Dag 3 6 feb 2008: Rotterdam op de step!

Today started with an introduction about working with the portfolio. Apparently we have to put our texts, presentations etc. on a school website. This website works like a huge memory stick: you can put everything on there. You can choose which documents can be seen be who (you have to give ‘permissions’) and you can also work on 1 document with a few people at the same time (it reminded me of a wiki).
Finally I got my school password and username so now I can get on the computers at school. This is very nice because at home, I still haven’t got an internet connection. I could finally check my emails! I had 52 new emails!
Now I also got the opportunity to check for a firm called UPC. The boy who rented my apartment before me had a line of UPC for internet so it’s the easiest when I use the same firm. I’ll call the firm tomorrow or maybe I’ll visit one of their shops here in Rotterdam.

The afternoon was really nice and funny. We made a tour in Rotterdam using kickbikes (steps). It was tiring but also very nice! I discovered a beautiful hotel called Hotel New York. In this hotel we had a drink in the most beautiful and ‘intelligent looking’ bar. I will visit it more often while I’m here. Also we saw a lot of beautiful architectural tours de force and bridges. We crossed the Walk of Fame with signatures of Urbanus, Toots Thielemans, Shania Twain and even David Lee Roth! It was the perfect way to explore Rotterdam and it showed me that I should really get a bicycle! The freedom you have, the places you can visit, and everything is in a doable distance.
After the fantastic tour (too bad I didn’t bring my camera, but I’m going to do a bigger tour as well) we went to see the film ‘The Eleventh Hour’. This is a film produced by Leonardo Dicaprio and is a scientific film about the effects of global warming and the climate change. As I expected, it was a film with good chosen images and fragments of interviews with experts. I already knew that the world is at the beginning of crisis and that something has to be done, but this film showed it again. There’s only one problem I have with this sort of film: the people who are interviewed tell what’s wrong, say what can be done about it, etc. but it all comes to this: you need a) governments that care, b) companies that care and c) an entire change in the way people are thinking.
There was a native American (an Indian) who said that the human race is going to extinct and that we can do (almost) nothing about it. We just have to deal with it that the earth is going to live on without us on it. That made me think: “Then, why bother?” If humans are supposed to extinct, just like millions of other species did before is and will do after us, why even work on the planet?
An answer was given: “We would then be the youngest species to extinct and we would be the species with the biggest impact on the survival possibilities of other species.” And to be honest, I thought: “So? We won’t be here to suffer the consequences.” But then my mind switched to the ‘good me’ and thought: “This would mean that my grandchildren and especially my great-grandchildren would suffer under the consequences of what the generations before me and my generation did and do. That’s not fair. Then nobody should be allowed to have children anymore because it’s too rude.” I don’t want this to happen; I want my children to be able not to worry about their children and their future; I want my grandchildren to grow up in a healthy world, without masks to breath through.
What a world we live in. She is so beautiful and we are destroying it. If the story of Adam and Eve is the right thing that happened, God will be pretty mad at us for destroying his creation. Believe me: “Sorry” won’t be good enough to make up for it.

After the film I went to school by metro to have dinner over there. This morning I saw there was going to be chicken and I love chicken so I decided to eat at school. I’m not such a good cook so I had at least one good meal this week!

Then I went home with the tram. There was a woman waiting at the stop and I asked her if she lived in Rotterdam. She didn’t (she lived in Barendrecht) and we started talking about Rotterdam and about the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands. She was really nice and told me interesting things about the Dutch people. I already knew that the use of the internet is much more popular here than in Belgium and she gave me some funny examples of this difference. She works in a Marlies Dekkers shop and she had heard that the bags they use in those shops are sold on marktplaats.nl! The Dutch love internet!
We also talked about living ‘op kamers’ and how hard it can be to go back home after living in such a way for a year or two. Her sons have left the house and she said: “To be honest, I don’t even want them to come back. That doesn’t mean I don’t care but, like them, I’m used to life without fixed hours and such things.”
This is true. When I moved back from Ghent to Stekene, it was very hard. I was used to eat what I wanted when I wanted and I was used to leaving the house when I wanted to where I wanted with who I wanted without telling my parents. I really had to get used to telling where I’m going and to knowing where I’m going to eat at which hour before I leave home in the morning. My mother needs to know whether I’ll be home for dinner so that’s why I (normally) know where I’m going to eat. It seems stupid but is a very important difference in my life.
Now again, I choose what I do at which hour and I have to get used to this again. I have given myself a sort of system to follow so that life stays structured and it works. Perhaps in 2 weeks time, I will talk differently. We’ll see.