Discoveryland

On Sunday, we went to our local amusement park - Discoveryland. They have a cool log ride that you get really wet on. We didn't wait to go on it because the line was too long, but we watched people come down the chute instead...that was a mistake! Here is our video:



If you didn't figure it out we were behind a glass wall. The kids did decide to go into the splash zone, though, as you can see in our pictures.

Discoveryland is cute, you can tell it is trying really hard to be like Disneyland, but I don't think anyone can capture the Disney magic. It's laid out similar to Disney with "lands" and has some similarities that you can see in our pictures. It's a fun park - more like California Adventure or Six Flags. Lots of thrill rides for the older kids and adults. We had fun. We will go back again as it is less than a 5 minute drive from our house.

We had some great conversations with some locals - one a English teacher at a middle school in Dalian and a few young employees. We also had our share of people staring. One of these days I'm going to get a picture of someone staring at us.

Here are our pictures (double click to open the album):

Discoveryland

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Beer Festival

German beer, Chinese city, German food, chopsticks, Chinese singers, American song....



This was at the International Beer Festival in downtown Dalian. A 10 day event. There were 160,000 people there the first day. We went today during the day, when it wasn't so crowded. Good beer!







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Are You Curious?

Are you curious about the "squatty potty" (more formally known as a squat toilet)? These are the toilets most commonly found in China, although we do have "Western toilets" in our house and many stores will have squat or western options.

Here is what one looks like:



It has water, it flushes, it's almost like what we are used to in the US only it's just right on the ground, no raised portion and no seat....I just pretend that I'm hiking in the woods and going behind a tree (TMI?)... If they are clean (and most I've encountered have been), they aren't bad to use. I'm just glad super bell bottom pants aren't in style anymore! Maybe someday I'll get a picture of the squat port-a-potty that's down by the beach!

I'll give 20 of my prized chocolate chips to the first person who can identify where this toilet is!
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They Moved the Pole

If you recall, this telephone pole was stranded in the middle when they put the new road in. There are no streetlights so I figured it wouldn't last long. At first I thought they intentionally moved it, but looking at the stump, I'm thinking something ugly happened. The stump is still there a week later. Maybe a few more trucks tires will flatten it.


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More Pictures of Dalian

We haven't had access to our blog for almost a week...That's probably a good thing, because it's been a hard week and I probably didn't have anything nice to say anyway!

Here are some pictures of what we see around Dalian. Most of these are from the main city of Dalian.

Click on the album to open it, then you can double-click on a picture to make it bigger or watch a slide show from the upper left.

Dalian City Pics

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Missing Easy Eating

Well, I just finished torturing myself again....I made cookies....the end result - cookies - are good...but it is torture to not be able to eat the cookie dough. I guess I didn't think about how much I LOVE cookie dough, until I wasn't able to eat it....although, I should have guessed as there have been times that I have made cookies, but never baked them - only ate the dough!

That's one of the hard parts about living here, the uncertainty of the safety of food. For example, when we were at pizza, I really wanted to order their salad. But then I had to run through the pros and cons in my head (pros - haven't had salad in 4 weeks, I love salad, this is a clean restaurant, restaurant run by westerner; cons - don't know how well they washed the lettuce, don't know how they stored the dressing, don't like to throw up).

In the end, I skipped the salad. But we are faced with those decisions on a regular basis. Because I see how often foods are not refrigerated in China, and the lack of cleanliness that we are used to, it is hard for me to get past that and eat anyway. It's hard to know so much about food safety, maybe it would be easier if I weren't a nutritionist. There are many people here who just go for it, and eat it all. It'll be awhile before I'm that brave.

It's also hard because eating out (right now) means new menus and new foods, instead of old familiar dishes. So while going to a restaurant is fun, it is also a bit of work.

We all miss the simplicity of going through Taco Bell drive thru...
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How Much Do You Weigh Soaking Wet?

Well, now we know....Kiana and Kevin weigh 5 more pounds soaking wet than they weigh when they are dry! And how did we find that out???? A warm, torrential downpour!! Two inches of rain forecast for today, and some lightening and thunder too (and no I didn't let the kids go out in the lightening!)


Kevin is up to his knees in water in the sandbox:


We are watching them pump water out of the basement level of the townhouse across the street - glad we are on the 3rd floor!
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