Qingdao Part 2

Here is a picture from the night before which I forgot to add. Way in the background of the picture is a Wal-Mart, and in front for two blocks is all of their competition. We walked up this street to the Wal-Mart and then turned left to head home. After turning, there were more street vendors for another two blocks. They sell pretty much everything imaginible, including clothes, shoes, household goods, toys, etc. Generally, you can get things for much less than at Wal-Mart, but you have to bargain/haggle for it. The Chinese are masters at bargaining. They see someone like me approaching and they start licking their chops. Jane, however, has been complimented on her bargaining, being told that she bargains like a Chinese person. We know plenty of foriegners who are willing to pay the (sometimes much) higher prices just so they dont have to deal with haggling. Sometimes it seems like you could argue for 5 minutes, just to save (or just for them to make) a dollar or so. Sunday morning started out with church. Qingdao has two famous churches. There is the Catholic church, which is known as the more beautiful of the churches. There is also a Protestant church, which looks less like a church and more just like a regular building. Both churches are famous for surviving the cultural revolution in the 1950s. The Protestant church survived because it had no cross and didn't look like a typical church, and the Catholic church survived because locals took down the crosses and buried them so it looked less like a church. Here is a picture of Evelyn at mass. It was the same as at home, other than being in Chinese, and people bowing to each other to give a sign of peace.

Here is a picture of the outside of the church. The twin steeples are 200 feet tall. As you can see, it was a very nice day compared to the previous days.

We started the day off by stopping in McDonalds for some breakfast for the kids. We also stopped there to get coffee for Jane and I. It is very difficult to find a decent cup of coffee in China. First, everyone here drinks tea instead. Second, whenever you do find coffee, it always has milk and sugar mixed in, with the milk often being soy or coconut milk. McDonalds is one of the few places where I can get a plain-old cup of black coffee. (We also found a store that sold a huge coffee can full of instant black coffee, which I have been drinking at work). Here is me (with coffee) and the kids outside McDonalds. After waking up, we had no definite plans. Jane was interested in going to Mount Laoshan, a rocky mountain nearby known for beautiful "Chinese scenery." However, the mountain was an hour away by cab, the girls woke up early, and it was still quite cool out. Therefore, we decided to skip the mountain and just head down towards the beach to see what was going on. As the day moved on, it turned out to be very nice. We walked a long way along the coastline, which was nice because visibility was very good. Here is a picture of Jane and the kids with a cluster of the district buildings in the background. In the far left background is Zahn Pagoda, the famous pagoda which acts as the symbol of Qingdao (and, as I mentioned, is on the beer bottles).
Here we all are in the same spot taken from a different angle. A young Chinese guy with a professional style camera took our picture. The deal was that he would take a picture of us if he could take one for himself using his camera, and so we both were happy.

As we walked along the beachline, we came to the naval museum, which was a popular tourist site for a lot of the Chinese people there. We decided to skip the museum, though, and we went to a park that was directly next door. The park had winding pathways and sitting areas that had great views of the Yellow Sea. It was a great place to relax and eat the joudzas (Jowd-zuh) [a.k.a. dumplings] that we had just bought. Here is a picture of the kids with a veteran Chinese national. He is eating a treat that is sold everywhere. They are candy-coated crabapples (or something like them). We have bought them a few times and they always turn into a sticky mess. I am not a big fan of the taste, either, but the girls do like to gnaw on them.
Here is a picture of Jane and Dan standing along a rocky part of the coastline of the sea.

Dan was in a good mood this day. As we were walking down the street, he said something to the effect of: "This is a special day for me. I got to go to McDonalds, I got a new toy (a seashell whistle), I got to go rock climbing, I got to pee on a shoe." This last part made Jane stop for a moment, but it was true, he did get to pee on a shoe. Dan and I went rock climbing on the rocks along the beach. He really enjoyed it, but when we were a bit further down, Dan told me that he had to go to the bathroom. It is perfectly normal to pee whereever, and he had to go pretty badly. We just found a crevice and let him do his thing; there just happened to be an abandoned shoe in the crevice. Who knew that was the highlight of his day.

Here is a shot of a kid in the park. Chinese people, women especially, are very protective of the kids (it doens't matter whose kid it is, they have an opinion as to how raise it). Hopefully this boy was warm enough. They kids turn out looking like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man.

Here are Dan and I along the beach's boardwalk. We did a lot of walking, so Dan's legs got tired easily. As a result, he either asked to be on my shoulders, or he walked so slowly that I put him up there on my own. It got us moving, though it was hard after a long and uncomfortable bus ride, followed by sleeping on these ridiculously hard beds. Oh the struggles I go through.

Here is a picture of a corner of one of the bathing beaches. These guys were playing volleyball, and behind them were guys exercising. It was a very active place.

After walking along the boardwalk for a while we decided to settle down for a while on the beach. There was a small restaurant that had outdoor seating right on the beach, so we sat there for a while and let the kids run around a bit. It was probably the best part of our trip. Jane and I finally got to relax for a bit, and the kids got to get out of the stroller and play for a bit. Also, oddly, people pretty much left us alone. We are so used to having people constantly watching us and our kids, often from only a few feet away. Here, however, we sat pretty much uninterrupted. It helped that Dan sometimes was playing 30 yards away in the sand, attracting the crowds on his own. Here is a shot of Etain taking a stroll along Qingdao Beach #2.

Evelyn ended up meeting another young girl and the two of them became instant friends. It may have helped that the girl had a huge bag of corn puffs. Her new friendship was nice, because for a long time, Etain slept in her stroller, Dan performed for a crowd, and Evelyn palled around with the girl. Jane and I sat at a table and enjoyed a fresh Tsingtao. Here are Evelyn and her friend. They even had matching outfits; it almost looks like they changed tops or something.

(For some reason, if you crouch down to take a picture of Evelyn, she gets into a crouching pose as well).


Here are Dan and me enjoying a little snack. We ended up getting warm peanuts and fried clams, although when they came out they seemed to be roasted instead. They were very good, probably caught that day or the day prior. All of the kids liked them. (Try eating peanuts with chopsticks if you want a challenge.)

Here are Dan and Evelyn playing for the crowd. Well behind them is a 3-story pagoda that supposedly offers the best views of Qingdao. (We never made it up there).

More playing on this great day. The kids were perfect. They just played and played, and we ended up hanging out there for about three hours.

In addition to Evelyn's friend, another little boy played along with Dan as well. He was, to say the least, a bit rambunctious. At one point, he ran and jumped into the restaurant's menu sandwich sign, breaking it right down the middle. The restaurant owner was right there to see it, thankfully, because we thought that he would surely blame us if he didn't see the incident for himself. Here are the kids as they were running and doing dives into the sand, with a picture of the little Tazmanian Devil as well.

After we left the beach, we walked home along the boardwalk, coming to an area where a guy rented out battery operated cars for children. I assume they were his cars, but I think he just ran them around on a public spot at the beach. Dan and Evelyn really liked it. Dan, however, sometimes got it confused with bumper cars, as he often tried to crash or run people (me) over.

Once we got up to the area where the cars were, we attracted a few more people. Here are some passersby who wanted to get their picture with Etain (the girl on the right is actually the mother of Dan's friend from earlier). The men here get just as googly-eyed over our kids as the women.

Here is a picture of Evelyn eating a xianjiao [shang-jow] that Jane took. She actually took about 5 pictures just like this, hoping to get a good looking shot of Evelyn at sunset. Every time the flash was about to go of, though, Evelyn would raise her banana in the air. All of the other pictures are exactly like this one.

Here is a picture of Etain taken only a few minutes later. It didn't seem so dark when you look at the picture on our camera.

Here are the kids as we were heading home. The kids always want to get suckers whenever they see them. We tried to get a picture of them with the lighted up background, but the flash kept blocking it out. As a result, we took a flash-less picture of the background independently.

It was a pretty neat view to walk home to. On the left side is Zahn Pagoda, all lit up.

Here is a guy who stopped us wanting to take a picture of our kids. This is a common occurrence, so we had no problem with it. (Jane had the money-making idea of charging people, and even though I am sure we would be able to retire early with the profits, we haven't started collecting anything yet.) This guy, uniquely, gave us his camera because he wanted to be in the shot with the kids as well. He then stood next to me as Jane took a picture of me and him on both cameras. He had a girlfriend who was with him as well. Though she was nice, he was way more excited about the kids and such, which is not atypical.

When we got back to the hostel, we headed into the lounge for a bit (this is where we kept our stroller, instead of lugging it upstairs). That night, they were having a joudza ([jowd-zuh] = dumpling) making session. The girls were ready to go down, so I went up to bed with them. Jane and Dan hung out for a while, because there were a lot of other foriegners there as well. Jane even made some joudzas herself. The foriegners that Jane met all lived in Qingdao for 10 plus years, which is unique. Often, people just go to a place for 3-5 years and either head home or go somewhere else. They all said that they absolutely loved Qingdao. One guy from Britain had a son, Max, who was about Dan's age, and they bummed around that night. Here they are playing Power Rangers on Playstation 2.

The next day was the day that we were leaving. Our train left at 3 in the afternoon, and it was pretty cold, so we just hung around. The kids and I went to McDonalds for a while and played in the indoor play area while Jane ran to the train station to work out tickets (we had tickets earlier, but they were only for seats instead of beds, so she had to get this fixed). After McDonalds, we headed back to the lounge to let the kids run around. While we were there, they began decorating for Christmas. They gave Dan and Evelyn a few ornaments for helping put up the tree. (I think the hostel was doing Christmas decorations because of all of the foreign visitors. I have been told that the Chinese recognize Christmas as a commercial holiday, but it is otherwise no big deal. I will let you know what it is like as it gets closer). Here are the kids setting up for the holidays.

Here is a picture of three of the hostel workers sending us off. They really enjoyed the kids. I guess otherwise working in a hostel bar at 9:00 a.m. can be pretty slow, so the kids offered some entertainment.

After leaving the hostel, we headed off to the train station, which was probably about 10-12 blocks away. After a quick lunch, we arrived at the train station at about 2:00 p.m., an hour before our train left. The waiting room in the train station was about the size of a football field, completely full of people. When our train was called, we headed towards our car. The trainride home was expected to take 17 hours, leaving at 3:00 p.m. and arriving at 8:00 a.m. Though definitely not ideal, that was not too big of a deal for us.

As we approached the train car, Jane noticed something unfortunately peculiar. Every person getting on our car was male, between 20-50 years old, and most of them were carrying booze. Yes, we got the party car. As we got on, the train reeked of alcohol and cigarettes. It smelled that way the entire trip. While still at the station, a young guy in the compartment next to us was already passed out in his bed, vomiting. We were suprised they let him on the train. About an hour after we had left, Jane passed by his compartment to learn that he had peed in his pants. About an hour or so after that, he woke up. He apparently was pretty embarrassed and pretty mad. We knew this because he was screaming and punching walls. He did this for about another hour. At that time, it was about time to get the girls down to bed. But, right when we were trying to do this, he got up and started pacing up and down the hall. He was so drunk, though, that he could not walk straight. He came extremely close to stumbling and falling into our compartment; I had to, while holding Evelyn, hold up my free hand to make sure he didn't fall in. After that, he just stood outside of our car. His pants, still wet, were unbuckled and sagging. He was wearing no shirt, to reveal that he was extremely muscular. Plus, while standing outside, he occasionally looked at me, and his hands were clenched and shaking, as if he was going to go crazy at any moment. I put myself on gaurd just in case anything would happen. After a minute or so, a train steward came and told him to get in his bed. He refused, and a scuffle ensued. The steward easily controlled him though, bringing him to the ground without issue. Unfortunately, though, he brought him down right outside our room, so that all three kids could see the struggle. A police officer also came and knelt down on the guy's neck, twisting his arm backwards(which seemed a little excessive to me). Thankfully, the officer looked up and saw the wide-eyed kids, then he had the guy moved somewhere else. They threw him back in his bed, where he yelled and screamed for another hour or so. We were sure he would be thrown out at the next stop. However, the next morning, when we got off, he was just sitting up in his bed, looking as if he felt pretty embarrassed and having a pretty bad headache. All that commotion made the trip pretty long.

Another thing that made the train ride long were two women who were in our compartment (we had 3 of the 6 beds in the compartment). These two women openly criticized everything that we did, especially Jane. The food we fed the kids was wrong, the clothes they were wearing were wrong, they were too hot, too cold, going to bed too early, sleeping in the wrong spots, and so on and so on. They really were driving me crazy, and they were picking on Jane much worse. When there was one hour to go, Jane got up, got packed and stood by the door with kids packed and in the stroller. As we approached Changzhou the women found the exit too, telling Jane that Evelyn needed a hat before we got off. I thought Jane was going to go crazy. She tried to explain that Evelyn did not want a hat, but they insisted. Just to show them, Jane put the hat on Evelyn's head, which was quickly ripped off and thrown on the ground. Jane then stared at the women as if to say, "Happy now; now leave me alone."

We got off of the train weary and ready to just get home and away from the crowds. We stopped at the train station McDonalds first to get some food for the kids, and there to open the doors for us were the two women. We sat as far away from them as possible. We sat and ate, weary, cranky, sleep-deprived and anxious to get home. Just as Jane was taking a bite of her egg sandwich, a homeless woman stuck her dirty, yellow-fingernailed hand in Jane's face begging for money (inside the restaurant!). It was at this point that Jane did, in fact, lose it. I quickly grabbed some change in my pocket just to get rid of the lady. Jane had to put her head in her hands for a minute just to block everything out. A bomb could have gone off next to her and she would not have looked up. I completely understood. We had simply had our fill of people within the last 24 hours.

After that, we went home, Jiu Jie came over, the girls took naps, Dan went to school and Jane and I went to lunch at a very fancy restaurant. We were the only two people in the entire place, which was just what we wanted. So ended the trip to Qingdao, and so ends this post.

Qingdao Part One

We had a five day weekend this past weekend. Our normal scheduled called for a three day weekend, but all of the foreign students went on a two day field trip during the first two days back in school. As a result, teachers were allowed to take the days off, giving us five days to do whatever we wanted. We used those five days to do a trip to Qingdao (pronounced Ching-Dow), which is on the East Coast of China, well North of where we are at in Changzhou. It is known as a coastal/beach city, as well as being the home of Tsingtao Beer. This blog entry, and the next one, will summarize the trip. [In a prior draft, I wrote that the name of the town was Tsingtao. It was called that at one point, but now it is known as Qingdao, with both being pronounced the same way.]

As all trips start out, this one started out with planning on how to get there. Qingdao is not accessible by one direct shot, because you have to go up and then around the coast. Trains take 18 hours. Because of this, we made the bold decision, believe it or not, to take our one, two and four year-olds on an overnight bus trip. The bus, designated a sleeper bus, took only a short 10 hours.

Our bus left at 8:30 p.m., which we thought would be fine because it was right when the kids would be going to bed. We headed down to the bus station at about 6:30. After we had taken a local bus and were preparing to transfer to another bus to get to the station, we realized that we left one of the sippy-cups at our house. We knew it would be a long night already, let alone without the all important sippy-cup. As a result, Jane and the kids hung out at the local bus stop while I ran back home and grabbed the cup. We then headed down to the bus station, going to McDonalds for dinner, where we saw a few co-workers who were taking the train to Beijing for the vacation. After eating, we headed across the street to the bus station (we had never been there before). While walking, we then realized that we left Evelyn's blanket at home. However, it was too late to go back and get it, so we would have to make the sacrifice (I say we and not Evelyn, because I knew we all would be paying for the mistake). We made it to the station at 7:55, and we were told that we were at the wrong place. Apparently, we needed to go to the North Station, and we were at the New Station. Luckily, the bus was going from the New Station to the North Station and then to Qingdao. Because we were there before 8:00, they just let us get on early, and they therefore didn't have to stop at the other place. We barely made it.

A sleeper bus is, as expected, a bus that you sleep on; or, if you have three kids, one that you don't sleep on. After putting luggage beneath, you got on the bus and took your shoes off. There were three rows of "beds", left, middle and right. Because we were getting on last minute, we were scattered all around the place. The driver's assistant, however, put us in the same lane across, moving some others around. It is hard to describe how it works sleeping on a bus. As stated, there are three rows, and each row is two stories tall, with a person on top and a person on bottom. Each person gets a bed, which was probably six feet long. The head portion of the bed was elevated, and the feet portion was sunken, so you were not quite laying horizontal. This is because the feet of the person behind you went under your head (separated by hard plastic), so that they could squeeze as many people on as possible.

We were the only people on the bus with kids, and most of the other people were men. There were a few televisions scattered throughout the sleeper. When we got on, there was a relatively violent gangster movie. Dan was completely transfixed on it, even though we kept trying to distract him. I tried to get our portable DVD player going, but it would not work. It didn't work all weekend, and I think it has died after all of the wear and tear. We tried to get the girls to bed right away. As always, I slept with Evelyn, Jane with Etain, and Dan on his own. For the most part, it worked pretty well. [I guess it is one of those situation where it is horrible while it is going on, but as soon as it is over you think that it was not all that terrible]. The worst part about it was that Evelyn (and Etain)is so picky about sleeping, and since the spot is so tight already, it is very uncomfortable. For about three hours, I slept on a six inch sliver of the bed, with my arms raised above my head (don't bother trying to picture it, just rest assured that is was uncomfortable). After a while, I felt like I was in traction, and my upper limbs were entirely numb. But, I guess this was better than having the girls waking up the entire bus screaming. The girls and Dan did seem to sleep acceptably, and Jane and I probably got an hour or two of decent sleep in there as well.

Our bus actually arrive about a half hour early. When it stopped, only a few people got off. The kids were still pretty much asleep (as it was about 6:45 a.m.), and it was hard to tell what was going on. Jane did get up and ask, and we were in fact there. The bus started moving, however, which had me a bit panicked. It stopped for us about a block down the road, where it let us out in front of a hotel. We had no idea where we were going (directionally; we had a place set up already), so we went inside and got directions. We then got a cab to our place, which was about a 10 minute ride away. The cab cost about $2.

The first thing I noticed about our place was that the entrance was up 15 steps, which meant that every time we went out, the stroller, kids and any bags had to be lugged up and down. We got in, and it was too early to check into our room. However, they did have a lounge area, which was open. We hung out there until our room was available. Our place was a hostel, and the lounge in the basement was actually pretty cool; we spent a lot of time there. At 7:00 a.m., the place was empty, so it was nice to have a spot to finally relax after the long night. Our room was soon ready anyway. We got a triple room, with three beds in one room with its own bathroom. It was perfect for what we needed.

We decided to get cleaned up and then we just headed out for a walk to get our bearings in the city. Our place was probably 12 blocks or so from the coast. Even though it was hazy and cool, there was some pretty good sightseeing. Here is a picture of Dan along the coastal sidewalk. In the background is Zhan Pagoda (pronounced John). If you ever buy a bottle of Tsingtao beer, this pagoda is on the label.

Here is Evelyn after getting cleaned up at the hostel's lounge.

Here is Etain on the morning that we arrived. Her face is covered with sweet potato. We bought a few sweet potatoes from street vendors. In Qingdao, though, they were cooking in makeshift broilers, and not in trash cans. Lah-de-dah!

Here are some of the fresh seafood offerings that are sold at most of the street corners. These octupi (this did not pass spell-check, but I think it is correct) were so fresh that they escaped the container a few times, though they did not make it far.

Here is Dan with some of the other fresh fish offerings. Everywhere you looked, there were fish hanging around to be sold, fish swimming around in tubs outside of restaurants (I say fish, but I should say 20 different types of fish, clams, turtles, frogs, eels, etc.). Drying and preserving must also be very important in Qingdao, as every other store had bins and bins of dried seafoods and vegetables. One of our favorites were dried sweet potatoes. (I hated sweet potatoes until coming to China, now I actually like them (as I may have mentioned earlier)).
Here is Dan with another local dish, a starfish. Dan was looking at it because it was bright purple, and he (and I) couldn't believe that people ate them. The guy selling them probably had never seen a blond kid before, much less three of them, so he gave it to Dan. Unfortunately, we still have "Stinky", as we have named him. We touted this thing around for three days, despite the overpowering smell. It is now out on our porch, with the hopes of drying up and stinking less.

Here is a picture of Dan and Jane walking along the beach on the first day that we got there. It was quite cool and there was a mist in the air. Our family was bundled up in winter clothing, which seemed appropriate. Despite the weather, there were a few dozen people wearing bathing suits, playing volleyball and exercising on the beach. There were even a few people swimming as if it was a hot summer day.

Jane says that, according to the travel guide she read, one thing that everyone must do in Qingdao is swim in the sea. I could see how this would apply for a summer vacation, but not in the winter. I figured, instead, that it was a trap set by the locals. Only someone crazy enough to read the travel guide and actually believe it would swim in the freezing cold. That way, the locals can easily spot the tourists (as if we do not stick out enough already), and they can easily swarm you as you get out of the sea, shivering. While your body focuses all of its energy on warming you up, your brain does not work as well, and they can try to overcharge you for nicknack's that you have no use for. It is quite a ploy, if you ask me. We, however, were wise to their game, and we did not do any swimming.

Here is a picture of Dan and Jane along the same beach, showing some of the large buildings in the background. These buildings are of a small district, though, and they come nowhere close to the buildings that exist in downtown Qingdao. I thought that the small dome-shaped building right on the water looked cool. I figured it was going to be some fancy place, as it reminded me of the Sydney Opera House. When we walked closer, though, we discovered that it was an abandoned restaurant and bar.

Where we stayed in Qingdao was known more as the old part of town. The government of Qingdao, I understand, basically built an entirely new district in one of the suburbs, which became the new central district. We never made it there due to time and weather constraints, but some other people that we met said it was like San Fransisco. Everything you could possibly think of was available in about one square mile.

Our area was neat as well. It was full of activity, as there were tons of shops and street vendors everywhere. Jane really liked it because it reminded her of the towns that she stayed at in China 14 years ago. It was also very different from our city of Changzhou. Changzhou is very new, grand and clean. There are high-rises everywhere, and the streets are lined with flowers and gardens. There are only a few streets that have all of the activity that existed in Qingdao. There, every place was full of stuff. Resultantly, it was quite a bit dirtier (where we were, at least), but that is just because there are tons of people on the sidewalk at any given time. The beach area and the boardwalk were very nicely kept though. Here is a picture of the kids and me at the start of one of the many streets lined with vendors. I think the woman to my left was selling slippers and underwear.

Here is a picture of the girls bundled up in the stroller from the first night. The first night was cool, but not necessarily cold. I think this picture is funny because I think Evelyn looks like a tough-guy muscle man who does a ton of weightlifting for upper body, but has little spindly legs. She seems to have a face that says, "You want a piece of me?"

Here is Etain playing at one of the tables in our hostel's lounge. It was very trendily decorated.

Here we are, again hanging out in another corner of the lounge (we were there often, as it was easy, relaxing and familiar). Dan and I are playing Power Rangers on Playstation 2, and Jane and the girls were just hanging out, waiting for their lunch.

On the first night, we didn't really know where to go for food. We decided on one restaurant because it had a variety of meats and vegetables, and you could pick your own. We were expecting to be served a big bowl with rice and a bunch of mixed ingredients. Instead we were sat down at a table and in front of us were placed two lighters and boiling pots. The waiter brought over two broths, one spicy and one mild, and then they brought over the meats, tofu and vegetables to the table, all still raw. We needed to get the broths boiling, and then we added whatever ingredients we wanted to each pot to make our own personalized dishes. It was good, and Jane and I thought it would have been a great place for a date night. It was not the greatest place, though, for small kids. Etain was very cranky from the minute we sat down, as she was starving. It is hard to explain to her that she has to wait for broth to boil, and even when the broth was boiling, it was a full time job sorting out all of the ingredients that each kid would want in their bowls. The broths then boiled, sometimes spitting sprinkles of extremely hot water out on the table. To say the least, it was a full time job getting each of the kids fed and satisfied. I pretty much wolfed down anything that was left as the others were getting up to head home.

That night we all were pretty exhausted. Dan and I hung out in the lounge for a bit while the girls went to bed, but I would say that we were all fast asleep by about 9:00 p.m.

For day two, Jane planned for us to visit a scenic neighborhood park area, along with a stroll to one of the public beaches. We all woke up, ate breakfast and headed outsite to find that it was very cold and drizzling. It was not raining too bad though, and it looked like it was going to clear up, so we piled into a cab and headed to the park area 10 minutes away. When Evelyn got in the cab, she walked all over the back seat. The cabs here, for some reason, all have white seat covers. Given that Evelyn's shoes were soaked and dirty, the seat soon gained that fate as well. The driver was not too happy. He was then cut off, and he mumbled things to himself and shook his head for the last five minutes of the ride. I think he was just having a bad morning, but he was pretty happy to see us go.

We got to the scenic area and strolled around, but the weather really did dampen the mood. Qingdao was a German colony long ago, and there are plenty of buildings throughout the city that have distinct European architecture. The area we went to had plenty of that, and Jane mentioned that it seemed a lot like being in Europe. However, because the weather was bad, we did not stop to take many pictures. Instead, we decided to find a place to have a quick and early lunch and to decide what we wanted to do. We walked along the shoreline for a very long time, but everything we came across was closed. We assumed that it was "off season", and the particular area where we were only catered to beach dwellers. We probably walked for about 1.5 miles before coming to Underwater World, which was one of the attractions that we had read about before coming. Though we had no prior intention on going there, we decided to try it out, because it was indoors.

First, though, we stopped in for lunch at a small restaurant across the street for noodles and rice. Here are Dan, Evelyn and I (Etain was asleep in the stroller). What you are looking at is half of the restaurant. It had four tables, about 12-15 mismatched chairs, and a kitchen that was about 3 feet by 6 feet. Not a lot of glitz and glamour here. Except for some very fancy restaurants, such as ones that are in hotels, this is what most of the restaurants are like (I call them the real Chinese restaurants). You can easily feed a family of five for 3-4$, and Jane and I think that this is where most of the best food can be found.

Here is Evelyn walking along the entrance to Underwater World. It was situated right on the coast of the sea. On the left of the picture is an enormous hill (or a small mountain) which was hollowed out to contain the acquarium and museum. To the right, on the other side of the wall, is about another 50 feet of rock, and then the sea.

Underwater world's entrance. As may be gathered from the title, it was a museum of all types of sea life, along with numerous aquariums.

Here is a picture Jane took; I dont know much about it. I can only assume that this tank housed alligators or sharks, which is why the Chinese took such care to keep kids away that they put up a rope. You pretty much have to take care of yourself here when it comes to living cautiously, there is not a lot of concern for what could possibly happen. Survival of the fittest, I guess (no offense to Evelyn).

Evelyn really liked the sea turtles, which were very active. I dont know what it is, but even the faces of the turtles seem to look Chinese to me.

Here is a shot of one of the monstrous fish that were swimming around. It was in one of those tanks that allow the fish to swim on both sides and above you, such that there is a tunnel inside of the tank for you to walk in. There were thousands and thousands of fish. This one, I would say, was about 4 feet long. I didn't appreciate how big they were until I saw a diver in the tank feeding some of the fish. He was much smaller than some of the sharks and stingrays that were swimming around him.

Here is Etain after waking up from her nap, checking out some of the animals swimming overhead.

Here is a decent shot of Evelyn along the wall of one of the many tanks.

Here are Jane and the kids in front of another tank. This particular tank was tubular and it was three stories high, with a coral reef running from top to bottom. There were tons of saltwater fish inside, most with bright colors. It was pretty cool because one of the movies we have been watching a lot lately has been "Finding Nemo". We saw plenty of fish that looked exactly like all of the characters in the movie. Evelyn walked around pointing and saying Nemo for about an hour.

Here is Etain checking out one of the sharks. It is not the best picture of the shark, but it had a long and jagged snout that looked exactly like a hedge-trimmer. I am pretty sure that I knew these things existed, but I dont think that I had ever seen one before in real life.

Etain peeking into the alligator pit:

Side note: Hopefully this is one of the last pictures you see of Etain with a pacifier in her mouth. On the last day of the trip, we lost hers. Now that we are back home we have another one, but we are trying to ween her off of them. Tonight will be her second night going to bed without one. Evelyn was a bit more vociferous about keeping hers, but we are trying to get them away from her as well. Tonight will be her first night sans paci.

Second side note: As I finished that sentence, a sonic boom went off outside our apartment. A new store just opened across the street, being somewhat like a 7-11. To celebrate they had balloons and flowers throughout the storefront. Now, at 9:40 p.m., there is a fireworks display. It will probably last about 10 minutes, with the fireworks being extremely elaborate. Fireworks are a typical way of celebrating, and you will hear a display going off every other day or so, at any time of the day. (In the back of our house, there was a display at another store at about 5:45 a.m. the other day).

After Underwater World ended, we still had a large part of the afternoon left. We decided to go on a tour of the Tsingtao Brewery. We wanted to do this anyway, and with the poor weather, it was the perfect time to go. Here are Dan and I standing outside the brewery. I cant remember what the sign said exactly, but it says something like "Tsingtao will bring you joy and happiness."

In the middle of the tour (we did our own walkthrough, not a real tour), we came across this tiny room. Jane initially passed it up with the girls in the stoller, but Dan and I went in. She came back when she heard Dan laughing hysterically. As soon as you walked through the saloon-style doors, the floor declined at about a 30 degree angle. It was like a fun-house room where everything was slightly off center. Dan was slipping and sliding all over the place. The girls then joined in on the fun. It really made you feel like you were very drunk. It seemed like a weird thing to have at the brewery. It seemed to give the impression of "Look at all of the fun you can have when drunk" as opposed to "Here is how drinking can negatively affect your senses." There was a camera outside; here is a pic of us all stumbling about. Right after we got out, a big tour of people in their mid-twenties came along. Dan went back in and put on a show for them, knowing that they were all laughing at his slipping and sliding. It was hard to drag him away from the stage that he was on.

Here we are at the end of the tour having our complimentary half pitcher of Tsingtao. It was really hitting the spot, and it tasted a lot different than the beers that you would get in a bottle at a restaurant. The kids were snacking on popcorn that Evelyn ordered. She went, on her own, with some Chinese ladies to another part of the room to get refills. After Jane, she seems to be communicating the best, followed closely by Dan. Bringing up the rear are Etain and then me.

Here is Dan, trying to act cool while taking a picture with a new lady-admirer. We hung out in the Tsingtao bar for about an hour and a half or so, becuase it was actually a great place for the kids to run around. There was an empty stage where they danced and performed for the slightly inebriated crowd. Everyone was paying attention to them and they loved every minute.

After the pitcher ran out I ordered a Tsingtao dark. I commented to Jane how much better I thought it was. We were then talking about something else, and when I went to take a drink, I saw Dan taking a swig. I honestly think he thought it was soda or hot chocolate or something. Either way, he did not like the taste of it, which we were fine with hearing.

After the brewery, we ate dinner at another tiny Chinese restaurant. We ordered noodle dishes and lamb kebobs, all of which was great. We tried to find a taxi home, but they were all taken. Jane met some women who told us what bus to take and for how many stops, so we decided to chance it. I was sure that we were going to get lost, but sure enough, Jane got us to our place in pretty good time. This time I went to bed early with the girls while Jane hung out with Dan at the lounge, but it was a long day and they were in bed not too much later after us.

Qingdao Part Two will come in a day or so...