The Epic of Lao Shan pt1

Qingdao at night is truly beautiful. Its amazing how much different a city can look when it's lit up in neon rather than the usual demi-glow of the few beams which escape Qingdao's thick fog. Suprisingly, tonight is the first night that there has been rain in the city, instead of walking into the wetness of the air it was actually falling from the sky.

Actually, the temperature has been warming up a bit. It is apparently a bit odd for Qingdao to stay as cool as it has, in the low to mid 60s, this far into June. Its hard to believe I have been in China already for 1 week... somehow I feel like I have been here for much longer; perhaps it is because my days are usually packed with activity.

On any given weekday I have about 4 hours of class in the morning. In the first class, the students are asked to recount the events of the previous day after a brief quiz. The second class focus's on the text of our daily lessons, touching on grammar and new vocabulary. The third class is a more focused review of grammar. In the fourth hour, we usually talk freely about various differences we see in American and Chinese topics related to the text.

Sounds boring, but class usually goes by fast and isn't really too painful, at times even fun. I've already worked myself it to a routine. Every morning I get an egg pancake sorta thing from a young lady that has a stand near the university. I usually refer to her as 'the egg pancake lady' or 'my girlfriend'. With nothing but chopsticks in hand she creates a 1.5 yuan delight... there's nothing more attractive than that.
For lunch its either out to eat, most likely dumplings, or another egg pancake and a banana. But usually we have an after class activity. For instance, today's lesson was about shopping in a large mall type place in China, so we went to a 8 story shopping mall after class to basically pretend to want to buy things and bother the sales clerks.

For dinner's I have found a hobby. Being that Qingdao has just in the past 10 to 15 years really developed and only in the past few years, become a tourist destination, there are few if any tourism guides for the city. Which means getting a decent restaurant review or even a list of cultural events around town in English is far and few between. I have found one place though that's in English, thatsqingdao.com. The site has a nice list of restaurants and even rates most of them; unfortunately, other than the restaurants address alone, the site is fairly vague on how to get to the restaurant. There is never mention of major landmarks, or proximity to main roads, or even the appropriate bus stop. As part of my new hobby, I will find a place thought has a good review and do my best to locate it on a map of Qingdao, which is entirely in chinese by the way (there are no english maps). Then I draw a little map into my little pocket journal and then the best part is going out into the city and actually finding the place. I've already managed to find Qingdao's only indian restaurant, and one of Qingdao's best sichuan resturants. By exploring I have unlocked other parts of Qingdao that I would have never known existed, interesting backstreets packed with people and restaurants, bars and shops.