese. 2) I missed the morning service and had to wait till the afternoon. Decided to just wander around downtown, check out the locals, ate a very expensive restaurant ( paid 60 YUAN for lunch, $5 for Bubble Tea!!!! ). Roamed around the streets, malls, etc. It was nice just being alone, thinking about life, but at the same time made me realize it really sucks to be alone in this world. Finally came around 3pm, and headed back to the church. It was packed, and the pastor was speaking really fast Chinese. Tried my best to get as much as I could, but obviously there is still a lot more room for improvement in my 中文能力。 Just got back to the dorm, and getting ready to grab some dinner at the school. Pretty chill day. Had a lot to think about, forget about, and dream about. Probably going to watch Rabbit Hole tonight with Louis. Such a great movie. It will be my second time seeing it, and I rarely see movies more than once.

BBQ @ the Beach.

Wish I had/will have more days like the one I had today. Good times with great people. The students are just so friendly. I'm going to have to share with them about the Aloha Spirit, cause that's all they've been showing us since we've gotten here. I ate so many meat on a stick today that I was about to burst. Also tried some of their Chinese beer, which isn't too bad. All in all, tons of fun, great pics, and awesome people. Mangpo, Sean, and I decided to head out to the city afterwards and wander around. Sean's friend decided to join us, and we headed over to the arcade to dance. I told them I really liked dancing, and they took it as dancing on those DDR dance machines popular in America. Surprisingly, I was pretty good, and Sean's friend also thought I was pretty good too. She even said not bad for a beginner. Not sure why I started blushing and falling weak to my knees, but I tried to keep cool and act as if I've always been a professional dancer. We had dinner at a Sichuan restaurant, and before you start teasing me about my inabilities to handle spicy food, let me just say that I was well behaved and did not cry during my meal. In fact, it wasn't even that spicy. Maybe they make it such that Cantonese boys like me can handle crazy spicy foods in China. We were walking back to the dorm when we ran into a group of students from the University who meet every Saturday to practice speaking English. Decided to crash the party, and what do you know, Chinese people 1) Say I'm not Chinese 2) Say I'm very interesting from the way I act 3) Say I'm very handsome ( okay, maybe not the last one, but I can see it from their eyes ;) Sean and I ended up having a really nice deep talk about life, relationships, love at first sight, and fate. The last one, where he tried to explain to me the meanings behind each of the characters of 缘分, had me drop my jaw open wide, and one of those realizations of the meaning of life moments. Wow, this was the kind of stuff I was looking for in China, to broaden my mind and understanding of love and life and everything else, and all it took was from me was to open up and connect with a person who I've been seeing everyday this past week. He is such a genuine, down to earth guy; very authentic and nice guy. Hope I'll be able to learn a thing or two from him before I have to leave this place. So much to think about, but for now, live in the moment, relax, and enjoy the remaining weeks.

Tired.

Louis and I stayed up to watch "The Hurt Locker". Great movie. Love Jeremy Renner ( actor who plays Arrow Guy on Avengers. ) Awesome performance, and the story line wasn't bad either. Unfortunately we had to get up early the next day, which explained the groggy feeling I had all day and afternoon. Didn't really do or say much. Had a slight headache leading into the afternoon, and the weather was so gloomy and when it started to rain, my headache got worst. Popped in some tylenol after dinner and basically just slept at 7pm till 7am this morning. Feeling much better, though I do miss home and kind of want to go back. Too bad cause I got 9 more weeks in China...LOLFML. Heading to the beach today for a BBQ with the grad students. Should be fun. Aloha!

Things working!

Better day today. Woke up a bit late so ended up missing breakfast. Got to the lab and met with Liu Laoshi, and explained to her our curriculum for our students. She seemed to like it, and I'm looking forward to teaching Job Interviewing lecture and Entrepreneurship lecture to the kids. Had to do an early lunch because I was scheduled for a brief interview with the Tianjin language program teacher. Had a really nice time, and can't wait to start learning some intense Mandarin! I really like the graduate students that we've been working with. Heading to the beach this weekend with them for a BBQ. Can't wait! Also, took a nice evening walk around the track tonight. Got to clear my head and think about things...life, etc. ALoha!

All Work, No Play.

It's been a long, tiring day. Woke up this morning pretty late, but got some quick breakfast with Mangpo. Came back to the dorm to learn some Chinese. Really trying to get better; some guy trying to sell me goods yesterday asked me where I was from, and I told him I was a local boy, and he said that was impossible since my Chinese was so bad. Ouch. Pretty discouraging for me, but I'm determined to improve and prove them all wrong!

We sent Liu Laoshi a preliminary schedule of what we will be teaching to our students. Spent the morning doing the planning, and I will be teaching some compression lectures taken from 6.02. Dang, thought I was done with that stuff a long time ago, and now I have to go back to those dark days -_- It's fine; at least I know I won't be quizzed on it ;)

I'm really excited about the culture lectures. We decided we'd all give a talk about the place we were born and raised, and who better to represent Hawaii than the Flyin Hawaiian! Can't wait to spread the Aloha Spirit to all of China!!!! Shaka braddah! \\_//

We're having so many language technical difficulties. Trying to install some software onto the computers this afternoon, but turns out everything is in Chinese, so we're literally trying to decode everything while reading the instructions in Chinese and translating them to English. Not really getting much done this way. But I'm so tired and fatigue to even complain. Toilet got clogged this morning, and had to ask the housekeeping people to come and fix it. I got a glimpse of the fixing process and literally that was the worst sh*t I've ever seen in my life. I will definitely appreciate American bathrooms once I'm back. I would have used the bathrooms at the schools, but as soon as I saw those squats with no toilet paper, they had me running all the way back to my dorm to do my business ( luckily our room has American style toilet, but still, not the greatest thing in the world. )

Needless to say, definitely wasn't the best day for me. Which is okay. It's part of the training, but I'm starting to wonder whether I had to come all the way to China to do this spiritual journey. Then again, I wouldn't be realizing all these things if I didn't come here, and probably would take everything granted.

So tired right now. Glad Louis is my roommate and buddy now. He always makes me laugh even when the things he says ain't meant to be funny. Good night World!

Bus to Downtown!

What a day. Just got back from Downtown Dalian. We finally took the bus to explore the different areas of Dalian, starting in Qinghai Square, which was really nice, with Russian buildings. Walked around a bit and took some pictures. There was an amusement park nearby, and Louis and Mangpo when on one where you're strapped into this open ball thingy and tossed really high up into the air. I was so scared just watching them. They did it twice, and I was the loser recording everything cause I am STILL scared of riding those scary machines.

I forgot to add, on the bus ride here we met some random strangers who kept asking me if I was Chinese. In fact I've been getting a lot of that lately. Not sure why...are people trying to confirm my looks because I don't look like them? Maybe they've never seen a sexy Hawaiian Chinese guy before. Anyway, one of the ladies, probably in her early 20's, spoke some English, so we were chatting, and one thing led to another and she asked for my number because she said she wanted to practice her English with me. No girl has EVER asked for my number. I found this really nice. I told her I'd be very happy to help her with her English, and that I could practice my mandarin with her. She told me she was preparing to take her GRE next month, and go to America for graduate school. Hmm.....

After Qinghai square, we got on the bus again and headed down to Zhongshan Square, famous for its Friendship Square. Definitely a financial district area. We took some great pics, and afterwards had dinner at KFC. Wasn't that bad, and I think their food is somewhat healthier?

We went searching for the underground mall, which was suppose to the 4 floors deep. Turned out it was only three, but it was definitely a big mall. Didn't really find anything that caught my eye. I guess Chinese fashion clothing ain't my style. Afterwards we took the bus back to the dorm. Before that though I went into a KTV place ( that's where people for for Karaoke ) and asked this really nice woman what people do for fun at night in Dalian. She recommended some places, and I asked her if she could write down those names. She was really nice, very friendly :)

This morning's meeting with Liu Laoshi went okay. Turns out we'll be teaching our students during the final week that we're here in Dalian. And we'll be packing in a lot of material in such a short time. Not sure how the outcome will turn out, but I'm planning to wow these students with my charm and stage presence ;)

I Have Cool Hair!

"Your hair is so cool." That was the first thing one of the graduate students Eric said when we met him in his iLabs told me yesterday. Not gonna lie, that definitely brought a smile to my face. We were hoping to meet Professor Liu to discuss the upcoming curriculum, but I guess since it was our rest day we got to chat with the graduate students about life in America, basketball, and later had lunch together with them.

Because I woke up pretty early around 7 AM, decided to roam around the area near the school. Found myself a pastry store, and treated myself to an Asian bun. It was 好吃，wished I took a pic. It was only $1! Can't wait to start exploring downtown Dalian, and see what the daylife and nightlife is like.

After lunch came back to the dorm and passed out. FYI, there are no elevators in our building, and yes, we live on the 5th floor. Had dinner after I woke up from my nap. Mangpo had to run some work back at the lab, so Louis and I ended up roaming around the city on our own. Somehow we ended up chatting about girls and relationships, and I basically told him my entire love life. No judgement was made surprisingly; in fact turns out he sort of had the same experiences as me. And we both have similar personalties, in that we're just both fun guys looking to find true love and the-one to spend the rest of our lives with.

First night of laughing so hard in China. He's really easy to talk to and down to earth. Listened well to my sad love life, and I particularly enjoyed listening to his past life. He and I are going to get along just fine. When we got back to the dorm I even started playing some love songs to set the mood :)

Aloha from Dalian!

After 13 hours of flying, finally got into Dalian yesterday afternoon. I got pretty homesick during the final hours on the plane as it landed in Dalian, China. Probably because I got really tired and my head started hurting. But as soon as I saw Mangpo ( my good friend and teammate for the summer ) and two of the University students ( one of them holding a sign with my name on it ), I felt much better. We took a taxi back to the school, where we checked into the guest house. It's not the Sheraton, but it'll do for the next three weeks. If anything I sort of remember this lifestyle from my previous trips to China; besides, I'm not here to live a fancy life. I'm here to get away from everything else that has happened these past few years, and sort of just give some time to myself and meet new people, learn how to find my inner peace, and be able to live in the now moment. We had a pretty good dinner, though as soon as I opened the menu I wished I had paid more attention to the Chinese lectures on food and menu items at MIT. They were entirely written in Chinese, with no pictures or English translations. Luckily we had our student order for us, which turned out great with Beef,Chicken, and Vegetables. Glad my Chinese speaking skills aren't too rusty, but I have a feeling they'll improve immensely even before I begin my Chinese classes in Tianjin. Louis ( our third team member ) got in later that night, and the three of us chatted for a bit, talking about a possible trip to Beijing before heading to Wuhan. I'm really excited to just travel and explore all of China. It's Julian time this summer; no other human species to cause any more drama for me ^_^