Monday, December 6

Monday featured a standard morning breakfast in the hotel, followed by normal morning at work. It should be noted that today is quite cold and windy, maybe 20 degress or so.

At lunch, the campus manager took myself and two others out for lunch. We again returned to the restaurant one block away from the office (I believe the building is called the Sunshine Hotel). There, I picked out my fried mushroom plate that I enjoyed last week and let them choose the rest. We had a pork and vegetable dish, fried green bean dish, and a hot pepper and chicken plate - all were good.

After work, Winson and I went back to the hotel where he showed me an air traffic control program that he had started playing. We joked that it was funny that the two people that really enjoy flight simulator are located on opposite sides of the world. He also confided in me that people in the often sometimes make jokes at him for playing flight simulator - good thing I don't have that problem - oh wait, nevermind. :) At 6:00pm or so, we walked to the east, about 10 blocks or so, to a Shanghai style restaurant - which to me means, compared to Dalian food, a bit more taste and some dishes with sugar (like BBQ flavor, and sugar tasting deserts). Entering the restaurant, we proceeded up a flight of stairs to a small, plain, private dining room. There, Winson ordered us a number of dishes, promising some new tastes for me. First out was what looked like BBQ something - it turned out to be smoked fish, but in a sauce that resembled a sweet teriaki bbq - very tasty - In fact, now one of my favorites in Dalian - however, as most fish dishes are, it was loaded with bones and I was nervous with each bite. Next came out a new one - a simple looking baked chicken, only smaller - think the size of a pigeon and you would be spot on. In fact, it WAS pigeon. Tasted like chicken, but a bit more on the dark meat side of flavoring - but not too bad. We also had some cooked pork - kind of mashed into meatball sized pieces, mushrooms with vegetables, a fairly gross fish soup w/ seaweed, and for dessert, some very tasty chinese dumplings. We took a taxi back to the hotel, and I was back in my room by 8:45pm or so.