China - The Experience So Far

I am out in Hangzhou, China lecturing for a few weeks. Then off exploring a few more cities before I return home. All is great here so far. The School of Informatics in the Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics have put me up in the modern Xiasha Campus accomodation and have given me a nice suite with a kitchen, washing machine, fridge, living room, leather sofa, computer with speakers etc. Then the bedroom and bathroom are next door in another adjoining room. Happy days.

Most of the cultural difference so far revolve around the food. For starters, nobody warned me that nobody seems to have any English in this region, and that a knife and fork were seemingly never invented here. This can prove difficult when deciphering what is on the menu and then of course, trying to eat it. For example, yesterday's option in the accomodation restaurant was chicken claws in barbeque sauce or fish heads. I went for the vegetarian option. Today I ended up having eel, but didn't realise until I'd eaten it and the chef told me. Well he didn't so much tell me as dragged me over to the fish tanks and pointed to the bucket on the ground where about 50 eels were swimming around. Ended up having pigeon, duck's bill, frog, turtle and a few other delicacies along the way.

There are three Dundalk IT students studying out here for the year and I have met them a few times. They are all getting on really well. Two of them are staying in the apartment lived in by DkIT students from last year. The other guy is across the way in the same apartment block. They seem to be nicely set up with jobs, friends, extra curricular activities etc. Not easy coming out here for a year. Quite daunting actually.

As I head up to Beijing and back down to Shanghai next week I'm sure there'll be more to tell.

Funny Scare

There's a whole load of ones like this on YouTube. Search for 'Scare Tactics', its an American tv programme. Some very funny clips.

Bug found in blog post

Saw this today and thought it was good. Looks good when sent in an email on a white background. Just right-click on the image, save the picture to your computer and attach it in a mail.

New EBay shop in Drogheda

Passed by this shop the other day in Drogheda and had to look twice. I had heard of these before but had never seen one in Ireland or anywhere else on my travels. It will be interesting to see how well it does. I will be calling in to have a chat with the owner when it opens for business next week.

6 year old solves a rubik's cube in 38 seconds!

Iraqi Dinar...the web's worst, best kept secret

So there I was in the pub the other night when talk turned to the Iraqi Dinar. It seems investors are speculating that once the Dinar hits the open market, the value will increase to that of the US Dollar, and they will be millionaires. Buying this currency seems to be the worst, best kept secret on the web at the moment. So off I headed to eBay and got myself a few.
Next thing I hear is all the negative publicity, bad value for money prophecies and counterfeits stories. I'll post again when I get my hands on my purchase.

Web addiction...my typical day

My first hit of the day comes about 8.30am when, using FireFox, I check my GMail, Hotmail, SquirrelMail and Google Calender to see what's new and in store for me for the day. Lamentably, this process is repeated several times an hour for the duration of the day.
Next to be updated is my page on BeginnerTriathlete.com. Depending on what training I did the day before, this task could be skipped or else savoured as I input a run, jog or cycle and proceed to compare how Dok and the rest of the lads performed in the past few days.
This blog has been neglected but gets the odd update and i will always have a quick look at the page analysis.
Next stop, generally to while away a lunchtime, is wikipedia.org, o2.ie, youtube.com and maybe check my balance or make a transaction on AIB Internet Banking.
At some stage during the day I will log into Google Reader, which uses web feeds to constantly check, retrieve and aggregate my favorite news sites and blogs for new content. To check for new podcasts I will log into iTunes.
Finally, on a Friday afternoon without fail, I give in to one of my strongest web addictions, the time-sapping Fantasy Premier League. This site will tide me over for most of the weekend as the results start coming in and league positions are fanatically monitored.