Yesterday we had 27ºC and humidity, today 18º and rain... so a wonderful day to visit the Shanghai museum. If there hadn't been so many people...But anyway, I have time! After half an hour making the cue I got an audioguide and passed the 4 stories of the museum. What to see? Well, skulptures of stone and bronce, calligraphy, Jade, paintings, clothes from ethnic minorities, mints, furniture and of course ceramics and porcellain of different Dynasties. What I missed was to learn something about the history in the sense of understanding which dynasty was when etc. but that was not easy to see. All was ordered according to the mentioned themes, but not according to ages. Anyway, quite interesting what they knew here, and much earlier than in western countries!

Seit gestern bin ich stolze Besitzerin eines FAHRRADS!! Da muss ich um die halbe Welt reisen, um mich endlich mal wieder wie früher ganz normal mit dem Fahhrrad durch die Strassen zu bewegen :-) Naja, ganz normal nicht, man fährt halt wie man kann, Zickzack um den Fussgängern auszuweichen, über die Strasse wenn man kann (ist ja ganz egal ob es grün ist, die Autos fahren einen trotzdem um, hier gilt das Gesetz des Stärkeren!). Ist aber echt klasse, jetzt brauche ich vom Guesthouse zum Bus nur 5-10 min statt 20 min laufen.

Das ganze kam so: Xuefeng meinte eh ich bräuchte ein Fahhrrad, und er würde mal einen fragen, der welche verkauft. Gestern rief er dann an, derTyp  hätte eins für mich, für 200 Yuan, am Ende kauft er es mir dann für 120 wieder ab! Also wie ne Miete von 80. Jetzt dürft ihr mal rechnen, 8 Yuan sind ca. 1€, na? genau, das Rad hat nur 25€ gekostet und wenn ich's wieder verkaufe nur 10€, da musste ich doch zugreifen! So einfach war's dann aber doch nicht, dass mir eines "passt", habe halt keine Chinesengrösse. Ausserdem waren das alles Rostlauben an denen die Bremse nicht funktioniert usw. Aber dann war doch ein akzeptables dabei, ich sitze darauf noch ein bisschen krumm, aber es reicht, so sieht's aus:

Siento que cuento esto en Alemán  pero los Españoles no entendéis de bicis, que ya pensáis que es peligroso ir en Madrid ;-)
Bueno, desde hoy estoy de vacaciones hasta el domingo!! No me lo creo todavía.  Lo que pasa es que el uno de mayo está libre y para tener un "puente" de tres días  pasan el lunes y martes al sábado y domingo, con lo cual se trabaja siete días para tener tres libres... Así que di clase ayer y anteayer y para esta semana solo me quedaría una clase el viernes, la cuál he movido hábilmente al martes que viene :-) Todavía no sé como aprovechar todo este tiempo, pero al menos no tengo que preocuparme y si resulta algo interesante hasta puedo hacer un viajecito. Me han sugerido bastantes cosas, pero todavía no sé adonde. De momento, hoy he hecho sightseeing con Antonio y familia y mañana quería ir con Pau (un arquitecto que está por aquí)  a Suzhou, una ciudad con muchos jardines, pero hay lluvia anunciada así que lo dejamos para el miércoles. 
Aquí algunas impresiones de hoy:

Ein Tempel in der Zone des Yuyuan Gartens

Teuerstes Teehaus von Shanghai

                               Kontraste

 Las guapas de Shanghai

Hier gibts frischen Fisch!

 
para mi chiqui :-)

Finally yesterday I could not write in the blog, toooo tired after half day exploring the downtown city and afterwards goint to the campus and giving class till 19:30h. The pity is that after those evening classes I have to take the bus at 20:30h so I am home at 21:30h. Yesterday I also needed to go to bed early because today I got up at a 5:45h to take the bus at 6:45h just to arrive on time for my class at 8h. Now I just arrived from the evening class, I prepared my evening green tee, so I'm ready to tell you finally about what I saw yesterday in the Shanghai city!!!
But first I want to tell you about the metro system. It is high technology top standard I would say. The ticktets are all equipped with RFID and recyclable, to get out you have to stick it into a slot to open the barrier. In the stations, it is super-easy to see which side you have to take, the way the metro will made is colored, and the way it already passed is grey. The platforms are absolutely safe with transparent walls and doors that open when the train stops. And inside the cabins you have LED markers on the line, green for passed, red not yet reached and orange for the current position.

I went 6 stops with line 10 from Tongji University to Nanjing Road, THE shopping street. But no to see the shopping area, first I went straight to the Suzhou Creek, a side arm from Huangpu River. I followed it and had minute by minute a better view to the incredibly impressive Pudong-Skyline.

  Then I reached the part  where the story of Shanghai began and where you have the best look at Pudong (it's the financial district with airport etc.), called "The Bund". This is the part of the Huangpu River where the merchandise was unshiped about only 100 years ago and where today is a beautiful tourist promenade with view to the river and the opposite waterside. There is a tunnel for tourists but as it costs about 10€ I didn't go, maybe another day.

                                                                         And very very very very beautiful are also the flower arrangements everywhere. The city itself is surprisingly green with many trees in the streets, but additionally they plant flowers everywhere, on the ground, on the walls and even on the traffic lights!

 Well after a while on the Bund I walked through the city, the main shopping street which is like any else over the world and I also went inside one of those inside markets where everybody has a 2x2 m shop. Here you have also some impressions, I loved the pink shop :-)

 Not much to tell right now, life is going on. Taking the morning shuttle bus to Jiaping campus and returning in the evening. Here you have some impressions of Shanghai in the morning traffic jam.

Today I'm working long again but to prepare for the next two days, so tomorrow I can take half day off. I am so keen to see the downtown.
Tomorrow I'll tell you.

Oh! Unglaublich! Increible! Bayern München - Barca 4:0 ?!? Glückwunsch an alle Bayernfans :-)

Whow, yesterday night I finally arrived to Shanghai!! Yes, it feels as if I still haven't been really here. But now that I am living in a REAL hotel with a proper bathroom, nice furniture, safe and fridge(!) and all this near by a Metro station, with shops around in the streets etc. Marvellous!! Nevertheless, the relocation was quite exhausting. After my evening class, Xuefeng and I got my luggage from his office and went to catch the shuttle bus at 20:30h It was raining and the suitcase was very heavy. I don't know why, I haven't brougth so many things... After arriving at the Siping campus we had to walk about 20 minutes to the Guest House. There he arranged everything for me and I fell into my bed and into a deep deep sleep, but very happy about this change. The room has only two little mistakes, the fridge is roaring quite loud and the water from the shower has a very low pressure. The internet is also very slow I'm noticing right now... But anyway one cannot have everything!

Buf, today in class I had extra spectators!! There were two officials from the Ministry of education examining classes! Xuefeng already told me before about the audits and evaluations they are making of the professorship. But why me???? They left before the break but then two other professors came in to listen to my class, to "learn" from me... Yes, I think I'll do the same, I'll go to listen to others. At least I would like to see Xuefeng how he teaches as he teaches in English.

15:30
Buf, la mitad del día ha pasado. Di mi clase de la mañana y la de Laplace. Falta la otra de mi curso por la tarde. La de la mañana muy bien, lo que pasa es que ya tuve solo la mitad de los estudiantes que el viernes 8-O. Bueno, Xuefeng dice que probablemente venían a mirar lo que es ya que mi cartel está puesto en todos los sitios, y tampoco había más gente apuntada que tengo ahora. Puede ser también por la hora, ya veremos cuantos irán por la tarde. Es curioso, los alumnos de aquí son mucho más puntuales, silenciosos y respetuosos que los Españoles. No sé si eso es bueno o malo, porque la razón tendrá este sistema totalitario, pero la verdad es que hace más agradable dar las clases. Desventaja: no preguntan ni contestan. Bueno, lo Españoles tampoco, pero sí, de vez en cuando se animan a responder alguna pregunta hecha a toda la clase. Aquí hay que hacer las preguntas directamente a una persona. Entonces se levanta y te contesta! Están adiestrados como niños pequeños... De esa manera hice lo que me aconsejó el profe que da el curso de Señales y Sistemas (Junhe), en donde imparto yo la transformada de Laplace: llamé a algunos a la pizarra para resolver problemas. Y sí que saben! Yo entonces no hubiera sido capaz y me hubiera metido en la tierra por vergüenza. De hecho es lo que me resulta tan difícil todavía en las clases, resolver problemas en la pizarra, no me salen, me equivoco, hoy he sido lamentable... Y Junhe asistiendo a todas las clases!! Bueno, ya que está, le involucro, le pregunto si algo no me sale y le digo que explique alguna cosilla también en chino si piensa que no lo han entendido. Pero son muy listos parece, no se comunican, pero atienden y estudian, lo llevan al día y saben hacer las cosas.

13:00h

Hoy es domingoooooooooooooo he dormido mucho (desde las 22h hasta a las 6h, aunque sigo despertándome por la noche, ya he superado el jetlag), me he ido a correr 10 vueltas en el campo deportivo que tengo justo al salir del hotel (está fenomenalmente cuidado) me he duchado y me he vuelto a tomar mi desayuno medio propio consistente de 2 boles de leche que me cojo del buffet, un sobre de Nescafé supermegadulce y un poco de Muesli que me he traído de España. Pero hoy con un enhancement: ¡me compré una cuchara de verdad! Que sensaciones J

Hoy hace mejor tiempo que ayer, todavía sólo 14ºC pero sin lluvia y el sol se asoma de vez en cuando. Estoy otra vez en la biblioteca, he conseguido una silla tipo despacho que me va muuuucho mejor que las de madera y estoy realmente comodísima. Sin internet (porque aquí necesito una clave de estudiante) que es mejor, así no me entretengo y estoy preparando mis 4h de clases de codificación de video de mañana. Bueno, tendré la otra clase de Laplace (otras 2h) también y tendré que echar otro vistazo (ayer me costó todo el día prepararla), pero más tarde… ¡Todo podría ser tan bonito sin ese Sr. Laplace!

20:30h

De vuelta en mi hotelito. Ya he hecho la maleta, mañana me mudaré al centro! Espero que allí no habrá bichitos acompañantes en el baño...

Ya me voy acostumbrando a la comida, al mediodía cogí (sin saber claro) unas patatas en salsa de curry, nuggets (no parecían pollo, pero quién sabe) y calabacín. Muy rica la verdura. Y para cenar, como el comedor ya estaba cerrado, me fui a un "restaurante" donde me tomé una cerveza de 600ml (!) pero parecía diluida, dolo tenía 3,1%, además la han servido en vaso de plástico .. Pero el plato muy rico también, eran pimientos a la plancha con cerdo. ¿Queréis ver las fotos? Pues venga. Pero solo porque no hubo otros objeto hoy mejores de fotografiar.

Heute gibts nicht viel zu erzählen, es regnet, es sind ca. 10 Grad, brrrrrrr, richtig gutes Wetter, da ich ja eh arbeiten muss! :-) Ich habe heute den Tag in der Bibliothek verbracht um weiter an der Laplacetransformation herumzustudieren... (rechts mein Platz).
Habe mich wieder richtig jung gefühlt unter den ganzen Studenten und weil ich mich wieder exakt wie früher gefühlt habe, keinen blassen Schimmer von dem was ich da zu vertehen versuche! Nur dass ich es jetzt anderen beibringen soll. Ich frage mich, was mir das eigentlich sagen soll... Naja, habe gut was geschafft, es ist wirklich gemütlich dort. Man darf übrigens Essen und trinken, es schient alle verbringen dort den ganzen Tag, es geht sehr ruhig und diszipliniert zu, es ist der ideale Campus für Streber hier :-)

Was ich ja ganz klasse finde, das könnten wir uns von den Chinesen wirklich abgucken, sind diese Minisiestas die sie immer mal so zwischendurch einlegen. Einfach Kopf auf den Tisch und ne Runde schlafen! (Siehe links) Hab's auch versucht, und fühlte mich wie neu hinterher! Wie soll man sich auch sonst stundenlang konzentrieren.
Ganz hübsch war auch die Grünanlage direkt hinter mir. Morgen komme ich wieder!

What a fabulous day!!

Today I have many good news :-)

1. I had three coffees!!!!
The first one I made myself, I bought some Nestlé Instant packages and took one to the breakfast buffet. There I poured some milk in a bowl and added this precious powder, and....... it was UGLY!! Only sugar, grrrrr, but as I cannot decipher those chinese symbols... But the rest of the breakfast was better, because I also brought my own Muesli (which I brought from Madrid in my survival pack) and a Banana :-) Afterwards I dared to taste one of those chinese wheat rolls, a really beautiful one in black and white, gosh, it was like chewing gum without ANY taste. I refer to the tiny ones in the middle:

My second coffee I had approx. 2 hours later in  Antonios office! Yes, I took the shuttle bus that connects the Jiading campus where I stay with the Siping campus near the city center, where Antonio is and ANYTHING else as I noticed soon. It is the oldest campus, where the University was funded and it is quite nice there! There is LIFE and green and everything is much closer. Jiading in contrast is big and wide and empty, below I show you some photos. Well, we had a very interesting meeting with another professor who is involved in image processing and video coding and we discussed to transmit a proposal to a chinese call. Unfortunately the time is too short, is has to be sent on monday, so we have to wait for the next one. But probably there could be a chance for me to investigate with them, I hope so.
After the meeting Antonio presented me to another spanish professor from UPC, teaching there like me, but during 6 months. We went to have dinner together, in a REAL restaurant, not the student canteen, it was my first meal here on a real table with nice people, talking and HAVING A BEER!

Ok, chinese beer, but they told me it was the most famous one. Disadvantage: it was not cold. They never manage to have cold beer there, Antonio said. So he tried to explain the waitress to bring a bowl of ice, buf, she brought a glass of ice... But the young guys from the neighbour table helped us :-) Anyway, the ice was not really able to cool the beer, and also it had a very funny taste like Litchies :-)
After dinner, what do you think we did? We had another coffee!! :-) No, this is not too much for me, I have to stand the whole weekend without this stuff!

2. I will move to Siping campus on monday!!!!
Yes, on the way there and arriving I thought that two hours journey every day are not too much when in change I could live much nicer and near to people I know or I want to get known (like germans, there are a lot!) So I asked Xuefeng (the professor who arranges everything for me) if it would be possible to move. He instantly called the guest house and the hotel I stay now if it would be possible to get the money back, and YES, everything ok! So I will take the bus at 20:30h on monday after my last class and move there with all my stuff. Then, I only need to travel 4 days a week to this campus to give classes, and as most of them are in the evening, I even don't have to go very early, only mondays, I have to take the bus at 7º clock. But it doesn's matter at all, as I don't need breakfast (that breakfast). A banana in the bus will do! Ah, and I will take a jasmine tee in my new chinese mobile tea-pot. Everybody carries it, so I can :-)
Here you see it in action:


Oh, I think I'm talking too much about food... Well then, the third good thing today:

3. I gave my first real lesson!!!!

There were much more students than expected in class, about 30, the room was full! I have been great :-) Much better than yesterday, but that was easy... Nevertheless, I have absolutely NO idea how much they understood! They are reacting less than spanish students! BUT, on the other hand, they also disturb less :-) They are quiet, listening, or, if they are tired, having a rest. Yes, I knew that before, they put the had on the desk and have a short sleep. But only one did that and only two minutes I think. Maybe this is a very good idea we should show that technique to our students, better sleepy than disturbing :-)
By the way, I still did not show you the poster Xuefeng they put right in the entrance: WIE PEINLICH!

4. The very very best of today was the skype session I had just some minutes ago with my sweet little children and my best homecook ever and Marie, out new family member, she's excellent! :-)

Now, last but not least here my impressions of the day:

 

Los chinos construyen mejores "escalextric" que los madrileños!










Ecológicos sí que son!












Nuestra biblioteca del campus sur? Una mie...
comparado con esta de 14 plantas!!














Y esta es la vista desde arriba

Y vuelvo a mi hotelito cutrecillo:

¡BUENAS NOCHES!

Now I have more things to tell, and although I'm still thinking in Spanish I'll write in English so that everybody can understand it :-)
Today I had my first class, one of the 8h I have to teach in the "Signals and Systems" course. It is the chapter about Laplace transform. There are about 20 students in class, I expected many more as it is an undergraduate course (2nd year), but the reason is that I participate in a kind of "test", because they are trying to teach it in English the first year so they did not let participate more than 20. The rest of the students are in two groups of about 100 students. So it was a good clima, the students listened, did not talk but also didn't ask anything. No idea if they understood anyting! I myself are not glad at all with my class :-( I was stammering and confusing letters in the formulas, as in most of my classes I also understood some things I didn't see before, but my overall impression is that they must have thought that I do not understand the things very well. And this is the fact, I worked very hard to get it, but I did not interiorized it at all. Talking to the Teacher who normally gives this class, he said it was ok, but I should involve the students more. He calls them by name and asks questions. He even lets them calculate things on the black-board! He sais, in this way it takes more time, if not, I do not have enough stuff for 4 classes... Well, on monday I have the next session with this class. I will have to repass again my material and to find problems they could calculate. I hope this end's soon, I'm really not good at this theoretic stuff :-(

After class I headed to the canteen. Again rice and other stuff smashed on a tray. I don't know if I can stand that during one month: rice two or three times a day?? Normally I eat it once a week...
Why three times? Well, lunch and dinner are really the same, only at different times. The breakfast is quite different, but here you also can eat rice. It IS the main meal here I know, I know... So, I tell you what the hotel buffet offered this mornig: a kind of filled white bags which were cooked,  entire corn cobs, soup, some kind of churros I were afraid to try, vegetables, fried and cooked eggs, fried kind of bread, kind of muffins, milk. So, what to take... I took one of those muffins, milk and a cooked egg, in spite of the flu... No coffee! No Tee! No bread! No cheese, marmelade, ham, NOTHING! The last time in China I have been in two international hotels where they offered also a continental breakfast, but this one (without any stars you have to know!) is REALLY original. OK, I always want this when I travel, I like to immerse in other cultures and learn how they live. But maybe I am getting old now? Or I spent all my delight in my years in Spain? ;-) Well, this morning I really wanted to go home and have a breakfast "en condiciones" (=ordentlich).

Ya entiendo, porque se come tan pronto, son las 18:30h y ya está oscureciendo! Y eso que estamos más o menos en el mismo hemisferio que España. Bueno, buena parte añade la niebla, contaminación o lo que sea.

Ya he llegado!!!
Todo ha ido fenomenal, me ha recogido Antonio con un chofe y me ha llevado al campus donde ya quedamos con Xuefeng, el profe que me ha organizado el curso. El hotel está en el mismo campus, puedo ir andando a los edificios donde daré clase, pero está todo enorme, todos usan bicis, igual me consiguen una.
El comedor tengo justo al lado, se come entre las 11 y 12:30h y se cena sobre las 17h-18h. Allí la española dentro de mi se tendrá que acostumbrar, pero no será problema con el jetlag :-) (estoy machacada)
Aqui veis mi habitación, en las fotos igual no se ve los detalles, pero es bastante cutrecilla... Pero la cama ya he probada una horita, el colchon y yo nos llevaremos bien :-)

 

En una hora me recoge una estudiante para ir al comedor cenar (una comida/cena cuesta 3Yuan, alrededor de 30 centimos!!), a ver si hasta allí preparo un poco mas mi clase de mañana, la primera de la transformada de Laplace :-/ Y el profe de este curso dice que va a estar, ya comimos juntos, son todos mas jovenes que yo!
Bueno, ya veis que todo va bien con mi VPN, sin ella, de verdad no veo este blog!
Besos,
Martina