Wednesday, September 26, 2007

again.....

i know, i shouldn't be, but i am, bored, again. it is gray outside. i need some urgent help from Mr. Luo, but he seems to forget me sometimes. Well, he is always very kind and helpful, but today i had an appointment with him, and he is not there. So, still can not understand the data......
Reading is boring. My assimilation capacity is slowing down......

Sound trek of the moment:
The Cure (is there a Cure?) - In between days.
Go on go on | Just walk away | Your choice is made |
Go on go on| And disappear | Go on go on| Away from here

Sooo big....


It is somehow still now so strange for me to live in such a big city!!!
PS. Dont have the source of this picture right now, need to check it!

zhōng qiū jié

Two special occasions during this mid-autumn festival:

On Tuesday, party at my office building with all the international students and teachers. some of them did great performances, and after that had a look at the American pie with Matt, Thomas, Alina, Mita and Aryuna.
Yesterday, the real "moon-party", sky bit clouded, but the moon was just the way i love to see it, so round and powerfully bright. So the very special thing about this night was that me, Julie, Florian and Steven were invited to join the typical celebration of this evening together with a Chinese family. The tradition is to be outside, praising the moon, and eating (also moon cake) and drinking. We were at Dolphin´s house, with her parents and brother, and we had barbecue.
(Oh my God, do i have to mention the fact that we had to eat as if we were going to war, they prepared too much food, and i almost exploded)
Her father is a great singer, and he sang a traditional "love" song normally sang in this evening. It was really really something special and interesting. And at home, i could not avoid to further stare at the moon....

PS.I have tried different kinds of moon cake but, hum, always no luck, couldn't enjoy it.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Sing a song.....

.....in Chinese??? We learned today: And my witness is the moon (or, yuè liàng dài biâo wô di xin - the moon that represents my heart).
Specially for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Friday, September 21, 2007

International Day of Peace

Today is the International Day of Peace.
Very good, but what we need is: peace every day!
"All you need is love [and peace]"

Chinese Sayings

Dolphin, the Chinese teacher is really great. Like her a lot! Because of her interesting way to conduct classes, the daily 3 hours always fly....
She told us already about two sayings in China:

- zài dà dà bú guò tiän. *
meaning more or less like no one is bigger than the sky! The interesting thing she explained about this saying relates to the characters for sky - tiän and big - ta (hum, which is actually somehow not in the sentence....ps. dugh....yes, it is in the sentence, it is not ta, but dà!!!!). Well, for explaining it, i need to write (or should i say draw) the Chinese characters.....so, explanation comes later......

- bú dào chàng chèng fèi hâo hàn.
meaning you are not a hero if you didn´t climb to the top of the Great Wall! So, in the touristic points of the wàn lî cháng chéng you can buy a special souvenir, a "certificate" that you are a hero. Well, i don´t need the certificate, i just want to go there. And yes, i am going, in the end of October!!!!


*attention! i can not type the accents of the first and the third tone, so for the first i will use the two points, dunno what is it called - the eyes of the fish! - and for the third i will use the same sign for the third tone, but in the upside down version â.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Sorting Analysis

Shenyang, 15th september 2007.

Sorting analysis of the municipal solid waste and of the source separated bio-organic and rest waste in the districts of Beifangyiyuan and Quanyuan.

For the third time in my life i could observe and participate in a waste sorting analysis. First in Brazil, then Germany, now here in China. Most of the people i know would never imagine doing this, but well, someone has to do it. It is not so bad, i keep saying to myself! And anyway, if you want to understand the waste and the problems related to it, you better know with what your dealing.....
The day began early on that sunny Saturday. After a relatively long ride with the taxi we arrived at the Quanyuan district (south of Sy). Met the workers of the project in that area. One of their tasks is to control the amount of the separated waste which is being delivered everyday by each household. Each household receives plastics with the number of their household, black for the bio-waste and blue for the rest, and they bring them down to the collection area near their building. (I was told that, normally in China people take their waste out in the morning, when they go out.)



After collecting the waste, i guess we had maybe 60Kg, we took a cab, and i wonder if the driver knew about the content of the bags, anyway, the black plastics bags sometimes do not really retain the leachate....



So, we had our samples, and we had much work to do, but before, some "shopping". Here i am again, buying things which i don't know how to bring home. But i just loved this vase...... ;-P


And also, what could not be missing: EATING. This was a special restaurant for eating bones (need to check the Chinese name), but we had bones, eggplant, tofu, potato salad, and fried rice and noodles. It was, like usual, a way too much food! And imagine, everything for only 4 euros. Fact: the restaurants give their waste food for animals feeding. So, what we don´t eat, the pigs eat, and then we eat the pigs....


So, after a small rest, we got started. This was the team (and myself), 3 master students Zhang Hailian, Liu Xiansong, and the other guy i forgot the name, since i never saw it written.....buh, so difficult to remember the names of the people....(Check references for the international standard for waste sorting analysis)



The hard work. The sorting table consists of a screen, so that the fine fraction (smaller than 10mm) is separated. The different fractions are then sorted into the categories: plastic, paper, glass, metal, hazardous (serynges, batteries), complex (plastic with different layers), textile, wood/bamboo and the organic itself.

But we are laughing, and somehow, even having fun!!! Well, here i think we were laughing because we were, after 3 hours, almost finished.....


The sorting analysis is done once a month, and the bio-organic waste is used for the anaerobic fermentation and composting (and the MSW for the landfill reactors) experiments.


So, i still need to confirm if the waste which is being separated goes together with the normal non-separated waste to the landfill. But i think so, which is a pity!

Waste Management in Sy

Warm Lousy Bad

So, i did steal it from somewhere.....but it is different, warm head, lousy weather, bad mood. Oh, if only knew where i should start writing.......

The fall arrived suddenly here in Shenyang. Just because i was so happy about having warm days in September. It is indeed quite cold now. Who cares?!?! 8-P

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

September 18

Forgot to tell about it:
Yesterday at 9.18pm the city (all this north region) stopped for 3 minutes, and sirens rang. This was to remember the Mukden Incident (1931) - that gave Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.
Today is 13th. September. this last days have been quite hard, many activities, small talks and somehow not so productive work.(well, this is another problem) Monday evening: beer drinking and talking, almost philosophizing (?), well indeed, talking about some serious things like the nature of men (ps. i mean human beings...), moral values and expectations, problems the future will reserve us and so on. Interesting. For me it is all about trying to change people around a little bit, if they at least start thinking about things....The day before (12th), excel tables. well, what can i say, the data i need ist actually incomplete, so, let´s see if there will be a way to solve this. Had dinner near the old campus with some of the English teachers. Nice place, hot pot, native English speakers, sometimes difficult to understand, but indeed the best opportunity to practice the language.


So, 5 days later, here i am, 18th of September, the time is just flying, fact that makes me nervous sometimes. Well, and i kind lost the pace of writing every day, and indeed, i kind forget all the details of daily life, which might also be not so bad, since i must be boring you with all my stories......anyway, there are some things to tell..... New things/old things i forgot to talk about:
- Have a kind of a mountain bike now, so i can go much faster to the places, thou it is not really a bike for serious riding, quite old, a monster bike....i hope it just don't get broken...
- The other language i am kind practicing for fun is French (i can understand quite a lot) since i sometimes hang up with some of the 24 aeronautical engineering students which arrived from Paris IPSA. Well, they are all as old as my sisters, and by spending time with them, i always have to think about the time when i was 22......well, sometimes i feel like it.....



- So, since last week i am attending Chinese Classes, and i hope now i manage to learn it more structurally. But as someone said: it is bloody hard work.
- Had some "small talk" with the 3 sweetest girls ever, from Russia. They are 17, God, THIS good times ware long time ago for me, dude, feel so old sometimes......the other day they went to the disco and came back at 6.30 in the morning....well, i promised them we would go out together sometime.....
- The poor freshman, you see them with this camouflage clothes all around, they have to wear it for 1 month, and they do some hard training everyday beginning at 6 in the morning. Much hard then the treatment we got from our senior students back in my college times.....


- There are also a plenty of beautiful Stewardesses walking around, they do some of their training here.
- All around the campus you can find speakers, and during lunch, in the morning and the evening the play music or do some advertisement or whatever. So it would not be so bad
if i hadn't one of these speakers just in front of my window. And the people in the building besides mine (we share the same wall) are always so loud, so sleeping well is becoming more complicated.
- It was middle of September, and we had a day, it really looked like summer, it was so warm...............is it climate change? (hey, now i can use wikipedia again,with Anonymouse.org)
- Did i ever mentioned the aircraft models the Chinese students are building in the first floor? so, every day when i come to work, i go have a look, and, they are quite interesting. And then when it gets really loud outside, i know they are trying to get the things to fly, or most of the time, they are testing the motor, so, they burn some fuel for half an hour and make a noise which makes quite nervous, but hey, what can i do?!?!?


- The first time i saw one of the models flying (and trowing fireworks) was at the sport event from Sunday. Kind of "gincana" (what is the English word??), and some athletics, and soccer game, the French guys against the Chinese teachers.



- Today i finally met the head of the ICEEE. And today my internet decided to stop working, no one could help me until now. So tomorrow. The other thing definitely not working anymore is my dvd. Well, my notebook is almost 3 years old, i think it is already kinda sick.......

- Internet working again, as you might notice, since i am posting...rainy, Chinese classes were good today, work is going, still didn´t get the data.... :-(
-This is more or less (in fact, i think it is more crowded) how it looks like at noon, when classes finish and everybody goes for lunch.....



- Next post will be about work, cause maybe someone is thinking i do nothing besides having fun....well, not that work isn´t fun..... :-P

Monday, September 17, 2007

World on Fire....

Sometimes i come to work, and i feel depressed, or, lost, dunno, something bad in my heart. then a listen to this song, and it gives me strength.



have to find some time to write here, sorry....i hope i will soon have internet in my dorm.
but anyway, i am doing good, miss you all! talked to oli and to my family this weekend, and this is always soooo good......

So, by the way, talking about songs, the other one which i have been listening quite often is this here: Regine Spektor - On the radio.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

that is quite sad.....

China's suicide rate among world's highest

("Here suicides are more often spur of the moment.")

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I seriously have to be less soul and more reason soon. Too much philosophy is also not good, said the doctor. Am I Homesick? "Tomorrow will take care of itself".
"I am not arguing that with you!" (From the movie Joe versus the Volcano, liked a lot)
Finally got the DATA i need to analyze, so, let us go, work and work. By the way, i got a job offer the other day. Quite interesting: just because i was giving them some ideas and hints, they offered me to be a co-manager of this place The American Pie. Hey, do i ever dreamed about having such a job? ;-)


Anyway, i just wanted to optimize their cash flow, and if had the time, i would like to organize/create a database for the almost 7000 movies they have. Well, this would be really interesting, since i love movies, but i guess Waste Management is a more urgent question right here right now!!!!! :-P

Yesterday (Sunday) was an interesting day, we went shopping! With Steve and Martin @ DVD´s paradise. It is quite well hidden in a huge electronics store. 5th floor, i should remember that. Got like some 120 of them, and next time i just have to be more patient while choosing. After 1 hour there, you just wanna go out. Well, i bought a Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders Collection, and many precious things i always wanted and many i´ve never heard about.... :-P
!!!! One has to stop sleeping to do work, learn Chinese, AND watch movies. No time at all!. hum......(and do sightseeing, and write this blog.....i need another one of me.......as everybody does, i guess.....)
So Saturday was also very nice, spent the day with my Prof.s family, and i just felt in love with his daughter, she is amazing. We visited interesting places, for example a nice restaurant (so here we are, eating again...) in old farm stile.



Saturday, September 8, 2007

The other day....

....this week, i think it was Tuesday, i went downtown to get money, since i did not had enough to pay the rent. and then, it is always like, at least 2 hours lost, bus 141 or 255, than change to bus 138...... So what happened, when i got at the bank i realized i had the wrong card with me. My credit card looks just like the Miles & More card, and well, i wish i could have converted some miles into money not to have made the trip for nothing, in vain.
Well, i could make some pictures, finally, of these red sculptures....



Thursday, September 6, 2007

days rushing.....

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday
Literature research. Well, you might ask, what do i need to research so much? Everything! I decided also to create a database with all the articles of the most relevant peer reviewed journals in my area. I already have some 13000 references. Scopus and endnote rule! I am getting a bit worried. Things are going quite slow here, and there is still some more exact tasks missing. I hope it gets better soon. So there is this problem, i should get some previously collected data about the source separation project, and analyze them. I already asked 4 times, and i don't know if they don't understand me, or if they don't want to give me the data. Hum, the climate chamber experiments are also not really working, there is still no gas being produced. Who knows!
Anyway, i have, like i said, been working in the database, and while i import/export all the many references, i just listen to i tunes U (podcasts and other stuff from American universities like Stanford, Yale or MIT). Sunny day again outside, i would like so much to bike.......

Monday - Upgrades
Mondays sometimes turn to be quite stressful here. So this time they surprised me, i thought that would never happen, since it was already taking so long. I moved to the foreign students apartments. Dude, it is a way much better, and i am really happy.Things are much easier now. Still have a room for myself, at least twice as big and much brighter. The bed is not so narrow, and not so hard, and they even provide the blankets, pillow, and so on.
I have Tv and fridge in the room. Having a fridge is ok, although i could really survive without. The Tv is a bit useless, since there is no channels available, and i can only connect the
computer and watch movies on it.Computer room and ping-pong table.
The laundry in big and i dont even have to buy any marks for the washing machine, and indeed there is always one available. There is a kitchen, uau, there are 6 microwaves and no stove or oven. There is a shower room with dividing walls (oh, i guess i will miss shower with all the other girls!), and i the bathroom, guess what, real toilets, so that i don't have to cower anymore. (which is good, since i got again my left knee aching from jogging....)
3 things, until now i don't know how to shower with warm water, i already asked, and even turned the boiler by myself, but, it doesn't work. there is a quite annoying noise from some electrical or whatever what installation in the corridor. Doors are closed at 10pm, instead of 10.30pm like in the normal dormitory.Nothing is perfect. But it is really much better. I was told that the university makes good money with the foreign students, the room costs 900 RMBs per month.
Wanna know what the Chinese students pay? 100/month, well, no wonder, they don't have a fifth of the comfort. Did i mention that the students are obliged to live inside the campus, in the dorms? It is amazing, they always find some way to control everything. So the official reason
is that the students are much safer here than outside, the unofficial, just calculate how much money the university would lose not having the students here......
Well, it is how things work. So, not to forget, the semester began this weekend. It is really so many more people now. Masses moving all around.

Sunday
At the lab, doing this and thats. In the evening: American pie. The place is really so nice. They have like more than 5 thousand movies, there are also many interesting books and games. And
all the hats and masks you can wear if you are feeling like doing it. You can also write on the walls. Cool people!

Saturday
"sightseeing", north pagoda and a war cemetery.





Tried one of the hairdresser here at the campus, almost 2 hours and only 10 RMBs later, i got a new hair! amazing, it has never been so smooth and waveless....
Tired, decided to skip the dinner with the other westerns near the old campus. There will be other opportunities.

Friday
Nothing different happened, not so productive, things going slowly....watched movies.


Thursday
Unusual lunch "outside". Hot pot. Huoguo. Interesting talks about Chinese culture and
traditions. Corrected Oli´s article. Some literature research. At home, wanted to watch
natural born killers, but the dvd was not working. :-( Oh, it is almost weekend again.


Wednesday
Talked with Dr. Gehring, the other CIM specialist here in Sy. Normal day, finally i have internet.
Went with the girls to visit the Sy Normal University (hey, do you ask yourself if my only sightseeing are universities?!?!) Huge, bigger than the other two.


Lots of girls, they have music, cinema, business, arts courses, and it is also not so old campus, 5 year or so.Had dinner in one of the 5 restaurants from the campus, and walked back to the lab. hey, i bought a plant, still don't know if i keep it here in the lab, or take home!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Still lazy....

to report last events, sorry.

Some news: Wood-hunger, renewables, Climate Change,

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

one of them....

is that now i have lots of movies to watch, since it is really, guess what, cheap here! (one also need some free time ....)
Stranger than fiction | Head in the Clouds | A guide to recognize your saints | The Devil wears Prada | Roger Dodger |

(just got them borrowed, but i need to buy some!!!)

Isn't he lovely?


Last weekend visited the North Pagoda of Shenyang. More pictures later, i still dont have picasa running stable in my computer. So, today i am pretty lazy to write!
But many nice things happened, i got some UPGRADES in my life here....

Plantation


I call this "Building Plantations". They are, as you may think, everywhere! Really, it is amazing. I started counting, lost the figures......

Nice butt, what?


So, watch your step, watch also your head, otherwise you might hit something like this!

Eating....


...here with the girls, hot pot.
(still no wikipedia access :-( !!)