T minus 295 days

If everything works as planned in 295 day at the latest my journey to a new chapter of my life will start but only for some weeks now I realize what I will miss.
Fortunately I can still attend Kim's wedding next summer but things like Christmas, New Year's Eve will be a lot different than they used to be.
And last but not least I won't have my friends around. No "oh yeah, come on by and we watch a movie and order pizza" or some cooking and relaxing with my girlfriend...
Nonetheless I worked more than 2 years for this and I am still very excited but suddenly everything starts to feel so real.
But things will work out fine, I know :-)

20 years ago

About 20 years ago people in China, mostly students, tried to demonstrate for more democratic reforms and had to many had to pay with their lives. Maybe it is time to remember that other nations fight for the rights we already gained decades before and that they even risk their lives to achieve these goals.

恭賀新禧 or Happy CNY

Happy Chinese new year ^^ Hopefully the year of the ox will be as good as the year of the rat, maybe even more successfull. Well, we'll see... ;-)

Patrix - Casual gaming on a new level

During my time in China I often saw billboards advertising the game 'Patrix' and one year later I finally tried it. It is a free game but unfortunately it requires a Chinese ID to register and ultimatively play :-(
Once you have done so, you will realize pretty soon that the simple deathmatch shooter is really innovative and fun. As far as I know, 'Patrix' won an innovation award last year at the chinajoy gaming fair and I have to admit it really deserved that. I already posted a video last year, but these who don't remember, here we go again:



Reminds me a bit on Team Fortress 2...
Oh yeah, and here's the link to the website: patrix the game (Beware, Chinese websites look a bit different to western ones...)

Weird signs...

When I was in China last year I saw this funny sign. The text says "盗窃光缆, 后果严重" which means something like "copper theft is a crime". Nothing special so far but I was really suprised when I saw that there are even t-shirts with this printing which shows again that western people like chinese writings no matter if they make any sense or not...

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

祝你们中秋节快乐。

Happy Mid Autumn Festival to all the readers and enjoy the moon tonight.

The story behind identifying an unknown song

I should start this with "Once upon a time..." but everyone knows the way I switch topics between conversations... OK, this time I try my best.

Today I was searching for some videos showing the lake Houhai (后海) in Beijing (北京) cause this is one of the spots you shouldn't miss in when you are going to Beijing. Last year I was at Houhai during Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节 / Zhong qiu jie) and with this year's Moon festival approaching on September 14, I remembered the beautiful scenery. So I searched at Youtube for some Houhai related videos but only found few results. One of these results was a video showing friends or a couple ice biking and heard a nice song. Unfortunately I didn't remember the Artist and the song title. But luckily for me I know a nice nifty tool called Tunatics which searches its online database for some beats and stuff like that.
Downloaded, installed, done. What an easy task ^^ This is one of the reasons why I like internet :-)

Oh by the way: The song was Island in the Sun by Weezer.


Download Tunatics

Germany got 5th place in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Congrats Germany. A way better result at the summer Olympics than 4 and 8 years before. Of course China wasn't beatable this time. Anyway: There are no 1.3 billion people living in Germany so compared with the 82 million Germans the result of a 5th place isn't bad.
In the end it is funny how countries like the USA (who suddenly count the total numbers of medals to win the first place) are changing the statistics...


Another interesting table was created by the blog abgeschmackt.blogspot.com cause they created the 'only true and fair population adjusted medal table'.

	Country	Inhabitants	G.	S.	B.	Code	Inh./G	Inh/S	Inh/B
1.	Jamaica	2,80	6	3	2	JAM	0,47	0,93	1,40
2.	Bahrain	0,72	1	0	0	BRN	0,72	0,00	0,00
3.	Estlonia	1,31	1	1	0	EST	1,31	1,31	0,00
4.	New Zealand	4,17	3	1	5	NZL	1,39	4,17	0,83
5.	Australia	20,60	14	15	17	AUS	1,47	1,37	1,21
6.	Mongolia	3,00	2	2	0	MGL	1,50	1,50	0,00
7.	Georgia	4,63	3	0	3	GEO	1,54	0,00	1,54
8.	Norway	4,64	3	5	2	NOR	1,55	0,93	2,32
9.	Slovakia	5,46	3	2	1	SVK	1,82	2,73	5,46
10.	Slovenia	2,01	1	2	2	SLO	2,01	1,00	1,00
11.	Latvia	2,25	1	1	1	LAT	2,25	2,25	2,25
12.	Netherlands	16,65	7	5	4	NED	2,38	3,33	4,16
13.	Belarus	9,69	4	5	10	BLR	2,42	1,94	0,97
14.	Denmark	5,48	2	2	3	DEN	2,74	2,74	1,83
15.	UK	60,94	19	13	15	GBR	3,21	4,69	4,06

...

33.

USA

303,82

36

38

36

USA

8,44

8,00

8,44

...

47.

China

1.330,04

51

21

28

CHN

26,08

63,34

47

...

82.

Chinese Taipeh

22,92

0

0

4

TPE

0,0000

0,0000

0,1745

So, choose your medal table (Medailienspiegel or 奖牌榜 of favour ;-)

New old galleries

During the last weekend I rearranged the pictures I took in Norderney and in China.
The Norderney collection contains now 82 pictures and the China collection includes now all 731
(!) pics. Unfortunately now I noticed that I would take many of the China photos in a different way than I took them almost a year ago...

So here they are:

Norderney
China 2007

China is ready for Olympia 2008

Today on 08/08/08 the Olympic 2008 games in Beijing will start with a big festival. So take a look how China and its supporters prepare for Olympia here on this Adidas commercial:



Good luck China. And remember folks: chinese government ≠ the chinese people

PS: Finally something I can read in Chinese :D

再见沈艺

Most people know I usually don't like posting too much personal stuff on my blog, so I'll write this in Chinese.

亲爱的艺。
谢谢你在过去几年对我的热情帮助。
祝生活愉快。
再见马珂

Have a good flight back and thank you so much for the 笛子 again Ms superwomanmonkeybondgirlformerpartenerofjamesbond.

Happy Dragon Boat Festival or 端午节快乐!

I wish every one who celebrates it, a happy Dragon Boat Festival. Have a nice holiday and enjoy your delicious Zongzi. 端午节快乐 ^^

China University Ranking 2008

Maybe some of you have thought about studying abroad and maybe your destination of choice is not Australia, USA or another typical western country but China. In case you are interested into studying in China, I found a ranking list from this year's January by the 21st Century Business Herald. Of course it is not THE indicator but maybe it helps a bit with your decision.
If you seek for further information you can simply click on the university's name to get the website. Every university also has an English version so simply click through ;)
I only linked the TOP50 but still: Have fun!
BTW: The partner university of FH Dortmund, is the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS / 广东外语外贸大学) .

Rank	University	Score	City	Province
1	Tsinghua University	271.00	Beijing	Beijing
2	Peking University	216.23	Beijing	Beijing
3	Zhejiang University	204.09	Hangzhou	Zhejiang
4	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	143.03	Shanghai	Shanghai
5	Nanjing University	133.60	Nanjing	Jiangsu
6	Fudan University	128.79	Shanghai	Shanghai
7	University of Science and Technology of China	98.68	Hefei	Anhui
8	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	95.12	Wuhan	Hubei
9	Wuhan University	93.28	Wuhan	Hubei
10	Xi'an Jiaotong University	92.58	Xi'an	Shaanxi
11	Jilin University	92.45	Changchun	Jilin
12	Sun Yat-sen University	91.53	Guangzhou	Guangdong
13	Sichuan University	82.09	Chengdu	Sichuan
14	Harbin Institute of Technology	80.88	Harbin	Heilongjiang
15	Shandong University	80.55	Jinan	Shandong
16	Nankai University	75.27	Tianjin	Tianjin
17	Tianjin University	68.22	Tianjin	Tianjin
18	BeiJing Normal University	66.85	Beijing	Beijing
19	Central South University	58.00	Changsha	Hunan
20	Southeast University	53.40	Nanjing	Jiangsu
21	Xiamen University	52.81	Xiamen	Fujian
22	Renmin University of China	52.23	Beijing	Beijing
23	Beihang University	51.83	Beijing	Beijing
24	Dalian University of Technology	51.82	Dalian	Liaoning
25	Northwestern Polytechnical University	47.37	Xi'an	Shaanxi
26	Tongji University	47.05	Shanghai	Shanghai
27	South China University of Technology	40.63	Guangzhou	Guangdong
28	Chongqing University	40.40	Chongqing	Chongqing
29	East China Normal University	39.51	Shanghai	Shanghai
30	Lanzhou University	39.41	Lanzhou	Gansu
31	Beijing Institute of Technology	35.70	Beijing	Beijing
32	China Agricultural University	35.30	Beijing	Beijing
33	Hunan University	34.99	Changsha	Hunan
34	Northeastern University	32.67	Shenyang	Liaoning
35	Zhengzhou University	30.69	Zhengzhou	Henan
36	Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics	29.89	Nanjing	Jiangsu
37	Soochow University	29.46	Suzhou	Jiangsu
38	East China University Of Science and Technology	28.71	Shanghai	Shanghai
39	Wuhan University of Technology	28.66	Wuhan	Hubei
40	Nanjing Agriculture University	28.19	Nanjing	Jiangsu
41	China University of Petroleum	27.03	Qingdao	Shandong
42	University of Science and Technology of Beijing	27.03	Beijing	Beijing
43	Shanghai University	27.00	Shanghai	Shanghai
44	Xidian University	26.26	Xi'an	Shaanxi
45	China University of Mining and Technology	26.17	Xuzhou	Jiangsu
46	Southwest University	26.10	Chongqing	Chongqing
47	Jinan University	26.09	Guangzhou	Guangdong
48	University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	25.75	Chengdu	Sichuan
49	Northeast Normal University	25.02	Changchun	Jilin
50	Huazhong Normal University	24.54	Wuhan	Hubei
51	Nanjing University Of Science and Technology	24.26	Nanjing	Jiangsu
52	Nanjing Normal University	24.01	Nanjing	Jiangsu
53	Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry	23.78	Yangling	Shaanxi
54	Northwest University	23.33	Xi'an	Shaanxi
55	Southwest Jiaotong University	22.32	Chengdu	Sichuan
56	Ocean University of China	21.04	Qingdao	Shandong
57	Yangzhou University	20.51	Yangzhou	Jiangsu
58	Beijing University of Chemical Technology	20.33	Beijing	Beijing
59	South China Normal University	20.24	Guangzhou	Guangdong
60	Beijing Jiaotong University	19.97	Beijing	Beijing
61	Hunan Normal University	19.58	Changsha	Hunan
62	Huazhong Agricultural University	18.71	Wuhan	Hubei
63	Shaanxi Normal University	18.37	Xi'an	Shaanxi
64	Shanxi University	17.70	Taiyuan	Shanxi
65	Nanchang University	17.64	Nanchang	Jiangxi
66	Hohai University	17.35	Nanjing	Jiangsu
67	Beijing University of Technology	16.90	Beijing	Beijing
68	South China Agricultural University	16.47	Guangzhou	Guangdong
69	China University of Geosciences, Wuhan	16.37	Wuhan	Hubei
70	Nanjing University of Technology	16.35	Nanjing	Jiangsu
71	Harbin Engineering University	16.26	Harbin	Heilongjiang
72	Fuzhou University	15.73	Fuzhou	Fujian
73	Jiangnan University	15.54	Wuxi	Jiangsu
74	Yanshan University	15.43	Qinhuangdao	Hebei
75	Donghua University	15.42	Shanghai	Shanghai
76	Hebei University	15.41	Baoding	Hebei
77	Henan University	15.16	Kaifeng	Henan
78	Hefei University of Technology	14.98	Hefei	Anhui
79	JiangSu University	14.91	Zhenjiang	Jiangsu
80	Zhejiang University of Technology	14.90	Hangzhou	Zhejiang
81	Shandong Agricultural University	14.33	Taian	Shandong
82	Capital Medical University	13.73	Beijing	Beijing
83	Yunnan University	13.62	Kunming	Yunnan
84	Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications	13.42	Beijing	Beijing
85	Xiangtan University	13.33	Xiangtan	Hunan
86	Zhongnan University of Economics and Law	13.26	Wuhan	Hubei
87	China Medical University	13.15	Shenyang	Liaoning
88	Southern Medical University	13.10	Guangzhou	Guangdong
89	China University of Geosciences, Beijing	12.84	Beijing	Beijing
90	Shanghai University of Finance and Economics	12.67	Shanghai	Shanghai
91	Shandong Normal University	12.53	Jinan	Shandong
92	North China Electric Power University	12.42	Beijing	Beijing
93	Kunming University of Science and Technology	12.38	Kunming	Yunnan
94	Chengdu University of Technology	12.24	Chengdu	Sichuan
95	Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University	12.13	Fuzhou	Fujian
96	Heilongjiang University	11.92	Harbin	Heilongjiang
97	China Pharmaceutical University	11.84	Nanjing	Jiangsu
98	Shanghai Normal University	11.74	Shanghai	Shanghai
99	Anhui University	11.61	Hefei	Anhui
100	Fujian Normal University	11.56	Fuzhou	Fujian

What's going on in China, the media and elsewhere?

One short answer: I don't know.

Long answer (containing some complicated thoughts):
-coming soon- ;)

Bye bye Germany or Hello China, here I come (again)

Today I finally gonna leave Germany. I want to thank my family and my friends so much for the support on this. So where is the tall IT guy going? The answer is kinda simple: Southern China.
Welcome warm weather, overcrowded streets and endless shopping malls ^^

Happy Chinese New Year

As I am writing this, Chinese new year of the rat has already begun and I would like to wish everybody a happy time with the family.
Thank you for all the people who helped me in the year of the pig so much in learning Chinese and just were there for me ^^

snow in Guangzhou? - Hell NO!

Maybe some of the readers remember that I will do a big step in my life this spring: I am going to Guangzhou / China.
Because of that I listened very carefully lately when there were news about China in general and expecially about Guangzhou. So I was more than suprised when I heard that there was some snow during this week in the capital of Guangdong province...
Thanks to some students at GDUFS (guangdong university of foreign studies) I know that they have right now about 6°C, rain, rain and you already guessed right: rain + chaos at the train stations because most trains had been canceled due to the bad weather and Chinese New Year is approaching and: NO SNOW.
So take that lousy RTL news... As far as I heard/read on Xinhua there were only some snowfalls in Guangdong province but none in Guangzhou though still hard to imagine such cold weather in a city where I had about 35°C back in September last year...

Volunteer at Olympia 2008

Since the beginning of this week, you can apply as a volunteer for the Olympic games in China 2008.
As everybody knows the sailing competitions aren't held in Beijing like the rest of Olympia 2008 but in Qingdao. So if you have some spare time and luck you can be part of this festival next year.
BTW: Within 2 days already 200000 people applied... Anyway, good luck ^^

And here comes the link: sailing2008.org

November 11th - happy single's day

In Germany, today the fifth season, the carnival season, started but I just read on the famous Chinese website sohu.com that today is also single's day.
So singles of all continents can today officially hate all the couples ^^

Oh happy day :-) (again)

Last week I applied for some internship from June to September 2008 in a company located in Guangzhou China.
Only I few hours later I got the response, and: PASSED :-D
So in about 8 month I am going to have my delicious Chinese cuisine (especially cantonese dumplings ^^) back, plus some extra money :)

Wanna feel like a superstar?

So, what do you need to feel like somebody famous? Correct, a crowd. Well, here's the other question: How do get your crowd? This is a bit more complicated...
In my case it was quite easy: I was travelling through China and I am 2.10 meters (6.10feet) tall. So some people in Shanghai even asked me to take a picture with me...

China is different...

Well some might say now: "Wow brilliant title. Tell me something I don't know yet!".
But it is true. From weird washing machines to funny TVs, it IS different. But maybe you guys just take a look ^^

Almost forgotten

Hah, because of some post-china stress I almost forgot to post the link to gallery containing the last few pictures. It is not a bunch of pics like the other days but I slept over 7 hours on the flight from Shanghai Pudong to Moscow Sheremetyevo...
So here, it is:

day 15 - the way home :'-(

SIDENOTE: Alltogether I made 3032 pictures on my trip. That's a file volume of 32,3 GB because I just took RAW pictures. But even as JPEG they still have a total size of 15,7 GB.

Zai Jian China :'(

Today is a sad day... I have to return to Germany...
After 14 really nice days in the middle kindom it is now time to head back home and leave a really great time behind. I am sure, this wasn't the last time I went to China.
So, Zai jian China. I will miss your cities and your people :-(

PS: Day 14 - Shanghai Pudong, last night

Today is last day in Shanghai :'(

Too bad... I just woke up and it is a really bad feeling to know it is the last day in China... :(
Trust me, I don't wanna leave tomorrow. There are still so many nice things I would like to see.
I even had to PK the trip to Hangzhou and many other things :(
Well, maybe next time. I hope it won't take to long till my next visit to China...


PS: Here are some new picture galleries:

• Day 11 - First day in Shanghai, Shopping tour
  
• Day 12 - Tongji University, new hotel, Paulaner Brauhaus, Bund
  
• Day 13 - Jinmao tower
  

Paper Mario meets Enter the Matrix

This morning I got the info that there is a cool online video game out in China called "Patrix".
Looks very interresting but maybe you should make your own opinion.

OMG Golden Week in Shanghai ;)

There are 3 weeks during the year where most people recommend not to travel to China. One is Chinese new year, another is during Labour day(May 1) and the last one is during the National day (October 1). The reason is, during these days, almost all companies are closed and their employees use this time to visit family members or travel to location like Hangzhou or Guilin. So every puplic place is very crowded during this time. To be honest: It is not soooo bad as expected.
OK, I've already been to Great Wall and Shanghai does not offer sooooo much sightseeing but more shopping and lifestyle experience. So in the end I think I can live with a crowded metro, because this is what I expected of China every day... ;)
Anyway, Shanghai is crowded everyday with or without golden week.
Today I will check out the Paulaner Hofbräuhaus in Shanghai Pudong to celebrate the German National day (German Reunification). Let's hope it will be fun :)

The first ten days - picture overview

Here's are the pictures of my China trip that I have uploaded so far:

• Day 1 - Duesseldorf Airport, Charles de Gaule, Guangzhou Hotel
  
• Day 2 - Teemall, Citic Plaza
  
• Day 3 - Baiyun Airport Guangzhou, Beijing Airport
  
• Day 4 - Tian'anmen, Houhai
  
• Day 5 - Wangfujing shopping street, Sega Game Center, Da Dong Restaurant
  
• Day 6 - Tian'anmen, Forbidden City, Liqun Restaurant
  
• Day 7 - Tiantan
  
• Day 8 - Bus trip, Great Wall, Wangfujing shopping street
  
• Day 9 - Houhai, China Post, Liqun Restaurant, Bars
  
• Day 10 - Beijing University, Shanghai Transrapid (Maglev)

Have fun ^^

Ta da :)

As promised, here are some of the picture gallery links ^^

• Day7 - Tiantan, Houhai Lake
• Day8 - Great Wall

The rest will follow later.

Zai Jian Beijing, Ni hao Shanghai

To be honest at the beginning I was a bit shocked about Beijing. Whereas Guangzhou was a positive suprise with its blinking neon lights and modern architecture, Beijing appeared suddenly so dark, boring and old-fashioned. Another reason for the first disappointment was that I lived in Guangzhou on Shamian Island in the 4* Guangdong Victory hotel, in Beijing I only had a Home Inn appartment that costed only a fifth of the first hotel.
So the first impressions combined with a 2 hours ride in a taxi to the hotel because of f****** traffic jam weren't very good.
But after a while I got used to it. Breakfast only costed 10 yuan (1Eur) and the location of only 400 meter distance to Tian'anmen plaza was faboulous.
Another hotspot of Beijing was Houhai. A beautiful lake with at least 40 different kinds of bars and restaurants. Well, today I had to leave Beijing that left a weird feeling. On the one hand sad about the nice time, which passed by so quickly and on the other hand happy to see Shanghai.

PS: Picturegallery upload works now. So some new pics will come soon :)

Chinese cuisine...

Well, everybody I guess, tried 'so-called' Chinese cuisine in his home country before. But believe me, this what you get in Germany, USA or elsewhere, has nothing to do with Chinese cooking.

1. a traditional Chinese meal is never served with a softdrink or any other juice, but only with tea or somem kind of drinking soup.
2. most 'Chinese' restaurants in western world are often run by Vietnamese, Mongolians or Thais, so no wonder you don't get real Chinese food.
3. Eating sweet snacks at the beginning is no problem here.
4. Some Chinese use western knife and fork but not like western people

AND:

Some stuff looks a bit weird....

New country, new cellphone

Because sending SMS home is very expensive, I bought a new (second) cellphone in China.
'My weapon of choice' was a Nokia 2630 with China Unicom SIM-card. 150Yuan (15Eur) were included and the total price was ca. 80Eur.
Nice side effect: SMS to Germany only cost 1Yuan (10 Cent) BUT it only works in Beijing... :(
So I need a new SIM when I'm heading for Shanghai tomorrow... Tamade (Shit)

PS: Of course you can switch between Chinese and English language on your cellphone ;)

Some news about Beijng

Long time no see because of 2 reasons:
1. Walking 10 hours a day make you somewhat fainted and
2. the Internet in the hotel is not as stable as in Guangzhou.
OK, but after some stress I finally arrived in Beijing on Monday evening.

UPDATE:
Seems like the hotel intern network is really a pain in the ass and some websites that usually work in China are blocked. Suprisingly koteshi.com is one of them...

Well stay tuned for some updates when I go to Shanghai on October 1st.

Guangzhou to Beijing

The day before yesterday I went from hot and sticky Guangzhou to Bejing.
The whole day started with a nightmare: I overslept :-(
So I had to pack my lugguage, take a shower and have some breakfast within 35 minutes.
"Quite" stressy ;)
During breakfast I noticed that most Chinese try to eat with fork and knife and most westerners tried chopsticks. BTW:Cantonese dumpling and Dim Sum are very delicious.
While cleaning my teeth I noticed, LG (from Korea) does not only produce electric stuff like TV, radios or microwave ovens but also toothpaste.



Well yesterday I also felt bored, so I made some business cards for iucon in English and Chinese. They weren't very expensive 250 cards with double side four color printing for only 100Yuan (8,50Eur) and the quality seems to be ok for this price.



But enough about the trip to Beijing. More news about Beijing roast duck will follow tomorrow.

And before I forget: Happy mid autumn festival :)
On this day people usually met with their families, they give little moon cakes as presents and I have to admit they really taste good^^

Happy birthday to me ;-)

Today is/was my birthday. It was a very stressy day, so I only post two links to picture galleries because it is already 2:22 AM here and in about 10 hours my flight will depart to Beijing...

BTW: Thank you for all the happy-birthday-messages ^^

Pics:

• Day 1: Flight to China + first impressions
  
• Day 2: First 'real' day walking through Guangzhou

Further descriptions will follow :)

Finally arrived in Guangzhou

After just 10 hours of flight from Paris Charles de Gaule airport to Guangzhou Baiyun International airport I am finally sitting in room and copy the last 106 pictures on my laptop while searching the internet for useful info.
BTW: Here a pic of the sleeping room of my suite ^^ It is a Japanese tatami style suite and really comfortable. Some minutes ago I had breakfast and saw MANY British people with Chinese children... I am no sure but seems like many western couples adopt children here in Guangzhou...

Another funny thing: I heard some Chinese talking with a Lao Wai (foreign person) and the Chinese advised him not to forget his jacket because todayÄs only 29°C in Guangzhou :-D
More info will come this evening, so stay tuned.

PS: Thank you for all your birthday wishes :)

Tschuess Deutschland!

Good bye friends. See you in two weeks :)

Nihao China, here I come

Tomorrow, after so many week or even months of planning, at 5:45PM my plane will lift off to bring me to China :-)
But there are still some questions: Is Koteshi China compatible AND is China Koteshi compatible?
It will be a total new experience to live in country so different from the western world not only in language but also in culture.
Another interesting thing will be the houses, restaurants etc. Because beside the cuisine I really want to know if there are most elevators only 1.8meter high and if there are no 4th floors ;)
Yeah I know typical western question, but interesting though.

For those interested in it, here's my little schedule:

Guangzhou 09/22 - 09/24
Beijing 09/24 - 10/01
Shanghai 10/01 - 10/06

I will try to post some pictures during the next two weeks, so stay tuned.

Some thoughts...

WOW. Yeah wow is the only word to describe my current mood. Geeks would maybe prefer to say 'WTF' or 'w00t' but I don't count myself as one so 'wow' will do it ;)
For almost a year I dream about a trip to China. Even when I was still employed at Schwing in Herne I never really thought about this idea. It was saved somewhere in my brain as a weird dream that might or might be not come true. SO I originally thought about celebrating 'New year's eve' in Shanghai or Hong Kong but I had to cancel it for some reasons.
But things have changed. I am not longer employee of the Schwing IT staff, neither I am as good paid as I was there ;-) So, I thought this trip would never come true.
Until I started a part time job and the German Autumn vacationsdate come nearer and researched for some info on the internet. Very soon I saw that booking a complete trip can cost from a range of 2000-3000€ (2700-4000$). Well, with the help of some very kind people I planned my trip for the time of the holidays.
See, from tomorrow 09/21 until 10/08 will be free for most students.
So what could be better to go there during October 1st, Chinese nationalholiday?

EVERYTHING!!! Was the quick response Shen yi gave me. 'Chinese golden week is so crowded'.

Well, let's see if she was right ;)

Will Chinese become the next French/Spanish/Latin at school

To be honest I never liked Latin even though I am some kind of history fan because it is a dead language. French was never an option for me because whenever I wanted to choose French, there was no French language course at school because too less students registered.
And this August I started with Spanish, BUT maybe it would be a wise decision for the politicians to think about this twice. China as the upcoming super power and global player in all parts of society is already now at the start in my opinion more important than other countries would like to be (no offense guys).
Of course you learn English at school as the first foreign language, cause it is THE world dominatin language but why not learn Chinese language as the second foreign language.
Of course there should be still the choice to choose between other alternatives, but some people seem to forget that languages learnt during school time are way easier to master than it is when the student is already 30.
I also started to learn Chinese language at an education center because I really like the language and someday I hope to use it like my own language.

But suprise, suprise: It is not that hard!

OK, you have to learn new characters, but new vocables have to be learnt for all new languages.
And maybe this way, Germans or western employees in general, are way better prepared for the competition on the global market.

FIFA Women's World Cup - China 2007

Wow, what a coincidence. Two days ago, I didn't know that from 10th September till 30th September there is the "FIFA Women's World Cup" in China, and now I already have tickets for the final :D
The price is ok (30 Euros)and I guess that's a good start for the time in Shanghai. A few days later the Paulaner Hofbraeuhaus will open the October fest and I have to find a location to celebrate the German Nationalholiday (3rd October, German Unity Day).
OK, gonna continue to study physics :(

Btw, if you guys are interested in the offical website just follow these two links:

http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/
http://www.emma.cn

Some infos about the daily koteshi

Hola amigos y amigas.

Some time passed since my last post and the main reasons are the newly started Spanish (Si si, finally) and Mandarin (Chinese spoken in mainland China) language courses. Don't get me wrong, I love these new courses but I have to get used to study vocabulary again :)

Beside this of course math and physics, especially electrical engineering, exams are a tough part in my life at the moment.

Right now I wait for the completion of a 3.5GB download so I thought I could spend some time for my blog again.

OK, now some bad and some good news:

Bad things first:
I won't enter the University of applied science in Dortmund this year for really f***** up reasons. Mainly because my old school sucks.
When I left the school 5 years ago, they didn't write the 'grade point average' on my report card. I didn't notice it until I tried to apply for the University during summer vacation when they didn't accept my school certificate cause the GPA was missing. Bad luck: during summer vacation no teacher at my former school was available, cause they were sitting in Nice or Mallorca...
Yeah, what a glourious day...

But quite often every bad thing, offers a new chance.

So it came that I applied to a school in Dortmund where I want to get prepared for the time as a student at the University. This means of course hard work for maths etc.
So when I went the first day to school, I saw the building of the VHS Dortmund (school for adult education program). I knew they offer courses like "how to cook" or "photography for beginners". But I also knew they offer languages courses.
If you are into it, you can learn Arabic, Spanish, Russian, English, French and many more. But most interesting was their offerings for some Chinese language courses. Because I am a student, I get a discount and only have to pay 50€ for the course :)
I applied after some time thinking immediately and took the 'advanced' course cause I learnt some basic Chinese phrases and vocabulary by Jiaqi.

Beside the language course some other event will take place soon:

I'M GOING TO CHINA!!! :D

Yeah, seems like a dream comes true. FINALLY!!!

Now add to all of the time sucking events of the last weeks/months the ongoing planning for the China trip from 21st September till 6th October and et voila: CHAOS ;)
Well, maybe the word chaos is over-the-top. I guess the word stress seems to fit in better here.

I will check up the following locations: Guangzhou (广州), Beijing (北京) and Shanghai (上海)

I received my visa last month, and booked the flight from Duesseldorf to Guangzhou (some might know it better under the name 'Canton') via Air France, the hotels for Guangzhou and Beijing and the flight home from Shanghai back to Duesseldorf via Aeroflot.
So only things missing, are the hotel in Shanghai plus the flights Guangzhou -> Beijing and Beijing -> Shanghai.

Wow, already 2:42AM...

I better quit now.

Ni hao from Beijing

I thought maybe I should say 你好 (Ni hao/Hello) from Beijing to all the people who are in Germany right now and wish to be in 中国 (China)... gaga~

PS: In case you only see squares or hieroglyphs, click here to get a picof the posting.

Shenmue II works now XBOX 360

Please insert a Homer Simpsons 'Woohoo' here :-D
While researching some China related stuff i remembered the game Shenmue II originally released for Sega Dreamcast, later ported to XBOX. It was one of the better Dreamcast games and is in the Guiness book of World Records as the most expensive videogame.
Well, will reading some info about this game I found a note telling it works now on XBOX 360 via emulator :)
Hehe, will test it in a few minutes :-D

PS: Conker Live & Reloaded works now on the XBOX 360 aswell. Since December 2006... ;-)

China - Things you were afraid to ask for - Part 1

A lot has been written in blogs, newspapers or magazines about China. Well now koteshi writes about this topic too BUT he will tell you reader things you maybe didn't know or what nobody usually tells you.
So be prepared for some unusually language courses, inside-looks into chinese modern culture and points of view and much more to come ;)