Now, did it go "moo moo", "oink oink" or "woof woof"...

Today began the 2nd week of class. I cannot tell you how excited I was for my 8am start.

Becka and I decided to have a crack at climbing the mountains behind the university- featuring 崂山, (laoshan, Mount Lao) as one or t'other of them. We figured it would be a smart move to go in the evening when it was cooler- it was nearly 30 degrees today! At first this was indeed smart and we climbed nice and high through the woods to various rocky outcrops to get a good view of the city. We could see just how smoggy Qingdao is- you could barely see the sea and the skyscrapers were just indistinct silhouettes. It some warped way it was quite a picturesque view- shrouded towers lurking in the gloom. As it got darker the city began to light up and Qingdao certainly looks quite spectacular at night! Then we climbed a little higher- Becka scampered up some rocks whilst I hovered below. Then it was starting to get really quite dark so we started our descent. Unfortunately night falls quite quickly and we had to go slowly down the steep path so we ended up slipping and sliding through the black trees hoping that there wouldn't be any sudden surprises. The Laoshan area is lovely to have though. All that green is a great antidote to the endless concrete!

On the way to Laoshan is a largish pool with a couple of tiny, ramshackle houses around it. One in particular is perched over the feeder waterfall which has a sculpted dragon in the middle. It's all overhung with gnarled trees and surrounded by green undergrowth. It looks like such a perfectly charming place to live. That's the thing about Qingdao. You could be in any city in the world but then occasionally you find a place where they've forgotten to build a skyscraper and it's suddenly rather special.

Becka, Jesse and I tried out a restaurant for dinner. We tried the usual lucky dip method of ordering "uh that character says sheep so we should get that one" which was partially successful. The 水饺 (shuijiao- boiled dumplings) were nice but the plate of shredded lamb accompanied by something annonymous wasn't a huge hit. I had ordered something from a picture and it seemed to be some sort of fried meat with sliced cucumber and a sauce. We had a fun time guessing the original animal involved. I think it was pork. I think.