Surrounded by the Dutch.

Last weekend we finally had some Dutch quality time. Well, not totally as the crowd at the house party of Frank and Maarten was about 50% Asian guests. But still, we actually had friends from the Netherlands visiting. And as you may imagine, letting fourteen Dutch people playing the alcohol game “Kingsen” results in a great time. We had actually build a stage in the small room which contained a karaoke microphone (guess we are getting used to the Chinese habits) which wasn’t really used.. so we are about half way there, we got the speakers and microphone.. now we just have to use it! It was great to catch up with Yosser and Sjon after such a long time away from home, they were temporally in Xiamen due a company trip and honored us with a nice visit. Therefore we had to make it a great night, and of course you don’t want your Saturday night slip away by just sitting at a table drinking beer. Therefore we visited the Chocolate bar (free drinks!) and paid a visit to club KK.

I had a great time with the guys and I actually felt sorry for them when I found out that they had to follow a tour guide the next morning at eight o’clock. While I was sleeping out late, they had to walk and act interested. The pour fellows, but I hope they thought it was worth the hangover. It was quite cool to hear how much they liked Xiamen. I guess I really chose the right city in China to do my internship. They told us about the differences between Wuhan where they have their internship. Not much people there speak English and the weather is cold! But on the other side, life is cheaper over there so they still have that advantage over us. The day after was quite a slow day, and when I saw the rampage in my room the following morning I knew I had a great time the day before. There where (and is) phrases writen by Phillis in fake snow all over my windows and everywhere lay junk. Can you image how the room of Maarten and Frank must look like!

Beside the great weekend, Rob, Frank, Martijn and myself though it was time to do something healthy. As Frank had received some try-out cards for gym, we decided to go to the gym and see if we could sweat out some of the beer from the weekend. Well, I must say that worked pretty damn good. While we did some cardio and muscle training, a few Chinese asked us to join a “Body combat” class. Since my mother always mention how much fun it is and that I really have to come along with her. I decided to put her statement to the test and try it out, and what a work out it was. I can’t really remember the time I sweat so much but I felt great after! (not anymore though, I feel it in every bone of my body.) So from now on, we will visit the gym regular with the four of us and beside the work-time, homework-time, Party-time and Phyllis-time I will try to schedule some gym-time. After such a great work out there is no better reward that visit the official Heineken bar, so we gave ourselves a treat there. But for some reason, we are always the only customers in the place. Guess Heineken doesn’t attract that much customers yet in Xiamen.

Last week we also tried a new restaurant in the local slums. As we eat in the slums almost every day (really good food, believe it or not!) we never ate hot-pot there. We had hot-pot before in a other place and it is quite a funny concept. You can compare it to “Cheese fondue” I guess, you have a big pot of soup in which you are supposed to cook your food. Although they name says “hot”, it doesn’t have to be hot. So we went there quite sure of ourselves that we could order something that wasn’t hot, unfortunately we are still not able to read traditional Chinese characters. So we ended up with one (I think) of the spiciest soup at the menu. We all almost died of the heat and I was sweating my ass off! But after a while when we fished all the peppers out, it was quit doable and tasty. There were a lot of weird small black balls in the soup which Sam already knew to be some weird spices that would fuck up your mouth. So when Maarten wasn’t looking, Sam slipped a few of the balls in the rice of Maarten who ate it without having a clue. After a while we heard someone speaking weird and complaining about how his mouth was shaking. It was a huge laugh to see, but we decided it was unfair and most of the guys tried some of the balls too. Including me, I actually wasn’t able to speak normally for five minutes because I couldn’t feel a thing in my mouth. Quite funny to see what such a small spice can do to your mouth!

Last night I actually had the honor to meet the mother of Phyllis. Phyllis and her mother were going to dinner and they invited me to join them and have a small “meet the family”. Although her father wasn’t there as he is still in the Filipines for business. We went to a restaurant which was her mother’s favorite, and of course they love spicy food. So after my great adventure with the hot pot, I was sitting down in a spicy restaurant again. Although this time I had a translator to make sure that I could eat normally! It was really cool to meet her mom, who looks really young to be honest. I was expecting a semi-old Chinese woman but was faced with someone who looked liked she just turned forty.

At this point we are all working very, very, very hard to make the deadline this Friday. As I am the only one from the design team who knows how to use graphical programs, all the end work ends ups with me. Sally and Tony both help me out with the structures and doing research on usability but when their idea’s have to be translated to actual wireframes and products, it all comes down to me. So at this point I am a bit worried that I will be working all night tomorrow. But luckily there is a great weekend coming as I will join Phyllis and her family to a KTV this Friday, and Saturday we are going to have beach party because of the birthday of Martijn. And of course, my parents and (little) sis will arrive on Sunday! So I have enough to look forward to!

I’ll give you a new update next week, and of course that post will be with the support of my family. I am really looking forward to see how they respond to the culture here and of course I will keep you updated on how weird they think China is!

Hugs and kisses,

Frenkie!


(Written on Wednesday 16 December 2009 at 20:58)