It's been a while since I wrote something on my blog, I am sorry it took so long. It is just impossible to find the time (and internet) to write a nice story on my blog.
It is quite strange that here in China certain websites are not accessible, such as our blog and Facebook. I will upload some pictures when I get back home, so you will have to wait for my visual impressions.
I had already a good match with my buddy Peter, and as some time elapsed, we have become very good friends. His character is very much like mine, and already on the first day he invited me to visit his family and friends in his hometown (Zhongjiang). I of course accepted his invitation and soon we had made the deal that I would pay a visit to his hometown. In this trip, we have one day in which we can choose ourselves what to do, so I chose to use my free day to visit Zhongjiang. It was a 3-hour journey from our hotel in Chengdu (capital of the Province Sichuan) and in Zhongjiang we were picked up by a good friend of Peter's and he drove us that day from one place to the next. We first visited the shop from his mother, where I met his mother, father and some of his friends. We payed a quick visit to the house of his parents, which is a very small flat. Then we went to the house of his uncle and aunt. There I met a few other freinds from Peter, his sister, uncle, aunt and cousins. I there learned to play Mahjong, a typical Chinese game, before we had lunch, I even won a few times!
Like every meal in China, this lunch was very big; Peter's father had prepared a fantastic and delicious meal!
Everybody was really kind to me and treated me as I was there family, incredible... I also felt like I was visiting some family.
Although I am raised with also a lot of information about the Chinese culture (because my father is Chinese), I also experienced a new cultural activity. At a special lunch or dinner, you should toast with the host or other guests. Since I was a very special guest, everybody wanted to toast with me. To explain it a little: first you give a short speech, with a full glass of whatever (usually beer) and when you have finished the speech, you have to toast and drink the whole glass empty in one time (in Dutch: adten). So I was quite tipsy around lunchtime :P
After lunch we visited Peter's previous middle school (secondary school) and a museum. Then it was really time to get to the busstation and travel back to our hotel, but now without Peter. This was because, unfortunately, the Chinese students joined us for only one week.
I of course miss Peter now but I know that I will have a good friend here forever, and vice versa. Very funny, when we chose our buddies, we chose purely by name and study and still, this was a perfect match!
What I came to realise, was that I have been very lucky in life. Of course I have a few negative experiences in life, but I have had many good things. I was born in a rich, modern, stable and safe country. I got many chances in life and I took them. I have worked hard and I still am, to achieve a lot in life. I have seen many countries in the world and experienced a lot of things. I am very grateful to my parents for giving me so much, and especially for supporting me so much.
Peter, a guy very similar to me in lot of things, didn't have those chances, which lightens this realisation of me. One's life depends very much on the environment where one grows up. Apart from becoming good friends, we also inspired eachother in several aspects. It is a pity that the day before yesterday we had to say goodbye to eachother and I now miss him...
Luckely enough, we still have a nice group with all the Dutch students, and last nigth 8 of us went to get a massage. Here in China, a 2 hour massage costs about 70 Yuan, so about 7 Euros. I had a fantastic massage; 30minutes my leftfoot, 30 minutes my rigth one, 45 minutes for my legs, back and shoulders and the last 15 minutes were used for a special thing. They have these glass spheres, which have an opening on one side. They heat them up with fire and put them on your back. These balls will suck tightly to your back by creating a vacuum. It is supposed to be very healthy, but right now my back is filled with 13 circular bruises (blauwe plekken).
I must say that the massage (except for the last part) was incredible nice.
This past week I have shot a lot of material for my documentary, and I haved seen many places in this province. Apart from tourist spots, also several schools, earthquake ruins, and temporary housing. This has made a big impression on me.
One of the most impressionable things was a town which was totally deserted, because all the buildings were so dangerous after the earthquake, that nobody was allowed anymore to live there. That was really a ghost-town.
Now I am really tired and I am going to bed, so speak to you soon!!!
