Back To China Soon

My sojourn in sunny Ireland is coming to an end! I fly back to China on Thursday (August 3^rd). I fly into Shanghai. I will spend the weekend there and hopefully do the whole Guilin/Yangshuo thing and then fly to Beijing and finally Dalian!

I had great hopes for this blog over the summer! I had planned to write some meaningful pieces about Dublin, learning Chinese and also on the life of Chinese people here. But I spent too much time in the pub! I could write some pieces about the pubs!!

On that, I wish they could move Doyle’s (near Trinity) over to Dalian. I just love the music there. The music in most bars and clubs in Dalian isn’t to my taste. Doyle’s (and some other places in Dublin like Thomas Reed’s and Bruxelles) play real music, with some cheesy stuff for good measure! We had everything from the Rolling Stones to the Chemical Brothers.

End of digression.

My time here has been too short. I have been catching up on old friends. Wow, some of them I have only managed to see once, since I have been that busy! Dublin is a great laugh and has great nightlife, I would encourage everyone to come over and enjoy the craic (fun) here with a few pints of the best Guinness in the world!!!

Costa del Ireland

Wow, the weather has gone crazy in this little Island. We are experiencing a heat wave at the moment. Temperatures are hitting 31 in some parts of the country!


People are hitting the beaches like there’s no tomorrow and I’m sure you will see them returning home, with lobster-red sunburnt skin as they pay little heed to warnings telling them to slap on the sunblock!

Wow, it’s not natural to see a weather map like that here. At this time of year, temperatures are in the low 20’s if we are lucky. I think half the population of Ireland is melting! The auld wans on the buses will be whinging that it’s too hot. My advice: take off the big overcoat and you might cool down a bit!

The hot weather is set to continue until the end of the week, so the boffins in the Met office tell us! And as we speak, hordes of punters are in Dublin catching planes to the Canaries, where it’s only 25 or 26 degrees today!

Back in The land of Guinness

Wow, I’m back a week now and haven’t written anything!

I’ve been getting re-acquainted with some old friend, Guinness being one of the favourites! Been spending time trying to catch up on sleep and also catching up with friends, ex-colleagues and old classmates! It’s been nice. It’s also nice to see the family again. Living at home is strange, but there is always someone to talk to, which is different from my one-person apartment in Dalian!

I was a bit culture-shocked actually, when I came back! Everything is so different! Dublin seemed so small, with its narrow streets! Hearing Irish accents seemed so strange. Ireland seems so green compared to Liaoning province, with its parched, brown countryside. Also, the air here is wonderful compared to China!

Ireland has changed a bit. So many more eastern Europeans here now! Seems every second person is Polish! I think the amount of Chinese people is decreasing, as the eastern Europeans take the jobs that Chinese people used to do. The eastern European don’t need a work visa, whereas Chinese people do, hence employers prefer them.

I am gradually getting acclimatised. The big shock was in Frankfurt airport! Where have all the Chinese people gone? Everyone’s European! It totally freaked me out!

One thing that didn’t take long to get used to was food and drink! Unfortunately, a lot of the nice food isn’t very good for you: Irish breakfasts, curry chips, snack boxes, King crisps (I don't like Taytos crisps),… Well I did have some nice roast dinners and some lovely toast with marmalade, which aren’t too bad for you! On the drinks side: lovely cups of tea with real (i.e. not UHT or sweetened) milk, and of course, the king of drinks: Guinness! I had forgotten how nice Guinness was! The stuff abroad just doesn’t match it!

I haven’t had Chinese food in a week. I am going to have to visit Parnell Street and have some nice Dongbei food! I did have bai-cai (bok choy/Chinese cabbage) in my friend Barry's house last night. Allegedly you can get it in Tesco here! I have been chatting to some Chinese people over here. Don’t want my language level to drop much! Hopefully I can find a language student for language exchange.

Isn't Technology Marvellous

I'm sat here in Beijing Airport using their wireless network. The connection fee is deducted from my mobile phone credit! Cheap enough too!

Wow, I haven't seen this many foreigners in one place in ages. Better get used to it!

Another 2 hours and I will be in the skies, saying farewell to China :-(

But I shall return for more adventures!!! I'm so glad I've learned Chinese, cos I can have some great conversations with people here, especially taxi drivers, who could chat the hind legs off a donkey!! I'll need to find some Chinese friends in Dublin, so that my Chinese level doesn't decrease!

End Of Part One

Wow, I am going home tomorrow! Hard for that fact to sink in! It’s been 11 months now since I left Ireland! In some ways, time seems to have flown but in other ways, it seems a long time since I landed in Beijing last year!

It’s been a great year! I have been to so many places, seem so many things, met so many people, and learned loads of Chinese. I think a person can learn a lot by living abroad and can find new ways of looking at things!

I’m all Karaoke’d out at this stage! Friday night, we had a bit of a party with Rob and some others. We drank ant-nourished baijiu (Chinese firewater)! Rob bought these dried ants up in Jilin province. You are supposed to put some into baijiu and allow the baijiu to be enriched by all the lovely ant juices! See picture below:

You then filter off the ants and you are left with a lovely concoction (below) , which you can drink in the form of shots!

The ants are supposed to increase one’s virility!!! Actually, I think the baijiu tasted better with the ant juices rather than straight! The only strange thing was that there were some ant legs still floating in the baijiu after filtering!!

After all those shenanigans, we headed to KTV (Karaoke) and had a great night of drunken untunefulness!

My voice was gone yesterday! And last night I went back with some Chinese friends for more singing! So, my voice is really gone today, Mad, I haven’t been to KTV in China since I arrived last August, and now I go twice in 1 weekend! I love KTV. Most foreigners hate it! I wish they had it back in Ireland!