Life in China | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

In 2008 and 2009 I spent 1.5 years studying Chinese at Tongji University in Shanghai. This is my way to China, these are my experiences in Shanghai.

I arrive in China on page 15.

Architects, Civil Engineers, Sportsmen, ...

Because of the dies academicus tomorrow there are many student parties today, but no useful nightlines…

Download an Alien

Sure, Safe An Alien is a rather useless application, but I like the concept and the aliens look nice. What I don’t like is the fact that, so far, it has been impossible to download my alien. And I’ve been trying it for over a month now. The only thing I get is a magenta box saying:

Generating your wallpaper! it may take a few seconds…

These picture sites seem not to like me.

Deadline

All documents sent to China. I didn’t apply for the dorm and hope I can find an appartment in this compound.

Rice and Fries

A Chinese friend told me that she has been eating rice twice a day for twenty years. Halleluja. And I thought this is one of these prejudices. But I also thought it couldn’t take three hours to buy, cook and eat french fries…

Without Changes

The students council wrote some weeks ago:

Die Anleitung für das Erstellen des persönlichen Stundenplans zum Hauptstudium wurde überarbeitet und verbessert, jedoch ohne Änderungen.

The manual about creating a personal schedule for the advanced studies has been revised and improved, without changes.

Lenovo EMEA

Lenovo called me back when I was waiting for my appointment to get two more vaccinations. Influenza and Rabies. The friendly man said I get 30 Euro for the Windows license and that he has already sent me the information per mail. Interesting things:

  • According to his contact information he is a Customer Relations Specialist Senior EMEA situated in Slovakia.
  • I shall send in the Anytime Upgrade CD of Vista. My computer came with a hidden partition but no CDs.
  • The pdf form was created October 29th, 2007, so they had dealt with the problem before I called.

I’m really pleased with the Lenovo customer service.

Stop It!

Messages from the facebook news feed:

xy has sent a new message yz sent a new graffiti xy and xz have received a new message

Who on earth wants to know that? It’s just selfish touting, trying to force the user into installing useless applications. As unnerving as these “invite your friends” pages used by those that can’t convince.

In Love?

Nanx wants to know who’s in love. Are you?

Book Strikes Back

Got a paper cut on my finger tip. What really annoys me is the fact that the wrongdoer was my old and highly appreciated mechanics book I was about to lend.

PS: Is this really the hottest question concerning a bleeding paper cut?

Shopping

A friend and I asked a women which one of us looks quirkier. Without thinking she pointed at my friend but added she liked her green hair and lime green boots.

Temporary Coziness

Green hair in the bathroom, tobacco on the floor and she thinks it’s much cozier now…

Mut

One of my professors recorded his lecture last year and instead of driving to Munich I watch these videos. One of them didn’t end with the professor leaving the room, it went on.

There were some wind players, slides with space shuttles and the solar system and then Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Wolfgang A. Herrmann, president of Technische Universität München appeared and started to talk about Prof. Bulirsch. I know that our president likes to call the university, because of its abbreviation TUM, Top University of Munich but I haven’t known that joke yet:

Und dann schließlich zurückberufen, als Ordinarius für Höhere Mathematik an die Technische Hoschschule München die damals gerade schon Technische Universität München hieß und jeder weiß mittlerweile was diese drei Buchstaben bedeuten. Von hinten rein gelesen bedeuten sie, lesen sie sich wie Mut und Mut, denke ich, für die Zukunft, können wir auch haben.

And then finally called back as full professor of higher mathematics to the Technische Hochschule München which was already called Technische Universität München at that time and by now everyone knows what these three letters mean. Read from behind they mean, they read like courage [Mut is German for courage] and courage, I think, is what we can also have for the future.

Love Actually

And don’t forget about Nanx.

Jan in Germany

Jan made a detour back home and told me interesting stories about the life in China…. You can find some of them in his blog.

Sorcerers' Stove

I really thought it wasn’t even possible for our cafeteria to mess up gnocchi with tomato sauce. Mistake. They burned the sauce.