After the first night...

I slept like a rose, stone..or any other object that stands for a good and long night of sleep. It has been mre than 24:00 hours now since I entered the country, and I think my level of expectations where correct: Having no expectations at all. I think it is a country which you really have to enter with an open mind, and where you just have to let things come at you..slowly.

I`ve got a beautiful room, in sort of a ched on the top of the house. I don`t know if it is water-proof, but the great view when you step out of the room is simply brilliant. So I got up today, and the first thing I did was sitting on top of the roof with the sun shining in my face. Also a nice thing is that the railroads are just next to the house, and the trains always loudly announce their pressence. They are not so pretty diesel-trains, but I`ll make sure to take some pictures for the train-lovers out there.

The people in the house (7 others) are all very nice. Although the names are not yet completely in my mind, it always takes a week or 2 for them to settle in my long-run memory and stay there for the rest of my life. 3 guys and 5 ladies by the way.

I`m also going to try to buy a guitar here, an acoustic one. From my first impression I should be able to get one for maybe around 20 euro's...although I haven`t seen a shop yet. It`ll probably be my first try at aggressive india-style bargaining :D.

I`ll post some pictures one of these days on my msn space, so check that place out.

Greetings

Paul

ps: Good luck to my cousin and of course the little baby!

Nerves!

As an update to the last post: Everything is arranged, the only thing I need to do is to buy a new toothbrush, and get some stuff for my lenses. That's about it.

And I`m probably going to try to learn to read some Hindi before I leave. One website teaching it said it was an easy language to learn, and they even gave instructions. Hope this would enable me to read and order some food (Not knowing of course what I have ordered). Next I noticed that the 3 other free trainee spots at my NGO employee have been taken, 2 by other dutchies, 1 by someone from Columbia. This kind of his a positive vote for my choice to work at this company; If those three people choose it, I can`t be wrong, can I? All in all it seems to become one big happy dutch colony again, just like in Korea. My mother-language will maintain its average quality thanks to this I guess.

Anything else? Well..I bought 7 records last weekend; Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Winter, The Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, Het Goede Doel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and another one. This makes my collection go past the 60 mark. I`ve got almost more records than cds now, within maybe a year of starting to buy them. And since the prices are 1 cd for 10 records, I`m a happy man to keep expanding my music collection in this way.

Two weeks left till Paul will be no more (in Holland)

Two weeks left untill..
Two weeks left untill I will go to India, Jaipur. I`ll be working there for 18 weeks at a NGO called Cecoedecon. At this moment I only planned in 2 weeks for travelling. It might be a bit short, but since the monsoon will be haunting the south of India during June..it won`t be so great to go there. Besides the 100% humidity (which sucks; I experienced it in Seoul for 1 week and suddenly I wanted to be anywhere but in Seoul) I also learned it is better to make choices and just find a destination that is unique and special. Jaipur is also close to some of the biggest tourist destinations in India, so weekend-trips will hopefully cover those.

Besides having to arrange everything, there is also another thing that worries me. I found a waarbenjij.nu site of somebody who did the same traineeship as me..but she decided to quit in one week! Maybe it was a culture shock...maybe she broke the rule that you should create no expectations at all of your traineeship..and just go in there with an open mind..and trying to make the best of it.

Ah well, I`m confident that it`ll be a great experience..whatever happens.