Whose got money? Oh, I’VE GOT MONEY!
That’s right ladies and gentleman, after searching high and low, I went where I should have gone to begin with – my Lonely Planet guide book. Many people swear they suck, some swear they ruin the travelling experience, but those people have never been stuck in Jinzhou with a quickly dwindling loan from their school manager.
After my final day of orientation Sherry and I took a crazy taxi ride (though not quite as daring as the other day’s ride… we were driving on the sidewalk on that one) across town to the Shangri-la Hotel, or more specifically the HSBC branch right beside it. The familiar HSBC logo raised my spirits and the big PLUS logo on top of the ATM made me nearly break down into tears of joy…
So with a mit full of yuan, we returned to the Dalian school and met the rest of the new teachers and all went out for a special dinner in traditional gut-busting style. Today’s oddities included eating fried prawns (heads and all), fried spicy octopus (which was incredibly delicious – or hao chi) and something called a 10,000 Year Old Egg – but I swear… it tasted only 5,000 years old – marketing, I tell ya.
After dinner and promises to keep in touch with the other new teachers, Sherry and I headed to Carrefour and did a bit of shopping. I got myself a rice cooker and some various other things important to the apartment – but most significantly, I got some long underwear and some slippers…
I don’t have very many photos yet (as it’s so damn cold I never think to take my camera out) – but I did manage to get these:
This is Youhao Guangchang, or Friendship Square |
Quickly looking up the street towards Zhongshan Square, my fingers are still thawing. |
Currently my favourite purchase of the day. |
Well… it’s after one in the morning, which means MAYBE I’ll be able to sleep later than 6:30 a.m…. so I guess I should be off to bed. I’m heading down to the school tomorrow, so I’ll try to get some photos of it to give y’all an idea of where I’m working and who I’m working with.
