Winding Up

Phase one of my life in China is coming to an end! This time next week I will be back in Ireland! Wow! Time does indeed fly! I think it will freak me out a bit being home. I will be able to understand everything locals are saying! And I’ll be able to watch something good on TV, besides the drabness that is CCTV9!

So, hopefully I will spend the week gong out to bars and restaurants saying goodbye to various people!

I have signed up for another year in this Uni, so I will be back with a vengeance some time in August! Maybe this year I will task myself with taking a Chinese proficiency test (HSK). It will give e a concrete goal in my Chinese learning! Teachers can be lazy students as well! Only problem with this is that I would be learning towards an exam, which I am sort of against in principle! It’s why the Chinese education system produces regurgitatiors rather than thinkers!

In one way, it’s good to leave Dalian, cos my little friends, the mosquitoes have come back! The good thing about Ireland is that there is nothing to bite you, except maybe some of the locals!

I went to the beach for a BBQ last weekend, which was nice. Rather than drink themselves into a stupor (as would be done in Ireland), they had some interesting games to play. One involving one team jumping over a line, but having to land and balance on one foot. The other team’s goal was to reach over the line and try and knock down the other team members! I thought it was quite good. My long arms came in handy! I did tuck into some beer afterwards of course! ;-)