Since I have seen the weatherforecast for Germany and also heard Germans talking about freezing temperatures there, I would like to tease you with some pictures of the awaking nature in Shanghai, where spring slowly begins now. I think we have more than 20 degrees when the sun is shining 
This post is going to be a summary of what I would have written and posted, if I had more time.
Currently I have my professional courses and additionally take language courses. This means, that every Monday and Friday I get up at 6:00 to get the bus to the Xuhui campus in downtown for my Chinese courses. On Tuesday, maybe Wednesday (depends on my other courses) and Friday I also have Chinese courses in the afternoon which makes about 15-18 hours Chinese each week. In addition I meet friends (Bian Qian Wei a.k.a. David, Luo Qi, recently also Wang Yu Cheng who I met in the bus to Xuhui) to talk Chinese with them, ask them for help about my homework or professional vocabulary (I use for the Chinese lecture “Commercial Bank Management”).
Since two weeks I also help two Chinese students preparing for their DAF test, which is a test about German language skills, hopefully allowing them to study in Germany (TU Berlin). We just talk in German, correct their homework together or listen to music of Clueso (I showed them the song “Chicago” last time) Read the rest of this entry » »
I know I was so slow that by now this is the weekend before the last weekend. But nonetheless I had some pictures to show you
After playing football on Saturday, I met with David to go to IKEA. I bought a lamp to have more comfortable light in my room and some furniture for the bathroom to store things in, because everything there laid around on the floor before. David bought a clock that he wanted to customize at home. The IKEA store looked very similar to the ones I have seen in Germany, including a restaurant for eating Swedish dishes like Köttbullar (meatballs). Even most of the articles kept their Swedish names, beside Chinese
This is where we then got the articles we wanted to buy (also looks much like in Germany):
This post has nothing to do with China or my impressions here. I would like to present you two songs released in the context of the current presidential elections in the USA. It is more like a small interlude of my thoughts and the things that I encounter. Although I do not quite share the enthusiasm for the USA and its patriotism, I do like the emotional aspect of these two songs (and of the historical references I associate with these feelings, like speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.). Feel free to write down your own opinion about this in the comments!
Yes We Can
This song is performed by musicians Will.i.am (mainly known through the Black Eyed Peas), John Legend, Common, and others. This is a mixture of a simple guitar tune, speeches of the democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and many people with different voices, some singing, some speaking. All parts of Barack Obama are taken from his speech in South Carolina. Read the rest of this entry » »
The last weekend was quite eventful. On Friday I was invited to dinner, on Saturday I played football in the morning, went shopping to IKEA and sung in a Karaoke-Bar. On Sunday I gave private German lessons and played Badminton.
The dinner on Friday took place at home of friends of David. We cooked so many different dishes (I gave my best to help cooking 
) and were six persons altogether eating them. Read the rest of this entry » »
Here is the second part of our visit of Shanghai Museum… finally! I know, the speed of me publishing posts has not increased so far, but I am working on it. The reason for this will follow in one of the next posts, which will hopefully follow soon (how paradox)
The pottery and statues gallery (name invented by me)
Sorry for the break in between my posts. I will try to write shorter posts more frquently from now on
On Saturday David, Luo Qi and me were in the Shanghai Museum, which is one of the three biggest museums in China, beside the ones in Beijing and Taipei. The Shanghai Museum, located at People Square in Shanghai’s center, has about 12 galleries (own estimation) of different themes,e.g. the ones we visited, Archelology, Buddha-statues, Stamps, Pottery, Calligraphy, Painting. The pictures below are only the best ones I have taken. If you like to see more pictures from a particular gallery, just drop me a comment. Read the rest of this entry » »
February 29th, 2008. Bā Hào Lóu, Shanghai.
“The Chinese-Arabian cooperation between the great two-star-restaurant “Arabian Nights” and the star guest David was freshly disclosed this day by the concerning parties. The agreement was made upon a form of new advertisement in Chinese public. The famous David will use his fame to advertise “Arabian Nights” to help it achieve the third star, that it so hardly labours for. Captain Monaf was near to tears when he heard about the news.”
The semester begins slowly and I have finally chosen my courses. Since the coverage of courses in English language is rather poor here, I can only attend two of my four needed courses in English. For my course Statistics I could decide between an English course that is not related to my field of study (since it is statistics for engineers, not for economists) in English and a course with the right content but completely in Chinese. So I chose neither of those options and am going to write this exam in Mannheim when I am back. The last course I need and also one additional course I am interested in (”Commercial Bank Management”) are mainly in Chinese, but I can use English material to prepare for exams in English for these courses. When I visited Commercial Bank Management today, I also met a Chinese friend of mine, Luo Qi, who friendly agreed on helping me with the most important Chinese vocabulary for this course. So I hope that with preparing the lectures with an English book and each time getting some new vocabulary from Luo Qi, I can maybe understand a bit of what the professor is saying at the end of this semester. We will see Read the rest of this entry » »
Sorry, but the never-ending story (my last post) only had one part 
Since my last few days were quite eventful and since I have met many new interesting people who do not speak German, I decided to end the never-ending story and continue in English. If your English is not so good, feel free to use the links for automatic translation on the right side in this post.
David & Sean
On Wednesday, when I was looking for the place to get my student card (I eventually found it ), I met a really helpful Chinese student (PhD student actually) whose English name is David. I asked him whether the student card could be loaded with money to use for paying meals on campus. He confirmed and accompanied me to the place where the card could be loaded. Since we then were right there at the cafeteria, we ate together, which took about 1 ½ hours due to our extensive talks. We exchanged phone numbers on order to stay in contact, and it was not three hours later that Read the rest of this entry » »