Editor's Note

As you already may have noticed, or not, in which case I bid thee remove thy head from thy rectum, we have a new addition to the fellowship. My partner in crime Rens will grace this already splendid source of information with his literary talents, time and interest willing, of course. A more than welcome addition in my opinion, as the alcoholic and abusive father and husband has probably passed on by now due to a liver failure, and is now no more than a lingering bitter memory from a broken childhood, and Myra has been chained down by love, so now, with a new thief added to the party, we can hopefully get some fucking writing done. Also, having removed your head from the dark side, it may have come to your attention that my cohort prefers to write in Dutch, to which I have no objection. I can imagine that some of you might take issue with his choice, presumably due to a lack of knowledge of the Dutch language; if so, just assume that his entry does not concern you, and direct your attention to the top part of your screen, where you'll find an address bar which can take you anywhere in this magical dimension called the Internet, and perhaps to a place where your feelings are taken into account. I thank you all for your attention, and welcome your continuing patronage in the future.

'Round About Midnight

I return to thee, dear reader, with tidings, as insomnia has driven me in the arms of another literary endeavour. Before I continue however, I would like to take a moment to welcome Myra back into the land of the living; I'm glad to hear all is well back in Outworld. Apparently bureaucracy remains the bread and butter of this wretched hive of scum and villainy, so no changes there. Though I must confess I was rather surprised to hear that the woman who eats men for breakfast and uses their testicles as kitchen utensils for her amusement has been hijacked by Cupid. Nevertheless, I'm happy for our White Mage; make sure he treats you right though, or Ultima - Doublecast shall be his come uppens.

Back on our Ilha Formosa, life is, well, peaceful. After about 3 weeks of classes we have more or less acquired a familiar rhythm, which is comforting to fall back on at times. Although in my mind I have not quite found my way in this still unfamiliar landscape, I trust this will come with time, hopefully accompanied by some peace of mind. Until then, it remains a matter of working my way through the hassles of every day, and especially through the classes, which at the moment seem less satisfying than I'd had anticipated in advance, strangely enough. In my mind I entertain this vague notion, this imagination of some kind of breakthrough in a not too distant, yet not too close future; an epiphany which will enable me too engage myself fully in every aspect of life in this alien environment without feeling this gaping abyss between myself and my surroundings. At the same time I realize that this is a fool's dream, and that it will more likely be a matter of slow progress and constant adaptation, and that the result, if one can speak of an end result at all, will not be as perfect as the image painted in the back of my mind. In the end, I'll simply have to wait and see how the grand scheme of things plays itself out. But enough of this, I grow weary of my own semi-intellectual, pompous bullshit; perhaps I should consider ceasing my early morning writing sessions and let the sweet embrace of sleep cleanse my clogged cerebral cortex.

For now, let's step back into the real world, shall we? There is one thing that has annoyed me to no end since our arrival. The reason I chose to come to Qinghua University in the first place, is that I had anticipated that the environment here would be most suitable to improve my Mandarin. Xinzhu is a relatively small town compared to Taibei, or Beijing for that matter, so I naturally assumed there would not be that much exchange students here; this would allow for more contact with the Taiwanese students and less mind numbing smalltalk with foreign students in English. My assumption could not have been further from the truth however, as I swiftly discovered after our arrival. It seems that about half the population of Central- and South America currently resides in Xinzhu; I imagine there must have been some kind of unnoticed exodus of biblical proportions, après la lettre if you will, and judging by the numbers it would have confronted Moses with some major logistical issues. The reason for this influx of Latin suaveness has not so much to do with premodern infanticide however, as much as with simple geopolitics. Apparently, there are a bunch of nations in Uncle Sam's backyard that recognize the ROC as China's legitimate government, whereas the whole Western world, and indeed virtually all of the international community, have their begging lips firmly locked around the PRC's enormous throbbing dong of growing economic power, eagerly waiting to gulp down it's nutritious essence of bounty. The consequences of this status quo are twofold; firstly, students from nations with official diplomatic ties to the ROC receive copious amounts of the proverbial fat cash and the opportunity to live the good life for as long as they please, or at least until their livers stop working or they die of some venereal disease they contracted while working their way through the jungle of moist labia they get thrown in their faces every day, whereas my cohort and myself can barely make ends meet and are but inches away from cannibalistic carnage and a trip to the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Secondly, it is impossible for me to turn a corner without being ambushed by some Juan Doe and and having to listen to his or her incessant soliloquizing in a language that vaguely resembles the King's English, but is in reality far from it, all the while trying to figure out which of the narcotic producing, rebellion sprouting, corruption stricken countries south of the US of A gave birth to this particular individual. I imagine it would be quite easy to come to Qinghua, and leave a year later fluent in Spanish but with no knowledge whatsoever of Mandarin. The bottom line is, it pays to live in a nation with no relevance whatsoever on the international stage; your government may acknowledge Taiwan or decree that all citizens must wear their dirty underwear as ceremonial hats on every third Saturday of the month, nobody could care less. On the other hand, the laborious efforts of the Western world to fondle China's privates improperly until the end of days, are quite beneficial for students heading to the PRC. If my memory serves me correctly, students from Leiden currently studying in mainland China receive quite a handsome scholarship. If you're reading this, you know who you are, and I have no desire to extend you any courtesy whatsoever, so fuck off and die alone in a corner. Seriously, do it. I'll wait.

Thank you, I feel much better now.

In other news, last Monday I met up with Jackson, who had made a quick stopover from Shanghai to check out Taiwan. It had been quite a while, so we had some catching up to do. I showed him around Xinzhu, we discussed his sexual endeavours in Shanghai, and in the evening we had dinner with two friends of his, that womanizing piece of man meat that he is. The next day, he embarked on a trip to southern Taiwan and possibly some other destination in Asia. I wish you godspeed my friend, until we meet again.





Also, we recently visited a KTV; there is apparently something captivating about closing your eyes, disregarding your own appalling, out of tune, false voice and imagining yourself to be on stage singing to thousands of adolescent girls who express their love for you by throwing their dirty underwear in your face. Let's just say it's acquired taste and I'm still working on it. Rens and Wilson, the good lad on the right, were for some unknown reason convinced that it was necessary to grace the room with their manliness.


And one other thing; I fear for my physical and mental health. A few days ago, our host student Kim


fed me this; according to her it's supposed to be beneficial to my mental health, which is also what the manufacturer's website is more than happy to explain to us simple minded consumers.


In reality, I can feel my sanity slipping away from me; I don't know what it is, but it just felt as wrong as the name suggests it is, and I feel......violated. The first signs of mental degradation have already started to manifest themselves. I implore you, dear reader, if I ever, EVER interrupt a sentence again to insert an image, please hunt me down and slaughter me, for at that time I shall most certainly be intellectually incapacitated.

Anyway, I'm done ranting for now. This weekend is a national holiday, so no classes tomorrow; we'll be heading for Gaoxiong for a few days to celebrate the occasion, so no updates in the meantime. I'll report back later next week with all the details of this side quest. And remember this well my friends, don't trust any essence but your own.

cast: phoenix down + cure 3. The white mage lives

Eindelijk komt het dan toch, nieuws van mij uit Nederland... het koude kikkerlandje.....
jaja de white mage leeft nog.... en nog steeds druk met van alles.. het voornemen om rustiger aan te doen is niet echt gelukt. Bij mij is dat echt Mission Impossible.. maar misschien komt het nog wel.

Ik had me diverse malen voorgenomen om iets te schrijven op de blog, maar ben een beetje lui in het schrijven van blogs.. Heb wel de blogs van jullie bijgehouden. Best wel apart om ze (Daniel, Thierry, Linda) terug te zien op de foto's met jullie en helaas ben ik er niet bij. Was wel een soort reunietje zo te zien. Ik mis onze reunietjes in Nederland ook.... gezellig eten, op het plein een drankje doen en de gesprekken die we hadden...


Verder gaat het met mij z'n gangetje zoals altijd. Ik ben begonnen bij de belastingdienst, met 2 a's te omschrijven apart en ambtenaarsgedrag. Als je hard wil werken ben je echt aan het verkeerde adres. Ook nog wat regeltjes waar we aan moeten houden, maar blijkbaar te moeilijk voor de teamleiders om zich er aan te houden. Oh voor jongens is het jammer, want er mogen geen korte rokjes en lage decolletees gedragen worden. Te veel afleiding voor het mannelijk geslacht vinden ze!! Ah fijn genoeg over het werk. Het sociale leven erom heen is natuurlijk veel interessanter, spannender en leuker :). Uitgaan is nog steeds mijn favoriet, maar merk wel dat ik daar een beetje te oud voor word. 2 dagen achter elkaar is een beetje teveel van het goede. En met de pathe maandpas zit ik tegenwoordig veel in de bioscoop, best wel handig. 2 films en je hebt het eruit. Veel goedkoper dus...

Hieronder wat recentere foto's van mij.

4okt 08 Den Haag Centrum stappen met Nancy en Claire

Bunnik 3 okt, Asianparty/ kinderfeestje.... met Mee Ling en Ilona

Behalve werken, uitgaan en studeren heb ik me ook op het gebied van de liefde durven te wagen. Ik weet dat het heel ongeloofwaardig klinkt maar het is het waar. Myra + vriend= onmogelijk!!!!

Ik zal af en toe wat van me laten horen en foto's op de blog zetten. Ik schrijf wel hele saaie blogs.. dus als je moe bent moet je het niet lezen.. dan val je waarschijnlijk in slaap.