Ahoy There, Matey!

I had my first class with the Navigation first years today. I was told by some people that hey would be unwilling to speak and would have really bad English, since a lot of them were from the countryside. This class wasn’t really like that at all. Maybe it was the fact that they had just finished their morning exercise and were buzzing, but they were full of life and enthusiasm! They actually volunteered information and answered questions when I addressed the whole class! I don’t get that too much from the Transportation students!

The atmosphere is definitely different with a bunch of lads and no girls. I could rabbit on about Roy Keane and famous footballers from Ireland and so on! The guys were a good laugh and had a good sense of humour. Overall, I was happy with the standard of English, as it was better than I had expected. Let’s see if they set the precedent for the other 3 Navigation classes! So it’s great to have a variety of different types of classes to teach!

Most of them didn’t have English names, so I was happy to call them good Irish names like Seamus and Cormac. However, I also called one lad Sinbad and another one Popeye! They will be sailors after all! Gotta think of more sailors’ names!! I have another class at 2pm, so more fun awaits! Gotta prepare for tomorrow’s Transportation class as well. Getting busier these days.

My Weekend

I haven’t written anything for a while. What have I been doing…let me think. Besides eating Chinese food, I took a trip to Xinghai Park on Friday evening. Lots of people there, doing lots of different activities. There were some punters singing Karaoke (badly), so I didn’t hang around too long! What was most interesting were the groups of people dancing. So, I saw three different types. There were some younger (under 40) people doing more modern dancing, like to night-club sort of music. They would call it disco dancing here but it ain’t disco in the John Travolta sense! More like the thump, thump, thump sort of music in night clubs. Anyway, it was more like an aerobics class with maybe 50 people following the dance steps, led by a few leaders! Besides that, there were older couples doing waltzing and other older-people dances. They were having a great time, as you can see in the picture below!! In another place, there were women doing some sort of Chinese dance with fans. Very graceful.


I think that whole people-getting-together-in-parks-and-doing-stuff thing is great! And what’s more, it’s free! Also, it’s great exercise. I wish people would do more things like that in Ireland instead of sitting in front of the TV!

I met some postgraduate students on Saturday who were looking for someone to help them improve oral English, since they would be involved in an International conference next year. They were all science postgrads. So, I went to their physics lab. Brought back a few memories or days gone by. Some of them were working on using plasmas to remove pollutants from exhaust gases. Fair play to them! So, maybe I can help them out.

Sunday, I went shopping for clothes, since I only brought summer clothes and now winter is drawing near! All I have to say is, where has Communist China gone? Downtown Dalian has nothing but shops, shops, shops! There’s no shortage of things to buy. Although it’s hard enough finding men’s clothes at a decent price unless you want to buy bad quality stuff! So, I go some stuff in the end. I’m glad I survived that, since shopping is not my most favourite of things!

I also bought a feather football thing (毽球). I don’t know if there is a proper English name for it. I guess it works like a shuttlecock in badminton. It has a weight on the bottom and feathers sticking out of it. You can play keepy-uppy (i.e. kick the thing in the air to each other without letting it touch the ground) with it with a bunch of friends. Should be fun. See the pic below.


I often see students playing this game arounnd the campus. I tried it in the apartment and it's quite hard to control the thing!! Practise makes perfect!

Shanghai Continued

So, Sunday in Shanghai, we got up late cos we were tired after walking around the whole day on Saturday! Today was Mid Autumn festival in China. It’s like a family event, where people eat Moon Cakes (round sweet cakes with filling inside). The round symbolises the family. We didn’t have any moon cakes at that time. We were to procure them late!

That day we went to the touristy Old Town area. Well, to be honest, it was a bit like the Old Towns in Lijiang and Dali. Just lots of people selling souvenirs and handcrafts! After a wander around there, we went to a Western restaurant and I got my burger and chips, which I had been hankering for, for some time!! We then got our “moon cakes”. Well, they weren’t exactly moon cakes. Mei’s company gave their employees voucher for a Haagen Dazs moon cake box. However the “moon cake” was just a round shaped ice cream covered in chocolate. It was still nice though!! I wasn’t gonna turn my nose up at it!

The next day we made a plan to go outside Shanghai, since there was not much else to do in the city except shopping, which is not one of my favourite things! So, we decided to go to ZhouZhuang (周庄), which is supposed to be the Venice of China! We got a bus out there. D’oh, yet again I find myself in a Chinese tour group. That tour guide talked for about half an hour and I don’t think she even drew one breath!

So, we arrived in ZhouZhuang and visited the old town, which had a main river/canal with lots of boats. We were shown around 2 rich historical guys’ houses and told in Chinese about some of the history. Mei did some translation, which made it more interesting. There was a Japanese guy with us too, who couldn’t speak Chinese, so Mei was helping him s well. Jolly nice of her!

We then ventured on to see a Buddhist Temple. Not dissimilar to others I have seen before, although the water surroundings made it pettier than a lot of them. We decided to abandon the tour and walk around by ourselves instead and went for a cold drink and then some mad bean soup cold drink thing! God for cooling you down in the hot, sweaty weather!


After a stop off in a silk factory-type thing, where they showed us a fashion show and then lured us into a shop full of silk clothes, we headed back to the big city! Got some food in a Chinese restaurant (no burgers today) and retired for the evening.

The next day (Tuesday), Mei was working, so I wandered into town myself to see the spectacular Oriental Pearl TV tower. The tower had an interesting design, based around spheres (pearls). See picture below:


I went to the 263 metre sphere to have a look! There were amazing views of this massive sprawl of a city! You could see all the modern skyscrapers along the river. The city stretched for miles and miles, as you can see:


So, after having lunch with Mei, I headed back on the cool Maglev train to the airport! Bye bye Shanghai! I had a nice surprise at the airport when I found out my flight was delayed for 2 hours. I had to do a lesson plan that night for my Wednesday morning 8am class, so I was getting a bit annoyed! As it turns out, I was checking in a 4:40 and the girl changed me to the 5pm flight! So, it was the Olympic sprint to try and catch the plane. I ended up getting there on time in a sweaty heap! Felt strange to be back in Dalian. The weather was cooler and everything seemed smaller. Dalian makes Dublin look small as well, so I wonder how I’ll feel when I o back to Ireland!

Hello Shanghai

So, here is a bit about my trip to Shanghai!

Took the early flight on Saturday morning from Dalian to Shanghai. Man, Shanghai airport is big, and I think this was just the domestic arrivals. Strange thing was that there weren't many people around the airport. I thought there would be a lot more. Maybe they built it big with the anticipation of growth in the air travel sector in a few years. Just like Dublin Airport, eh?

So, I met Mei at the airport and we took the Maglev Train to Shanghai. Man, that train is cool! It floats on a magnetic field, so there is no friction. The train reached a speed of 430km/h on its 30km journey, which took just 8 minutes. The sheer speed was breathtaking and the way the train banked into the corners was class! Look how Budley is enjoying it!

Here's a pic of me with the Maglev Train:


We then took the metro (subway) to Mei’s area. The subway is also very modern and clean although not as extensive as those in London or Paris. I was on the metro and I thought I heard some familiar accents. There was a lad and a girl from Northern Ireland, Belfast to be exact. The guy was working in Shanghai and the girl came over to visit! They were sound people and good craic! Allegedly, there is going to be a big Asian GAA tournament on in Shanghai soon!

So, upon leaving the metro station, my first impression was: man this place is hot and man there are a lot of people and big buildings. The weather was a lot hotter than in Dalian, which was heading for autumn. The temperature was well into the 30’s!

We decided to hit for town after dropping stuff off in Mei’s apartment. It was nigh on impossible to get a taxi in Shanghai. They are lining up in Dalian to take you! There are too many people and cars in Shanghai and not enough roads, so they don’t put on more taxis. Mei said they also charge extra to get a normal driver’s licence because of the congestion!

We were going to o to some forest park outside the city but we couldn’t find the tourist bus to take us there, so we took the metro to Central Park instead. We hired a peculiar 4 wheeled bike, which you can see below:


Mei didn’t want to cycle it, which suited me fine. I haven’t cycled a bike in over a month, so was glad to use my cycling legs again! It was good craic going around the park, scaring Mei by pretending to veer into other people, the lake, the side of the road etc.!!

So, we then decided to hire a boat on the river. We got this electric thing. They wouldn’t let us have the peddle-boat. First they said it would be too hard to use and then they said there was a technical problem. I don’t believe it. But nothing we could do. So, we slowly made our way down the river. Quite enjoyable sailing away in the dusk. Well, until they asked us to turn back. Captain Birdseye here didn’t see the rope partition across the river, which you were not supposed to pass. I couldn’t slow down or turn fast enough. SO, e ended up getting our propeller tangled in the rope! The guy on shore came out in his electric boat but could do nothing. So, he got on the radio to his mate in the speedboat, who came on the scene! The boys were messing around at the back of the boat but couldn’t free the rope!! SO, they ended p cutting it! A bit embarrassing to say the least!!

After that escapade, we headed for the river front to see the Shanghai skyline at night. It was pretty impressive, except for the throngs of people! Here’s a lovely picture of me in font of the skyline. You can see the Oriental Pearl TV Tower on the left. Nice building!


We finished off the evening in Nanjing Street with a local Shanghai dinner. This street is full of neon lights and shops and restaurants. And of course, crowds upon crowds of people! See pic below

Great Birthday in China

I had to put this picture up. When I left for class on Wednesday morning, I could hear this high pitched meowing sound outside the door of my apartment. When I opened the door, there was this tiny little kitten. So cute!! Look at him!


I'm not gone soft. I just like cats! He was so tiny and cute!

So, last night we went to a local restaurant for dinner for me birthday. There were 11 of us, 6 foreign teachers and 5 Chinese students.

The restaurant was great. We booked a room for ourselves with a huge table and balcony and everything! I got a nice surprise when a cake was brought in for me! I'm not sure about the writing on the cake, "Derek, Happy Birthday U idiot, from Tom Julie and Ivy". I'll put it down to Tom's razor-sharp aussie wit! Here's a pic of me cutting the cake with a tiny plastic knife:


So, we ordered from the set menu. 14 dishes in all. Dish after dish was brought out on the turntable in the middle of the table. The food was gorgeous! Here is the spread of food we got:

Not bad, eh? Ad the bill came to around 330RMB, which is around 34 euro. That was the total bill for 12 people, including beer!!

I got some nice presents off the students including a wind chime with a Chinese poem on it, a book about Confucius in English and Chinese as well as Beckham's biography in Chinese. Better start learning more Chinese characters if I am to read those books and the poem! The presents were a nice surprise!

We were trying to work the karaoke machine in the room but there were no microphones and I don't think they had any English songs! So, we decided to get a few beers and head back to my place. The guitar came out and a few songs were sung and a few beers drunk! Pity the students had to go back to their dorms for 10:30. In spite of that, the teachers kept boozing!

Yeah, so it was a good night. Before coming to China, I was wondering what my birthday would be like here! Well, since I have now made some new friends, my birthday night was very enjoyable!

Happy Birthday to Me

I got back from Shanghai last night. I will write some stuff about the trip in a while.

I just put some pics on my flickr site if anyone fancies a look.

It's me birthday today, so my present was an 8 o'clock class with the Transportation students! It was a good laugh though, since the topic was the news and I got them to do some pretend news reports. We had China beating England 3-0 and also a murder by a jealous boyfriend!! Very imaginative.

SO, hopefully, I can organise going out for dinner tonight with some of the teachers and students. The doc advised me to avoid the booze but it's my birthday. I wouldn't mind a bottle of Heineken. That Chinese beer gives me the runs!

Hollywood Here They Come

On Tuesday I wasn't feeling that great. Had a dodgy stomach and felt a bit nauseous. I'd been feeling a bit off for a few days. So, I decided to see a doc. I had to go to a hospital nearby. In China, people go to hospitals if they are sick. There seems no such thing as family doctors that live in the community, like in Ireland. I think the hospital was the one they usually end foreigners to, cos I was rather impressed with the efficiency that I was seen. In to the doc and asked e some questions via my student translator! Then they wanted to test in case I had some sort of virus. Blood test and results there and then. Not bad! The doc reckoned that my stomach was not used to the food in China. Maybe. I don’t remember having any difficulties in Yunnan. I think the food in Dalian is greasier or oilier! He gave me some medicine to take and sent me on our way. Fair play to the student who was with me for doing all the translating and keeping everything going!!

So, I’ve been taking it handy since then. Went to English corner last night. One student asked me if I could play the guitar, to which I replied, “a bit”. Five minutes later, she appeared back with a guitar and asked me to play a few songs. D’oh! Well, I gave them a few bars of the Beatles and of Dirty Old Town! I bed they regret asking me now!!

Had good craic with the class today. The topic was favours and I got them to do some role plays where they had to think of a scenario and a favour! I had some budding actors and actresses in the class. They really gave it a lash and really enjoyed it. They had fun and spoke English spontaneously. It’s a winner! Best laugh so far! I told a few of them that Hollywood would be on the phone to them shortly!

Chinese class was cancelled today. Teacher couldn’t come due to some reason in Chinese that didn’t understand. I’m wondering more so now if I will pack in that school and get a student to teach me! Maybe I can get the class rescheduled for tomorrow. And I’d done e homework and everything!

On another note, I was watching the 9 o’clock news from the RTE website from Ireland today. Seems that Junior Cert results came out last night. They interviewed kids from a school in Tallaght! I hadn’t heard the scanger accent in ages. Made me quite homesick (not)! Then they interviewed some kids in town about alcohol. Some said (with a cheeky smile on their faces) that they wouldn’t be drinking as they can enjoy themselves without alcohol. One more honest scanger just came out and said, “I’m gonna get bleedin’ gargled tonigh’” Ah, fair play to hem. These Chinese students don’t know what they’re missing out on!!

Great Day Out

Another Chinese lesson today. Maybe it was the fact that I was a bit tired and my stomach was a bit dicky, but I got less out of it today than on previous days. She tried her best to explain some words but I just wasn't getting it. I wonder could a clever student with time on their hands teach me just as well? I gotta look into it.

After class I met with a couple of students and we set off to look at some of Dalian's interesting sports. This was great, since I hadn't been to many places here yet and it would be nice to see a few before the winter sets in in a month or so!

So, we headed first to Dalian Labour Park (大连劳动公园), which is a pretty big park near the city centre. They had nice sculptures of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. I was born in the year of the horse, so here's a pic of me with my horsey:



We wandered on through the park. There were a lot of workers around, since they were making preparations for China's National Day festival, which is at the beginning of October. Not really sure what goes on then but whatever it is, there will be crowds of people!

One of the most famous things in this park is the giant football. Dalian is football-crazy and boasts the best team in China. So, some punter decided o put a giant football sculpture in the park. Here it is:

Unfortunately, some of the areas in the park aren't as well kept as you would like (like above). The park used to have an admission fee, which would pay for its upkeep. But now it is free to visit, so there ain't as much cash for maintenance!

So, onwards and upwards we went to the top of the hill just behind the park. Here's the view from this spot:

You can see the giant football and also, some of the city's buildings. I am told that a lot of these are new this year. I wonder what Dalian was like 2 or 3 years ago. A building site, I reckons.

They had a little bird zoo in he park, which we passed for a look on the way out. Our next port of call was Xinghai Park (星海公园), which is a park by the sea. They have a promenade and a stony beach there. You can swim in the sea here too but the weather was overcast today so not many people braved it! They have some amusements and stuff like that as well. I'd say this place is pretty busy at the weekends looking at the amount of seating and umbrellas here and so on. Here's a little pic of the beach. Maybe I'll go swimming there when the sun comes out.



We didn't have time to see the huge Xinghai Square (星海广场), where you can allegedly hire bikes for 2, 3 or 4 people (sounds safe)!!

I was invited to go and see the Pepsi "Search for a Star" contest in the Uni by the two students I was out with that day. One student from each school (department) was chosen and they were to sing a song this evening. My student friends' classmate was singing in it tonight. Whoever wins this competition will go to the Dalian final and who knows where after that (well, I don't know cos either did my friends!!!)

So, our girl was third on. The students had got 2 roses to give her. I wasn't sure when they would give them to her. They asked me if I wanted to give them to her as well. I said no problem. However, I was unaware that they meant that I had to go onstage while she was in mid-song and give her the flowers. Usually a guy gives flowers to a female singer (and vice versa) and since the students were girls, I was to do it. Well, it didn't bother me! She sang very well, and I did my party piece, giving her the flowers and a little hug and a good luck wish! She had 2 other lads giving her flowers as well. Popular girl!! Any other lads or girls giving flowers to other singers seemed very serious or nervous about it (they didn't smile). I enjoyed it. Only a bit of craic, as you can see from the pic below:


There were a few good singers in the show. 2 sang English songs and the rest sang Chinese pop songs. Our girl didn't win but she came pretty high up out of 15 singers. Not bad! Here is a pic of the contestants. Our girl is fourth from the right:


I enjoyed the thing anyway. I know it was Chinese pop music, which I'm no a big fan of, but it's nice to do and see what the locals do!

Weekend

Weekend again - hooray!

Hasn't been that eventful. I went out for a few bevies last night to that place with the draught beer. There were 5 of s there - all foreign teachers! Not bad.

Today I went for lunch with Tom and his student friend. More dumplings than you could shake a stick at! I reckon they are ok in small doses!

I had thought I was supposed to go to that computer postgrad building today to meet some students. I had arranged it the previous night with one of them via text message. I seem to have got my wires crossed and I think it was Sunday that I was supposed to go! That beer obviously affected me more than I thought! I also deleted the text message from the student, so that didn’t help either!! Anyway, I went there today but luckily there were 2 lads there to talk to!

Later in the evening, I went to English Corner again. Had a good laugh with some of the students there! There were more foreign teachers there but I think there were les students. One first year guy was very funny. He was great cos he was not shy speaking English (whereas a lot of students are) and he wasn’t ashamed of telling us that he loves this girl but she rejected him! You wouldn’t get that sort of honesty in Ireland! Fair play to him!

Poor aul Boys in Green

Went to English Corner yesterday evening. It’s where the students can come together and speak English. And hopefully some native English speakers will come along too! Myself and Tom went along anyway to have a gander. Turns out, we were the only foreigners there. I enjoyed it anyway. Met a few interesting people. I met 2 lads who were Navigation graduates. They asked where I was from and I said Ireland. They asked if I was from Dublin and I said, yeah. They said they’d been there. I thought it might have been for study but turns out that they worked for Maersk Line and their ship had docked in Dublin for a night! They were surprised with how many Chinese they saw in Dublin! There is another English corner on Saturday night, so I might head along for the craic. The only danger is the odd clingy student, who wants to be your best friend!

My alarm went off at 2:40am this morning. I had forgotten in my half asleep state that the match was on! I stuck on the laptop but all I could see was Cameroon versus someone else. D’oh. Well the 2 Irish lads arrived. It’s quite eerie here at night, since there is so much activity here during the day but night time is as about as exciting as a morgue.

We wee lucky and we got the match on a local TV station rather than the internet. It was odd having a can of beer at that hour of the morning (and being sober) and watching the match. Well, I think we played really well and it was only that time that Zidane got the goal that we had lost it a bit. I dunno if we even lost it cos he had space like that in the first half but didn’t do anything. Well, what can you do? At least Northern Ireland beat England!!

Today, I had a good class. I got them speaking a lot of English and also taught them Yellow Submarine by The Beatles. I think teaching songs is ok once in a while. I only did it or ten minutes. If they can leave the class and sing the songs to themselves that night, then at least there is English in their heads! Sometimes songs can actually help with grammar! I learned a bit when learning the Chinese song Yueliang Daibiao Wode Xin (月亮代表我的心).

I had my second Chinese class as well today. Maybe it was the tiredness kicking in from watching the match but a lot of it went over my head! I had a headache after the class, haha! I just need to practise some more, that’s all!

Had some nice fried rice for dinner. There is a stall up the street sells freshly made fried rice. The guy fries it up there in front of you! Gonna hit the sack fairly early tonight cos I’m tired after the lack of sleep!

Come On Yis Boys In Green!

Tonight (or rather tomorrow morning China time) Ireland will play France in the World Cup qualifiers. I was going to wear my Irish football jersey into class this morning but I thought it might be a bit unprofessional, which would go against everything I stand for! I did tell them about the match but they didn't know! I'll learn 'em!

So, the thing is, the match is on at 7:45pm tonight (Wednesday) in Ireland, which is 2:45am on Thursday morning here. I was on to the guy who runs the Irish pub in Dalian and he eventually found a Guangdong-based sports channel that is showing it! The national CCTV 5 sports channel is showing England! For shame! I don’t think the England versus Norniron (that’s Northern Ireland for non-Irish readers) will be much of a contest. Ireland against France, on the other side could decide the fate of the group!

So, I dunno if I can be bothered going all the way into town and all the way back (an hour’s round trip). I couldn’t find that Guangdong channel on my TV but conveniently, here is a thing called PPlive that allows you to watch some Chinese channels on the Internet! Last night I found Guangdong TV Sports! Yippee! So, I think a few of the Irish lads might come around here to watch it. I can hook the laptop up to the TV and watch it! That cable was a great buy! I hope our roaring and shouting won’t wake the neighbours up!!!

OK, I better do my Chinese studying now. It actually paid off; as I was on QQ the other day and some of the words I learnt were used by people I was chatting to!

First Chinese Class

I had my first Chinese class today. I reckon it went well. The thing is, my level of oral Chinese is higher than my level of written Chinese. Also, I reckon my pronunciation is isn’t bad for a foreigner, so people reckon my Chinese may be a lot better than it actually is!

The teacher there is very good, since she can explain everything in very simple Chinese. She barely used any English during the class at all! That’s a good skill to have and a lot of people don’t have it! I found that that some people here give up easily if I don’t know the word for something in Chinese, for example in the supermarket. I reckoned if they persevered a it more, the message could get through. Oh well, I guess I just need to learn more Chinese!

Although because the class is all in Chinese, it may be difficult at first, I reckon it’s better in the long run/. Sometimes it seems like the easy way out to run to a dictionary! I want to try and teach that to my Chinese students as well: they should try and explain things if they don’t know the word. This is an important skill!

So, we went through a lot of new words. I knew maybe 60% of the characters already, so that lessened the pain a bit! I am gonna have to study them before going to class on Thursday again!! I reckon going to class is the best way to learn, coupled with talking to students etc. It's enjoyable, challenging and very useful in China!!! I should allso learn to typee so I don't make so many typos in this blog and need a spell checker!

Long Time No Blog

It seems like a while since I last posted something!It's now Sunday. Let's see what I've been up to. Well, Thursday I had a class at noon. These guys were a bit livelier, although they have the habit of speaking Chinese sometimes, which will have to be remedied. I also went to a school to see about Chinese classes. I am gong to have a class tomorrow to see what it's like!
Don’t think I got up to anything else too exciting that day!

On Friday, I was introduced to the delights of QQ, which is a Chinese chat program. Most Chinese people seem to use this rather than Yahoo or MSN chat. It' a handy way to learn Chinese, talking to all sorts of people! I got Chinese dictionary software today, which makes the whole thing easier, since when you hover over a word, it will show the meaning! Maybe a bit too easy.

Had my 4 o’clock class on Friday, which went quite well. They seem very keen on learning songs rather than speaking English. It was interesting what they thought about what men look for in women and vice versa. Most reckoned that looks aren’t important. Fair play to them!

Went for a few drinks with the 2 Aussies in a place not too far from the Uni. They had draught beer at 3 Yuan a glass (maybe 500ml). We had a couple of them and then got some food. After that, we saw that some people had pitchers of beer. Well, we said we’d have some of that and ordered 3 of them! The waiter brought one over. He hadn’t realised that we wanted one each!!! Towards the end, we thought it would be a great idea to sing a few Irish songs. Luckily there weren’t too many others left in the restaurant! One table actually clapped. I will take it as a complement! Fair play to the Aussie boys for knowing loads of songs! So, at the end of the night we had to pay the grand total of around 5 euro each for the food and drink! Not bad!!
Saturday, woke up with a sore head, not surprisingly! Didn’t have a very eventful day. Spoke Chinese to a few people and relaxed. Went to our usual place up the road for some food from the stalls. Very tasty.

Which brings us to today. I met with some of the postgraduate students. I wanted to meet some Chinese people my age. So I met some of them and we all had a nice chat. Well, I want to learn more Chinese and they want to learn more English, so everybody is a winner!