Happy Christmas!!

I want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas! Hope you have a nice time and stuff your faces with loads of lovely food!

Feels weird here cos it's 19 degrees on Christmas day! We will be having turkey today, which will be cool!

Went around the market today. It's pretty cool. Not sure if Dalian has similar markets on the streets. They sell everything. One woman even had half a shark, which she was carving up. Should have brought my camera!

You can definitely feel that Taiwan is more westernised and there is more money about the place than in the mainland. Way more private cars and more English about the place.

It reminds me more of Malaysia than of the parts China that I've been to, with the style of houses and sights and smells. Well, maybe this place is similar to Southeast China. I haven't been there yet.

Arrived in Taiwan

I'm sitting here in Taiwan, in Bernie's apartment reading the BBC website, whoooppeeeee! For those who don't know, it's blocked in the mainland.

My travels from Dalian to Taiwan were fine. Flight from Dalian to Seoul was full of Korean businessmen. Very few Chinese on it. The man beside me was also a businessman and he'd actually been to Dublin!

I couldn't get an impression of Korea from the airport. One thing was the flight transfer system. No obvious transfer desk unless you went looking for it. I asked information and said I would have to check in at the gate! Never did that before.

I did manage to see a Korean game show, which was well wacky! There were three guys and three girls and the aim of it seemed to be to try and sing a song without making mistakes. They were songs in Korean to the tune of Jingle Bells and so on! The mad thing was that when they made a mistake, a huge cymbal type thing descended from above and clattered them over the head! Great! I met a Scottish lad on the flight from Seoul to Taipei. The only 2 white guys on the flight and we were together. We had the emergency exit seats, you see. He had great things to say about Korea.

Arrived in Taipei airport and some shifty guy offered his car to me. Didn't seem to be many other cars around so I took it. He was grand and we had a good chat in Chinese and English. We had great time trying to find Bernie's toad in longtan. We must have asked around 6 different people!! Got there in the end and everything was fine!

So far, I haven't been here long enough or seen anything to say if this place is much different from the mainland. Will do at a later stage!

Ready For The Off

Teaching is nearly at an end now. I have only 2 more classes to go. Tomorrow and Friday. Then it’s off to Taiwan for Christmas. I have more or less decided what I will do with my 9 weeks off!

First, I’ll be heading to Taiwan to see an Irish friend of mine, Bernie. Will be having Christmas dinner there and will be staying until the 3^rd of January, so I’ll have New Year’s too. Bernie’s working the week after Christmas, so I hope to see some of Taiwan Island myself.

After that, I’ll head to South Korea for ten days to see a friend there. It will be weird cos I don’t speak a word of Korean. I’ve heard great things about Korea, and I loved their football team in the 2002 World Cup, so really looking forward to it!

Back in Dalian on the 12^th of January and shortly afterwards, an English guy, Rob and myself are hoping to set off on a trip down the east coast of China as far as Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing.

Will be back in Beijing and then on to Tianjin for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) with a friend there. After Tianjin I’ll be heading to Siberian temperatures in Harbin to see the Ice and Snow Festival! Should be amazing. They have tons of ice and snow sculptures there! I’m not looking forward to the below -20 degree temperatures, but it will be an adventure. I will be staying around that area for a few days with a friend before heading to the South.

Will be flying into Shenzhen and then train to Hong Kong. Allegedly, it’s cheaper to do it that way rather than flying straight into HK. Will be meeting Paul, one of the guys from my old company, in HK. Should be great craic.

The final leg of my journey will be in Guangdong province and hopefully some of Fujian province. My Chinese teacher lives in Shantou in Guangdong and I have been invited there. I also want to take a trip up to Xiamen in Fujian.

After all that, I’m sure I’ll be thoroughly broke but happy!!

Last Navigation Class, Sniff!

Today saw the end of my teaching Navigation first years. Awwwww! Will sort of miss their antics! Here's a pic of the Navigation 3 class. Quite a good class:


We also had some good singers in that class and also the English Corner crowd. Fair play to them.

Guitar

The aul guitar has come in handy I tells ya! Well, it’s handy for using in class and getting a party going in the pub and so on. Now, it may have introduced me to some new people...

I started doing Latin dancing a while ago since I had nothing to do in the evenings. I’m shite at it but it’s something to work at. Anyways, a week or so ago, I was at the dancing (in one of the dining halls) and there were a couple of lads playing electric guitars. I mentioned it before, I think. I had a laugh with them that time. Anyways, I was at the dancing last night and the guitar dude came up to me and said a load of stuff in Chinese, of which I caught 20%!! They said they’d be there tonight as well, so I came to meet them. Turns out they are starting up a guitar club and they wanted me to join. No probs. Played a few songs and had a chat with some of them. Seem like a sound bunch. 2 of them are more into the sort of heavier end of the spectrum. I actually think it was them who I saw playing Nirvana at one of the shows I went to last month!

So, hopefully I can learn some good Chinese songs from these lads and have a few good sessions!

Grand, Boy!

All but 1 of my navigation classes are now over, sniff!

Here’s a pic of Navigation class 1: not the craziest of the lot but grand

Now, here is the wild bunch, Navigation 4! You can sort of tell from the pic:

Now, here’s the best bit. Have a gander at this. I took a vid of the lads in their best Cork accents! People working at Sun can use xanim (/usr/dist I think) or mplayer to view it. It’s gas!

Bye-Bye to the Sailor Boys

This week sees the last of my navigation classes. Ah, I’ll miss the guys, Their English may not be the May West (one guy today in his exam didn’t know the words “hobbies”, “free time”, “spare time” or even the word “play”) but they’re a fun bunch of lads. And friendlier than most of my second years. Here's a pic of Naviaion Class 2 (first years):

What a handsome bunch of lads. Sunlight in the classroom was too strong in places, so the pic didn't come out great.

Now I gotta get stuck into planning my trip in January and February, trying to juggle Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and visiting some people! Ah, if China wasn’t so big or if I was rich, it would be no problem! However, I should make the most of my time here, even if it does mean spending some of my savings from home.

A Bit Of The Oirish

Since last I blogged, let’s see what happened...

Friday night I went out with some new people. Some foreign teachers from other schools and some British and Irish exchange students, who are doing their year abroad in Dalian University of Technology. A good bunch of folks. Went for some din-dins and then back to that Nepalese bar, which I rather like. We all had a good chat and a laugh, which I like. They were all down-to-earth people, which I also like! Can’t stand people whose heads are so far up their own arses and won’t bother being friendly.

Guitar came out again and a few sons were sung! I was in the throws of Dirty Old Town when a guy picked up a piano accordion that was in the corner (this boozer has musical instruments lying all over the place) and came and joined in. Turns out this guy was from New York with Irish blood from a few generations back. Then he took up the guitar and sang “Báidín Fheilimí” in Irish! Impressive. I can’t sing any songs in Irish except the national anthem! The guy had actually learned a bit of Irish and could say a few things. Very impressive!

Since the winter here is getting colder with temps from -5 to -8, I had to go and get me a pair of long Johns and some warm boots! People wear 3 layers of trousers in Dalian for some reason. I go around most of the day with 1 layer. I think a lot of Northern Chinese, once they feel the weather changing dive straight for the long-johns! I think you would need them in the evening but not so much during the day!

From the Surreal to the Surreal

So, more and more exams this week. Exams coming out my ears. Well, it goes with the territory, don’t it? The students are enjoying the Shrek DVDs that I am showing them anyway!

Last night I found out that one of the TV stations here was showing Roddy Doyle’s “The Van”. Great, says I until I turned on the box and found it was dubbed in Chinese! “Jaysus”, says I! It was gas. I never realised how good Colm Meaney’s Chinese was!

The Chinese language dubbing on Western movies is so bad. The voices never suit and it always seems so over-acted. Well, Chinese soaps are the same. They did find a gruff man’s voice for Jimmy Rabbite. It would have been good if they had them speaking Chinese with Dublin accents too! It was funny to see the scangers queuing up for Chips and speaking Chinese, haha! I might put a video clip of it up for the laugh!

I also wonder what they did with all the swear words from the original. Chinese don’t swear that much, unlike us potty-mouthed Paddies! So, the whole thing was a tad sureal!

This evening was a bit surreal too. My singing was required again. This time, it was an event organised by the English corner people. It was like a cabaret of acts. Some singing, some doing dancing. There was also one drama. And some games: an English guess-the word game and also some singing game where one team had to think of and sing a song that began with the last word of the song the other team had just sung! Since it was all in Chinese, I just fell asleep.

Fair play to these people for organising stuff like this. I don’t think DCU ever did anything like this. Anyways, I did my 3 songs, including that usual Chinese one. Some of my first year lads were there in the audience. They did me proud, as all I could hear was “Go on, boy” and “howaya, boy” in Cork accents. The boys done well!

So, I decided to sit with these lads that I teach. Navigation class 4, or the zoo, as I should call them as they are wild and one of them is called Tiger. Mental bunch of lads and a good laugh. Just a bit over-energetic in class. This compensates for the living dead second year Transportation students that I teach.

I had a good laugh with the lads and the evening seemed to be drawing to an end around 8:30 when all of a sudden the place turned into a disco! So, Tiger and the boys were going mad on the dance floor! Usually people need to be off their tits on E’s to dance like that! I’d never seen Chinese going mad like that as well! Fair play to them! But, as the clock struck 9, bang, it all ended! They didn’t want them to have too much fun after all!

Exam Season

Well, the snow in Dalian is melting, meeelllltiiiing since the sun came out. I heard it’s the worst snow for 54 years or something! They sure put a show on when they knew I’d be here.

The sun seems quite strong in Dalian. In my room, you can really feel the heat of the sun through the window. It really dries those clothes quickly! I don’t remember the winter sun in Ireland being that strong. Somebody can tell me!

As, snow season subsides, exam season is now upon us. In my naivety, I have decided to give each student a 3-minute oral English exam. Lots of teachers are just doing presentationy stuff. I thought that would mean they just recite a prepared speech, whereas my exam will be a 2-way thin. Well, that’s the theory anyway!

I started the exams today. Got off to a good start today by falling on my arse in the ice! I was grand. Only my pride was hurt!

So, in the exam, while the class is happily watching a Shrek DVD in one room, I am in another room and students come in 2 at a time (for logistical reasons and also maybe the students won’t be so lonely waiting for their turn to come).As I may have said earlier, the difference in levels is astonishing. I asked one guy how big was the snowman he built. He answered “3 hours”. Another guy didn’t know what Western Food was. Then there were a few good ones. They lump these students in all together with differing levels, which makes it harder to teach and grade. That’s the system, so I just have to give a ball-park mark.

You Say Stop And I Say Go, Go, Go!

Some people who went to college with me may remember Brian Lawless's Electronics Book. In the intro, he was going on about logic or something and in it, he alleged that on traffic lights in China, green meant stop and red meant go. Well, I live in China, and of course it’s a load of cobblers. Traffic lights in China are the same as in every other country I’ve ever been to.

But maybe Lawless had a point and he didn’t realise it! I’m not a driver, so I don’t usually pay much attention to the road when I’m in a car. That’s a blessing when you’re in China, since the drivers are crazy! I digress. Anyway, I got a taxi into town last night and noticed that the driver sailed through almost every red light! The only lights he stopped at were at big junctions. I don’t think it was anything to do with respect for the law why he stopped. It was simple self-preservation. He didn’t want to get squished by oncoming traffic! So, Mr. Lawless, I conclude that in China, a red light is merely a decoration. They do whatever the hell they like!!!

Weather Outside Is Frightful...

Winter has officially arrived in Dalian! We had our first snow last night and we had a front row seat in the pub to watch it all! Went to a different place last night. The boys call it a Nepalese bar. It was pretty nice. No shite music and quite lively! Lots of drunken foreigners around the place! A guitar was then spotted hanging on the wall, so I was handed it and we had a bit of a singing session Great craic! I like a good sing-song.

The snow started falling after midnight I think. By the time we left the place around 3am, there was a good 2 or 3 inches of snow there, so we had a good old-fashioned snow fight!! Really Christmassy atmsphere! All in all, a good night was had! Fair play to the taxi-man on the way home. People thought the taxi drivers wouldn't slow down enough, but he was grand.

Here’s the view from my bedroom window when I got home:

Today, I had to brave the weather to go and sort out paying for the plane ticket to Taiwan. It was grand. I went with a student to the bank and he paid with his credit card and I gave him the money. And then we went for a lovely Chinese hot pot! No better way to keep out the winter Chill! Here is a pic of a snowy scene in the uni. I wanted to take more but my battery died.

Tickets Booked

So, I booked my tickets for Taiwan and Korea yesterday! Yippee! Should be great craic! But here’s a word of warning for anyone who wants to book stuff online. I used www.ctrip.com to book my tickets, cos I thought they’d be cheaper than a local travel agent. And they have English-speaking staff. Booked the tickets ok although it was a bit inefficient as usual, with them calling you back and forward. One person looked after booking and another looked after paying and so on. There’s a lot of that here. Anyways, I was all ready to pay using my credit card when they said that they only accept domestic Chinese credit cards!! Is there a difference, I hear you cry? Isn’t a credit card a credit card? Not in China. They seem to have their own credit card companies. They don’t readily accept international credit cards in a lot of places. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that Chinese currency is not convertible. So, because the company’s office is in Beijing, I couldn’t go and pay cash. I have found a student with a credit card, so tomorrow, hopefully we can pay with that and I can give him the money. Fingers crossed!

On another note (pardon the pun), I met a couple of lads in the canteen, who were playing electric guitars. I went over and asked if I could have a go, since I have never had a go on an electric! They were sound lads and were some of the first that I have met that don’t like the standard manufactured Wesilife-esque Chinese pop music! They are more into metal, which wouldn’t be one of my favourites, but I would guess they like other decent stuff as well. Hopefully they can show me some decent Chinese music!