Monsoon!

One thing I really like about Dalian is that it hardly ever rains. Although the winters are harsh with a ferocious Siberian wind, the sky is blue every day and it stays dry. Today is a different tale and the rain is pissing down in buckets, turning the badly-drained streets into rivers and making the pavements into a slippery nightmare.
I don't know if it is Dalian's lack of experience with rain, or just Chinese people in general, but everything slides into instant chaos when the heavens open. The roads are clogged with traffic, everyone beeping their horns and generally contributing to a big heaving mess. The me-first attitude adopted whilst driving becomes even more clear, as accidents pile up due to people who refuse to check their mirrors before pulling out. In my office building, staff were waiting at the front entrance with stocks of plastic bags, handing them out to everyone who came in, to store their soggy umbrellas. More staff were working outside, dressed in layers of plastic, sweeping the torrents of water away from the entrance. I arrived for work at 8am, taking a taxi to make sure I got there on time. The place was deserted. I waited for half an hour standing outside the door doing nothing but drinking soy bean milk. Then enough was enough, and I headed to the sanity of Starbucks, where the wifi signal is strong and the chairs are comfy. Unfortunately, I have a student at 10am. And I have to explain an incomprehensible and fist-munchingly boring article to her. But my application to Belgium is almost ready to send, and there will be others to follow.

Chinese National Stereotypes

This came from my adult class today, where we brainstormed national stereotypes:

French: romantic, lazy, drink red wine, don't like children.
Germans: Nazis, Hitler, drink very much beer, huge, attentive to detail.
Japanese: serious, polite, like children very much.
English: gentleman, polite, handsome, have different opinions to the Americans
American: open, loud, human rights, war, Obama.
Indian: yoga, mysterious, good with computers, clever.

Purely the opinions of my students with no input from the teacher whatsoever. Honest.

Quest for Health, Wealth and Wisdom (and cheap education)

The philosopher Aristotle once said, "It is wise to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom."

I have never been fond of lying in bed till noon, but the idea of gaining an entire working month of extra time each year sounded fantastic. My usual getting-up time ranges between 6.30 and 8am, but on Steve Pavlina's life improvement blog he discusses how you can train yourself to rise at 5am, every single morning, forever. Even 30 minutes earlier adds up to a full working month per year, but that extra 90 minutes per day adds up to three full working months, 120 hours per year. That's an awful lot of useful and potentially productive time. Like Steve, I find that my motivation levels rise higher when I am up early and they remain high the whole day. Being a fan of multi-tasking and methods to squeeze more out of each day, I've decided to try out Steve's suggestions. Today I managed to get up at 6.30. As it's my day off today and I had a late night yesterday, I think this is not bad. But from tomorrow on, the 5am regime will begin.

Steve's blog is at: www.stevepavlina.com and is totally worth checking out.

Today is Qing Ming Jie, or Tomb-sweeping Fesitival. On this day, Chinese people visit and take care of their deceased relatives' graves. They also burn paper money on street crossroads. The belief is that this sends the cash to the "other side" where it can be used by dead family members." In reality, many of my students told me that they live too far from the location of the graveyards and will just be using this day as a fine chance for a long relaxing weekend. The kind Chinese govt. gives everyone an extra Monday off work. I've planned a productive day, involving intensive university research and a few applications.
The choices (so far) are as follows:
MSc in International Management at Exeter or Roborough, MSc in Process and Project Management at Warwick, MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford; and a variety of similar courses at universities in the Netherlands and Germany. Studying in the Netherlands is
my most recent idea, because the tuition fees are a fraction of those in the UK. Back home, I'd have to spend at least 5000 pounds for a year's tuition. Universities can charge whatever they like for postgrad education. However in the Netherlands, I found many equivalent masters courses, in English, for around 1500 euros. Also, as they are also EU, I can easily and freely find part-time work without the need for any visa documentation. Unlike Sweden's, which has already passed, the Netherlands' uni application deadline is still far off in May or June. Sweden offers undergrad and postgrad education entirely free of charge even to foreigners and even has a huge selection of subjects taught in English. But I guess it's pretty competitive, as for anything free, and they close the application window in January of the same year. Oxford is on my list just because it would be amazing to study there, if I could ever get accepted onto any programme. I picked Modern Chinese Studies because it seems like I might have a fighting chance of acceptance. Four years experience in the field plus language skills must mean something...

I already feel very motivated and productive by writing this blog post at 7.40 am, so now I'm going to continue my disciplined new lifestyle by NOT drinking coffee for breakfast. Even the civet variety... ;-)

Civet Coffee and Chinese CVs,

Do you know which coffee is the world's most expensive? I bet you couldn't guess where it comes from...I love coffee, so I was intrigued to discover that this prime brew comes out of a cat's arse. Yes, literally. The Kopi Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans, which is nothing unusual. But the difference is that these beans pass through the digestive tract of a civet cat before being excreted onto the ground for easy collection by coffee farmers. This mainly happens in Sumatra and surrounding areas (wherever civet cats and coffee beans are in close proximity). The coffee is made by separating the beans from the rest of the dung, washing them thoroughly (whew!) then processing them like normal coffee beans. The taste of Kopi Luwak has been described variously as 'gamey', 'rich, strong and full-bodied', 'syrupy with a hint of chocolate' and 'like crap'.
So how much does a cup of this stuff cost? In London's Sloane Square, a snooty coffee shop sells Kopi Lumak for 50 pounds a cup. Various online stockists also sell it and it seems to be surprisingly popular in its coffee-snob niche market. I'd be keen to try it, but 50 pounds a cup of anything would make me cringe. If I ever get to Indonesia, I'll go hunt me some civet cats.

After wasting a lot of valuable time Googling 'crap' coffee, I got myself sufficiently motivated to finish the day's main task - translating my CV into Chinese. This was a challenging job and took me at least two hours to complete. But the end result is definitely worth it, it will certainly impress Chinese employers and what's more - it looks really, really cool. ;-) I'm quite proud of myself (although www.nciku.com did get surfed now and then...) I've got a job interview at Dalian Software Park this week. I'll have to learn the CV by heart or make myself a pinyin crib sheet for some of the new words, hehe.

I'm making plans for a return to the UK this autumn. The postgrad education idea is still firmly lodged in my mind and there are some great courses on offer. My question to myself is: would it be better to study a practical subject (MSc in International Management,Business Administration or Programme and Project Management), or go for the MA in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford University? I think that my China experience can get me onto the Oxford course, how cool to study at Oxford! But in reality, the practical applications of an MA in Modern Chinese Studies might not be so apparent to a prospective employer, what's more, am I sufficiently fascinated by China to spend even more of my time studying it? Recently it has begun to annoy me in a whole bunch of ways. Realistically, it's time to get serious and choose a degree subject that is directly related to career. Career, Career, Career. I don't want to make the same mistake I made when picking my undergrad degree:

Dad: "You should really study business/management/computing/engineering."
Daughter: "But Sociology really interests me and it will give me good career prospects, honest!"

The future's looking colourful.

你最大的恐惧是什么？

我今天下午要给英语学生表述这个话题：恐惧。我有一个小时表述的时间我先要给他们看一看两部恐怖电影小片段。看完了以后我们会一起讨论电影的内容。今天最重要的话题是害怕和恐惧。我们为什么有害怕和恐惧？恐惧是不是一种神经病？我们怎么可以因应害怕恐惧？我认为我们可以用很多不同的方法因应我们的害怕。我已经看了几个网站关于这个话题。它们的忠告都有一样的重点：它们说为了我们因应害怕我们必须碰硬害怕。这是最有效的方法。

我表述做完以后我要在这上写多一点。

Foul Moods and Temperaments

Boooom! In China, my moods are on a roller-coaster. A big old rickety made-in-China roller-coaster, which the slightest tremor can set off rolling in the wrong direction - generally downhill. These days the moods seem to have gotten worse, maybe a signal that it's time to leave this place for pastures new. Things that are guaranteed to piss me off include any combination of the following: Chinese drivers' selfish and blatant disregard for other road users, people spitting, smoking in any enclosed space, hearing the word 'laowai', shop assistants who will NOT leave me alone, queue-jumping and barging, seeing herds of LBH everywhere, locals staring, people indicating numbers by holding up their fingers, incessant gusts of strong wind, counter-intuitive elevators, and finally, travelling on the light rail between Dalian and Kaifaqu. Do I sound seriously moody and bitchy today? That's because I AM. Grrrr!

处于补丁状态 or Banished to the Cold Palace

这个月是我在大连的末期。我需要在一个月内节省尽可能多地钱。为了这样做，我需要教英语（我最不喜欢的工作）。我可以用这个基金帮助我做有些重要的关于工作和生活的决定。
就是很惊人，虽然经济危机的时候尽管如此在中国还很容易找到教英文的工作。

我不太喜欢处于补丁状态 。太不确定了！