Goodbye Dalian - The work is done

How really does a person say goodbye to a city? Emily and I decided to do a "City Tour", conducting poorly planned interviews with the unique people of all our regular stops and hangouts; for low-resolution keepsakes for us to take away with us when we go. We did the weekly ritual shop-around one last time... but this time instead of seeking pirated DVDs and the necessities, we were seeking closure.
We went to the tailors, the linen lady, Amy's, dumplings, Xing Hai Square.... and it was first in the days afternoon that I had an epiphany. I realized that this days 'closure tour' wouldn't be complete without one last trip to see my favourite employee at the Bubble Tea cart in Dalian's most central square. It was almost two years ago that I was first amused to see this blond, curly haired, plastic doll bent over and bobbing up and down pumping Bubble Tea on a rumbling drinks cart. Each time I walk through that square I look for her and when she is there working her Bubble Tea machine, it always makes me smile a bit, because maybe, in an unconventional sense, she counts as one more working foreign woman in Dalian.
When I got there, I asked the lady if the doll would pump me a cup of closure (I mean Bubble Tea) and she told me that the doll doesn't work anymore. Hmpf. I turned and as I walked away I thought: this foreign doll is finished her work in Dalian... how fitting. That's closure!
Then the old gang, Chen, Wayne, Emily and myself went for dinner and did a little night drive through Xing Hai Square, where everything seems high fantastical, and this is where we took these pictures.