summer night in dalian

unfortunately i was camera-less tonight, but i saw some interesting things on my journey through dalian tonight.

i've had a bit more free time than usual lately because school is out i'm just working random hours right now. so i've been doing a bit more walking and exploring new parts of the city.

i left my apartment around 5 pm because sunset is my favorite part of the day here. it takes a long time for the sun to set in dalian. maybe this is normal at home too during the summer, but daylight seems to linger here longer. i walked for a while through a fairly boring part of the city until i came to a bus stop that i had never used before. there weren't very many people waiting for this bus (which is always a plus- less people to fight with to get on the bus), and one of the stops was called jinsha beach which i had never heard of so i thought i'd check it out.

there was a large group of people standing at another bus stop which i briefly looked at but decided it would be too crowded. it took the bus forever to get the stop, and when it finally did, all of a sudden the huge mob of people that i thought i had been avoiding swamped the bus. turns out they knew that the bus always pulled ahead of the actual stop. of course, me being the foreigner, i was not able to push through the crowd to get on the bus quick enough to get a seat. i was one of the last people on the bus. this bus had nice seats too, i can see why everyone was pushing. as the journey went on, the bus got more and more crowded, and i was going to the second to last stop.

one thing i've learned here- chinese men do not give up a set to let a woman sit down. throughout the ride, a few seats were opening up, and these guys sat down as fast as they could, even if there was like an old woman standing next to them. i thought they should be ashamed of themselves. but i guess it's every man for him or herself here when it comes to the bus.

finally a seat opened up in the back and i have to say i pushed past a woman to grab it. i don't know what happened in the next 5 minutes, but all of a sudden a young guy next to me and a slightly older chinese woman started to verbally fight. at first i thought it was amusing, but then i realized that this woman was not going to let the issue go. she was accusing the guy of ripping her shirt, which was this like tan, lacy thing she was wearing over another white shirt. it really was not that nice of a shirt to get so worked up about and i couldn't even see a rip in it. she wanted the guy to give her money for damaging the shirt. the guy said that he didn't have any money but continued to engage her verbally. finally, i guess he had enough and stopped talking. the woman continued to stand in front of him glaring at him even though seats around her were opening up. it was one of the best evil eyes i have ever seen anyone give someone. then she got out her phone and made a phone call. i could hear her describing the situation, and it passed through my mind that she might be calling the police, but i really couldn't believe that she would do that.

after she got off the phone they started arguing again, and their voices were rising in volume so the fight seemed to be escalating. finally, the bus driver arrived at the stop where the guy was getting off with his friend. his friend got off, but then the woman physically blocked the guilty guy from getting off. here was this slightly older woman challenging a guy much younger and stronger than her. this is why you must fear older chinese women on the bus- you never know what they are going to do next. however, at this point, i was very afraid that i was going to see this woman get punched in the face. thankfully, the guy kept his cool as well as he could considering a stranger was blocking him from getting off the bus. he continued to yell at her more vigorously but he kept his arms at his side as he came into contact with her when he was trying to get around her. the bus driver started pulling away from the stop, and i saw his friend watch rather passively as the bus started pulling away. i feel like i would have had a much different reaction than that!!

as it was moving away, the two people moved to the front and told the bus driver what was going on. the bus driver then pulled over again and completely turned off the bus. i was like are you kidding me. after we had sat there for like 10 minutes and the argument still had no end in sight, i went to the front of the bus and asked the bus driver if he could open the door so i could get off. my stop was the next one and i figured i could just walk to it. he said no. i was like oh my god this is the worst bus ride ever. there were still a few people left on the bus and they started to engage in the argument as well. it seemed like the other passengers were reprimanding both of them- the guy for not saying sorry more quickly to the woman, and the woman for not letting issue go.

finally, i saw flashing blue and red lights so i knew that the woman really had called the police. they got off the bus and i saw the woman explaining to the THREE policeman who showed up about her shirt. at this point they had already put the guy into the cop car. what a riot!

after they got off the bus driver and other passengers who had been relatively calm through this whole event starting ranting at each other. i'm pretty sure they were ranting about how crazy the woman was to hold up the bus for like 15 minutes and waste everyone's time so that the 'wrongs' committed against her could be made right. i agree with them- i don't think i have ever seen someone with that much nerve in my life.

finally we arrived at the beach and i think it made the trip worth it. i got there when the sun was almost down but there were still a ton of people there eating, drinking and swimming. things stayed the same even after the sun went down, and even more people started to show up. it was kind of like a big beach party but everyone was just relaxing, there were a lot of families there, and most people were just wearing normal clothes.

after i left, the bus was waiting at the stop and i hopped on. there were no seats, but luckily i found this perfect little corner on the bus in front of a window where it was not possible to fit more than one person. the air from the windows felt really good and it was nice to be able to stand there in my own little space. when i looked behind me the bus was crowded as hell and i was so happy that i was not in the sweaty mix. i actually enjoy long bus rides here when i have a little room to breathe.

i got off the bus a decent distance from my apartment with the intention of getting some dinner and then walking home (at this point it was almost 9pm). i figured it would be hard to find some food so i just went in a kfc to get a chicken sandwich.

the lines in there were taking forever. i originally got behind one guy and then realized that he was standing in a line with a closed register. what did he think, someone would open up the line just for him? the funny part is that the kfc workers were just letting me, him, and 2 other people who had gotten behind me stand in a closed line with out telling us to go to another open line. after a while i saw that this was going nowhere and i moved to another line. i noticed that the other 3 people soon followed suit.

there was one lady in front of me, and i thought she was being awful to the girl at the register. the lady had ordered a lot, so the girl was trying to repeat back to her what she had ordered, and the lady was just completely ignoring her and treating her like she was dumb. after her food came, the lady said that the kfc girl had forgotten one of her orders, and she sighed heavily as the girl walked away to go get it. i was kind of like well...if you had been listening to her repeat your order back this wouldn't have happened...

so when it was my turn i decided to be nice to her. usually when a foreigner gets to the front of the line at a fast food place, the person at the register immediately gives him or her an english menu. when i stepped forward, she just stared at me dumbfoundedly, so i grabbed an english menu sitting next to her and put it between us so i could show her what i wanted. i pointed to a chicken sandwich and told her that i just wanted the sandwich and not the meal. she started looking visibly nervous and covering her face with her hand. i'm just standing there like what on earth is this woman's problem....then she turned away from the register and it appeared like she was looking for someone. now i'm starting to get annoyed- there is a big line behind me and she's making me feel like i am holding it up because there is some issue which she can't seem to verbally resolve with me. she finally pulled someone over and said something to them about spicy or not spicy, presumably to ask how to say it in english. the sandwich comes in both varieties. so i interrupted them and told her that i wanted the spicy one. she was like 'huhhh?' and then thankfully the woman behind me was paying attention to what was going on because she was like 'SHE WANTS THE SPICY ONE'. the woman at the register looked very relieved and put my order in. jeez i wanted to be nice to her but she really was a dead head after all, why wouldn't she just try to ask me and see if i understood?!? i've never had that happen before...usually the people at the register are cool and will take my order in chinese (because i always try to order in chinese...) unless there is some word i don't know, at which point they will say the word in english if they know it. i think most fast food workers here are trained to know key words from the menu in english.

she didn't give me any ketchup though, and i just happened to have learned the word for ketchup the day before, so i debated whether or not i should bother trying to ask her for some. it seemed very likely since i had never said it before that i would not say it 100% correctly and therefore she would not understand me. well, i went for it, and score 1 for her because she got it on my first try and gave me 2 ketchup packets. i started to give her some more credit, until i sat down and realized that she had not given me any napkins. they don't leave napkins (or anything else for that matter) out here so you have to get them from the counter, but they usually put 1, maybe 2 if you're lucky, on your tray. i just made due with out them, fml.

then i finished my walk home. so that was my night!