amschipper

Haven't been around for a while. Reason why? I was travelling through China for several months. Best experience of my life, so amazing, so beautiful. Wanted to stay but unfortunately fate had other plans so I am back in the Netherlands. Been home two weeks now, and i have no clue what to do .. like at all. I am a bit lost haha... but! plus side: I have massive inspiration and shitloads of time to paint and draw so that's what I am doing.

In the meantime time GO VISIT MY PHOTOBUCKET TO SEE THE PHOTOS OF MY BEAUTIFUL TRIP THROUGH CHINA photobucket.com/chinaaa2012

"Happy New Year" Well almost. The night of 22nd to 23rd of January is Chinese New Year. Damn, it promises to be an event on its own. Not that the Chinese party like the westerners. No, it's all far more traditional. It seems like the city is being abandoned. Buses are disappearing, half the amount of taxis is gone, supermarkets are getting stormed though like the world is about to end. You have to realize, Chinese new year is the only time of the year that all Chinese have a holiday. The country seems to be standing still. Restaurant are open, however you will find common signs that say to be patient as there is no staff. Waiting an 1.5 hour for your food is almost becoming normal.
Chinese New Year is the time of the year when all Chinese families from all around the country are getting together. You can not imagine how much traveling has been done in the last couple of days; 'only' 300 million people took every possible way of transportation to get back home I have colleagues who have to travel 30 hours to get back home (by bus or train, because half of the time they can't afford flight tickets or there are simply no other tickets left.) Prices for transportation increase rapidly, flight tickets that normally cost 700RMB (88 euros) are suddenly 5000 RMB or more (600 euro).
Especially considering the fact that Hangzhou is a city most lived by immigrants. Most people that live here are not from around, they just came here in the hope for a better job or a better life. As you can imagine, the city is running empty. STILL, it's to be said, coming from a country with 16miljion people where the biggest city has 1 miljion people, for me.. there are still enough people around to call this city crowded. Don't get me wrong. However, if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, the scale and size of this county is unimaginable.

Then, the fireworks. I'm not sure what Chinese restaurants in our country, home town do with the Western New year, but in my hometown the 2 Chinese restaurants light more fireworks that the rest of the town combined. And that is just 1 day. In China they are allowed to light fireworks all around the new year as well. So as of 3 days ago, I am being wakened during my precious sleep by a constant rain of bangs and flashes. Last night it sounded like a war was being fought outside my apartment. I am curious to see what tomorrow night brings.

Either way, happy new year to you all and I wish you a bliss, wealthy, happy and healthy year of the Dragon!

When you think you have seen quit some strange things, it always gets stranger in this country. (of course I am only here for 5 months but seriously haha) As some of you might know, the English translations from Chinese sentences can sometimes cause some difficulties. I have uploaded some pictures of weird translations on clothing, books, menus, and other weird things that happen in China etc. Just Check my Gallery-Scrap Book!

Also very interesting are the dog-walking rules. Now I have to say, I never had a dog in my life and I wouldn't have a clue about the regulation regarding dog-walking back home (the Netherlands) but the rules in China are quit absurd. Depending on the size and race of your dog, you can only walk your dog at specific times a day. If you walk your dog on a different time of the day, like my colleague who has a Labrador, did, the chances are likely the police (!!!) will arrest you and you will be taking to the police station. Also, besides the citizen, also animals need to walk around with their passport/id every moment of the day.

Now you might be wondering, how would the police know you're walking your dog at an 'illegal' time? Are they driving around in their cars, posting all throughout the city, to see which citizens are misbehaving? Oh No, my dear Western friends – who highly value their privacy, in China there is CCTV everywhere; a camera system that literally records everything that happens in the city and sometimes even in houses if you're the unlucky owner of a house with windows within camera sight. You have to be careful with every step you take; they are watching you.

Also for more random crap check: anneinchina.livejournal.com/

~HELLO
It's 8 degrees (that is in Celcius my friends ) the sun is shinning and apparently the winter is on its way if I have to believe my colleagues. I'm not yet convinced about this, or well: I am not hoping for the winter yet, I happen to be quite fond of the summertime. Yesterday I was walking around in a shirt with 24 degrees, enjoying the sun and even getting a little bit of a tan. It's November but my head keeps saying spring. Although, the coloring of the trees around West Lake from bright green in to warm tones of orange, yellow and red is the only indication that it is actually autumn.
Until today. The 8 degrees, although the sun is shinning, is horrible. I don't like it. Of course, you Dutchies will tell me know not to complain as I still have sunshine while you've been having rain already the entire year, including the summer. So, ok I'll stop whining about the weather.

~HALFWAY
Anyway, three days from now I will be halfway through my internship and I am very excited about this. Not that I want to go home. Oh no no no, I am having a great time in China. Its just that I don't find the internship itself that interesting. You know, you've all had it: a job that made you realize that this is actually a job you definitely don't want to be doing the rest of your life. And you quit and find a job that suits you better. It's a learning experience and a new step towards the future.
Unfortunately, I have this feeling about my internship, which I need to complete if I want to graduate, which is something I'd rather do sooner than later. Especially since I already have 6 months delay in my university-time line. (This is something I really hate. I am a control freak and I had planned a good 5 years ago I would finish my education within the time given, preferably shorter. Unfortunately my internship changed all this as I wanted to go the China and it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out: applying for a second internship as I didn't get my visa for Shanghai.) So, I am happy to be half way through the work.
China it self couldn't last long enough; it really is amazing. Of course, sometimes, many times, the culture brings bumps in the road you planned to take, but isn't that the case where ever you go in life? Once you get adjusted to you new surroundings, people, habits, do and don't, you will become able to see the joyful part of it all.

~ In other news,
I have a boyfriend, Rich, and he is awesome. Yeah the unimaginable happened. Does who are hanging with their month open, close it please. You can ask my mum.

Like I said life is good around here. Lots of things to do, and see, you just have to find to right places and people.
November has been a great month; I went to an AKON concert with the boyfriend, in Shanghai. We ended up being late. Where a western concert starts approximately a hour to two hours after the given time on the ticket, AKON started only half an hour late. Anyway, I had a great time. Then two days ago I had the most awesome day in China so far. I went to Binjiang which is about 30 minutes drive from my hotel. Rich invited me to see his school (he is a teacher, he is English btw no yellow man for me, no thanks) and took me on a tour through this part of town. I have done many nice things in China but all of those activities are things I would also normally do back home or can do back home. So I saw a Chinese school for the first time, also it happens to be the best school of Zhejiang province. Then later during the day I went with Rich to one of his colleagues' houses to have dinner.
For the first time I tasted real home cooked Chinese food. It was amazing, all those flavors. For the first time since I am here, I also missed not being able to cook my own food. Anyway, once I am back home I will never eat Dutch – Chinese take-away ever again. It's nothing like the real Chinese food and the especially nothing like home cooked Chinese food. Guys, you're missing out on the best part of China: food.
To top of the evening, one of Rich's colleagues invited us to go to an Korean opera about the Chinese Romeo-Juliet version, which all happened in Hangzhou 1800 years ago. First of all, the music: beautiful voices and even though I don't understand Korean (oh really ) and can't read the Chinese subtitles (yes subtitles during an opera) we could perfectly understand what it was about. I think I can say I have enjoyed this more than the 3 hour lasting Italian opera in Verona, Italy. Or anything else I have done in China.
Second: the dancing. Of course, we're in Asia and I am sure you have all seen a documentary about the Asian circus or any other sports related education with painful eyes: kids are trained from a young age onward to make their bodies perform, all with the same rhythm, movement, flexibility and all at the same time. If that includes a swip, or any other sort of punishment, so be it. But I have to admit; it looks amazing, I watch the whole thing with my mouth open.

~SCHOOL
Me and Inkje have started officially on our project, which I like a lot. I have more things to do and it keeps my brain awake. After 10 years of being at school at least 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, it was nice to have a long holiday away from all the studying and reading and listening to the bladiebladiebla our teachers had to say. But I have to, secretly of course, admit it is nice to actually use my brain again for something else than grocery lists, shopping, books, where I left my key and what to wear tonight. After 6 months holiday of any school related assignment, I actually kinda started to miss it.
I can't even remember the last time I posted something. I will, promise promise, finally post some more photos on photobucket.com/anneinchina as I finally have internet again. Enjoy your day everybody ! Hanne, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR!

Everything in China is 10 times more valued when it is considered Western or even better: American. For example: Yoga. Everybody seems to be doing that around here. Origins of Yoga? Hinduism and Buddhism as far as I am concerned. Created 3000 or more years ago in the far East [Asia]. You think they should know around here how it works right? But NOOOO everybody wants to practice Yoga like the… AMERICANS do. Because they are so good at is, and they have a lot of Yoga Masters, and they have better skills and knowledge than the Chinese do. Seriously?

Everybody wants to be the first, the quickest in line. People don't hesitate to jump the queue. Also when Chinese people are eating from a buffet, they just take as much food as they can, and everything at the same time. Plates are stashed with pills of food; main course, starter, dessert, everything together. And then, they only eat half or less of it. Also in restaurants, they order a lot of food to leave half of it: a sign of wealth.

When eating in a Chinese restaurant, you first get all the 'main courses', the meat, the vegetables, and when you are almost finished with eating/full, you get the rise. Also, you get all the dishes 'together'. There are no first, second or third courses. However, it is very normal in a China to get all the dishes separately, 10 minutes sometimes longer between severing.

Chinese people smoke, spit, gurgle, empty their nose EVERYWHERE. Even when there is a big NON-smoking sign next to their face, they just light a cigarette. On the carpet, in the planters, in the dustbin, in the elevator in the hotel, they spit or empty their nose. Luckily there is someone cleaning all the time otherwise it would become a mess.

When something is 'Western' or 'American', everything becomes 10 times as more interesting for a Chinese. The 'western' hotel brands also seem to be so popular because of this. The hotel takes it to their advantage.

English is still very difficult for Chinese people. Not only on casual t-shirts but also on official government signs, restaurant menus and in the hotel you can find the weirdest English sentences. They would change this directly, if a spelling error was made in the Netherlands. But here they just leave it, because they seem to think it is the correct translation.

What sometimes leads to weird moments is the bluntness of Chinese people. Related to the above stated, Chinese people translate everything directly from Mandarin to English, which can create rude or awkward moments with foreign guests whom are not aware of this. For example in the Netherlands when a guest is checking out, we ask if we may have the key-card, and 'may I please have your credit card'. In China they just say 'Credit card' or 'I want your key-card'. Thanks and sorry are also words they hardly use, and especially when a foreign guest complaints this is very difficult.