How I lost my penthouse

My direct flight to Xiamen left 10 minutes late, but arrived well ahead of schedule at 9:45 this morning. A smooth 10 hours plus 45 minutes of flight. I did not even open my book. A movie (Limitless), an episode of The Big Bang Theory and two documentaries (about Django Reinhardt, and about the incarnation of Lou Reed's Transformer album) made me sleepy enough. The experience was enhanced by an unusually attentive stewardess. In my experience, KLM crew was always bitchy and unattractive, so this was a welcome change.
Upon arrival it was raining, which was not totally unexpected since we are in the middle of the rainy season. I found my way to the bus stop, which is a bit far from the airport due to ongoing construction, and arrived in Zeng Cuo An well before noon.
I was welcomed by my landlord and his family. They had to talk to me. Already slightly alarmed, the true scale of the impeding doom was yet to come. Both daughters were also present, and with their help the story came out. In my absence they had decided to rent out the entire house, including my top floor, to some entrepreneur who was going to turn it into a hotel. Right, a hotel! They kicked me out, in short.
I couldn't believe it, but they were already packing up their stuff and moving the whole family to a 3-bedroom apartment they had rented in a new block nearby.. It was clearly an irreversible deal. In a civilized country this would not happen of course, but in China a signed contract is not worth more than good intentions. They had tried to contact me, they said, but of course that didn't work, since I had swapped my SIM card upon arrival in The Netherlands. In any case, it would not have made a difference.
On a positive side, they will refund me all the rent already paid since I moved in, and help me find another place to live. I needed some time to let it all sink in, but agreed to go out and take a look at some rooms in the village, guided by the youngest daughter. What else could I do? For a moment I thought about leaving Zeng Cuo An altogether and move to a highrise near the university. I knew what kind of apartment I would end up living in, and paying the premium price for it. Going rate for a single-room apartment without kitchen started at 1600 RMB per month, the same as I was paying here for the whole floor. At this time, with the semester about to begin, there would be not much left anyway.
So, I decided to go ahead and check out the offerings in the village. There was actually quite some choice, but nothing came close to what I really wanted, and had, until now. My landlord is not the only one who decided to turn his house into a hotel. The whole village is under renovations for this purpose. The best offer by far was a rather large room, with a huge bed, on top of a simple single-storey house. There were two of these additions (one already occupied), constructed in more or less the same style as my penthouse (sob). It's a little more to the back of the village, and thus very quiet, but not with the grand view I had, since it's only on the second floor. Still, it has two windows at different directions, looking out over some open space and a small garden. The big omission of course is the shared space with the large windows which I fell in love with here. The room was offered to me for 800 RMB a month. I pondered it a bit, but then decided to take it, since I have not much choice anyway, and I probably won't find a better room for less than at least double that price.
So, in the end I will save some money, but have to abandon my plans for starting an artist residency in Zeng Cuo An. While I was in Amsterdam, I already took this plan out into the world, by talking to transartists and posting it on their website. The talk I had there was very encouraging, and several people from different corners of the world had already showed interest just from posting a short announcement. Now I have to tell them it won't happen. Very sad. It was such a great new adventure!

Back to Xiamen

It's already time to return to Xiamen, those 4 weeks went by very quickly. I was lucky enough to enjoy a nice and sunny last afternoon in Amsterdam, before packing up and stuffing my bags with some Dutch goodies, like stroopwafels, drop, and chocolate.
At the airport I met three Dutch boys who where also going to study Chinese in Xiamen. Same as me. Two of them were doing an exchange program hosted by the University of Utrecht, which is sending a total of 8 students to Xiamen this year. I have the feeling my class will be full of Dutchies!

Home sweet home

Today I moved back into my own house again. My tenants left this morning for Paris. The have kept my place in impeccable state. I could not have dreamt of better tenants. They also bought new curtains for the bedroom, fixed a leaking toilet, and added a whole array of mugs, glasses, and other utensils to my kitchen inventory.
It's lovely to be back home. I almost forgot how nice it is here. It made me hesitate for a moment to go back to China at all!
I need to find new tenants soon. The coming few days several people will come to look at my place. While I was in Menorca I placed an ad on a independent expat service website, which generated a lot of responses, and the real-estate agent who I hired last year is also in the game again. They already brought two prospective tenants here during the past week.
Time is moving fast, it's only 10 days before I take off again!

Menorca

Menorca is still a little gem of an island in the Mediterranean, despite tourism and an invasion of permanent foreign residents. It's a hangout for rich Spaniards with big yachts, and mostly British and German sun seekers. The capital Mahon is a small and quiet old town overlooking a beautiful natural harbour.
I have been to Menorca numerous times since I was 12 years old, so I know almost every corner of it. It didn't change much since I was there two and half years ago, just got a little bit more tidy and luxurious. A new generation is slowly taking over. Lots of old and crumbling houses are for sale, and new trendy bars and restaurants are popping up after renovations. The sizes of the yachts in the harbour are getting bigger each time I visit.
Restaurants change owner and scale up a notch. We went to a nice place overlooking the port of nearby Es Castell, where they served an excellent 4-course menu with nice appetizers and a leg of lamb from the oven, followed by home-made mojito icecream, including a nice bottle of red wine (from the Navarra region) and coffee, for just € 18,50 a head. A steal in this area, and with a view to die for. We had to walk home because we missed the last bus, but that helped in digesting.
I also found a pair of handsome flip-flops (Reef), with a foot bed made of woven reeds, and leather straps. Heavily discounted, and thus affordable. I was in dire need of a new pair since the ones I bought last year in China had almost fallen apart. Shopping in Spain proved to be quite successful!

Barcelona

I spent half a day in Barcelona on the way to Menorca, where my mother lives. It's good be be back here. Barcelona has great snack food, and good shopping too. I spent some time in the narrow streets and alleys of El Raval, and found some cheap and funky clothes. Then to the MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art) to soak up some culture, much needed after spending almost a year in the cultural wasteland which is Nanning.

Say cheese!

The corner stones of Dutch food culture: bread and cheese.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam welcomed me with a cold drizzle, but the next day the sun came out, and it was quite pleasant. It was a bit of a shock to be immersed again in this frenzy of individual style, after having been living in a homogenous Chinese society for almost a year, but I soon felt at home again.
I visited my apartment to pick up my bicycle, which after a year of being parked outside still rides like a train, much smoother than my old Chinese bike! I only had to inflate the tires a bit.
My apartment looked super nice. My tenants have kept it well, and even invested in new dark blue curtains for the bedroom, which they found too bright. They will stay until the 20th. I am staying at a friend's place for the time being, but will also spend a week in Spain to visit my mother.
The past few days I've met already a lot of my friends, and went to Friesland on Saturday for a barbecue party with some old boys from my years at the Delft University of Technology, at a lovely house with a lot of land and water around it. The weather is a bit cooler than I expected, at about 20 degrees, with occasional rain showers, but it has been much worse lately, so I consider myself lucky.

Xiamen to Amsterdam

As usual I didn't start packing until the last hour before I had to leave, so I was quite stressed about forgetting important stuff, but I think I got everything. Right now I'm at Vienna airport, waiting for the last leg of this long trip home.
I booked my ticket to Beijing last year with Austrian Airlines, so there is a stop-over in Vienna. Last night I flew from Xiamen to Beijing, where I slept at the airport, with many other travelers.
In Xiamen it was the first time I visited the airport, and it took me a while to find the right bus. I didn't want to waste my money on a 20 km taxi ride, so used local public transport, 1 RMB a ride. I needed 2 rides to get there though, and the connection was a bit fuzzy. It took me 15 minutes to find the bus stop for the second leg. But I arrived in time, and at least did not have to wait long before boarding.
Xiamen airport is small and efficient. On the way to the gate I passed a bookshop where I picked up a copy of Keith Richards' recently published memoirs: Life. Brilliant! Nostalgic and hilarious, with a lot of detail and interesting facts and observations.
Upon arrival in Beijing just before midnight, I found a noodle shop which was still open, and after that settled on a hard wooden bench. Not very comfortable, but I managed to get some sleep before checking in at 6 am the next morning for my flight to Vienna/Amsterdam. The flight from Beijing to Vienna was a breeze, mainly thanks to my entertaining reading material. Austrian Airlines served no less than 3 meals on this 10 hour flight, and I realized it was the first time in a year I ate bread. Apart from that, the food was rather uninspiring. Looking forward to some good old European home cooking!

Going home

This evening I will fly to Beijing to catch my return flight to Amsterdam early tomorrow morning. I will spend the night at the airport. In the future this won't be necessary anymore, since there are now direct flights from Xiamen to Amsterdam. Xiamen is actually the 4th largest international airport in China, measured in number of international passengers. Quite a feat, with only one runway.
I just had my last swim this afternoon, and after finishing packing, I will go for a last snack of seafood, and say goodbye to Zeng Cuo An for a little while.
See you in Amsterdam!

Online shopping

Online shopping in China is big business. At sites like taobao.com and 360buy.com you can buy almost anything online. However, those sites don't except foreign credit cards or PayPal, so shopping there is almost impossible for non-Chinese, even if you can read the website. While living in Nanning I ordered some books at amazon.cn, which was as easy as back home. Now I used the same website to buy a new phone, and that was a bit more complicated.
The books I ordered through amazon.cn were prepaid with my VISA credit card, but since my bank cancelled my card for a stupid reason, I could not use it anymore. Luckily, amazon also offers a COD payment option, so I could just order the phone, and they ship it without any payment. You pay the delivery man once the product arrives at your doorstep. Convenient, except... you never know when it arrives.
After ordering my phone (which is the cheapest Android 2.2 smartphone I could find, at 699 RMB), I received a confirmation email with a scheduled delivery date of July 29th, which was just one day after ordering. Fast!
However, nothing arrived on July 29th.
Like most online retailers, Amazon uses an external courier service for deliveries, in this case Feiyuan, which provides a tracking service on their website. The tracking info told me in detail where my package had been (originating in Fuzhou, it had traveled to Xiamen, and was in the hands of a delivery man named Lin Kai Ming since July 29th). I expected mr. Lin at my door any minute now, or at least a call or email to notify me of the imminent arrival of my order. Because there was no such notification, I asked Xiao An to call the info hotline mentioned in my order confirmation email. She got the reply that the delivery company was very busy, but my package would arrive soon, probably by the next day. The next day nothing happened, and also on Sunday no news. In China weekends don't exist, so that was no excuse.
This morning Xiao An left. I brought her to the bus station and after that returned home quickly to await the arrival of my new phone. At about 3 in the afternoon I got a call, but I did not understand what the pretty voice on the other side was saying, except that is was about my order. I asked her to call me back in 5 minutes and rushed out to the hostel across the street where the helpful staff would surely help me, and they did.
One of the boys answered the call (she did indeed call again, so my Chinese isn't half that bad) and it turned out it was Amazon inquiring if my phone had arrived. It had not.
My friend asked for another phone number of the courier company, and got 4. However, all of them responded with a prerecorded message asking you to hold on, while playing annoying music. Then he got really resourceful and used Baidu (Google's big brother in China) to find the number of the delivery man himself. He found the number of a colleague of our delivery man on a forum where people were complaining about Feiyuan, and called him. The colleague was so friendly to give the mobile number of our man (remember, we had his name), and seconds later we were on the phone with the man who had my phone in his possesion. He was indeed very busy making deliveries, and did not have my package in his car (or rather: electric bicycle, as I later found out), but he suggested a simple solution: I could pick up the parcel myself! He would meet me at the bus stop at Xiada University this evening.
So, this was how I got my phone. I had to go pick it up at night by meeting a stranger at a bus stop, handing him the cash, and collect the merchandise. It was almost like a drug deal. After I waited for half an hour at the said bus stop, he found me, still wearing his uniform. All information on the package label seemed alright, so I handed him the money upon which he produced a pocket knife to slice open the box. Everything seemed in order, the invoice and receipt of payment in the box, so I happily took my new phone home. More on that later, once I figure it out.

Bye bye, Xiao An

Xiao An was supposed to leave tomorrow, the same day as I am flying out to Amsterdam, but could not get a train ticket anymore, at least not a bed, only seats were still available. To spend 28 hours in a seat would be cruel, so we went to the bus station last Saturday to buy a ticket. We had come by bus as well, so it was a natural choice. The train takes (much) longer, but is still more comfortable, with a nice bed, and the ability to walk a bit, go to the toilet, etc. That's why the train was the first choice of transport to return to Nanning. The schedule from Xiamen to Nanning is good too, departing in the afternoon, and arriving in the early evening of the next day. Much beter than from Nanning to Xiamen, which departs at 5:15 am. That's why we had come to Xiamen by bus (at the time of booking unaware of the ungodly arrival time of 4:30 am).
At the bus station they told us that tomorrow there would be no bus to Nanning, so we bought a ticket for today. The bus left at 9:30 this morning, and Xiao An should arrive around 1 o'clock tonight. Quite late, but better than 4:30. She would have to take a taxi to get home, and wake her parents, but that should be fine.
We didn't make a big fuss of our goodbye. After 7 months of spending time together on a almost daily basis, and the past 3 weeks for practically 24 hours a day, we got to know each other quite well, and don't need to make a scene. We had a great time together, and only time will tell if we will meet again or not.