July 12, 2007, 3:35 pm

The Big Ship 1, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Ugh, I have a foul dry cough – fingers crossed that it’s not because of the disgusting mold growing on the wall outside of Adam and Caroline’s room for a couple of weeks – there’s some starting to grow outside of my room, too. Thank goodness we’re only here about another twelve hours.

Yesterday we went to see this crazy big boat in Lushun – it can accommodate an actual train (forty attached cars, if I recall. Maybe more?) and also has a ton of passenger cabins. Right now it is only transporting cargo, but in a few months it will also begin transporting passengers and automobiles. It was pretty fun to see, actually. It was so BIG! Being on this trip has made me think about some of the things I want to do in my year off before grad school – I’ve always loved the idea of working on a boat, and it seems like the easiest way to do that would be working on a cruise ship. I’m intrigued – definitely going to start looking into it when I get home. I’m also interested in coming back to China as an ESL teacher. I have talked to one of the school officials about it, and he said I could be certified in the US. I can’t quite put my finger on anything in particular I like about Chinese culture, but I know I would like to come back. There is something fascinating about this country, how it is absolutely speeding ahead like a bullet train, yet in a lot of ways it’s incredibly old-fashioned and conservative. I’m not even sure how serious I am about Chinese as a language (I’d like to continue studying it even if it isn’t useful to my professional career). But I think I’d really like to come back.

I also would really like to work abroad somewhere else, too – I need to look into BUNAC – I would be delighted to find work somewhere like England or Australia. I pretty much want to combine as much work and travel as possible before attending grad school.

Last night we were given quite the Goodbye party – it appears that this is another Chinese cultural difference – really formal goodbye stuff. First, we met with some university officials where we got a transcript of our experience and each received a cool gift of a framed fossil from the Lushun area (haven’t opened mine yet, but it seems they are all fossils of little fishies). Then there was a Going Away party/show at the hotel for us – it was very lovely, but also kind of over the top. There were a couple of dance numbers, some martial arts demonstrations, singing, even a calligraphy demonstration. We sang the Moli hua (about the jasmine flowers) song towards the end. It was weird to hear all the MCs go on about friendship and international ties when I had probably met only about a tenth of the people in attendance. We were grumbling a bit this morning about the nationalistic overtones, which, if you read between the lines, were definitely there. Lots of stuff about China’s culture and how wonderful it is, etc etc. And of course Chinese culture is fascinating, and of course we came here to learn more about it and appreciate it – but there sometimes is this attitude here that is so China-obsessed that the rhetoric about cross-cultural learning sometimes seems like window dressing. In all fairness, of course, I could easily see a similar situation in the US.

Today has been pretty chillax so far. I was determined to try to sleep in today – I turned my alarm clock off, and I ended up waking up at 6:27. My alarm usually goes off at 6:30. Argh. So then I attempted to nestle down in bed (and tried not to think about the random mosquito bites I had suddenly acquired overnight), and thought maybe I’d fall back asleep, but no such luck. Man, I haven’t slept in since we left Cincinnati, and I miss it. All I want to do is wake up at 9 or 10, and then roll around for a while before I actually bother to get up.

Anyway, I’m mostly packed up – I need to weigh my luggage and make sure it weighs less than 44 kilograms. (Oh God. I hope. I’ve already thrown out some clothes and my backpack is pretty stuffed.)

There’s this great little restaurant near the college campus we’ve been hitting up recently, so we ate there (well, Jade, Jon, Nick and I) again today. They have great spicy food. Mmm. Our other favorite place is this very dirty place where they have the best wings I’ve ever tasted. The Wingmaster (the owner) is always outside, shirtless, and he has this strange Amish style beard (no moustache). He lords over the grill and the whole thing is probably a US public health nightmare but the chicken is so good (the stuff it’s covered in is spicy and awesome) none of us gives a shit. It’s where we got the 100 wings for Alfred and Eric’s going away/dance party.

This afternoon Killy and I went on a bike ride (those two person side-by-side bikes) through the World Peace Park. We found Chris there (everyone has been doing their own thing today) and it was nice to get to hang out by the ocean again before we leave.

I finally broke out the “Upgrade me violently” shirt. Hard to think of where I could wear it in the States, but I’m so glad I ended up buying it.