Birthday

Another year older last Thursday. It’s my second time to celebrate a birthday in China!

I didn’t really plan much for that night itself, cos I had classes all day on the Friday. I haven’t yet gone into class with a bad hangover, and it is certainly something I don’t want to happen. In an IT job, it’s fine. Just crawl into the office late and stare at the screen like a zombie until you feel better! Not as simple when you have to stand up in front of 30 people and teach!

I went for lunch with my previous Chinese teacher and her boyfriend. Half way through the lunch, a cake arrived. I think that was a really nice gesture. We went back to my flat and tucked into the lovely cake! It is nice to know kind people like my previous Chinese teacher. I think you will find a lot of very thoughtful, kind and generous people in China. I am glad to know some of them!

Tonight, I will hit the town to celebrate my birthday properly (i.e. by blessing it with copious amounts of alcohol). I hope we can fit in a visit to a KTV (karaoke) place at some point!!

The Irish In Dalian

I think the Irish have established a firm presence in Dalian- especially in the areas of fun, music and sport!

The Dalian Wolfhounds Gaelic football team has been a great success and has brought together people from many nations! It gave them a chance to meet new friends and get fit in the process!

Recently, due to the activities of the Wolfhounds, there has been much fun had in the Tin Whistle Pub (TWP), Dalian’s Irish bar. Two weeks ago, The Shanghai Gaelic football team came to Dalian for a friendly match. The Saturday, one of the best nights ever in peoples’ memories was had in the Tin Whistle! The previous night, there was a rare Irish sing-song. A REAL Irish sing-song. Maybe it was special cos it was spontaneous and the numbers were few and mainly consisted of Irish people. The Saturday night, we also had a session. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good laugh, but didn’t match the magic of the Friday night.

Last night the Wolfhounds hosted a fundraiser pub quiz in the TWP. Also on the bill was an acoustic music session starring yours truly and Dermot, another Irish guy, who is studying Chinese here. The quiz was a good laugh, brought me back to the days of the quizzes in the DCU student bar on a Wednesday afternoon. Ah, I remember the “fruit drop challenge” game well! Anyways, our team consisted of a Spanish guy, a Chinese guy, a Chinese girl and myself. I wasn’t sure of our chances at the start but after 2 rounds, we were in the lead. I think the mix of nationalities worked well. In the end, we came joint third! I was quite happy with that!

The music session could have gone better. The bar only had one mic, so you could either let people hear a voice or a guitar, but not both! We actually had a way better session later in the night (or should I say early in the morning) outside Dave’s bar with some Koreans. It was an impromptu session, always the best!

So, the Paddies have definitely left their mark on this fair city, showing people how to enjoy themselves the Irish way!

GAA Hits The Big Time In Dalian

I posted something about Gaelic football a few months ago. Well, the sport has come on in leaps and bounds since then. Last Saturday, the Dalian Wolfhounds (the Irish wolfhound being a famous breed of dog) played host to the Shanghai Saints (men) and Shanghai Sirens (ladies) for a series of exhibition games ahead of the Asian GAA championships, which will be held in Shanghai next month.

With difficulty, a grass pitch was located at the Red Flag Football Grounds in XiShan ShuiKu (西山水库，红旗足球公园). All the universities were using their grass pitches at the moment as they are doing military training with the first years!

Both men and woman, from all corners of the world play Gaelic football in Dalian. It was decided to stage a few short matches with reduced team sizes (normal size for a Gaelic football team is 15 players). Men played men and women played against women. The lads tell me that they play mixed matches in training and some are the women go in harder on the tackles than a lot of the men! Here are the fine men of Dalian Wolfhounds. I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of the women’s’ team.

I definitely think the local spectators took to the game with interest and wonder. First of all, it’s not often that you get this amount of foreigners in one place in Dalian: this itself is a spectacle. Compound that with the fact that they were playing some wacky form of football where you could catch the ball in your handy must have added to their bewilderment!

I was quite impressed with the football. A lot of the players there weren’t Irish and they took to the sport quite well. It was really a great occasion to see people of many countries coming together to enjoy sport. They all came together to enjoy drinking and music in the Tin Whistle Pub that night. I think it was one of the best nights I have experienced in the Tim Whistle. Everyone was in great spirits, the beer was flowing and the music was pumping. We got out the guitars after that and had a good old Irish sing-song! What a day to remember!

Dalian TV filmed a report of the Gaelic Football. I tried to record it off the telly with my digital camera. It didn't turn out very well and I missed some of it. However, one of the lads on the team (Philip) made a vid of it as well, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Enjoy!