Category Archives: Internship China
Arrived in China!
*yawns* Good morning everyone. It is about 6:30 in the morning over here while I write this. I arrived yesterday around 10:15 local time, totally ready for the day even though the planetrip was absolutely lacking any form of sleep.
On sunday, around 16:50 NL time, I departed in a Boeing 777 with two fellow students towards Xiamen, China. I had some food beforehand, and after I got on the plane and got the dinner there, I regretted I’ve been eating so much before I left. I planned making some footage but the seat wasn’t too good and the window where I could film, eventually froze a bit on the outside so I couldn’t do anything at all to take nice video captures.
While flying, I was casually talking with this Chinese man right of me. He didn’t speak English well but I had a little book with common words to use so he’d understand me. Eventually we proceeded to teach him a few extra English words, it was quite fun. After 12 hours of flight, at heights of 11000 meter, we arrived in Xiamen. The first thing you notice in the design of the whole airport, with all due respect, is that the old days are very very visible. Everything has been built towards the view of the old Communist days. So we walk out of the gate, towards the immigrations desk. Taking a few video captures on the walk down, we end up with the desks. Not noticing I shouldn’t film there, my fellow students were two seconds too late to tell me so I had to close my camera on the order of a Chinese official. Oh well.
We pass through the desk and move on to the luggage-bands to pick up our stuff and this takes like 30-40 minutes to sort out. Eventually we have all our luggage and proceed towards the exit, to pass through the customs office, to see Irene and the Chinese students waiting for us there. After meeting, greeting and debating the plan of travel, we rented a van which took us to our appartments. Seriously, these Chinese drivers are really reckless haha. The law of the strongest applies on most roads, and you see cars flicking back and forth to grab little bits of space. It seems that the law is even like that, that if there is a space big enough for you to fit in, then the other car has to let you get in there.
So we arrived at the rooms, and the students checked for all the facilities to see if they worked well. I’ve got a room on the “wrong’ side of the building, meaning my view of the nearby hill and the sea is not there. Bummer! After getting settled, we went into town and tried to keep active because of all the things we need to do while arriving (such as buying basic needs etc) aswell as preventing jetlag by not going to bed right away. I now wish I went to bed instead, as I really feel super tired. The bed is hard as rock, and it’s always above 26 degrees celcius. So we went for different kind of foods during lunch and dinner, but I absolutely, totally, undeniably DESPISE THESE FUCKING CHOPSTICKS lol! I really get nothing to eat well with them and eventually the effort proves so much that I really just don’t eat as much as I could eat.
To wrap this blog up, there’s currently a typhoon in the area that’s brewing up. An example of the weather this morning from a satellite :
The result is that the coming days the temperature will be low, at an average of 31 degrees celcius.
A few spoilers
As you might’ve heard before, I am currently preparing to take a trip to China, in order to complete my half year internship for the current studies that I follow. In order to get there, I’ve been working hard for the last 3 months in order to prepare all aspects of this trip.
In order to get into the mood, I will link some pictures of my fellow students who are currently travelling from Beijing to Xiamen.
Where we'll be in China (By Linda Linssen)Great wall of China (By Linda Linssen)
By Linda Linssen
Rant 002 :D
As some of you may have understood, I am going to China on an internship this summer. I’ll be in the city of Xiamen for a period of 5 months, in which I will focus on the awareness of information security within the company. One might ask, why is Michael going towards China? Well I’ll tell you that right away. For me, China is a place full of rich history, history that interests me. I like the changes that happened in the country, without judging if it were for the better or the worst. A second point is the fact that for my field of work, there will be a major market for professionals like me once I finish my studies. The growth of IT and security is an important aspect for any organisation and where is it better to start in the country where these practices are still new and fresh.
Thirdly, I am interested in the different culture. I have some cultural differences with other people, such as being very direct. This is a problem at times even though I feel comfortable with speaking my mind. (I am called extremely direct by even the very direct Dutch). Go figure!
Fourth, the reason is personal growth. I’ve once said I want to learn the language of all the “super powers” in this world, that being English, Chinese and Russian. It’s a bonus asset for a security expert to be able to speak one of the biggest languages in the world, one that’s growing more and more important over the years. Myself I see it very possible that in a year or 10-20, the United States of America will be smaller and less significant than China, especially seeing the terrible mismanagement in the western world. I do have to say that I have yet to experience the Chinese way of managing and such.
If you look at this paragraph, you can see that I am really unhappy about the way western countries are led by their governments. We’re all following a hollow shell of lies and promises that’s called “political parties”. One example of this would be that the Netherlands voted with an astounding NO to a European Constitution. Over 70% of the voters was against this proposal, and yet the Dutch government buckles for the ideology called “Europa”. Our government, filled with spineless, moral-lacking bastards have betrayed the country by agreeing on the European Consitutional Laws, something that is completely and directly against the basic principle of a constitution.
What’s the problem here? Well it’s bloody simple.Politicians pull power and might towards themselves. Once they have their power consolidated and expand on it, they stop listening to the people of the country. We dislike something with a percentage of over 70%, and still we get buttfucked by the government. Now we’re supposed to pay even more to this union of swindlers and con-men, namely the European Union. We’re all losing our own identity the longer this farce keeps going. I do not know the situation in China, nor do I really have the focus on it. One thing I can not do is blog about it but that’s fine. As opposed to the luxury of the Western World, I see that China is developping itself. Step by step it’s improving and they move forward.
Moving on from this subject, I am really looking forward to visit China. It’s a great adventure and I am sure I’ll be baffled by a lot of things that are different between my home and China. For now, I am stressing out like mad to get all the paperwork, medication and alike sorted out so that I can go and be there for a long time (5 months). One thing I have to give you guys. Do not think this is cheap. My estimated costs including flight, rent, food, travel, laptop and a video camera comes nearby the 10k. Of course, there’s a few parts where I can bail out rather cheaply but even then I will be paying a lot.
I mentioned a video camera, by the way. I did this because I’ve strongly been considering to get a reasonable camera with extra battery pack(s) to record the experience in China whenever I can. For me, it gives more of a satisfaction as I literally can see the things I’ve done. No, I won’t make it some vlog where I stare into a camera and rant randomly. I want you as viewer of the video (once I return) to consider yourself to experience what I’ve seen.
