Marcel Marti Jaques

This post goes for Marcel, my Catalan friend. Marcel has been the person to ask, when in need of finding something, especially related to computers. He is studying informatics, and he’s good at itJ He is funny, crazy, unpredictable and has left, without having shown me “The real stuff!” ;) I will come to Barcelona one day, claiming for it Marcel because you can not only be turning us your “back”!

Ok...after a bit of “China jokes” that none of the rest can get, let’s get serious! Marcel is the father of the “Marcel’s first Chinese Theorem”, concerning the stages of someone’s staying in China. In short, the stages are five:

1. surprise and fascination, during which the person is so impressed by the difference around him that was unexpected, no matter how much has he prepared.

2. Adaptation, the period when the person starts to adapt in the Chinese way of life, adopting more and more the lifestyle, nutritious and everyday habits of the new country. Some pleasant surprises come on the way, with the new lifestyle being significantly cheaper than that of the country of origin.

3. Normalization and routine. This stage starts at the moment, where the person starts having built a certain way of life that can be considered as (under the circumstances) normal. This means that the person has obtained a feeling of orientation in the city, has found certain things to eat, ways of having fun, ways to overcome the language problem, in short settled down. Of course, even during this period daily surprises that fall off the daily routine are a fact! After all, we do live in another continent.

4. Tiredness. It is the moment that the person finds that he has had enough of the different lifestyle, which at first seemed attractive and interesting but starts now to be tiring. Some inevitable incidents like theft or illness, contribute to the person’s homesickness and the day comes when the person starts counting the days to go back.

5. Homesickness. The final stage concerns the last weeks or days, when the person misses his friends and family and is just repeating its’ daily routine, until the day comes to go back.

Well, I have to say that in my case these stages are more or less applicable. First stage lasted for a couple of weeks. Second stage of adaptation another two weeks more or less, and ever since I am in the routine stage. Lately I am starting to enter the fourth stage, and feeling tired. My main reasons are the temperature, which is low and I am really tired of having frozen feet and hands 15 hours per day, the language problem, which makes us constantly needing to ask for help from the Chinese, even for the slightest thing, eg. to take a taxi and the everyday fight for finding something eatable and not eating the same 3 things only. The fact that most of my friends are gone, is also contributing for me to enter this stage.

Back to Marcel, he used to love China when I came and has also kind of “Chinesfied”, eating practically everything (including dog) but the last month he has been doing nothing but swearing at Chinese in the streets in Catalan, while riding the bicycle! I think that having his electric bicycle worth 100 euros stolen, has contributed in his change of stage. Now he is back in Barcelona, planning his Erasmus in Germany. Adaptation there will be a piece of cake, after living for 6 months in China.

Posing for picture like a Chinese. We don't know why, but Chinese people 80% of the times that they are posing for photos, they are making the victory, or peace(call it as u like) sign and smile incredibly much!

Wishing you good luck Kabron...and waiting for you in Greece this year! CalconAsos!!!

Και κάτι στα ελληνικά, για την περιπέτεια του Μάρσελ ως κομπάρσου σε Κινεζική ταινία!!Τα παιδιά εδώ πήγαιναν πολύ σε ένα club, όπου γνώρισαν τη manager η οποία έβρισκε δουλειές για ξένους στην Κίνα, παίρνοντας προμήθεια. Έτσι, η Πολιάνα κάποια στιγμή δούλεψε για 3 ώρες στην υποδοχή ενός κοσμηματοπωλείου πολυτελείας κατά τη διάρκεια των εγκαινίων και πήρε 50 ευρώ(περίπου το ένα τέταρτο του μηναίου μας μισθού!). Αυτή η Κινέζα επικοινώνησε μια μέρα με τα παιδιά, λέγοντάς τους ότι χρειάζεται κάποιους ηθοποιούς για μια ταινία και ότι έπρεπε να παίξουν τους Γερμανούς στρατιώτες. Το αστείο της υπόθεσης είναι ότι επέλεξαν το Marcel που είναι κοντός, με μαύρα μαλλιά και πυκνά φρύδια (μεσογειακή φάτσα) και όχι το Dawid που είναι ψηλός, άσπρος και ξανθός, τελείως γερμανόφατσα. Ο λόγος?!Οι στολές ήταν Κινεζικές και άρα για κοντούς ηθοποιούς, άσε που για τους Κινέζους είμαστε όλοι ίδιοι οι Δυτικοί!!!Λεπτομέρειες από τα γυρίσματα δεν ξέρω, απλά απολαύστε το Marcel με τη στολή.Οι Γερμανοί ξανάρχονται...