Some Stuff

Well, Paddy’s Day was some session! Philip and I brought guitars to the Irish pub and had a session. Shame there was no mic and that we only had one amp between us. It was good fun anyway and ended up in the very wee hours, finishing with a bowl of Irish stew. Delicious!

I did my radio recording on Saturday. It started off a little shakily. My voice wasn’t in good shape since I had a slight cold, however it went grand in the end and I surprised myself with my Chinese! The show was originally to be aired today but for some unknown reason it has been postponed to Thursday week (Thursday 29th). For any Dalian readers, it will be on at 12:30pm at FM 105.7 on 大连文体台 (Dàlián wén tǐ tái radio station). If I can get a copy, I will put it up on the net for your amusement.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to ye all, to be sure! For those who don’t know, Saint Patrick’s Day is Ireland’s national day. The day commemorates Saint Patrick, who brought Christianity to Ireland and changed our pagan ways! Anyways, people usually wear green today and some wear shamrock too. Cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades, the biggest being in New York I believe. And Ireland turns into a drunken mess with teenagers drinking on the streets and vomiting everywhere. Lovely.

I will be here in Dalian this year for Paddy’s Day. No parade in Dalian (although someone told be Beijing is having one) so we will have a party and then hit the Irish bar for some craic agus ceol (music and fun)!

I’ve started up my fitness regime again. I hit the Uni swimming pool yesterday. I had planned to go a few times since I came back, but laziness got the better of me. As it turns out, the pool only opened its doors yesterday, after holidays and repair work. Yeah, just like the National Aquatic Centre back home, the roof of our pool got damaged by strong winds! I wonder if it was the same clown who designed both buildings!!

I’m gonna be on the radio! I was asked to go to the university’s radio station to talk about Irish music. The guy said the thing will be broadcast to the whole city! They want me to talk about a famous singer/band from my country and also about someone I like. I told them there would be no talk about Westlife. I think they might be disappointed, haha. So I think I’m mention U2 as the famous one and The Pogues as the one I like (since it’s Paddy’s Day today)! I hope my Chinese is up to it all. Well, it’s nice to they can do the sound equivalent of Photoshop on the thing!

Return to Dalian

Back in Dalian a week now, so I should write something.

I had a good trip back from Nanning, turned out that there was a student from Dalian Maritime University in the same train compartment as me. Stayed in a hostel in Beijing and did some walking around the city, as the hostel was handy for Tiananmen Square and the city centre and did the duck thing for dinner. I wanted to visit the Temple Of Heaven the next day but it was a miserable and drizzly day. I hit the foreign language bookshop instead, which was cool cos I could pick up something to read. I don’t think Dalian has much of a selection of English language books, although I have never checked. I actually bought a James Joyce book (Dubliners), so I can twitch those brain cells into action.

Dalian was pretty much still as I’d left it. Met up with some folks for a boozy enough weekend. Then on Sunday night, the storm to end all storms hit Dalian. There was a blizzard and hurricane-strength winds. I didn’t bother going out cos friends told me it was horrible out. The windows and doors were shaking and then the power went off. It allegedly affected a large part of Dalian: electricity and water supplies were off from Sunday night til early Monday morning. The next day we could see the aftermath: advertising hoardings blown away, scaffolding and debris strewn across the tram tracks, trees at strange angles. One nice result was that classes in the university were cancelled on the Monday! Here’s a pic of scaffolding hanging of a building in Dalian as a result of the storm.


This semester I am teaching all first year students. I’ve had classes with Civil Engineering and Electronics students so far, which have gone fine. Standard seems a little bit higher this year! Fingers crossed for the rest of the classes!