What do I want with this blog? Sure it would be nice for millions of people to read it and adore my sharp wit and writing acumen – good for the ego – but that’s not likely to happen.
I actually started writing this thing to practice my writing itself. I hear from readers every now and then – thanks, Wouter; thanks, Mom. – and that’s great, but I would be writing this even if not a single soul knew of its existence. It’s a kind of stretching of the fingers before writing the next five-hundred or so words of my stories. Which are also not that great, I think, but that’s where the passion is.
All this is a round-about way of apologizing for the unwieldy way I post on my blog. For anybody who’s interested; I’ve uploaded some fifteen posts today, all from the last couple of weeks.
If I've turned anybody off by not posting this month, I apologize. However, I did not stop writing. It was because of our internet connection. In our new apartment we work with the university network, which gets real slow in the daytime. In fact, it will usually not allow me to get on this website during that time.
That is why I write my blogs in Microsoft Word and wait for days where the connection is unexpectedly good to upload them in bulk.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Friday, September 18
For the last couple of months Bella and I’ve been digging into three TV-shows for our evening viewing: Hill Street Blues, ER and Deadwood.
Deadwood is by far our favorite, but ER is awesome, too. I like to write and even for a beginner like me, the craft in writing of both shows is astonishing.
ER should be familiar to many people. The show portrays the happenings in the emergency room of a hospital in some big eastern US city. It finished a couple of years ago, but we’re watching the first season right now which played in the early nineties.
The series is very smart in balancing drama, hospital procedure and long-term developments. In every episode you’ll see some tension arising from one-time patients or something like that, but there will also be a slow continuing development of storylines involving the hospital staff. All this means that you’ll never really get bored and there will always be something in an episode to keep you interested.
Deadwood is a western about a frontier town named, surprisingly, Deadwood. What will strike you about this series is the intimate knowledge of the setting (Deadwood is a real town and most of the stories in the show are based on real developments in that town during the 1870’s) and the unbelievable dialogue. The characters of this show talking and cursing is a kind of Shakespearean poetry.
Deadwood is by far our favorite, but ER is awesome, too. I like to write and even for a beginner like me, the craft in writing of both shows is astonishing.
ER should be familiar to many people. The show portrays the happenings in the emergency room of a hospital in some big eastern US city. It finished a couple of years ago, but we’re watching the first season right now which played in the early nineties.
The series is very smart in balancing drama, hospital procedure and long-term developments. In every episode you’ll see some tension arising from one-time patients or something like that, but there will also be a slow continuing development of storylines involving the hospital staff. All this means that you’ll never really get bored and there will always be something in an episode to keep you interested.
Deadwood is a western about a frontier town named, surprisingly, Deadwood. What will strike you about this series is the intimate knowledge of the setting (Deadwood is a real town and most of the stories in the show are based on real developments in that town during the 1870’s) and the unbelievable dialogue. The characters of this show talking and cursing is a kind of Shakespearean poetry.
Thursday, September 17
We have our first class of the semester to teach tonight. It’s a so-called ‘English Corner” and it’s supposed to be a fun two hours where students can just get together with teachers and practice their English in a relaxed setting.
Which means it’s hard to prepare for.
Thank God it’s Bella and I together who have to teach this thing, but what are we going to do? We don’t know where it will be, how many people will be there and what kind of material we have to work with. And it’s going to be two hours long, so if we run out of stuff to do, it’s going to be a long night.
Anyway, we printed out some trivia questions and questionnaires. We figure that no matter how many people will attend, we can always divide them into groups and do games.
Which means it’s hard to prepare for.
Thank God it’s Bella and I together who have to teach this thing, but what are we going to do? We don’t know where it will be, how many people will be there and what kind of material we have to work with. And it’s going to be two hours long, so if we run out of stuff to do, it’s going to be a long night.
Anyway, we printed out some trivia questions and questionnaires. We figure that no matter how many people will attend, we can always divide them into groups and do games.
Wednesday, September 16
I remember the start of the school year when I was a kid and it was grim. A whole vacation of doing as little as possible ended by going back to the daily grind of listening to disillusioned teachers talking about things that interested neither them nor their students.
Yes, that is exaggerated and overblown, but the contrast with the start of the Chinese school year is still striking. For the past week here we’ve had activities for students, party music blaring over the campus speakers and of course the Teacher Day dinners. I already wrote about that last bit in an earlier blog, but today I even got three hundred yuan in back pay for the two hours I spent stuffing my face.
Yes, that is exaggerated and overblown, but the contrast with the start of the Chinese school year is still striking. For the past week here we’ve had activities for students, party music blaring over the campus speakers and of course the Teacher Day dinners. I already wrote about that last bit in an earlier blog, but today I even got three hundred yuan in back pay for the two hours I spent stuffing my face.
Tuesday, September 15
Flu season has started and I can feel the germs bubbling up inside of me.
It always starts the same way. There will be a couple of days of bad weather – like the rainy ones we had yesterday and the day before – and then suddenly a beautiful, sunny day, but with a hidden cold to it. Which we are having today. I woke up feeling like crap and my joints and muscles have started to hurt.
I’d love to go for some of my mom’s soup. Soup in China is very different from Dutch soup. It’s much more watery and for some reason always seems to have to include egg.
My mom in contrast fills the stuff up with meat. She also used to buy bones from the butcher and use them to make stock. I don’t think she does that anymore now that she has to watch her cholesterol level, but I sure miss those days. My Mom knows that, too, and when Bella and I went to the Netherlands she made soup for us several times.
It always starts the same way. There will be a couple of days of bad weather – like the rainy ones we had yesterday and the day before – and then suddenly a beautiful, sunny day, but with a hidden cold to it. Which we are having today. I woke up feeling like crap and my joints and muscles have started to hurt.
I’d love to go for some of my mom’s soup. Soup in China is very different from Dutch soup. It’s much more watery and for some reason always seems to have to include egg.
My mom in contrast fills the stuff up with meat. She also used to buy bones from the butcher and use them to make stock. I don’t think she does that anymore now that she has to watch her cholesterol level, but I sure miss those days. My Mom knows that, too, and when Bella and I went to the Netherlands she made soup for us several times.
Monday, September 14
Today is September the fourteenth. That means it’s another forty-five or forty-six days until my birthday. That’ll be my thirtieth birthday.
I’ve heard people talk about mid-life crises. Men find out that their getting older and all of sudden get restless in their staid, comfy lives. They start feeling insecure, start cheating on their wives, start buying stuff they shouldn’t.
I’m curious to see if that’ll start happening to me. First of all; I don’t have a staid, comfy life. Actually it’s pretty comfy and all now, but for the past two years I’ve been roughing it in polluted Chinese cities with crappy housing. I want comfy, I dream of comfy and having a measure of it right now makes me genuinely happy.
Second, I have no desire to cheat on my girlfriend (soon to be my wife if everything goes well). I have found somebody that has the same kind of personality as I do, is really hot and willing to put up with me. I am grateful.
Apparently, some men get sad when they think of all the things they never got around to do. They don’t like to compare the life they have with the life they dreamed of when they were young. I have things that I regret – mostly stupid shit that I pulled during my twenties – but I wanted to travel and I did. And now that I’ve done so, I’m actually more concerned about constructing a good and safe life for myself than breaking away from it.
I’ve heard people talk about mid-life crises. Men find out that their getting older and all of sudden get restless in their staid, comfy lives. They start feeling insecure, start cheating on their wives, start buying stuff they shouldn’t.
I’m curious to see if that’ll start happening to me. First of all; I don’t have a staid, comfy life. Actually it’s pretty comfy and all now, but for the past two years I’ve been roughing it in polluted Chinese cities with crappy housing. I want comfy, I dream of comfy and having a measure of it right now makes me genuinely happy.
Second, I have no desire to cheat on my girlfriend (soon to be my wife if everything goes well). I have found somebody that has the same kind of personality as I do, is really hot and willing to put up with me. I am grateful.
Apparently, some men get sad when they think of all the things they never got around to do. They don’t like to compare the life they have with the life they dreamed of when they were young. I have things that I regret – mostly stupid shit that I pulled during my twenties – but I wanted to travel and I did. And now that I’ve done so, I’m actually more concerned about constructing a good and safe life for myself than breaking away from it.
Sunday, September 13th
The rains have started.
For the past two days it’s rained continuously and Bella and I have scurried around in the permanent half-dark of our apartment. We only come out to go to our restaurant and eat. It’s remarkable how quickly we’ve been reduced to the level of hunter-gatherers.
This weather will last for about a month. After it’s over the winter will set in and we’ll find out whether our new apartment is really as good as we’ve expected it to be.
Saturday, September 12
China is building apartments like crazy. Every city suburbs full of apartment buildings that are brand-spanking new. Xi’an has them. When we visited Shanghai last month, we rode the public transport through miles of nothing but row upon row of high-rise apartments.
Often, they’re half empty, too. There simply haven’t been enough people that could afford to move into them.
Some of this has to be corruption, but a lot of it is also the difficulty of supplying the Chinese people with what they need and can afford.
They certainly need housing. I think I already mentioned in a previous blog that you’ll find people living everywhere and anywhere. The basement where I park my scooter has three stalls barred off. I was able to look inside one of them and it’s been converted into a home, with a portable gas cooker (fire hazard!) and several bunk beds.
So how do you get these people into actual proper housing? Building new apartment blocks would be the first step, but most of them simply can’t afford it because they can’t really afford anything or are migrant workers. In the summer months cities like Xi’an just empty out because all of these people move back to their hometown to live off the money they made during the previous year.
I’m not a specialist, but it seems to me that it’s kind of hard to do right by your country’s population in situations like this.
Often, they’re half empty, too. There simply haven’t been enough people that could afford to move into them.
Some of this has to be corruption, but a lot of it is also the difficulty of supplying the Chinese people with what they need and can afford.
They certainly need housing. I think I already mentioned in a previous blog that you’ll find people living everywhere and anywhere. The basement where I park my scooter has three stalls barred off. I was able to look inside one of them and it’s been converted into a home, with a portable gas cooker (fire hazard!) and several bunk beds.
So how do you get these people into actual proper housing? Building new apartment blocks would be the first step, but most of them simply can’t afford it because they can’t really afford anything or are migrant workers. In the summer months cities like Xi’an just empty out because all of these people move back to their hometown to live off the money they made during the previous year.
I’m not a specialist, but it seems to me that it’s kind of hard to do right by your country’s population in situations like this.
Wednesday, September 9
Yesterday was the official start of the new school year at the university and to celebrate it all the foreign teachers got together with the staff of the exchange office for a big dinner.
It was fun; we got to meet all the new teachers and talk a bit with people that spoke our own language. There was one guy there that was into old TV-shows a bit and we talked about my love for old stuff like Hill Street Blues and ER.
There was also good food. A lot of it. Sweet and sour pork, deep-fried shrimp, deep-fried fish, salted duck and much more. Bella and I still feel stuffed today.
There was also wine and we were forced to take part in toasts and toasts and more toasts. We didn’t drink that much, actually, only like three glasses or so. However, seeing as how neither of us really drinks, we’re still a bit woozy and slow today. We’re wussies.
It was fun; we got to meet all the new teachers and talk a bit with people that spoke our own language. There was one guy there that was into old TV-shows a bit and we talked about my love for old stuff like Hill Street Blues and ER.
There was also good food. A lot of it. Sweet and sour pork, deep-fried shrimp, deep-fried fish, salted duck and much more. Bella and I still feel stuffed today.
There was also wine and we were forced to take part in toasts and toasts and more toasts. We didn’t drink that much, actually, only like three glasses or so. However, seeing as how neither of us really drinks, we’re still a bit woozy and slow today. We’re wussies.
Tuesday, September 8th
We went out yesterday to buy a scooter and ended up buying an electric second-hand one.
Buying anything expensive is always a bit of a hassle in China because it’s so hard to make yourself understood and be specific about what you want. Chances are you’ll have somebody Chinese along to help you and chances are they won’t even really understand what you want.
In our case, we wanted an alarm on the thing, helmets, extra locks, a steering lock and remote ignition. What we got was: an extra lock for 120 yuan extra. Not a great haul.
The battery inside the bike was less than half full. With me in the front and Bella on the backseat we had to cross the whole city to get back to our apartment. We made it, too, but it was close. The engine started stuttering and cutting out exactly as we rolled into the apartment park where we lived.
Carrying the battery upstairs was hellish. It’s the size of a small box, but unbelievably heavy. It must be something like 35 or 40 kilo’s. I don’t look forward to having to do that every time the thing needs charging.
Buying anything expensive is always a bit of a hassle in China because it’s so hard to make yourself understood and be specific about what you want. Chances are you’ll have somebody Chinese along to help you and chances are they won’t even really understand what you want.
In our case, we wanted an alarm on the thing, helmets, extra locks, a steering lock and remote ignition. What we got was: an extra lock for 120 yuan extra. Not a great haul.
The battery inside the bike was less than half full. With me in the front and Bella on the backseat we had to cross the whole city to get back to our apartment. We made it, too, but it was close. The engine started stuttering and cutting out exactly as we rolled into the apartment park where we lived.
Carrying the battery upstairs was hellish. It’s the size of a small box, but unbelievably heavy. It must be something like 35 or 40 kilo’s. I don’t look forward to having to do that every time the thing needs charging.
Sunday, September 6th
Bella and I went out today and bought a new dictionary. It’s an electronic one with a whole lotta gizmos like mp3 and mp4 players, games and such. The most important thing for us is that it has a touchscreen that recognizes handwriting.
I have written many, many blogs about the difficulties of studying Chinese; there aren’t many people here that you can practice with (the fact that almost nobody really speaks English makes it hard to check yourself or for the other person to correct you and give you advice) and having to learn Chinese characters means it’s hard to watch Chinese movies and try and read the subtitles.
Another problem with Chinese is that it’s hard to check or look up words in dictionaries. If you don’t remember the character, you won’t find the word. But not knowing the character is often the problem in the first place if you’re reading a newspaper or a text and want to look up a word that you don’t know.
The Chinese have a system in their written dictionaries that depends on the number of strokes in a character and what radical it has. Words from a similar field of meaning often have a part of their character in common; this part – the radical - signifies it’s from that particular field.
Bella and I can’t work with that yet, unfortunately. Thank God we know have this dictionary that can help us with that. Learning Chinese just got a bit easier.
Saturday, September 5th
A couple of posts ago I told of the need in China to find a restaurant that doesn’t make you sick and stick with it. Recently I had another win when I found a food stall close to our apartment that serves breakfast up until ten o’clock. Many mornings I go out for a little walk and buy their food; a rolled up pancake with onions, potatoes and carrots. Good stuff.
If I ever leave China, I’m going to have to beg some recipes off people. I’m not a bad cook, but it’s mostly simple, Dutch stuff. Big portions and very filling, but obviously not fine cuisine. Whenever I eat good Chinese food, I try and figure out what’s in it. Garlic and spices, obviously, but what about those sauces? Even with this cheap roll – only two yuan per portion – there’s a taste that I wouldn’t be able to replicate.
If I ever leave China, I’m going to have to beg some recipes off people. I’m not a bad cook, but it’s mostly simple, Dutch stuff. Big portions and very filling, but obviously not fine cuisine. Whenever I eat good Chinese food, I try and figure out what’s in it. Garlic and spices, obviously, but what about those sauces? Even with this cheap roll – only two yuan per portion – there’s a taste that I wouldn’t be able to replicate.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Friday, September 04
Just came back from an insane three-day trip to Shanghai. We had to obtain several official papers from the Iranian and Dutch embassy.
We caught our train on Tuesday afternoon. Almost didn’t, because no taxi would take us. Between four and five in the afternoon here taxi drivers change shifts, so they will just say no and leave you in the street if you need to go somewhere that isn’t in the direction to their garage. We finally caught a tuk-tuk willing to carry us.
It was a night train and we arrived in Shanghai at 6:30 the following morning. Subway to our hotel, check in, shower and off to the Iranian embassy. Bella had her papers made ready, but the embassy doesn’t have any means for paying money, electronic or otherwise, so we had to jet off to a bank a couple of kilometers off, pay there and then come back.
A quick lunch and then back to the subway and off to the Dutch consulate in Shanghai. I needed a consular statement saying that I actually lived in China and that I was unmarried. Which caused some confusion, because the ladies at the desk asked for more documents than the embassy told me to bring when I emailed them. We got what we came for in the end, but then one of the ladies said: “I see that you’ve also lived in Ireland for a while. That means that you will have to get a similar statement from them.”
Crisis time. Would I have to go to Ireland and request the papers in person? Back to the hostel and on the internet to find the phone number of the Dutch embassy in Ireland. They informed me that I didn’t need to show up there, but that I did have to provide them with scans of several documents, including one of my passport validated by the Shanghai consulate. Which was closed by now. A shower, dinner and bed.
The following morning we again jumped on the subway, visited the Dutch consulate and got the copy fixed (for another 225 yuan…*whimper*). From there we went to the Shanghai train station and bought a ticket back to Xi’an. That train would leave three hours later and arrive Friday morning (today) at 7 o’clock in the morning. We just had time to go back to the hostel one more time, shower, check out and have lunch. Then back to the train station and board the train.
And now, 24 hours later, here we are. Pretty tired, but satisfied with having arranged all the documents we need. That was some good work we turned out there.
Vacation Flashback Post: July 27th
It’s amazing how you can just start missing stuff when you’ve been away from home for a while. Just plain, nakedly missing stuff like home cooking and familiar sights and sounds.
We’re spending a quiet day at home today. Mahkam is sick; she came down with a cold after the activities of the last few days. She’s also not used to the weather here; it’s been raining off and on since we came here and while that’s normal to me, it’s less so for her.
We went to The Hague on Thursday and visited Madurodam. It was fun and very Dutch. We snapped some nice pictures of Bella in clogs.
Yesterday we drove over to Lauwersoog and the Lauwersmeer. Lauwersoog is a harbor-town at the Waddenzee and Lauwersmeer is the lake close by. The lake is manmade, cut off from the sea with sluices and dykes. We ate fish and took pictures. There was a strong wind there that finished the job that our visit to Madurodam started; Bella went to bed as soon as we got home and come out today with a sore throat and runny nose.
I’ll probably get it soon as well, but until that time it’s good to be home. Before going to Lauwersoog we visited my grandparents, yesterday, and also an aunt and uncle I had not seen in years. Everybody is doing well, although my grandparents are definitely getting old.
Tomorrow it’s off to Groningen to try and get a couple of official documents that we need to be able to get married in the Netherlands.
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