On a Bus Bound for Nowhere

It's been a full day in Dalian thus far; due to jet lag I went to bed yesterday round four in the afternoon thus why I reside awake at such an early hour. Yesterday went smoothly with some help from locals who assisted me in getting my residence permit, finding my way to work via bus and exchanging my American cash for yuan (Note: the exchange rate is .16 american dollars for every 1 yuan; Side Note: cigarettes are about 10 yuan a pack so only about $1.60...there goes any hopes in quitting). I haven't done much exploring yet besides going to a great street-side BBQ with Rik last evening, but I wanted to dedicate this post to my bus ride home.

I got on bus 505 back to my house and spent most of the time standing up and quickly realized I had been using my left-hand which probably came off as disrespectful to the locals. It was odd looking at all of the places the buses passed because there were many American 'landmarks' such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and a Burger King. I also visited an underground shopping mall prior to getting on the bus where I shopped at a knock-off Walmart (Note: all I bought was a large bag of tea powder and a Coke-Cola). The bus came to its final destination where I got off, awaited the following 505 bus and continue on with my journey. All the while, I was quite scared I had taken the wrong bus because this seemed to take an awfully long time. It also didn't help I couldn't ask the bus driver if I was on the right track because I didn't remember which street I lived on and the bus driver couldn't speak English. Usually, I could use my mobile device in assisting me for directions; the holy grail us Americans call google maps. Due to my lack of mobile data, I had to rely on my gut knowing that worst came to worst I would arrive back near Shane school and could just ask for directions; although, this would take me an eternity to actually arrive home. I noticed labour park and at this point the landmark reminded me I was in fact going in the correct direction, and soon enough my stop emerged from the distance. The joy was overwhelming, I went inside and smoked a cigarette while I drank a cup of deserving hot tea.

I promise my future posts won't be as dull as this especially by this weekend when I've ventured from my residence somewhere and succumb to less tiredness, but for the time being I thought a post regarding the language barrier and the reliance on technology was a decent precursor to the adventures waiting this eager American

Cheers Mates
~Drew