More is More

I was, for some reason, expecting to find a lot of moderation being exercised in China. And I was, as it turns out, completely wrong. So far the underlying principle in many things seems to be more is more.


On my way to the subway the other day, and I see the campus gardener, or rose cultivator (is there a specialist name for this?), giving the roses a good drink. A bit different to how I was taught as a kid, though. This was the equivalent of giving the roses a beer-bong. I wonder how they will respond to this. Definitely a more is more approach to rose cultivation, in any event.



The underlying principle behind education is definitely more is more. More homework, more textbooks, more studying! A lot of the domestic students here study really long hours, from recitals before breakfast and then all afternoon after classes! Of course, the international students don't have this problem, generally. I personally prefer to study in shorter, more intense blocks, and then to take a nice break.



A more balanced approach, in other words. And Beijing provides nicely for that balance. Nightlife here is certainly a more is more approach....

Blogspot back in Beijing

Well, this is weird, but my blog and all others on Blogspot have just made themselves available here in Beijing. Perhaps this was decided at the 17th National Congress?

Whatever the case, it's cool.

And given that I'm stil having problems getting that other blog up and running here's a brief overview of life here.

It's good. The university is more 'Griffith' than 'UQ', but this means it's unpretentious. If anything the vibe is more like a highschool. The classes are quite intense. The difficulty is about that of what I was doing last semester in Brisbane, but instead of 5 hours a week it's 20 hours a week. Another difference is that the teachers can't resort to English to explain anything, because my class is almost entirely Korean and Japanese, and because the teachers can't really speak any English (our focused reading teacher does speak fluent French, though).

Theres some great friends, some whom I already knew from Australia, and we make a killer Mandarin speaking (and reading) crew when we hit the streets. It's great fun.

A photo would probably paint the rest of it much better than I could, such as the view from my room (have sinced moved rooms but its more or less the same). More to come on another day when the net here isn't snail-crawlingly slow.