Culture Graffiti Posted by Ernest , on Thursday, February 04, 2010

We're proud about our culture are we not? We've grown to love it, embrace it, witness it, respect it, even fight for it. Yet, we find ourselves discombobulated in an environment of mixed backgrounds. I study in an environment with people from every-which-where - Turkey, South Africa, Argentina, Indonesia, Russia, Macedonia and more. Sometimes, its quite a lot to take in, really, especially in a pressure juncture where emotions take over objectivity.

Accents. Funny thing about accents. We all have peculiar accents, and varying pronunciations. I'm now confused whether architecture is pronounced as 'Arkitecture' or 'Arshitecture'. Dunno which one it is, but I've tweaked myself to not care. lol. When signing up to this program, I was pretty sure I would be surprised with a lotta things. So I had to enter with an open mind. The pitfall? I now relate anything anyone does to 'cultural difference'. That guy annoys me? Maybe its the 'cultural difference'. What on earth is she wearing?? 'cultural difference'. The female is just so rude - ummm 'cultural difference?'

Yup, its like the de-facto standard now to ward off a wierd feeling towards the things that people around do - 'cultural difference'. In the midst of this graffiti, I'm hoping we dont miss the relevant parts of reality. Still learning. Cuz now, I've more or less studied my environment and the people in it. Besides changing speech rate to different levels, churning out words in customized tongue movements, and modifying intonations every hour of the day, I also spend oregons tuning my brain to decipher speech from all over the place.

Its troublesome.
but fun ;)

Pardon meneer, Kunt u mij helpen? Posted by Ernest , on Thursday, November 26, 2009

Nee, nee, nee, nee (no)!! Thats the usual Dutch conversation goin on between the non-dutch students these days, here at the university. Yes, besides the relentless hours of project nonsense, coding, management, architecture and other technical geekology, we also learn Dutch - reminds me of the days where we recited alphabets in primary school. :D Boring at the time, but fun now :D

BTW, "Pardon meneer, Kunt u mij helpen" stands for "Pardon sir, Would you help me?". A funny word I learnt today is "dood" which is "dead" in Dutch :P. Quite dangerous really, if someone came to me earlier and said, "Mijn vader is dood!", I'd most like say "Wow! thats great, my father is a dude too!".

TOP TEN REASONS TO BE DUTCH

1. You can get arrested for growing plants, but not for smoking them.
2. You can make jokes about the Belgians and still drink their beer.
3.a. You can legally kill yourself
3.b. You can legally be killed
4. You’re exactly like the Germans, except that nobody hates you.
5. You think you are a world power, but everyone else thinks Copenhagen is your capital…
6. You get to insult people and defend yourself by saying it’s a national tradition.
7. You can put your finger in a dyke and it will save your country
8. You live in the most densely populated country in Europe, and still you’ve never seen your neighbours.
9. If the economy is bad, blame the Germans. If a war is started, blame the Germans. If you lose your keys, blame the Germans.

10.Bikes are public property. Locks are a challenge.

:)

Biking and Snowboarding Posted by Ernest , on Monday, November 16, 2009

So this past weekend, my colleagues n I headed down to the Montana snow center (15 kms south of Eindhoven). Its a nice indoor snow slope where people snowboard/ski (Netherlands as such is a flat country with one hill thats about 1000 ft. ;) . Fortunately, the weather was great :D so we went biking all the way.

The winds were quite strong and blowing against us, so it did take a lot more effort (apparantly, my Harley doesnt have gears and has a nut crushing seat :P ) .

The countryside is amazing with green grasslands, and narrow roads.

and finally, after reaching Montana, wearing all the equipment, we were ready to snowboard. There were some lessons to get us started, which helped a lot. But somehow, I still managed to get my bum to turn blue black by the end of the evening.

Fun evening, painful next morning. I'm still sore.

:)

Never Ending Education? Posted by Ernest , on Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I was born 24 years ago, and I've actually had a peace of mind for only three and a half years. Yes, those little three years when I'd get what I want, cry when I want, smile when I want, poop when I want, wherever I want, ahh, the freedom. But after that, its only been "education". Exams, timetables, more exams, homework, deadlines, some more exams, and on and on. And geesh, its still not over. To some of us, it has, which is sweet. To me, it isnt yet, and apparantly that surprises a lotta people around me. Studying? still? really? PhD? really? lol... love the reactions, but I'm not doing a PhD. I'm a Post Masters student. I know, I know, a new term to many. But basically, its a programme after a Masters programme wherein, one is challenged with not just technical aspects of software architecture, but also non technical stuff such as communication and project management - A blend I think I'm extremely short of (besides waiting for the recession to recede and buying myself some time ("P).

Long story short, yes, I'm still studying... and its going to be that way for atleast a couple of years more.

:)

^^The "me" and the "workspace"