Leaving for Xiamen

The 26th of August is getting closer and closer. There are currently only two more days left before I will leave to Xiamen! The last few days were busy days, not only did I have to finish up the last things for my departure like packing my bag or run to school to get the last paperwork done. I also had to say goodbye to friends and family. So I have been exploring the country lately with the great public transport and the good old bicycle. (God, I need a car!) I have finally found some time to write my first blog and most likely the only blog that I will write here in The Nederlands. I'm looking forward to my stay in China and the CHECK-IT (China Holland Educational Center of Knowledge on IT) project on which we will be working. Though I must admit that the nerves are finally starting to act up. But those will be gone on my arrival as soon as I am settled. (I hope :P)

I my first flight will leave from Dusseldorf International Airport on the 26th of August at 17:55. So I will leave Deventer around the clock of two. I will travel together with Rob Heijligers, Rob and I are placed at the same assignment for the CHECK-IT project. So I will spend the most of my time with him. Luckily Rob and I have met several times now and share several interest. So I am lucky to have found someone to hang out with in Xiamen (karaoke bars here we come :P)!. From Dusseldorf we will fly to Frankfurt were we will catch the next plain to Beijing. After that flight we will continue to fly from Beijing to Xiamen were we will be picked up by the Chinese students and one or two Dutch coaches.

The University of Xiamen has been so kind to arrange apartments for us. And they didn’t arrange a crappy ugly apartment. No they managed to get us a 46 of square meters apartment with airco and LCD TV and everything. I was quite surprised when I saw the pictures of the apartment. I have added the photo's I received to my flickr account so you can see it yourself. Of course I will shoot a few pictures myself after my arrival.

Rob and I won't have a lot of time to settle in Xiamen. I just read on the blog of one of the Dutch coaches that we will have to attend the official company kick-off the day after our arrival. Then the first of September will be our first working day. So we jump right into the action!

Well, thanks for reading and hopefully you will keep following my blog. I have decided to do my blog in English because there will also be Chinese readers and of course they won't understand Dutch. I’ll try to post messages every week with my latest "adventures"!

Frenkie!

(Written on: Monday, 24/08/2009 on 17:55 )