Shanghai Here I Come

Had my second class with the second year Transportation students again. These guys like their beds (as do most of us), since only 3 of them were there at the 8am bell! A few more wandered in and I think we had 12 in total by 10 past! Gonna have to crack the whip I think. Maybe get them to do something embarrassing, like sing the ABC song if they are late! We had 1 girl this time, which was handy cos I did want to base the class around personalities and stuff like that, so it's nice to have both sides of the story!

So, after the class I went back to the flat to surf the web a bit and then came a nice unannounced power cut. Hopefully this won't happen often, but then again, this is China. An old guy in the apartment block said that this happens very rarely.

In case anyone wants to see what some of the Uni looks like, here is a pic of the Main Building, where I teach:


No, it ain't raining. In case some of you weren't aware, Asian girls are opposite to Western ones such that Western girls like to tan and have darker skin, whereas Chinese girls want to have skin as white as possible! It's considered beautiful in China. I thought Irish TV was bad for face cream ads for women. Chinese TV is 10 times worse, and all of the stuff is aimed at whitening the skin! So, Chinese women walk around in the summer under umbrellas so they won't tan!

Here is the view of the Uni from the 9th floor of that building:

Most of that stuff is dorms and school buildings. There's a fella in a sailor suit standing to attention at the front gate but I didn't get a chance to take his photo. Maybe he's like those guards at Buckingham palace!

Went to town and bought a plane ticket to Shanghai. Gonna be visiting a friend there next month. Should be good to see how modern China can be! Dalian ain't bad. More modern than Dublin in some ways.

Dalian has tons of shops and shopping centres everywhere. Anyone who is under illusion that this is a communist country, should come and take a look at the full-scale commercialism here! You can walk around here and think you were in any city in the world. I am not sure where communism rears its head in the daily life of the people (on a superficial level anyway).

So, back to the uni and I could hear loud military-style chanting. And that is what it was. All the first years have to go through around 4 or 5 weeks of military training!


I was told they were having a sort of singing contest, seeing which group could sing the loudest (between the near group and the far group). Very entertaining.