Back to Dalian and Bad Noodle Country!

I flew back to Dalian. I will be here until the end of my trip now. It was weird, when I got off the plane, it was strangely comforting to be back here. Maybe since this is where I have spent the majority of my trip....I dunno.

I had to give my first elbow to a Chinese person. Here's a little background on that. Chinese people can be very rude in groups. I don't think it's intentional, it's just their culture. So if your in a shopping mall, airport..basically any public place. It's not uncommon to get pushed and shoved in close quarters. I've been very nice about it up until now. I've put up with a lot of pushing and shoving that I normally wouldn't take.

Well, I reached my breaking point. My flight from Shanghai to Dalian was delayed by two hours. So I spent Sunday afternoon sitting in the Pudong airport. (Quick note: no bar that I could find) The Chinese don't tell you anything about your plane either. They don't even mention that it's delayed until it's past the take off time. Several times I asked if we were delayed (Boarding was suppose to start at 2:40), they wouldn't say. Then of course every time I asked a question the answer was, "Yes".

So after we passed the departure time (3:15), I asked the lady what was happening. "Is our plane here yet?"

"Yes"

"Is there mechanical trouble?"

"Yes"

"It hasn't landed yet, has it?"

"Yes"

PERFECT! So now I just figure I have to wait! Finally we left two hours later. So we arrive in Dalian. Everyone is up to get off the plane. I'm standing in the aisle way waiting for people to start moving. Everyone is pushing and shoving. You have to see it to believe it. They are all trying to be the first out the door...even though we are in the back of the plane. I have a guy behind me who is literally pushing me every other minute. I brushed the first two off as an accident. The third one though!!! I turned around, "Hey homeboy! You push me one more time and I'm going to put this elbow right through your chest plate." I pointed at my elbow and then his chest. He just looked at me.

A couple seconds later he pushes me again! I delivered a big elbow right to the chest. I heard his wheeze, then ever so quietly I heard, "Sorry." Amazingly after that I didn't get pushed again. Weird how that works.

Finally, the "Bad Noodle" story. This one is from a few weeks ago, but I forgot to put it on the blog. I sent a few of you an email about it, but for the rest here it goes!

I gave the guy I'm training a new nickname. His name is officially "Bad Noodle" Jerry. One day we went to lunch at the same little Korean place we always go to. Jerry ordered noodles. We have lunch nothing special there. Then we go back to the office. We start working again. All of the sudden, Jerry starts grabbing his stomach....after a couple seconds he lets out a groan, "Uggghhh, bad noodle!" He then gets up runs over to a girl that works in the office, they speak Chinese, she UNLOCKS a cabinet, and gives him a small ration of toilet paper. Jerry then goes running down the hallway to the bathroom!

Every since then, I've called him Bad Noodle! He loves the nickname!

Just in case you forgot what the toilet looks like! Bad Noodle! Man of Steel!