Going Dutch in China

Rain - 09/29/2010

2010-09-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

It's rainy season in Ireland.

Actually, it's rainy season in Ireland all year 'round, but in September it's even worse. You can basically be sure that it's going to come down at least twice per day.

Which is great, actually. No complaints from my side. It's cool and refreshing and makes the city smell nice. Plus, we have a couple of trees in our backyard that smell great when we open the windows in the morning.

After a couple of years in places where it either didn't rain at all or where you had typhoons in the winter months, it's great to be able to go out and just enjoy the cool caress of raindrops on your face.

The only problem is my bike. The saddle absorbs the water, so everytime I get off my bike my butt is wet.

Internet Radio - September 22nd 2010

2010-09-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

There are so many awesome things about being back in Europe that it feels kind of lousy to dedicate a blog to every single one of them.

Being able to get decent chocolate again. Being able to go on the internet with normal speed and without censorship.

But what I want to focus on for this post is... internet radio. Every workday I listen to the following stations: KOMO Newsradio in Seattle and WDRV The Drive in Chicago. Chicago is six hours behind and KOMO nine, which means I can listen to their nighttime programming in the morning.

It's great. It's a great way to get into the working groove. KOMO has great local news (which is kind of interesting to me because I spent a couple of months in Seattle nine years ago on an internship. The Drive has classic rock, much of which never made it over to Europe and is completely new to me.

If any of that stuff sounds good to you, check them out. You won't be disappointed.

A Well-Dressed Man - 24-08-2010

2010-08-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's unbelievably hard for a man to find original clothes. Women's clothes can be beautiful, but the best a man can hope to do is to find a nice suit.

Which I did. An awesome, kinda shiny grey suit that will look awesome on me. And it's only € 140.

The Expendables - 18/08/2010

2010-08-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to watch 'The Expendables', featuring every action hero of the eighties and Jason Statham.

The movie was awesome; I highly recommend it. I had a big stupid grin on my face for the whole movie. Dolph Lundgren was the highlight; the man hasn't gotten older, just meaner.

Yay for me being back in Europe again and being able to go to movies in a language that I understand.

End of the Workday - August 18th 2010

2010-08-18T09:55:00.001-07:00

It's now been exactly one month since I came back to Europe and started my job at an internet company in Dublin. The company is called GoAdv. It's pretty small, but I like it; you get to know everybody in the company and feel like you can make a difference.

I miss my wife. Mahkam is still in Iran. All the papers for her visa application were sent in a week-and-a-half ago and now all we can do is wait. We call each other every two days to catch up. It's amazing how much you can start missing a person. When you're around each other all day long, you hardly notice how much you start to depend on each other.

Life is good here and I'm happy. When she comes it'll be even better.

New Apartment in Dublin

2010-07-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Finally back in Europe. Finally able to post again. Moved into a Dublin apartment, of which videos above.

More later.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 - Packing

2010-02-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Packing today for the trip tomorrow. We're going to go to The Hague to try and take care of the last things for our marriage (getting it certified by the Iranian embassy). From there out we'll go straight to Schiphol Airport on Saturday and board our plane to China.

Packing my suitcase has been easy. I've bought a lot of clothes here, but will also leave a lot of stuff like my PS2 (plus games) and the suit I used for my wedding. Going back will be a little lighter on my back than coming here was.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 - Europe

2010-02-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

Another post after a bit of an absence. The past two weeks Bella and I travelled through Europe on a rail pass. It was kind of our honeymoon; visiting European cities across Germany, Austria and Czechia. We visited Aachen, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and Cologne.

In the coming weeks, I´ll talk about the different cities; we did too much stuff to talk about in one blog. For now, I just want to touch on how awesome it was. And it was. Awesome, I mean. I recommend everyone and anyone who wants to vacation in Europe to find a friend and travel together on an international pass. We spent extra and got a first-class pass for the both of us, but it was totally worth it.

Europe is beautiful. I love my continent. I feel more European than Dutch and these past two weeks really made me miss this part of the world. I want to come back here. Perhaps, in six months, I can.

As for the video; this might be a little boring, but it´s a snippet from us riding the bus to the city center in Salzburg. Our hotel there was a little out of the way and I wanted to give an impression of just normal life in that city.

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 - Munich

2010-02-10T05:55:00.001-08:00

Ah yes; Munich. Snowy, cold and oh so classy. This is day four of the honeymoon and everything is going well. Although I´m typing this on a German keyboard, so the post might be a bit short.

Anyway, Munich is old and stylish, with a confectionary shop or two in every street. Bella got some pimples already, but she´s very touchy about them, so don´t tell her I said anything about them.

Yesterday we met an old classmate of Bella who migrated to Germany some twenty years ago. She was very nice and so was her husband. They both work very hard though, and have succesful careers, so it was a bit strange to talk to them.

Today we´ve been wandering through the city. The best part for me was the old city center with the English Garden connected to it. The English Garden is a huge park; awesome in the snow.

Saturday, February 6th, 2010 - Conversion

2010-02-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

We came back from The Hague yesterday.

Both Bella and I decided The Hague is our new favorite city in the Netherlands. Wide streets, old buildings, close to the sea and with many parks. Awesome.

We had a busy time there. On Wednesday we had to: go to the Iranian embassy, go to the police station, go to the Dutch migration service, go to a mosque to get converted and have an islamic marriage and go visit Thomas.

Thomas by the way is a good friend of mine from university who how works in The Hague.

If you read the sentence before the last one, you might have noticed the word´"converted". That´s right, you are now reading the blog of somebody who has converted to islam. I even have a new islamic name.

The conversion and the wedding were pretty quickly and easily to do, actually. In and out of the mosque in forty-five minutes. And the mosque was actually a small private residence somewhere in a The Hague suburb.

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 - Death of the Family Dog

2010-02-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

I had to have our family dog put to sleep this morning. The dog was old, had so much cancer in the stomach it looked like a football, had gotten incontinent and problems with its heart and throat. So today was the day. My dad bought the dog and spent the most time with it, so he felt he couldn´t do it. He asked me and I said yes because it was the right thing to do.

I brought the dog to the veterinarian and stayed with it throughout the proceedings. For those who don´t know how it goes: one injection to put the dog to sleep, one injection to stop its heart. I didn´t want it to be alone for all this, so I sat in the room while the doctor did his stuff.

I cried like a child. I´m crying now as I type this.

Goodbye Lady. You good dog you.

Sunday, January 31st, 2010 - White Sunday

2010-01-30T23:53:00.000-08:00

We got our first pictures back yesterday - the photographer brought them by - and they´re absolutely stunning. Everybody said Bella looked amazing in her dress and the photos prove it.

Anyway, today is day two of married life. Outside the world is covered in snow, inside it´s warm and cozy. Too bad we have to get out, though: we have to go visit my grandparents.

These two days are quite calm, before the week starts and we have to take care of all kinds of stuff again. I started writing again yesterday.

Saturday, January 30th 2010 - First Day of Married Life

2010-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

So there it is. Married. The whole ceremony was yesterday. We spent the night at a resort paid for by my parents as a wedding gift.

Everything went swimmingly. I´m a bit tired right now, and don´t want to write too much, but let´s see if I can do it a bit quickly.

Got up at 7:30 for breakfast and stuff. Discovered that it had snowed a lot. Me and my dad brought Bella to the hairdresser, which was quite an adventure because of the ice on the roads. We actually lost control of the car once and slid onto a sidewalk.

But we didn´t have any real accidents, so no problem. After dropping Bella off, we went to a different village to pick up the flowers and bouquet, brought them back home, went back to pick up Bella from the hairdresser, went home, met with the photographer and went on a trip with him to snap some nice wedding photo´s. After that, a light lunch and off to the municipal court for the wedding ceremony.

The ceremony was really nice. The lady who married us was very kind and did a good speech. I had prepared a little something as well and got to say that at the very end.

Aferwards, like I said, off to the resort for a meal and a wedding night. They had a jacuzzi there, which was great, but had one small disadvantage that I might talk about tomorrow.

And now we´re home again and tired. I´ll keep my head down, today, and just study some Chinese and try to write a little bit.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010 - One More Day

2010-01-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

One more day until the wedding. Still no jitters. We´ve been working hard to get everything fixed, though.

Yesterday we met with the lady who is going to do the ceremony. Turns out she´s the mom of a girl I went to primary school with. That was a bit of a weird moment.

In the afternoon we had to go to the notary to sign our marriage contract. We entered into a pre-nuptual agreement to make sure that, should we ever get divorced (let´s hope not), Bella´s inheritance and stuff in Iran stays hers and my inheritance in Holland stays mine.

Today we need to meet with the hairdresser who´s going to do Bella´s hair. I hope she can do it right, because when I had her on the phone, she didn´t come over too well.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 - The Last Steps

2010-01-26T22:31:00.000-08:00

Two more days until the marriage. Everything is kind of hectic, but coming together.

We went to visit the wedding photographer yesterday and talk about what our wishes for the pictures were. We're lucky, because there's been a lot of snowfall, lately, with more to come in the next days. That will make for nice pictures.

The plan for now is to go to a place near the sea for one half of the pictures and to an estate called 'Staniastate' for the other half. There are trees over there, which should make for a nice contrast with the ocean pictures.

This morning we have to: go over to our family physician for a medical test, visit the master of ceremonies for our wedding to talk about the procedure on Friday and finally drive over to the municipal court to discuss the legalization technicalities with a lady from the government.

We've also talked about our plans for next week and the weeks after. We need to visit The Hague to visit the Iranian embassy, which gives us the opportunity to also look up some friends (Thomas, if you're reading this: expect an e-mail :) ). After that we were thinking of buying a global interrail pass so we can travel first-class all around Europe for two weeks.

Thursday, January 21, 2010 - Pricing Discrepancies

2010-01-26T22:30:00.000-08:00

A complete day off in sub-zero Beijing. We picked the visa up yesterday, so today has up till now only been about reviewing Chinese and shopping for Bella.

She needed a new shirt, but when we passed a foreign language bookstore we also bought a couple of new Chinese books. I found a book with easy stories, she found a new textbook.

We also visited a Chinese restaurant, which was nice because of the prices. Outside was a menu, that we could read, offering prices of around 12 yuan. Then we went inside and the people of the restaurant gave us a menu in English but with everything double the price. When we asked about it, they quickly gave us their Chinese-language menu with the prices lower again.

Must have been a holdover from the Olympics.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - More Conversion Talk

2010-01-26T22:29:00.002-08:00

We now know how to arrange everything about the marriage and my ‘conversion’ to Islam. That last bit, by the way, is needed for being able to travel to Iran and visit Bella’s parents.

We can get married in the Netherlands, go to a mosque, convert and get married again there, and then finally go to the Iranian embassy to get a certificate legalizing everything for the Iranian state.

It’s all a bit of a pain in the ass, but necessary.

Tuesday, January 20, 2010 - Getting Gouged

2010-01-26T22:29:00.001-08:00

Arrived in Beijing without any trouble. The flight was actually more comfortable than usual; we managed to get seats near the exit and had a very nice and roomy trip.

We decided to go from the airport straight to the Dutch and Iranian embassies, which was a bit of a chore because of having to drag around our luggage. It was, however, still preferable to having to wheel our stuff over to the hostel and then running back.

Lunch was had in a restaurant near the embassy. We nearly got gauged there, when the people there tried to have us pay for tea that they had offered us without telling us the price. I made a big scene and cussed them out in Chinese, which I’m actually pretty happy with; my Chinese obviously has improved.

In the end we paid fifteen yuan instead of thirty. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

Friday, January 15, 2010 - Souvenirs

2010-01-26T22:28:00.002-08:00

Went out to buy my parents’ souvenirs yesterday.

I settled on tea. When I give a gift, I want it to be something that I like giving. In this case, I bought two big metal Chinese-style thermos-cups and a bunch of different kinds of tea. I bought a chinese box for the tea, as well, and for that I had to go to the Xi’an city center to the tourist district.

The cups are awesome. I’ve never drunk as much tea as this winter and one of the reasons it suits me so well is because I have my own drinking cup. It’s a big-ass metal thing with a little sieve in the top end. That way you can put tea leaves and water in, close the sieve and not have to worry about getting the leaves in your mouth when you drink from it.

The tea I bought is the tea I myself always get from our local supermarket; they have a big bar where you can buy all kinds of different teas in small plastic bags. The only shame was that the one tea that is my favorite they didn’t have yesterday, but still, I have a good feeling about it all.

Thursday, January 14, 2010 - Conversion

2010-01-26T22:28:00.001-08:00

I have just finished writing an email to a mosque in Holland about converting to islam and marrying for the islam church.

After our marriage, we want to be able to travel to Iran and visit Mahkam’s parents. However, islam law states that an islamic woman may only marry an islamic man. Hence the need to convert.

Apparently it’s not that much of a headache; I can either do it in Holland or at the Iranian embassy in Beijing. We’ll see what’s more convenient.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 - Visa Notification

2010-01-26T22:27:00.002-08:00

Enjoying the first couple of days of the New Year’s vacation. Everybody here is getting ready for it; I have a Chinese student that I give extra classes to for a bit of cash, and last Sunday he brought tea as a gift.

We got a call from the Dutch embassy today telling us that Bella’s visa had come in. That’s good, because we had been getting more and more worried; time was getting a little short.

It was also quite a coincidence, because I had emailed them only this morning asking about the visa and how long it was going to take.

Monday, January 11, 2010 - Flexibility

2010-01-26T22:27:00.001-08:00

I have a crappy old Chinese textbook that imparts the following tidbit: ‘Chinese people can be remarkably rigid in some cases, and remarkably flexible in other!’

For a long time, I thought that whoever wrote that was full of crap. I had only ever met inflexible Chinese; no imagination, have to study what my parents tell me, you have to do this because it is in your contract, etc.

But now, life is better and Bella and I speak better Chinese so we hang around more Chinese people. And now the flexibility comes to the fore.

Last week I ordered food at our usual restaurant and the waitress girl made a mistake calculating the price. I paid nineteen yuan when I should have paid twenty-two. I went out for a bit to buy some groceries and when I came back to pick up the food, the lady who owns the place had already been chewing the girl out. When I offered to pay the extra three yuan, she refused, though. She said – in Chinese – that it had been the girl’s fault and not mine. And then went back to giving the waitress a talking-to.

Saturday, January 09, 2010 - Cats and Birds

2010-01-26T22:26:00.004-08:00

We have a whole pile of cats living around our building. The inhabitants of Xi’an seem to like dogs more – many people have them as pets – but cats are still around. They just don’t live in the house.

Many older people will take time to feed the animals by putting little baskets of leftover food out. Still, the cats mostly have to fend for themselves which means you aren’t really any plump, well-groomed specimens like those padding around in Holland.

Two days ago, Bella and I were going out for lunch when we heard a squawk followed by screaming. The squawk was a sparrow. A cat had gotten a hold of it and was biting it in the neck to choke it. The screaming came from all the other birds still in the trees, cat-calling and sounding the alarm. It was pretty impressive. And sad. While we were walking past, the cat stared at us, careful not to let anybody steal its prey.

The odd thing, by the way, was that the birds in the tree were of at least three different species. I didn’t know they worked together like that.

Friday, January 08, 2010 - Street Food

2010-01-26T22:26:00.003-08:00

The streets are filled with little food stalls this time of year and more seem to pop up every day. Which is good news for us, because it means we can get fresh vegetables, meat or snacks right outside our little building park.

Bella and I figure many of these people are farmers who have nothing to do in the winter and decide to trek to the city to try and make an extra buck. Which is a good idea, really.

As always, you have to be careful with the meat. Don’t eat meat off the street unless you’re sure it’s been kept well. Stick with vegetables and you’re always good.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010 - Happiness

2010-01-26T22:26:00.001-08:00

It’s amazing how easy you can adjust to a new life if you’re simply happy.

When I came to China, there were several months (let’s be broad and say about a year) where I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t sure whether coming here was the right choice. There was nobody to fall back on. Work was crap, with crappy colleagues and crappy conditions.

Then I moved to Hangzhou, met Bella, moved to Xi’an, got a good apartment, nice job. Now life is good and things are fun to do and I actually enjoy all the quirky little things in my day that I wouldn’t be able to do in Holland.

All of which is a long-winded way to say that when I have days off, I have a habit of going out for breakfast to a little place in our building park. They make a kind of tofu-pudding which, together with deep-fried bread that they make themselves, is a pretty good start of the day. The walk to and from the place certainly helps; it’s a chance to hop out the door after getting up out of bed and getting a bit of fresh air.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010 - School's Out

2010-01-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

And sometimes you just get plain lucky. I didn’t have class yesterday; my students simply didn’t show up. I assumed then this was because of a conflicting test schedule.

Today, however, when I showed up at my classroom, there were once again no students. The caretaker also told me that there would be no other classes this week.

A quick call confirmed it; because of the tests this week, my classes have been canceled. Which means that my term ended last week without me even knowing. The lady I talked to even apologised for the inconvenience.

Inconvenience. It’s not exactly the word I would use.

Monday, January 04, 2010 - Water Trouble

2010-01-26T22:22:00.002-08:00

There was a report in the news today about a big oilspill into one of the tributaries of the Yangtse river. That’s one of the main rivers of China and also the river that Shaanxi province draws most of its drinking water from. The news article said that people had been warned to be careful with the water from their taps.

I called the university staff today to learn more. Luckily, though the north of Shaanxi has some problems, most of Xi’an’s water apparently comes from underground. In our city there is therefore no cause for alarm.

Which is good, but there it does seem like there has been a little waterhoarding going on. Bella and I haven’t been able to buy big bottles of drinking water the whole weekend. We’ve had to make do with smaller bottles, which isn’t that much of an inconvenience as far as those go, but still.

Sunday, January 03, 2010 - Xin Nian Kuai Le

2010-01-26T22:22:00.001-08:00

As soon as the ‘happy new year’ signs are taken off, they’re replaced with ‘xin nian kuai le’. That is Chinese for ‘happy new year’, by the way, and is the slogan for Chinese new year.

That also means that the songs in the stores have in recent weeks switched from first a loop of five or six christmas songs to now a loop of five or six chinese new year songs.

The most well-known of these is ‘gongxi gongxi’. There are thousands of versions of the song, but usually it’ll be performed by a kids choir. It’s actually a pretty good song with a catchy refrain. Better than ‘jingle bells’ at least.

Saturday, January 2, 2010 - Wedding Rings

2010-01-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

Spent three hours inside a shopping mall today, looking for a wedding ring.
Found it, too. So now we’ve lost 5000 yuan, but gained two pretty golden rings.

Everything took a little longer than we expected. Once again, my size baffled the Chinese manufacturing sector; the ring was too small for my finger and couldn’t be stretched to fit. I had to pay extra for extra gold to be worked into the thing.

Friday, January 1, 2010 - Happy New Year

2010-01-26T22:19:00.000-08:00

A happy New Year to all. Bella and I watched a movie until eleven at night yesterday and then said; ‘Screw it. We’re too tired. We’ll congratulate each other tomorrow.’ We are truly wimps.

We did go to a Korean restaurant today to kind of celebrate with an expensive meal, although it didn’t really leave me content.

That’s the problem with being my height; volume counts. We ordered meat, fish and different kinds of mushrooms. All of which was delicious, but not really filling. In the end we basically paid three times what we normally pay for a lunch and I still pulled over somewhere on the way home to get some street food. Which was a pita bread stuffed with potato, white cabbage and carrot. And cost two yuan.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 - Cheating on a Test

2010-01-26T06:38:00.001-08:00

So the test weeks have started and today the talk in the teacher’s lounge was about a boy caught cheating during a computer science test. He was kicked out of the university the same day – that day being yesterday.

This kid’s whole life is now ruined and in the teacher’s room they were kind of subdued because of it, since the boy had actually been in one of the teacher’s classes.

And the most uncomfortable point to be made about it was the following. This kid was turned into an example. The sentencing was harsh to discourage others from doing the same. At the same time, however, rich people or government officials paying for their offspring to get a good grade is a well-known and almost accepted practice. What then is the lesson here?

Monday, December 28, 2009 - The Life of a Chinese Student

2010-01-26T06:37:00.002-08:00

One of the reasons that Chinese students are under so much pressure is because of how their school year is structured.

In the Netherlands we work with trimesters; the year is divided into three parts of thirteen or fourteen weeks. In China, the year consists of two semesters of twenty weeks.

On top of that, Chinese don’t have midterm tests like we do. Where Dutch students have two tests (plus perhaps a number of small quizzes or essays), for Chinese students the whole semester depends on one giant test at the end of the semester.

That means that during two weeks, they have to do seven or eight giant tests that all decide whether all the work they did during the past twenty weeks was a waste or not. That kind of thing will definitely put you on edge.

Sunday, December 27, 2009 - Tests

2010-01-26T06:37:00.001-08:00

Tests are paramount in the Chinese student’s life and they’re just as important to the parent, for whom this one moment is the confirmation of all the time and energy they put in their progeny.

Which is a longwinded way to say that my English class today was canceled. The man I teach called me to say that his daughter had a test to get into high school and that he had to accompany her. Apparently that meant he had to stand outside the halls for the entire two or three hours of the test.

Saturday, December 26, 2009 - Nasty Weather

2010-01-26T06:36:00.000-08:00

Today is nasty cold here in Xi’an; sub-zero temperatures and a cutting wind.

We went out for lunch around 12:30 and decided to go to our favorite restaurant. A shame that the place was already crowded and that we had to sit at the table closest to the door.

Chinese building are almost never properly isolated and we had to eat our food while sitting in a cold draft. Great food, though; fish and potatoes. But still…not very comfortable. The rest of the weekend will be spent indoors. We’ve made good, thick soup.

Friday, December 25, 2009 - Tooth Ache

2010-01-26T06:35:00.000-08:00

Bought the dress today, brought it home. Went to the oft-visited buffet for lunch and ate our fill.

My toothache didn’t play up today, thank God. I’ve had a nagging pain in one of my molars for several weeks now. I need to go and see a dentist. I want to see one, but I don’t trust Chinese dentists.

Dentists in China almost never speak English, so they can’t explain to me what’s wrong. And I’ve seen the Chinese educational system up close. It doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.

I’m hoping that I can last until Bella and I go to Holland and see my own Dutch dentist. The molar in question has always been troublesome. It’s been drilled and filled and drilled again and I’m actually kind of thinking of asking to guy to take it out and put in a crown. I’ll at least ask him how much it will cost.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 - Submitted Comment

2010-01-26T00:33:00.000-08:00

My comment submitted to the New York Times in response to the opinion article ‘In Defense of America’.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/opinion/22iht-edcohen.html

Roger Cohen may be right. I am a Dutch person who majored in American Studies and spent time living in America. The fundamental difference as I experienced it was a boundless optimism at the core of the American cultural psyche. For a Dutchman life and the environment seem more of a balancing act between limiting factors.

At its best, the American optimism translates into a can-do spirit willing to tackle anything in the fundamental belief that there is a way to solve all problems without compromise. At its worst, it causes ignorance, arrogance and aggression.

Cohen keeps a scorecard and asks which culture is better or worse. My question to him is; who is served by this analysis? There are as many opinions on the subject as there are people on this planet. I think the energy spent on ranking cultures relative to one another could be better spent analyzing the flaws in one's own and trying to fix them.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - Water Trouble

2010-01-25T23:54:00.001-08:00

Today was a fun class. The toilets in the men’s room backed up and half the second floor in my teaching building flooded. Which meant that I had to teach while splashing around in a centimeter of water.

So al during the class, the one thought I tried to keep out of my head was: you know where this water comes from. Who knows what’s in it?

And then of course I dropped my teaching book in it. Because I’ve never dropped it before, but today has to be the day.

Monday, December 21, 2009 - Police

2010-01-25T23:53:00.000-08:00

Police presence in Chinese cities is basically a joke.

Traffic rules are not enforced. Even better, the police itself can often be seen flaunting the rules they are supposed to uphold. They’ll bulldozer their car over a bike lane whenever they see fit.

Food stands are everywhere in China and if you’re careful you can get great food from them. Just don’t eat the meat, because that’s kind of a Russian roulette.

Anyway, shops like these are supposed to obtain a license, but of course they never do. So the police goes around in cars with speakers mounted on top and shouts at them. They don’t even get out of the car; they just shout at them from the inside. And the vendors move their carts away for a minute until the policecar moves on, and then push them back.

It is stupid. It is futile. It’s life in China.

Sunday, December 20, 2009 - The People Under The Stairs

2010-01-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

In Beijing it’s 10 degrees below zero right now. Here in Xi’an it hovers around the zero mark. That’s pretty cold, which makes your heart go out to all the poor people here, living in crappy houses.

Our earlier apartment was crap. Way up in a highrise, without isolation and with no central heating. We were cold there even in the summer.

In our apartment basement live people. They’re migrant workers, mostly, but there’s also an elderly couple that lives there permanently and takes care of the place. The guy wears an old army coat and walks with a limp, so I’m guessing he’s ex-army.

They have to live in that hole all the time. Every time I come there to pick up my scooter, the woman is lying on their bed in the office, watching TV. What kind of life is that? Don’t they have children to take care of them?

Saturday, December 19, 2009 - More Traffic Adventures

2010-01-25T23:51:00.001-08:00

So the climate summit in Kopenhagen has failed, which makes me so angry I could spit.

Back home, Bella came back from Beijing yesterday evening, which was nice. Hadn’t slept well the previous night, but slept well last night. I don’t know for a fact whether it was because she was in the bed with me, but it’d be nice to imagine that was the reason.

This morning we went to the Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping. We took our scooter. When we were on the way back, we had to cross a road where the light had just turned green for us. That means the light for pedestrians had turned red. Three girls were crossing the road anyway. Then two of them saw us (and the cars behind us) approaching and jumped back. Girl number three, however, was talking on the phone, didn’t look up or anything and wandered straight into traffic.

She literally walked out right in front of us and I had to veer violently to the right to avoid her. Both Bella and I shouted and cursed at her. Which made me happy and content. We’re both cranky bastards together.

Friday, December 18, 2009 - Alone in Xi'an

2010-01-25T23:50:00.002-08:00

It’s becoming very easy for this blog to slip my mind. No website to put it on. Other concerns keeping me busy.

Anyway, Bella is in Beijing. Or actually, she’s coming back from Beijing after having applied for a Dutch visa this morning. She’s a bit nervous about it; apparently there was a Chinese lady at the desk who couldn’t read the Dutch invitation letters and gave her a bit of a hard time.

At the home front I was called by the assistant to the doctor that I gave the extra class to on Sunday. She wanted to confirm the time and date, which was no problem, but then she asked something strange. She wanted to know whether, instead of paying after every class, he could just pay me once a month.

Now why would they want that? I mean, the doctor seemed decent and all, but we have no formal agreement and letting him pay at the end of every month would make it very easy for him to screw me over. I said that if he REALLY wanted to, that would be okay, but I think that I’m going to try and discuss it with him on Sunday. The idea just makes me uncomfortable.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - Spines

2010-01-25T23:50:00.001-08:00

The doctor I taught on Sunday is actually a surgeon who specializes in the human spine.

In his office he had a box full of models from patients’ actual spines. Apparently his focus is on a birth defect (of which I’ve forgotten the name) that makes the spine deform as the person grows up. He showed me pictures of patients standing hunchbacked and crooked and told me that he had even performed surgery on one of this type of patient last week.

Apparently what he does is open up the spine and then put in titanium nails and rods to straighten out the spine. Which was a story that made shivers go down my back, but anyway.

I asked him whether the patients felt any pain and he said: ‘No, they are sleeping.’ And I answered that yes, I could understand that they were under sedation while he performed the surgery. But how about afterwards? He answered: ‘The first three months, a little bit uncomfortable.’

Yeah. No kidding. They have titanium rods in their spines now. But anyway, it improves their quality of life.

Sunday, December 13, 2009 - Extra Classes

2010-01-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

Taught my first extra class today, to a doctor in a Xi’an hospital.

He’s a spine doctor and the hour was spent talking about his job and his life here in Xi’an. I had originally assumed the lesson would be two hours, but the appointment was made through his assistant and she kind of messed it up.

Next week he’ll come to my place on Sunday, which will free me from having to take a taxi or bus over to the hospital and will also let me teach him for a bit longer and for a bit more money.

Friday, December 11, 2009 - Soup

2010-01-25T23:42:00.001-08:00

While Bella is in the living room playing videogames on my new XboX 360, I’m scouring the internet for a good soup recipe.

We’ve eaten soup for the last two weekends, because we had a hankering for it and because soup is one dish that Chinese don’t really know how to make. With them it’s always bland and thin with a watery taste.

We’re thinking about making lamb soup this time.

Thursday, December 10, 2009 - Future Planned

2010-01-25T23:41:00.002-08:00

We finished the new contract negotiations and got pretty much what we asked for. Within ten months we get paid roughly the equivalent of our previous eleven months of pay plus a decent raise.

Which is nice, because it makes you feel appreciated and wanted. Bella needs the contract for her visa application next week at the Dutch embassy, so we signed it yesterday.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009 - Future Planning

2010-01-25T23:41:00.001-08:00

Bella and I visited the university’s foreign exchange office today to talk about our contract for next year.

There was a whole lot of talking about pay. Basically, universities usually pay for only ten months. There is no teaching in the summer months.

We were hired in March, however, so we were paid for eleven months this year. The university would like to see this go back to ten months, which we didn’t like because it would mean us earning less the coming year than this one. So we wanted a bigger raise than the one we were originally getting.

There was a whole lot of talking and the lady we did the talking to is now going to ask her boss for permission to give us a higher raise. We’ll see.

Friday, December 04, 2009 - Christmas Coming

2010-01-25T23:40:00.002-08:00

We went to Wal-Mart today to get some groceries and got treated to a steady loop of crappy christmas songs.

It’s still not as bad as the US during my internship there; I was on the verge of driven violently insane then. But still, it hurts. Especially because a) Chinese people have no idea what Christmas even is and b) they only have like four songs and just play them over and over again.

Thursday, December 03, 2009 - Chinese Traffic

2010-01-25T23:40:00.001-08:00

Every Monday and Wednesday Bella and I hop on the scooter to drive over to dance class.
Every Monday and Wednesday it’s another race with death.

Chinese traffic is absolutely crazy. The rules are flaunted because there are no police to enforce them. Cars drive on sidewalks, back out and into turns or alleyways and people wander across the road during rush hour.

There are three round-abouts between here and the dance school. Yesterday we got cut off by a bus doing eighty kilometers per hour that thundered across the bike lane to get on the round-about. It was going so fast that the whole bus leaned over when it took the turn.

There are highways crossing our route, as well. The police has helpfully cordoned off all the openings between the two lanes of traffic, which means that there is no way of crossing them for two or three blocks in either direction. Actually, there is; you have to squeeze your scooter through a small opening in the fence somebody else once made to be able to cross. Right through traffic. While everybody else is trying to do the same.

Absolute madness.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - Insecurities Again

2010-01-25T23:39:00.000-08:00

My dad suggests I should try and stay in China for another two years, but I don’t know.

I’m okay here. Enough money, nice stuff around the house. Then again, though, there’s the insecurity about my future career. We’re not making that much money that we’re really putting anything away for later.

And I miss Europe; I miss going to bars for pool. I miss hanging out with mates and playing Dungeons and Dragons. I miss not being stared at for being too tall.

But then again, again, on the other hand; if I study Chinese well enough it’ll allow me a good job in a couple of years from now. And the situation in Europe is not great for people looking for a job.

Arrgh. There is no solution here. Only insecurity. And I’ve started hating that.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - Extra Money

2010-01-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

I got emailed yesterday by my contact with the teaching department. Apparently she has a friend who is going to America for an exchange and would like to follow some classes with an English teacher to brush up on his language skills.

I tried to get students for extra classes earlier this semester; I could use the money. Students are poor and busy, though, so no one contacted me. Bella told her students and I told mine but still nothing.

I just bought an XboX 360, so it would be great to get some extra money in. I’ll try and snag this guy.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - Troubles with Teeth

2010-01-25T23:04:00.000-08:00

Up in the early morning again, although the jetlag is finally wearing off a bit. Woke up at six thirty today instead of five o´clock.

Me and Bella went to see the dentist yesterday, which was a real party. I´m ... well, not scared of the dentist anymore (being an adult now, hah hah), but that doesn´t mean I like going there. And a month or two ago my upper left molar began hurting something fierce. That thing has been filled, filled and filled again, so I immediately had visions of the thing rotting away in my mouth.

Turns out I was overreacting, as usual. One cavity in that tooth, yes, but nothing else. They´ll fix that for me this afternoon.

Bella wasn´t so lucky. She hadn´t been to a dentist in something like five or six (or eight) years. That got her six cavities, which they´ll try to fix for her next week.

Monday, November 30 2009 - Recycling

2010-01-24T21:51:00.001-08:00

Construction workers have finished tearing down the two blocks behind our building park that were evacuated a couple of weeks ago.

Back then I told about the van pulling up and announcing to the residents that they had to move out. When that was done, the trucks and cranes moved in.

No fancy techniques here. For several weeks now they’ve been grinding these buildings into the ground, bathing everything around them in dust and dirt. Our walls and windows are covered with it. Bella now wants the house swept and mopped every few days.

The thing about demolishing buildings here in China; whenever you’re done tearing the stuff down, you never really have to haul away as much as you started with. As soon as there’s a chance, there’ll be ten or twenty Chinese on the lot gathering bricks. They’ll clean them up and sell them again or use them for their own houses. Very little gets wasted here.

Sunday, November 29 2009 - Food Adventures

2010-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

For the second time this month, me and Bella went to the 50 yuan buffet today.
Good food; crab, fish, steamed buns, hot pot. But then the shocks started coming.

The first one was when two girls came running past, squealing with delight and mock-horror because of the live, moving crabs on their plates. One of them dropped a crab right next to our table. They had gotten these from the hot pot aisle and when they arrived at their table they proceeded to drop them into the boiling water. There were lots of crabs and not much room, so the girls really had to push the creatures down into the boiling water with their chopsticks.

That was one. The second one occurred near the end of our meal when the little kid from two tables over decided he had to go and took a whiz on the floor right next to their table. He was a little kid, maybe two or three years old and in China that means that he wasn’t potty trained yet. They have special clothes for kids of this age here; pants with a big crack where their crotch should be. It allows the toddler to do his business without the bother of having to unbutton his pants.

Friday, November 27 2009 - Fighting in The Street

2010-01-24T21:49:00.001-08:00

Bella and I had an argument today, in the middle of the street. It was about something stupid; some clothes that she wanted to buy and wanted my opinion on and which I didn’t like.

Point is, while we were arguing, some Chinese guy stopped next to us and started talking to us. Just some stupid English words. ‘Hello.’ ‘How are you.’ That kind of shit. And when we didn’t react quickly enough, because we were having our own stuff to deal with, thank you very much, he laughed and said loudly to whoever would listen: ‘Oh, they don’t understand, hah hah.’

All the while we were having our own argument and were dealing with our own things. I swear, many Chinese are so impolite or have met so few foreigners, that they treat every foreigner they see as their own personal monkey, put on the earth to amuse them. I could have killed that guy.

Wednesday, November 25 2009 - Stereotypes in Creativity

2010-01-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Chinese students (or perhaps Asian students in general) have a reputation for not being very creative.

Chinese education does not encourage students to think outside the box. If they have to write something like an essay, they will be given a strict model with which to structure their work.

This week, my task for my students is to write a short story, like a movie plot. I want them to work together in pairs and write a 100-word essay of something they came up with themselves.

Many have done really well. Others are too lazy or too uncreative. They sit there for twenty minutes staring at an empty sheet of paper or they give me something that I recognize for a movie that I’ve seen before, like Forrest Gump or Titanic or 2012.

It’s easy to chalk all that up to not being creative, but were we Westerners much better during our school days? I was a lazy student and most classes did not interest me terribly much. I wouldn’t have jumped at the chance to write something like this, either. That reputation of not having any creativity seems a bit of a stereotype to me. It also seems like a bit of an excuse for teachers to use when they themselves can’t get anything meaningful out of the people they’re supposed to teach.

Tuesday, November 24 2009 - Wedding Dresses

2010-01-24T21:47:00.002-08:00

We bought a wedding dress today. It’s beautiful and it only cost us 1800 Yuan; far cheaper than we had anticipated.

That’s the difference in class here in China. We went into town on Friday as well, and went to the city center. There, dresses were 3500 Yuan. To rent. And they didn’t even look that nice.

Just like back in Europe, however, it seems that you can just slap the name of a famous brand on it and decorate your store real nice and all of a sudden you’re able to double your price.

Bella looked beautiful in her dress. I’d better start thinking about how to look myself.

Monday, November 23 2009 - Hanging Out

2010-01-24T21:47:00.001-08:00

It’s admirable to see how people hang out here in China.

In Holland, old people don’t come out of the house that much. Actually, that sounds depressing; they do, but it feels like many have their own small circle of friends. And it’s a circle that gets smaller every year.

Here, you can see women do Tai Chi or dancing in the mornings. Old men will sit together talking or playing Chinese Chess. Even kids will sit together, although the only thing they seem to do is sit next to each other while fooling around with their cell phones.

This kind of bond is nice. This kind of public life is nice, and it’s something that you don’t really see in my country anymore. The fear of criminals, excessive regulation of public areas and the fact that old people all get stuffed into rest homes all contributed to the decline. Of course we have our bars and bingo nights, but it’s just not the same.

My parents – not that old yet, but still – have a choir group that they practice with. So at least that works for them.

Sunday, November 22 2009 - Kung Fu Chinese

2010-01-24T21:46:00.000-08:00

Bella and I watched thirty minutes of a Chinese movie yesterday – some kungfu flick about a female bodyguard looking for her kidnapped employers.

The story wasn’t important. What was important is that we saw the movie without translations; just Chinese sound and Chinese subtitles. And though we missed a lot, we were both happy by how much we understood and how well we could follow the general narrative of the movie.

We get kind of cheated by what we see of Chinese characters in our daily life; we work at a university and most of the stuff we get in front of our eyes is either some scientific text or something like the back of a store-bought product, with its overly specific words and scientific names for ingredients.

I learned English primarily through watching TV. If I keep doing this from now on, I might be able to improve my Chinese markedly by watching Chinese movies.

Saturday, November 21 2009 - Flu Delirium

2010-01-24T21:45:00.002-08:00

So messed up from the flu today that I stared unbelievingly at my blog entry for yesterday; couldn’t even remember writing it up.

Yesterday – I think – saw the election of a president and a foreign affairs representative for the European Union. I’ve been trolling the internet ever since reading news articles and opinion pieces about it. It’s impressive how bad it has all been.

Journalists work under great pressure; they have to come up with five-hundred or a thousand words every day on the topic that they’re assigned. I have never been a real journalist; even during my studies my only real journalistic job was a three-month internship at a local newspaper. And I hated (almost) every second of it.

As a journalist you get handed the smallest of tidbits to fashion a story around and you have to do it again and again. Actual fact-finding and fact-checking is discouraged because there’s no money for it.

Thursday, November 19 2009 - More Viruses

2010-01-24T21:45:00.001-08:00

Got the virus off my computer and am now busy fighting the one in my body.

It’s the flu and when it hit hard yesterday, all I could think was; don’t let it be swine flu. I don’t really want to be quarantined like so many foreigners in China have been, recently.

But it’s okay. I already feel better today. We took it easy and didn’t go to dance class yesterday, which was a disappointment for Bella. She was the one who proposed it, however, so that made me feel a little less guilty.

Tomorrow her and I have a date to spend the afternoon in the city and do some shopping. Bella wants to look for some nice winter clothes as well as see if there are any wedding dresses to be had.

Wednesday, November 18 2009 - Viruses

2010-01-24T21:44:00.000-08:00

Spent yesterday evening and this morning trying to get rid of two horrible viruses on my laptop.

I want to practice my Chinese by downloading Chinese-language movies, so I found some on torrent websites. Too bad they came with the uninvited guests mentioned above.

For a while there I thought I was going to have to wipe my whole hard-disk and reinstall Windows. The viruses didn’t let me open any programs that might remove them, like anti-virus software or windows safe mode reboot. Luckily there was one thing on the internet called Malwarebyte that removed that block, after which I could sic my other programs after them.

Tuesday, November 17 2009 - Schadenfreude

2010-01-24T21:43:00.002-08:00

Definitely sick. Woke up this morning feeling like a run-over dog.

Anyway. There’s snow everywhere now and it looks like it’s here to stay.

While going to class this morning I came across a scene with a student standing near some shrubs in front of the university’s teaching building.

It seemed that she had lost something or left it somewhere and had asked some girls from the third floor – probably her dormitory roommates – to throw it down to her.

However, girls throw like, well, girls and whatever they had thrown down had landed in the snow-covered shrubs in front of the student. Which meant that she was now going to have to wade into the snow to try and retrieve the thing from under the brush.

The girls on the third floor saw me approach and told the one on the ground floor to ask me for help since I had long arms. I was in a hurry, though, and didn’t really see myself digging through the cold snow because of someone else’s stupidity, so I regretfully declined.

Monday, November 16 2009 - Soup Love

2010-01-24T21:43:00.001-08:00

One thing that I’ve never had in China is real good soup. Chinese don’t do soup. They do these watery things with noodles or egg or whatever. The only thing good about them is that they’re hot.

My mom used to boil bones in the soup and add meatballs. That’s good eatin’. Keeps you coming back for more.

It’s cold now, with snow and rain. This morning I woke up with a sore throat which will probably ripen into a full-blown cold in a couple of days. That kind of stuff makes me long for good soup.

Long story short; we bought a soup pan this weekend and I looked up some recipes for chicken-soup online. The coming weekend I’ll go and buy the ingredients and see if I can make something edible.

Sunday, November 15 2009 - Food Discoveries

2010-01-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

Still snowing.

Yesterday we wanted to do something special for lunch. Bella loves pizza and I knew somewhere close by where there was a Pizza Hut, so off we went.

When we arrived, Bella noticed a restaurant with a sign also promising pizza. It was kind of inconspicously located on the second floor around the corner of a square in front of a supermarket, but we could see plenty of people sitting inside. We found the entrance, which was an elevator inside the adjacent apartment building.

Turned out it was this huge buffet place. Eat ‘till you drop for only fifty yuan. And it wasn’t bad food, either. Hot pot, crab, pizza. Steamed, grilled or fried. Everything was there. They even had snails. It was awesome. Basically as good or better than the hotel we went to for my birthday, for half the price. We were stuffed, happy and content all day.

Saturday, November 14 2009 - Winter Activities

2010-01-24T21:41:00.002-08:00

So the winter has well and truly started. It’s cold enough to freeze your butt off and the heavy snow ruined many of the trees in our street.

It was heavy snow, saturated with water, and the trees had not shed their leaves yet so it all fell and rested on the branches. We’ve got trees here that are completely splintered. Fallen branches have been pushed aside off the streets, but many have not yet been completely removed.

I had this idea to create peanut strings for birds. I bought a bag of peanuts that weren’t very tasty, but didn’t want to throw them away. So I got some needle and thread from Bella, strung a row of them together and hung them from the bars in front of out window.

I’ll see if birds actually eat from them before I do any more.

Friday, November 13 2009 - Clothes Shopping Adventures

2010-01-24T21:41:00.001-08:00

Finally - FINALLY – found some clothes that fit me.

I hate shopping. Always have. I like to browse stuff to my leisure, but it always feels like assistants dog my heels and that makes me nervous (I know, by the way; ‘Grow a pair.’ I know, I know. But this is my blog, and we’re talking about me right now). Also, here in China nothing ever fits me. So a whole afternoon of walking around, being bored and being awkward, might only result in a single shirt or sweater.

But then there is the Wal-Mart. Which I guess exports clothes to the US. 99 percent of the stuff still doesn’t fit me, but today I found a light sweater with matching vest that didn’t look too hideous on me, fit me well and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. So hooray. The last time I honestly and truly got some good clothes here in China was 8 months ago in Hangzhou.

Thursday, November 12 2009 - The White Stuff

2010-01-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

Snow, snow, snow!

It’s been ages, but yesterday it came. Tons of it, too. It started with rain, then wet snow and after the end of our dance class at 7:30 in the evening we had to plow through heaps of it on our electric scooter.

I’ve taken pictures that I hope I can post up on my blog sometime. Snow is always beautiful – at least until it starts to melt or cars slush it all up and make it dirty – but now that we’re living in a comfy apartment with a view on trees and a little park, it’s extra great.

Slippery as hell, though. Marble and granite are a sign of prestige on buildings, but here in China you can also find the stuff on sidewalks in front of libraries and hotels. Which means that those places turn into ice rinks when you get wet snow. I almost took a header when coming home from classes in the afternoon and Bella just about killed herself slipping and sliding off the steps outside the dance school.

Wednesday, November 11 2009 - Horror Love

2010-01-24T21:38:00.000-08:00

I love horror.

Not sick horror like the Saw movies. That’s not horror; that’s torture porn. But Stephen King novels are great. Japanese horror movies are great. Horror survival games are great.

Chinese are not too fond of them, though. My students don’t watch them and there are not too many Chinese horror movies around.

There aren’t that many Chinese science fiction movies either, for that matter. Historical dramas? Sure. War movies? Oh yeah.

Every culture is obsessed with peculiar things. Americans love conspiracies and end-of-the-world stories. Japanese seem to go for brute violence. Chinese seem focused on their golden past and their country’s fighting prowess.

Monday, November 9 2009 - Boyband Nightmares

2010-01-24T21:37:00.001-08:00

To open with a cliché; different people like different things.

Whenever I talk to my students about which music they like best or what their favorite band is, plenty of boys will say ‘Boyzone’ or ‘Westlife’.

There are of course plenty of Chinese young people that are plenty knowledgeable about music and way cooler than I am. The point I’m trying to make is this; cultural stigmas don’t travel well.

Boybands are considered girly in the West. They’re pre-fab pop music of the worst type. Here in China, however, if you’re not a total music nut then boyband music is fine. It’s light, easily digestable and not too loud. Most Chinese can’t keep up with the lyrics anyway, so the whole endless cooing about love and such is not picked up.

Same goes for movies. The movie Pearl Harbor is pretty much universally considered a piece of crap where I come from - filled with cliches and cheap emotions. Here, if I ask what their favorite movie is, I get Pearl Harbor at least once or twice in a class of thirty-five. There’s love and death in it and crap blows up real good. What’s not to like?

Sunday, November 08 2009 - Marriage Plans

2010-01-24T21:36:00.002-08:00

The date of our marriage has now been pretty well written in stone; January 29th, next year.

The ceremony itself doesn’t really concern me. I guess it kind of should - what with it supposedly being the most important day of your life and all – but I find myself more concerned about where to travel to for our honeymoon and trying to plan a little for the months after.

I’ve talked enough about my plans for the future. About the plans for our honeymoon, well, we’re thinking about going to Vienna. I’ve wanted to see the city since forever. Bella is interested in the music side of things and would like to buy some stuff like music books for her violin practice.

I just want to see old buildings and alleys and castles. Maybe some forests. Vienna is also supposed to have these insane old gothic cemetaries. It’s gonna be awesome.

Saturday, November 7 2009 - More Insecurities

2010-01-24T21:36:00.001-08:00

I kind of want to get back to Holland. Want to have a boring life; house, car, TV. Want to go back to lazy hobbies like Dungeons and Dragons. Hang out with friends.

But of course what bites me in the ass is the financial crisis. It’s hard to get a job in Holland, especially when you’re still living in a different country.

Perhaps, though, this is a good thing, because it forces me to stay here. Which makes me study Chinese and get good at it, which I’m pretty probable to be able to translate to a job later. Being able to speak Chinese, Dutch and English should be pretty marketable.

All of this doesn’t make my homesickness any better.

Friday, November 06 2009 - Building Projects

2010-01-24T21:35:00.002-08:00

Everything is being torn down all around us.

We went upstreet a week ago and found that since the previous time (literally two days before that) everybody there had moved out and that the buildings were being torn down. New highrise apartments being built.

There was a van standing there having this message in Chinese on loop, telling people about them having to move out and when the deadline was. Which kind of makes you wonder how stuff like this goes around here. Just some van pulling up, telling you to get the hell out because your house is going to be demolished? My God.

And then last week the same message started coming through our window from the district behind us. And sure enough, everybody moved out this week and for the last two days, cranes and trucks have been driving around to tear everything down. That means that we now have construction sites three sides around us. The university is at the fourth.

Thursday, November 05 2009 - Weird Chinese Snacks

2010-01-24T21:35:00.001-08:00

In the ongoing quest to find new and tasty, but often weird, Chinese snacks to eat: preserved eggs and fish tablets.

There are different kinds of preserved eggs; ones that are really old, with green yolk and ones that have been marinated in soy sauce. I’m not really planning on touching the first kind. The second kind I was also a little shy from, but I’ve tried them out this week and they’re actually really good. Another staple for snacktime.

Fish tablets don’t actually contain any real fish, at least if I understand the ingredient list right. They are just chewy bits of something with lots and lots of spices and chili sauce. Pretty good, but the mentioned lack of actual fish worries me a bit. Kind of like that thing that they have in Europe where some products bear the tag ‘chocolate flavored’, which means that there’s not actually any chocolate inside it.

Wednesday, November 04 2009 - Insecurities

2010-01-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

One of the big insecurities that plague me here in China is the choice to come here in the first place. Was it the right decision? Did I make a mistake?

If I stay here and learn Chinese, I will have a definite advantage in the job market if and when I go back home. On the other hand, patience has never been my strong suit.

There’s a little jealousy going on there, too. I see friends of mine doing stuff that is great and interesting and although my job here is cool and relaxed, there is a little voice in my head saying that I would have liked to do those other things, too.

And then I think back to all the decisions that I’ve made in my life and consider what I would decide now, with all the knowledge I have now. Regarding my education, my choice of major, some behavior when I was younger; if only I could do it over again, I would do it all differently.

But that is a very cliched thing to say. We can’t do things over again and trying that is exactly what causes a person to make new mistakes.

Tuesday, November 03 2009 - Dance Class

2010-01-24T21:33:00.002-08:00

Went dancing again yesterday and this time at 18:10, which is a different class with a different teacher, this time a guy.

Here’s what happens a lot in China. My Chinese is getting better and better insofar that I can now understand at least the gist of a lot that is being said, but it is still very hard for me myself to say something beyond basic sentences. Spontaneity is an issue.

So the awkward moments came early in the class when the teacher, under the impression that I couldn’t understand his Chinese, talked about me to the Chinese students of the class. About my height, for instance, or the fact that I moved very ungracefully. Which I could all understand, but not really react to.

I don’t hate the guy. He’s a bit of a dandy show-off, but a good teacher. Furthermore, this kind of crap happens all the time. No use singling out one person for something that everybody here does.

Monday, November 02 2009 - Bad Students

2010-01-24T21:33:00.001-08:00

All my classes this semester are pretty easy and the students are almost all nice and active.

The class I taught this morning, however, has one boy (guy? I think he must be about twenty or something) who is loud, doesn’t really listen to me and is generally a bit of a nuisance.

What is it that makes somebody still do that at that age? I can’t complain too much, because I used to be just like him. Not so specifically out to needle a teacher, but simply short on attention and too much energy.

That was age 15 and 16, however, not twenty. If you’re still behaving like that at twenty, maybe you have the wrong idea about school. If you don’t want to be there, you shouldn’t come. You should also be adult enough to figure that out.

Sunday, November 01 2009 - Studying Chinese

2010-01-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

Slowly but surely my Chinese is improving.

I’ve been studying the language intensely for about year and a half now, and am finally starting to understand random sentences people throw at me. When I see billboards or advertisements in the street I can now usually grasp what they’re saying.

That’s the trick when learning a language. Not just being able to understand and regurgitate model sentences that you’ve been studying, but being able to put together sentences on your own and to decipher things that are said to you without context.

Monday, January 25 2010

2010-01-24T21:28:00.001-08:00

This jetlag is kicking my ass.

It is now 6:30 in the morning and I'm sitting in front of the computer typing this self-pity rant instead of lying in bed like I should be. I woke up at five and couldn't fall asleep again.

Lying in bed and thinking about stuff, alternately sweating and being cold (caught a bit of a flu in Beijing, sleeping in a dorm next to the door); no thanks.

Today is the start of a busy week preparing for all the wedding stuff; this morning it's about going to the dentist, calling our family physician for an appointment with the hospital, calling the Iranian embassy. In the afternoon, we need to go to a notary to sign a pre-nuptual contract. This evening, we have a date with our wedding photographer to discuss our wishes and preferences.

And that's Monday.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

2010-01-24T04:19:00.000-08:00

It snowed last night. It's been a pretty rough winter in Europe and it looks like Bella and I flew in between the patches of bad weather.

Anyway, coming home feels good and weird at the same time. Good because it's nice to see your own country again, to smell the familiar air. Weird, because you can definitely see the financial crisis having a hold of the country. Shops are closed, houses for sale in every street. Like I said; weird.

What's also weird is the different political situation. I follow Dutch news, but not really the political developments here. It's therefore strange to see not one, but two strong right-wing parties in the elections.

We were listening to the radio while driving yesterday, and on the Frisian-language radio there was a song called 'Away with all the foreigners'. It is a normal radio station and this was apparently a normal song. Is this suddenly okay to do? Xenophobic attitudes thinly disguised as pride in your own culture?

Saturday, October 31 2009

2010-01-24T01:06:00.001-08:00

The day after my birthday and I feel exhausted.

No, we didn’t party. We went to the Howard Johnsson hotel in town to get some good buffet. Said buffet also included wine, however, and since I’m a total wuss, I am now woozy. I don’t have a hangover, I’m just woozy.

I almost never drink and am not used to anything alcoholic. Plus, for some reason wine makes me not sleep well, so I spent half the night awake and thinking about weird sh!t.
Therefore, all I want to do today is basically watch TV or play PS2.

Friday, October 30 2009

2010-01-24T01:05:00.000-08:00

It’s my birthday today. Everything’s good. Mahkam and I are going to go to the Radisson hotel here in Xi’an tonight to get down with the four-star buffet there.

Anyhoo, that’s not the focus of this blog. The focus is on a dream I had last night.

In it, I was a barman at a giant restaurant somewhere in the middle of nowhere and I had to serve drinks to walrusses while clouds and clouds of bats flew in the sky over the plains outside. The walrusses were being annoying and kept trying to grab their own drinks or swipe stuff from behind the counter when I wasn’t looking.

Any psychologists care to explain this one to me? Because I’m stumped.

Thursday, October 29 2009

2010-01-24T01:04:00.002-08:00

So the week is at an end – a little bit later than normal with several extra classes being added. So too is the breathing of blackboard chalk. At least for another couple of days.

It really worries me. I wrote about it before; the health worries I have in China. Now this whole week I had to write with chalk and then erase the blackboard and now for the last two days I’ve had an achy throat with intermittent coughing.

Mahkam advised me to simply not write so much, but that’s not my style when I’m teaching. I walk through the class, I talk, I have students do exercises and I write examples and such on the board. It’s just what I do and it’s hard to change.

Meanwhile – though I might be imagining things – I’ve started getting winded simply climbing up the sets of stairs to my apartment.

Wednesday, October 28 2009

2010-01-24T01:04:00.001-08:00

For the first time in ages I have an eight-hour workday again. It’s still not quite like home, though; four hours in the morning, two in the afternoon, two in the evening.

At the start of the year the university had military training. That caused us to miss a few lessons. Then the swine flu hit and we missed a few more. For the past few weeks now, students have been coming up to me after class to tell me that their English grammar teacher asked me to cover a few classes.

That’s three extra this week, and at least one next week. Not very bad, although they all have to happen in the evenings, which makes them a bit annoying. Especially now that Mahkam and I want to follow dancing classes. I’ve already had to cancel one.

Tuesday, October 27 2009

2010-01-24T01:03:00.002-08:00

We went to the dancing school yesterday, which was fun but awkward.

The only other man there for dancing was an instructor for a different class, so after signing papers and discussing the types of classes for half an hour in broken English we ended up in a class with five Chinese girls and a Chinese lady teacher. All of whom were tiny and started giggling when my huge white frame filled the door.

So we started dancing and it became abundantly clear that most of the moves were only meant for the girls. Half an hour into the class a couple of Chinese guys came in to smoke and look at the girls (shamelessly) while I was in there trying to copy the moves the teacher did.

We’re going back on Thursday.

Monday, October 26 2009

2010-01-24T01:03:00.001-08:00

I am a lazy, lazy man who can cheerfully spend evenings at home on the couch watching old TV shows or playing PS2.

Mahkam likes doing that, too, but she will also get this urge to do useful stuff (I know! What?). She likes dancing, so me being a good boyfriend I told her about a dancing school one of my students told me about.

We’re going to go there tonight for a test class and see what’s what. We’ll probably sign up for at least a month, maybe two.

Which fills me with dread, because I can’t dance. I’m too tall, too stiff, too self-conscious. It’s going to be horrible. And I can already hear the snickers of all the ladies there when they see my tall frame shamble into the door.

Sunday, October 25 2009

2010-01-24T01:02:00.002-08:00

There are lots of snacks here in China that are awesomely tasty. You just have to not mind what you’re eating.

Most of the stuff you can buy is great – if it’s not western style candy. That sugary stuff just doesn’t sit well with me. With the end of harvest time, however, you can now go up to street vendors and buy crisps made of sweet potato. No spices, salt or oil; just baked crisps. And they taste awesome.

But then there’s also the other stuff. Which is also tasty. Like squid, duck tongues, duck kidney and fried grubs. Again; you can enjoy it, but you just have to kind of block out what it exactly is that you’re putting in your mouth.

Saturday, October 24 2009

2010-01-24T01:02:00.001-08:00

Chinese people start the day early. So early, in fact, that it annoys the hell out of Mahkam and me.

Every morning we get woken up by the same two or three old women walking their dogs and chatting with each other. The dogs bark and run around and the women laugh their heads off at whatever one of the others says. We get woken up every time.

Either that or it’s the street-sweeper truck coming by. Or the university radio blasting over the campus at seven o’clock.

No respect for the weekend, that's what it is. There should be some kind of law against making noise before nine o’clock in the morning on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

Friday, October 23 2009

2010-01-24T01:01:00.002-08:00

The biggest fear I have here in China is pollution.

It’s a creeping fear. I’m a little bit of a hypochondriac and always worry about getting sick when I get old. I’m tall, so my knees might go out. I don’t eat a lot of fruit, so maybe I’ll get stomach cancer, etc.

All these news reports you read about the bad air quality in China really have me worried. You can’t see air, so there’s all kinds of stuff that might be in there. I’ve read a ton of articles saying that the air quality in China is horrible – and I can attest to that – but recently I’ve come across a couple that say that things are getting better. However, now there’s these people that say that the real danger is in the smallest kind of pollution particles and that this kind of pollution is still everywhere. I don’t smoke and don’t drink, but I might still get lung cancer from that stuff if I stay here too long.

That’s the great thing about journalists; every cloud has a silver lining of crap. (Does that even make sense? Oh well.)

Thursday, October 22 2009

2010-01-24T01:01:00.001-08:00

Here in China students have to take big, important tests to determine what major they can enroll in. For the architectural university that I work at, the architecture major is the highest one. If you do not do as well on the test, you might see yourself relegated to engineering or something.

These tests are huge and insanely important to the parents and the kid taking them. It’s a kind of Asian thing, perhaps. I hear that the Japanese have to do kind of the same thing.

Which I don’t know is a really good idea. We have certain restricted studies in Holland where the demand is higher than the capacity. But you don’t really have to do these all-important tests that settle you for life.

It can make students kind of lazy. Once they pass the test; that’s it. They’re done. All my classes are nice, but my architecture group has the biggest percentage of lazy and unwilling students. I hear other teachers, including Mahkam, say the same and last week one of the Chinese teachers asked me how I felt about them.

Wednesday, October 21 2009

2010-01-24T01:00:00.002-08:00

It was almost like Christmas yesterday when we went to the university’s teacher’s office and found a whole stash of second-hand books and magazines we could take home and read.

Now we’ve got some Newsweek, some Time, some textbooks for learning Chinese and one book about the history of China.

That book, An Outline of the History of China is a killer; it was written by a Chinese guy and meant as a textbook for university students. Even the title is boring. I want to read it, but the first chapter is already excruciating: twenty pages of topography, ethnicity, language comparisons and governmental organizations.

This must have been as boring to write as it was for me to read. Could this guy not at least have tried to spice things up a bit? University textbook? Not an excuse.

Tuesday, October 20 2009

2010-01-24T01:00:00.001-08:00

Every now and then Bella and I talk about starting up something. Like a bar or a pool club or something.

If you want to start your own company, you have to be able to present a unique product that people will want to buy. Here in China, the unique product that we have is our foreign nationality. I was thinking about a Dutch-style brown café or pool hall.

The idea is to build something a little more permanent for ourselves. Working at this university is nice and fun, but it will end someday. We have yearly contracts and some day the university will want to go for new, cheaper teachers.

While we have the job though, it would be a nice something to fall back on while we build our own thing, whatever that turns out to be. We have in essence part-time jobs, which means we would have both income and time to spend on the other thing that we want to do.

Monday, October 19 2009

2010-01-24T00:59:00.002-08:00

What I can never get used to here in China are the looks and the talking behind my back.

I like attention – I’m pretty sure everybody does – but yesterday I went to the Xi’an city center to buy some books and people shouted after me or poked their girlfriends or just broke up laughing.

It’s the height and the fact that I’m white. It’s also extremely awkward. Hiding in the crowd, not being noticed is a comfortable thing. And although some attention can be flattering, too much is too much. I’m threatening to turn into a recluse here. And I’m not even actually famous.

I’ve learned my lesson. If and when I return to Holland, I’m pretty sure I’ll try to be as conformist and comfortably bland as I can be.

Sunday, October 18 2009

2010-01-24T00:59:00.001-08:00

I bought me some classic grandpa-style underwear yesterday.

Although the apartment Bella and I are living in now is far better than our previous one, it can still get deceptively chilly in the evenings. Especially now when the fall has well and truly set in.

We have a habit of watching TV shows that I’ve downloaded from the net and somewhere around nine o’clock I’ll notice that my feet or stomach is cold. Because I’m so tall, it’s easy to leave some space open at my lower back when I’m slouched on a sofa.

The other problem is sleeping. I toss and turn a lot at night and my body often slips out from under the covers. I’ll wake up cold and with back pains.

I don’t really see these in Holland anymore, but here in China people wear thermal underwear during the winter. Long, tight-fitting underpants and sweaters. I bought two pair of them and it’s already helping. I’m sleeping better than I have in weeks.

Saturday, October 17 2009

2010-01-24T00:58:00.004-08:00

We have a kindergarten outside our apartment. There’s a little fenced park outside the building and that’s where the kids play.

And they play all day until the evening. From morning to afternoon they run around, going from the slide to the sandbox to the skippy balls. Sometimes I think it should be kind of annoying to have kids screaming outside your window all day long, but oddly enough it isn’t.

I’m not great with kids. I’m not saying I hate kids or can’t deal with them; a year of teaching kids at English First taught me how to handle them. But in the end, being able to work with kids demands loving them. And I don’t love kids. My own kids, I’ll love. Somebody else’s…well, let their parents raise them.

But that has no bearing on the kindergarten. I don’t have to deal with them or anything. I can just listen to them having fun all day while I’m studying Chinese or playing PS2 or whatever the hell it is I’m doing at any given moment.

And the energy they have. Oh my God, they just run around all day long. Find a way to harness that energy and we’re all off oil for good.

Friday, October 16 2009

2010-01-24T00:58:00.003-08:00

Chinese bathrooms are the worst things ever. I took a picture a couple of months ago from a bathroom at a truckstop somewhere in Mongolia just to convince unbelievers that I’m not exaggerating.

Whenever you go to somewhere real nice, like a restaurant or something, and you really want to test what the place is like; go to the bathroom and see how clean it is.

Many, many nice restaurants Bella and I have been to have unbelievably dirty bathrooms. Part of the reason is that nobody wants to clean them, so nobody does.

There is also the design of the toiletbowl. Basically it’s a hole in the ground. You have to kind of hover over it and aim. Not many people can, including many Chinese people who you would assume have been doing this their entire lives.

And there is the phenomenon of the country hick, of course. People who were raised in a village and have never learned the kind of behavior that is necessary for making life in a crowded city liveable. You will find discarded used tampons, toilets where somebody’s aim only went into the general direction of the bowl or ones where several people one after the other just didn’t flush.

Thursday, October 15 2009

2010-01-24T00:58:00.001-08:00

I came to China as a bit of an adventure. I dreamt about travelling all my life, and Asia was a continent that always had a mystical allure. Actually coming here dispelled a lot of that and the first year was not easy, but now I’m happy here and reasonably sure that coming here was the right decision.

And there’s also a bit of an ego thing there, that I kind of am and kind of am not ashamed of. I remember several times while travelling around China going: ‘how many Dutch people have travelled to this place? How many Frisians?’

It feels a bit arrogant, but also a bit as a guilty pleasure. For all I know, of course, the places I’ve been to have been visited thousands of times by Dutch or Frisian natives. I know that there are a lot of Dutch people in China proper; that’s simply a necessity of China being an economic powerhouse.

Still, I wonder how many of them have done what I’ve done. And if I have any reason to be proud.

Wednesday, October 14 2009

2010-01-24T00:57:00.001-08:00

So Bella and I walk back home after work and see a white cat sleeping in the sun somewhere in the corner of a parking lot.

Cats have this way of looking totally content and at peace when their lying in the sun that actually makes me jealous of them. I remember coming home from high school when I was a kid, with eight hours of school behind me and another two or three hours of homework in front of me, and always seeing our cat asleep in an armchair.

God, I was jealous. Here was an animal that had no worries and nothing to do but sleep and be lazy all day long.

It was the same thing with the cat today. Kinda made me want to go over there and nudge him with my foot. If I don’t get to sleep, you don’t get to sleep.

Tuesday, October 13 2009

2010-01-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in previous blogs, the new semester’s classes have finally started.
I’ve taught yesterday and today and in every class I have to introduce myself again and try to get a rapport with my new students.

To combine that with a little English learning I have my students write down two English questions for me that they have to read in class and that I then answer.

Most questions are nice and vanilla, like ‘describe Holland’ or ‘where have you been in China’. I’ve had to ban certain questions though, after being asked whether or not I liked Chinese food once too often.

There’s also one that I fear where somebody will ask me something like ‘what do you think of China’ or ‘which do you think is better, Russia or China’. I’ve actually had those and there’s always this line you have to be conscious of of being truthful and tactful at the same time, without pandering.

Sunday, October 11 2009

2010-01-24T00:55:00.000-08:00

Here’s something really, really cool.

A couple of scientists tied small cameras to the back of albatrosses and set them loose. The aim was to find out more about the bird.

There are some great photos to find here, including one of several birds messing around with a killer whale.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,654007,00.html

Monday, October 12 2009

2010-01-24T00:54:00.002-08:00

Based on real events.

Inspired by real events.

There’s nothing quite so disingenuous in storytelling as plastering phrases like that on the cover of your novel or the start of your TV show.

You see it every time; cheap made-for-TV movies about a woman whose husband cheats on her or a woman whose daughter gets kidnapped or a woman who’s being stalked, etcetera, etcetera.

But what does that tag mean, anyway? Even the most true-to-life movie will sacrifice parts of a story or expand on others. It’s necessary to keep things interesting. Drama is all-important.

‘Based on real events’ may mean nothing else but that the general beats of what really happened will be followed.

‘Inspired by real events’ is even iffier. What inspires me to write a story? I might read a story about a cow escaping from a barn and have it inspire me to write a tale about cows from outer space coming to earth to enslave us and turn us into zombies.

But the lure of ‘real events’ is unmistakable and people use that to lure us in. The nineties’ show X-Files derived its success at least partly from the impression that all this stuff might have a root in reality.