Vacation is over?

The weeks before our journey to Xiamen, we were told that the first three weeks would feel like a vacation. After those three weeks we would go into some sort of depression phase. So far the person that gave the seminar is right one on thing. The vacation feeling is starting to melt away slowly, we are getting more and more used to the idea that we really live and work here. But the depression phase has luckily not shown it’s face yet. This is probably thanks to the great group that I have around me. The Dutch student are a great group of guys and like most ICT guys they are very friendly. So far I hardly spend one night alone, we all hang out together at night. We watch a movie, sit around having a few beers or go clubbing. The Chinese students are become lose as well. At the beginning it was all a bit odd. Their English wasn’t very good and we didn’t know each other. Now we mingle a lot and go out together and laugh a lot. I think I am very lucky with the people that are on CHECK-IT. Vincent and Francis (Dutch coaches) are great as well! I can’t remember if I ever had teacher that were so friendly and fun to hang around with. A shame they don’t teach at the HAN.

I guess the normal life has started, so a part of the “normal” life of course are the activities you do at home every now and then. So what did I do? I thought it was time to get a haircut, which of course is very scary if you can’t communicate with the barber. I managed to get one of the Chinese students to write down my wishes in Chinese on a paper and bravely I set out to the barbershop. The sign outsight said: Fashion Barber, an English name gave me some trust. So me and the other Frank stepped in for hopefully a good experience. For some reason, the barber gave me the idea that they don’t get Western customers often. They looked at us like we were some sort of freaks and after I gave him the paper, he sight he understood. So I was very glad, the paper said to cut off one centimeter so nothing could go wrong right… well I was WRONG! After ( a great ) head massage the barber started to cut and to my surprise he cut of a big stroke of my hair. I was shocked and told him to quit! I called Carol (Chinese student) by phone and she spoke with the barber, turned out the barber though I wanted my hear short ( one centimeter high). Well Carol explained it the right way, but my hair turned out shorter then I wanted but then I figured what the hell! I am not going to see any of you for a long time so a bit shorter isn’t a real problem! :P (what you mean? I’m not vain. ;) )

So the day after my great barber experience (NOT!) me and a few others decided to go to a bookstore to get some cheap literature on software development. After the Chinese students told us what they payed for English schoolbooks, we simply couldn’t resist to get ourselves some good resources. This is of course the time to expand our knowledge on IT, especially for me since I am no programmer. (all the others are! So I hear a lot of new terms.) Arrived at the gigantic bookstore we were led to the English area. There were so many Chinese IT books that we thought we were in heaven! But unfortunately the English part was only four books shells full, that was a bummer! But I managed to get a few nice books! The books we couldn’t find at the store shall be bought online, that is even cheaper! Books that cost eighty euro in the Netherlands were sold here for 8 euro! But we managed to find out why it is cheaper here. The books are copied from the original! I was already surprised that the DVDs sold in a normal DVD store were pirated, now I was stunned to see that even gigantic bookstores sell illegal material. Well, you don’t hear us complain of course since the content is still the same! But I actually think that pirated material is a real problem here in China. Normally I am totally against agencies like the BREIN dudes in Holland. But buying things here makes me realize that it can be a real problem. If you want to buy anything official you really have to search hard, and that is a really bad thing if you ask me. Though the people behind BREIN in the Netherlands are still idiot, pirating isn’t as big in Holland as it is here. So perhaps, ill change my mind on them when everything is fake in Holland as well.

Today we had a day off for a cross-cultural seminar. We visited the Xiamen Museum that hosted an exhibition on Zoetermeer (what for? Deventer is more special if you ask me! :P ). The exhibition was very short and only showed like twenty pictures of the buildings in Zoetermeer. Vincent Broeren gave us a short lesson on Zoetermeer as it was his home town. I think the Chinese liked it, but for the Dutch students… there wasn’t much to see. So afterwards the Dutch delegation set out to the Xiamen Museum of Science and Technology which was a very fun experience! The museum was a bit like the famous museum NEMO in the Netherlands, but not particularly focuses on children. We saw a lot of different things that could mess up your coordination like houses that were bend. So you couldn’t walk through it normally without falling (very funny to see everybody triple, and doing their best to walk normally). Also you could walk through a gigantic tunnel that was spinning and messed up your orientation etc. Real nice stuff!

Tonight we are invited by Rose to celebrate her birthday party at a karaoke bar. This will be my first time to such a bar so I am very curious. I haven’t decided yet if I shall share my beautiful voice with the Chinese locals. If I may believe my family, my singing voice isn’t that great. But what the hell, it is not like they won’t stare at me when I keep myself quiet. This weekend all the water supplies here in Xiamen shall be cut-off for some sort of experiment with a train. ( Train experiment = water shut off, do you see the connection? I don’t ) So our teacher came up with the idea to escape from Xiamen for three days and spend some time in a different part of China. We will fly on Friday to Chengdu which is supposed to be one of the most happiest City of China. ( whatever that means :P, I have seen a lot of Chinese happy faces so far! ). So I’ll give you guys a update on that when we get back! Till then goodbye my friends!

Frenkie

(Written on Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 18:59)