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)

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)

Coming back to Study?

After spending three months here in Xiamen, I really feel at home here. All possible phases have passed and I think I am fully adapted here to the Chinese culture. Although there are still things that even I think is weird. For some reason, I am already starting to feel sad when I think about the fact that I have to go home in only eight weeks and that this phase of my life will pass. Although I get pretty happy at the thought of seeing my friends again, I made quite a few here in Xiamen which means I have to wave them goodbye.

Like I wrote in my last post, we received a new job here in a bar called the “Chocolate Pub”. This is a bar that specializes in R&B and the decoration is supposed to represent Thailand. Our task is pretty simple, just be there and talk to customers when they talk to you. Not a hard job, but most of us are quite tired of the job already. It sounds so perfect, just party and drink of free. But in reality, the first few nights are great. But partying three nights in a row with (a lot) of free drinks and every night the same music and the same performers becomes very boring. As we work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 21:30 till 02:00, we simply have not time to go to different clubs. Therefore most of us decided to quit after 10 days and Rob has stopped already (He is old, 26 grandpa!). But I am currently trying to arrange something else which includes free drinks but no pay and come and go whenever we want in a new bar, that is better for our health I think! Working in a bar has its privileges, being in a bar that much gives you the possibility to see the same people quit often. This resulted in two new friends that I find very fun to hang out with so far, at this stage I am not sure how it will develop itself as one of the girls might be a bit too old for me..(28) but there is no harm in getting to know each other and see where is goes. Yesterday we went on a date and I learned here to skate on ice, it was really funny to see as it is quite unusual for a Thai girl to skate on ice since Thailand doesn’t really contain frozen water. In fact it wasn’t really skating but more “standing and not trying to fall”, afterwards we visit the local shopping district and sat down to have drink. Quite a nice evening, unfortunately she works six nights a week as the singer of the Chocolate club. So It will be hard to meet more often as she works at night, and I work during the day…

The CHECK-IT projects are developing pretty nice, my job for the website team is actually coming to an end as most design work has been done. The coders are currently working very hard on realizing the project and I get time to focus a bit more on the DVD project and a new project for the knowledgebase team. So there is still a lot of work and limited time, there are only eight more weeks left! Not to mention my family is visiting pretty soon which means 10 vacation days for me (I don’t complain!) We will traveling during the holidays to Beijing, Chengdu, Xi’an and Yangshuo so I do get to see more from China as so far I have only visited Wuyi, Xi’an and Xiamen.

As I mentioned before, I am really enjoying my stay here in Xiamen. The fact that I feel so at home here got me thinking about the possibilities to come back here in the future. I spoke with one of the Chinese professors about Chinese major studies on multimedia design and they have several, the only problem is that they are not in English. The University is currently looking for a way to provide me with English support if I decide to come back and do a major study at the Xiamen University. Something I am considering quite seriously! After all China will be one of the biggest IT countries in the world and studying there will give me a big change on a bright future. But unfortunately I still have a year and a half to go in the Netherlands. So quite enough time to think about it, but I am sure that this internship won’t be my last visited to Xiamen.

The Chinese students and the Dutch are working together very well, at the beginning we had some troubles communication but I get the feeling that those troubles are hardly there anymore. We learned to collaborate pretty well, or at least my group has. I can’t speak for the other teams, but it seem like everything is going very well. Also, my English is really starting to feel like a second language. I have more trouble remembering Dutch words then English words. But that is a common problem when you spend a lot of time abroad, unfortunately my Chinese isn’t getting a lot better. I am definitely starting to learn new words, but the pronunciation is just so different from what we are used to. But it is always good to see how much the Chinese appreciate it when you try to make an effort on communicating in Chinese, it even gets you discounts in the cab! That’s what we found out when Maarten was drunk it tried to talk to the cab driver, perhaps being a bit drunk helped him finding the right tones as he was actually having a small conversation with the guy.

For me it is time to get to work again, I am currently waiting for one of our SCRUM meetings as we finished the SCRUM sprint last Friday. We pick new products to develop from the product backlog today and then we have three solid weeks for producing again. We made the last sprint successfully, so we can be proud again. So far we haven’t missed a sprint although we had to work in the weekends a few time to deliver everything we promised…

Hugs and kisses,

Frenkie

(Written on: Monday 30 November 2009 at 12:57)

Having a dreamjob in China?

Another week has passed as time flies here in Xiamen. The days are currently going by really quick which kind of got me a bit shocked as I still have so much work to do here in Xiamen. The assignments keep on stacking up as the projects keep developing and changing a bit. I currently have to work on three major projects which kind of got me of focused as I can’t spend time on them at the same time. But apart from work, there are also new developments like having a real paid job here in Xiamen! We have to make money as CHECK-IT isn’t a payed internship). But more about that later!

Last Saturday Liselotte had invited me to a boat trip with some of her friends. I met Liselotte at a local beach party here a few weeks ago and since then we have been hanging out every now and then. I didn’t really know what to expect from the trip as I had little to no information about it! As I arrived at the main gate of the Xiamen University campus (she studies Chinese there) I saw a big group of European people. Well, that was a nice surprise. I don’t get to see so many European people that often. I joined the group of about 15 till 20 people and we left for the boat, the trip was organized by a Dutch guy named Diederick and I immediately hit it off with them. It was really nice to mingle with people from your own culture after being in a foreign country for so long. I really understand why expats in the Netherlands (allochtonen for those that don’t know expats) mingle with each other. It gives you a small feeling of home and I simply can’t blame them for doing so. Perhaps G.Wilders should visit China as well?

It was a old fishing boat of which the deck was completely emptied. So there was enough space to hold so many people and most important there was a BBQ and BEER! So I was drinking my first beer with spareribs at 10:30 am. Quite a heavy breakfast but I definitely enjoyed it! It was a day of meeting new friends and being away with a different crowd felt quite nice. Although I was very happy to party with my own friends again at night. The same day my intern supervisor was going to fly back to the Netherlands after guiding us for three months. He really didn’t mind to go back as he was the one who had the worst phase two. (Hating every bloody thing that is Chinese) It was quite funny to see him being annoyed though :P. We escorted him to the airport and afterwards got some food at a restaurant. Quit a simple goodbye!

At the boat trip someone informed me about a club who was looking for new foreign employees to attend parties to attract customers. As I had joined Liselotte to her “job” several times (drinking for free and get paid) I was quite interested in this job. So at night me and some other Dutch CHECK-IT members went to the bar and ask the manager if he was still hiring… well guess what. WE GOT THE JOB! So from now on, I have to work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Which is quite hard, you know.. I have to be there at 10 o’clock and drink for free and dance around the bar. I get paid 12 euro’s a night and have to work for at least 4 hours. So basically I have to drink for free and get paid for it afterwards.. It is a hard job but someone should do it right? Joking a sight, it is of course next to my internship so we do have to be a bit careful that it doesn’t influence our main task here in Xiamen which is developing software.

As our original supervisor left for the Netherlands, we received a new one which is Cees Bekker. The group had a week time to get to know Cees a bit and the other way around. And so far he has left a good impression. Let’s hope this is a mutual feeling ;). A new supervisor wasn’t the only change here in Xiamen. The Chinese government has managed to do another thing that disappoints me, they actually managed to kill the sunny weather with a rocket to make it rain. Yeah, in Xiamen they create bad weather by hand, and not with a funny rain dance but by shooting chemicals (I think) in to the air. So with the rainy weather I actually start to think about home again. And kind of getting a little homesick, but only a little luckily. To feel a bit more like home, myself and several others decided to show the Chinese how good we were at ice skating at the local mall. Rented a pair of ice skates which weren’t really sharp but I managed to do some skating. Although I doubt the Chinese were impressed as I regularly saw a Chinese flying by at maximum speed while I tried not to fall.

This Thursday is our first working day at the Chocolate pub. I am really looking forward to another night of free drinks and having fun while getting payed. Let’s hope the job is really as good as it sounds, but the whole free night last Saturday as a first working day certainly left a good impression!

Hugs and kisses,

Frenkie

(Written on: Tuesday 17 November 2009 at 23:14)