Lonely Planet

One thing I love doing in Dalian is hopping on a bus for “yi yuan” (1 RMB), and seeing where I’m taken. Quite a contrast to the soaring gasoline prices back in California! So I get one of the many parks in Dalian, called Labor Park. You might’ve seen pictures of it with it’s giant soccer ball in the center. If you are looking beyond the park, you’ll notice the TV Tower, an even more impressive structure that governs where the sky and mountain meet. I decide to venture up to the TV Tower via taxi (impossible to walk!). Once I get to the top the taxi takes off and I notice I’ve been stranded on top of the mountain while it’s nearing dusk. The only other sign of life is this tourist bus with a handful of folks, so in my best chinese I ask “wo keyi gen nimen?” (can I go with you?). The tour guide and driver humor me and I hitch back down for free!

On the bus I get to talking to this girl,…no no, before you start thinking things, this girl is plain looking, no makeup or done up hair and I could tell her clothes haven’t been washed in a while because they look like my clothes! I find out she just graduated and is touring China. She tells me she’s been to about 48 different locations in China already since last year and is on her way up the eastern coast of China to Harbin. Somehow we got to the topic of purpose in life, using an english-chinese dictionary of course, and I tell her I’m still finding mine. I tell her that God loved me, so in turn I want to love others…just to see her reaction. She says she doesn’t understand my interests today, but perhaps tomorrow she will. Anyways, she explains that she believes in herself and that she’s most happy when she could go wherever she wants to go.

I share this because it’s not everyday I run into tourists who would have the audacity to ask what I wanted in life. I’ve so badly wanted to live and work in China, but now that I’m here I gotta be honest and say I’m discontent. Is it my location? It just seems that there are so many other cities that have some sort of historical or cultural significance. I know one thing is for sure, and that is that my work-life balance is out of whack. Since I used to live in Orange County, California, I know how it is to live in a sterile environment, but at least I had tons of friends to do nothing with. In Dalian, I just do nothing by myself. So when I met the tourist girl, I wondered whether she was truly content meandering from one city to the next. Would I be happier if I went to other cities? Would I end up finding out that Dalian really is paradise?

BTW, Listening to Colbie Caillat soothes.