Too soft for a dreamjob?

Last night was our last work day in the Chocolate club. A disappointment at first, but after talking to the manager it turned out for the best. From now on, I have one job again. Frank, Maarten and myself have had ten working days at the bar and got paid 110 euro each. So that is a nice contribution to our financial status over here. I was always looking forward to our job, but it was simply to exhausting to continue with it. Therefore we decided to quit before it would influence our CHECK-IT work. They told us we were friends from the club and that we could come and go whenever we pleased and still drink for free. Just no pay, well that sounds like a fair deal to me!

It won’t be long before my family of Deventer will be re-united again. There are only two more weeks before my parents and sister come along. I am looking forward to see them again since it has already been four months without seeing them. Although I had some trouble getting time off at work as they arrive during the last SCRUM sprint which means all the projects come together at that time. Therefore I am only able get 5 working days off, now luckily all students get two days off because of Christmas and new year which gives me 7 free days and including the weekend I get 11 days to travel! Now my second family re-union with my brothers Serhat and Danny will unfortunately take a little longer, that one is still a six weeks away.

Before my journey to China, I told everybody who asked that I could never fall in love with a Chinese girl. Well, I guess I was wrong.. as the thing that I never expected has happened. I currently have a relationship with Phyllis which makes me the… lets me see.. the 6 or 7 Dutch student with a Chinese girlfriend (one Dutch student is still in denial). We have been seeing each other for three weeks now and it became official this week. But don’t worry, I won’t take her home to the Netherlands! Last Sunday I went on a unplanned double date with Phyllis, Frank and Allison, the other Frank has a thing for a friend of Phyllis and during dinner time we all decided to have dinner together which resulted in a night at the KTV. Yes, I have been to the karaoke bar and actually sang! It was my second time in four months and with my great singing voice it is probably not something I will do again very soon. Although I am afraid I have to as Phyllis is crazy about singing which you can really hear in her voice. The same goes for Allison, Frank and I really lowered the bar when we started to sing/scream to the great music of ABBA. If you want to seduce a girl in China, most Chinese guys take the girl to a karaoke bar and pour their heart out during a emotional song to win the girl. Something tells me that my performance didn’t score me points, luckily she still likes me!

Besides spending time with Phyllis, I also have been spending time with my Chinese co-workers. A week ago we had a company trip to the “Botenical Gardens”, which is a extremely beautiful place. Since I had already visited it with Moniek it wasn’t that new to me, although the Chinese professor had thought of a free way to get it. Climbing over the mountain of Xiamen first to get in at the back! So that was quite a heavy road to take but it paid off during the breaks laying in the grass and sun. Of course Frank, Maarten en myself had to work the night before, and that was a great party night. So the three of us were walking in front of the group just not to let anyone notice that we felt like sh*t. But it was definitely worth the effort to visit it again. I would say, take a look at the pictures on the side and judge yourself!

Another re-union will be held this Saturday, Yosser one of my friends from Lokaal99 who is currently having a internship in a different part in China will visit me and Rob with a friend. As Rob and Yosser are in the same fraternity, it is quite a cool re-union. Although I am a bit outnumbered there will be three Lokaal99 frat guys and only one from CREAS (me). I still think it is super cool that we can meet, that’s why we are organizing a small house party here in out flat before we introduce them to our friends at the Chocolate bar and the club KK.

For now, all I know it that I will go to bed early tonight. We have been working hard at CHECK-IT, at the bar and on our internship reports. It is time to get myself some rest so that this weekend I am fresh and fun to hang around with again. ;)

Thanks for reading mates, and feel free to respond!

Hugs and kisses,

Frenkie

(Written at Friday 11 December 2009)