Beach and Bellies

Qingdao has a salsa club- who knew?

Qingdao also has a coastline- this was already general knowledge- and yesterday we ventured onto 石老人,Shilaoren, Old Stone Man beach. Or some of us did. Becka told the taxi driver 石老人 and was indeed taken to 石老人.

She rang me.

"Louise I can't see the beach"
"What can you see?"
"There's a golf course and a hill"
"Try and walk in the most likely direction of the beach"

We hung up. I sighed and looked across the bay at the distant shore. Just discernible through the haze was lots of green punctuated by bits of sandy coloured holes.

"Laura is that thing miles away a golf course?"
"Yeah"

I re-rang Becka.

"I can see the golf course- you're miles away"
"Yeah I just asked a guy for the beach and he looked a bit taken aback and said it was 20 minutes away...."

She'd ended up in 石老人 the town, not the beach.

The beach was surprisingly nice. The bits nearest where I live tend to be very rocky and a bit dirty but this on was a nice wide stretch of sand. It was warm, although the wind made me wish I had something to cover my arms. There were quite a few Chinese and the odd foreigner-easily spottable as only the foreigners were wearing swimming costumes. All the Chinese just wore normal clothes- except for some models down one end taking photos.

We lazed about on the sand for a while before Daisy dared to go in the sea. She pretended it was warm but I didn't believe her.

That evening Becka and I were qing'ed by Boram and Sara to Korean BBQ. 请, qing, means to treat someone which was very sweet of them. However the meal was a bit disappointing as the meat was very chewy and gristly... BBQ consists of a hole in the middle of your table, into which are placed hot coals, covered by a grill. The food is cooked by someone on this grill- in China it is done by a waitress but in Korea you are supposed to do it yourself. I like this style restaurant, along with hotpot, where you cook the food together. It is very social. I'm hoping Edinburgh has something similar but I may be disappointed...

After we went to eat some cheesecake at Kiwi Cafe but they had run out of cheesecake... so we ate other goodies instead. We found some ancient cookbook full of recipes for the "working wife" on how to make mayonnaise. On the way back we went through a small square where lots of Chinese couples were doing a slow waltz in the dark. I am always fascinated to see these groups appear in public spots at night. There is always a group doing some synchronised line dance, no doubt remembered from Communist days, as well as the odd waltzing couple. They are always older people.

This morning I woke up early ("ahhhh nice lie in wonder what time it is probably half 10 got to go to work soon WHAT SIX FIFTY-THREE ARE YOU KIDDING ME") so I quite spontaneously went for a jog- this first while I've been here in China. I haven refrained from jogging before because a) I'd be a complete freak show b)there is nowhere nice to run and c) I'm lazy. And I was indeed a complete freak show- especially as I had to run through a market to get to the coastal walk. And my knee hurt at the end because there is only pavement to run on. As for C, Becka and I decided last night that either I was somehow 4 months pregnant, or I had a spare tire. I figured by running really hard I'll either miscarry or get fit. Both would result in a flat stomach...It was nice running in the sun and cool breeze although I was knackered by the end. I'm not sure how far it was- certainly not very far- but it's a start.

There was one Chinese wearing a swimming costume at the beach. It was a man who seemed to like striking superman poses. We agreed he should put some more clothes on.