w00t

Yay, i just passed my SCWCD exam, so im finished!

Im quite happy i passed, and with a decent grade as well (78%, passing mark is 63), my teacher says i could have gotten way higher marks, but he always keeps bragging on about how easy SCWCD is. Im just glad i passed!

Well, i might do a post tomorrow morning or even tonight, but this should be one of my last posts from shimla

See all you guys in a few days again!

My day off

Today i decided that even though i have an exam to prepare for for wednesday, i could take some time off. And boy did i need that! Together with some mates from training i went to see the viceregal lodge (all the way across town), which was very nice and interesting, and yes, i did bring my camera, and got some nice pictures along the way.

The highlight of today, and probably my entire stay in india, was lunch. On the way back from the viceregal lodge we stopped at the Cecil hotel (the local 5 star) for lunch, which was probably the most expensive meal ive had in a month, i could have eaten from that for a few days, but it was so worth it. Just sitting there in the lounge with my club sandwich and propper ice tea made me forget all the stress and worries and slight discomforts of the past weeks, it was probably the most luxuious hotel ive ever been in.

So now im back in my hotel (which just doesnt look the same after i spent an afternoon at the cecil), sitting in the hallway to get an internet connection, but im pretty happy.

ah well, back to the books now, ive still got that exam on wednesday!

Starting to count down

The last few days ive noticed myself saying "just one more week and ill be back in holland" increasingly often. To be honest the high pace of going through the material is kind of wearing me down, and the prospect of very little free time (and very little to do in the little time i do have) isnt helping either.

On top of that, my teacher insists on going over every single page of the book, doing every single code example and highlighting every single line, which is really getting on my nerves, im starting to think id be better of just studying on my own (thats what you get with all these education reforms focussing on independent study)

All in all the novelty of being in India is starting to wear off, im getting tired of only eating chicken every day (cow off course, is NOT done, and most indian people really dislike pork as well, and you dont try the fish when you know the nearest ocean is a thousand miles away), and living in a hotel for an extended period of time isnt really all that much fun.

Its probably just the annoyance speaking, but right now im really happy knowing that in just one week (and time can really fly over here) ill be back home in holland

Keeping busy

Well, what can i say? i have been pretty busy, and will be for the next week and a half. Because we took just a bit longer then expected on SCJP (due partially to the delhi-shimla move) we have to go through the SCWCD material at two chapters a day, which is pretty fast

on top of that, the internet connection at the training center and hotel have been unreliable at best, so it might take a while for me to post next time.

And its nice to read all the comments!

See you guys!

One down, one to go

Well, the first certification is in the pocket, this morning i passed my SCJP exam, with an 81% score (passing grade is 59% and above), and im pretty happy with that. Now i was expecting to have a bit of time for just relaxing, but as it turned out, i kinda miscalculated the time, and as it turns out, ill have my SCWCD exam no later then wednesday next week(im flying back friday next week, plane leaves at 1:30 AM, so ill need to travel to Delhi on thursday), and we have only just started today

So it looks like ill be pretty busy, i just hope i can keep sunday free to do some sighseeing around shimla, as i havent had that chance yet, and except for sunday, i wont anymore. But at least im glad i passed my SCJP, which is supposed to be the most difficult sun exam there is.

Well, im gonna try and get some dinner right now (its 7 pm here), so see you guys!

Halfway there

Thats right, my stay in India is halfway over, and to be honest im getting quite comfortable here. The hotel in Shimla is great, i havent had any trouble with food yet (some hasnt been that great, but i havent been sick), and yesterday, to offset the absence of BBC television, i purchased a magazine featuring my favorite brit (yes, Jeremy Clarkson, host of Top Gear) along with some chocolate cookies and stuff.

So all in all im getting quite comfortable, the drives along the mountain roads dont disturb me anymore, this morning i actually found myself thinking that the cab driver was going a bit slow, he could have easily driven faster.

Tomorrow the festival of Holi (festival of colors) is celebrated across India, im not entirely sure what the festival is about, but practically it boills down to people throwing paint and dye at each other and drinking lots of booze (and even some weird opium/water mixture i have been told). My teacher said though that it isnt very safe to go out on holi, as some indian people apperently lose control of their violent tendancies and start hitting each other with sticks (odd fellows these indian people you know?) and besides, i have to study tomorrow as well, as i have my SCJP exam on monday morning.

Ill see if i can post tomorrow, the hotel im staying in is experimenting with wireless internet, and even though they havent granted public acces, trying to keep your wireless secure with a hotel full of smart IT people (there are like 12 dutch guys here, and some brits as well, all for training in some computer course) is an excercise in futillity, so i should have internet acces.

See you guys!

Snow!

When i woke up this morning (and i nearly overslept, one guy from my company is going back to delhi today, so we had a little going away party last night) and got down to the breakfast hall, i noticed it was snowing outside. All the roads and roofs in Shimla were white, and no cars were driving at all. After waiting (in vain) for our car for an hour, i decided to go back to my room and study.

Then half an hour later, the hotel desk phoned up to say there was a cab coming to pick me up, as the main roads had been cleared. The taxi ride over was pretty cool, im getting used to being driven round tight bends at insane speeds, and the snow today made it all the more exciting. The driver we had today is pretty good and he drove one of the best cars around here (a hyundai santro, which is roughly the equivalent of a hyundai atos, and great compared to all the small suzuki altos everyone around here drives), so that was quite a nice experience.

Ill try to take some pictures of shimla covered in snow, i already have a few of a snowman sitting on a bench. Some other dutch guys built it this morning, and all the indian people walking by were just amazed, i guess they arent used to just playing around when it snows.

Im gonna go and study a bit now, even though my teacher isnt here (he is stuck up in the hills in this tiny hotel on a mountain road, which obviously isnt important enough to be cleaned), so see you guys!

(by the way, everyone hoping for pictures of the taj mahal (yes you geert) i dont think ill get to that. as you might know the taj mahal is located in agra, which is quite away from delhi, and im not even sure how many time ill hae in delhi to begin with)

small update

Well, today im not feeling to teriffic, must have been the lunch i had yesterday. Also im still very tired, even though i had a solid eight hours of sleep last night. All in all there isnt all that much to report, the weather has changed a little, its a tad warmer and raining, but for the rest everything is just running its course.

Its nice to read some of the comments, i must say that temperature wise i would rather be in holland right now :)

See you guys!

First post from Shimla

Well, last saturday i arrived in shimla, after a gruelling 12 hour trainride. The trip up to Kalka from Delhi was pretty good, even if the train did remind me a bit of soviet russia. The train from Kalka to Shimla however, is a whole different matter. That ride must have been the slowest 90 kilometers i ever travelled. The train up here was at the very least from colonial times, if not before.

Here in Shimla it is pretty cold, im pretty sure a lot colder then in Holland, in some places there is still some snow lying on the streets. In the Koenig training center the temperature isnt much higher then outside, but its managable. The trade off in temperature is good for something though, compared to my hotel in Delhi, the willow banks is a palace. My shower is actually clean and bug free, everything works and the food from the hotel itself is quite good.

Overall thing are pretty good, im still on track with my training, and my new teacher is quite good, so im confident that my SCJP exam shouldnt be that hard. Im just a bit tired, but from what i hear thats normal the first few days on this altitude

Internet is a different matter though, because of some overbooking, im currently taking my training in a room in some poor excuse for a hotel a kilometer up in the mountains from Koening, although that should change in a few days, so my posts are likely gonna be a bit more irregular then last week

well, im off to study a bit before im going to sleep, see you guys!

Last words from Delhi

Well, it looks like these will be my last words from Delhi. Tomorrow early in the morning (6 AM, or 0030 AM dutch time) ill be on the train to Shimla. The entire journey should take about 11 hours, 5 hours to Kalka, where i will change trains, and then 6 more to Shimla itself. Ive been told that the second part of the trip is only about 80 miles in a straight line, but because of the mountainous terain, the train has to make all sorts of detour just to be able to climb the hills.

I made some pretty nice pictures today from the top of the training centre, but as i said, internet isnt exactly very fast here, so ill probably upload them once i get back to holland, and ill be sure to take a lot of pictures during the trainride.

Generally everything is ok, i am getting a bit sick of pizza (consider the fact that my lunch was my sixth pizza since monday), and from what ive heard about shimla, over there it is either chinese noodles or pizza, unless you want to try some tricky indian food. And for the time being im trying to be as carefull as possible with food as i can. This girl i study with got sick even from eating a subway sandwich, and i really dont feel like being sick for a few days, so all things combined im pretty paranoid about what i eat over here.

This is probably my last post for a few days, as i wont be able to get a cellphone-internet-contraption thingy in Shimla untill monday or tuesday, so i wish everyone in holland a pleasant weekend, and see you next week!

Bussines as usual

Well, today was mostly just bussines as usual, routine is really getting set in, so i dont really know any interesting stuff to tell you guys. Last night i just went to the hotel, studied a bit, watched some TV, and went to sleep, and today my day has been pretty ordinary as well

Tomorrow should probably be my last day in dehli for the comming weeks, as saturday i should be heading for shimla, so the routine here wont last for more then a day anymore.

Sorry for this somewhat uneventfull post, see you guys!

UPDATE:

I just got my train tickets, ill be on the 6 AM train from Dehli up to kalka, and then on to Shimla, so tomorrow is gonna be my last day in Dehli for now, and i might not be able to post from shimla untill monday

What has the world come to when..

.. the most civilised meal you have had all week, and probably will have for weeks, is grabbing a burger at McDonalds? That was going through my mind last night when we (me and Danny, the other dutch guy from Peak-IT, staying at the same hotel) had finnaly found a McDonalds, and got our stuff to eat. Somehow we ended up going all across town, using an autoriksha (also called a tuktuk), the metro and a normal bike riksha, and the same to get back to the hotel. In total it took about three hours to get back and forth just for a burger, but it was quite a nice trip.

That trip was sort of the highlight of yesterday, ive seen a lot of the city, including the really unreal metro lines. The metro here in Delhi is quite new, and it looks almost the same as any western city's subway, which is really weird when you look out from the station, and all you can see are slum like buildings, people living on the streets, and other indian stuff.

For the rest life is sort of settling into some sort of routine, my classes are ok, i learn a lot of new stuff, then i get back to the hotel, eat something, watch some CNN, and it all repeats again. Its quite odd that even after being here for only 5 days, ive already got some sense of routine about my daily activities.

Tomorrow i should hear whether my trip to Shimla will be on saturday or sunday, ill let you guys know, bye for now!

yay breakfast!

well, this morning started out a lot better then yesterday. As it turns out, yesterday the hotelstaff forgot to wake me and take me breakfast order. i did set my own alarm, so i woke up on time, but i was a bit passive towards breakfast. This morning though, i got my wakeup call (without even asking for it, im glad i dont have a free day here where i could sleep late, because im sure i would get my 7 am wake up call even then) and i got to order breakfast.

This morning i also met a new guest at the hotel, a fellow Peak-IT imployee (i think his name is Danny) who is spending the rest of the week here in Delhi. He just got back from three weeks of Shimla, and had some pretty nice stories about what awaits me there.

As for the real reason im here, the training, that is going well. The amount of material we go through in a single day isnt very large, so keeping up isnt a problem. The example exam questions are a whole different matter though. In general i do understand the material, but those exam questions are very tricky, trying to catch you on every possible technicallity

As for the train bombing (received a comment about that), that is quite a horrible thing that happened, but to assure everyone, it isnt the train ill be taking, even though they both go north. Being here in India (or just this part of the world) does really put things in another perspective though. It is almost daily that the newspaper mention someone getting sentenced to death, some explosion killing many people, and more of that stuff. Off course the fact that i only have three TV channels in my room doesnt help much either. Two of them are movies only, and the one i watch most is CNN. Now i havent been keeping an exact count, but since i arived here in India, about 100 people were killed in Baghdad alone in terrorist attacks, and this kind of stuff is constantly repeated on CNN. Quite a big difference from our relatively sheltered lives in holland, were the worst thing we have to worry about is whether wouter Bos is really becomming minister of finance and that sort of stuff.

well, thats all i can think of writing right now, ill post back again tomorrow, see you!

Where to begin?

Well, this is the first time ive got ym hands on an internet PC since i arived in India. It has been a really interresting but also very tiring experience. Also Dehli is nothing like i expected it to be. As it turns out, all the stuff with the small shops and poor people is true, but the place is totally devoid of structure, i have been in the city for three days now and i still havent got a clue of where anything is.

And saturday i was dragged around the city by a guide, which was quite nice, but unfortunatly i forgot to take my camera, so although i have seen some very nice stuff, i dont have any pictures :(. And to be honest im not sure if i have the time to do another trip of dehli again.

ill be sure to make some pictures once i move to shimla, but it might be to late for dehli :(

as for now, its lunchtime over here, and im really hungry (heavent had breakfast) so im off now, might drop another line in the evening.

Final countdown

This is it, in a little over 20 hours i will be boarding the KLM jet to Dehli. Im still not entirely ready though, i havent even started putting everything in my backpack, but in my experience that sort of stuff usually doesnt take more then an hour anyway, and as the saying goes, why do something now when you can put it off untill later?

On a slightly unrelated note, today i have officially closed of the student portion of my life. I handed in my public transportation card, i did the paperwork for school etc. So for today i am still a free man, as my contract doesnt start untill tomorrow ;).

Save for any rediculous mishaps, this should be my last post from the Netherlands. I may or may not have the time at schiphol to quickly write a few lines, but i dont really count on that. My next post should be from Dehli, but right now i have no idea when i will have acces to internet again, so i might be a while.

thats all for now, see you guys next post

The fast pace of technology

Well, i never thought this would happen, but here it is, i havent even left the country, or the title of my blog is already obsolete, how is that for fast pace? All kidding aside, ive just been informed i will be spending at least the first week of my training in Dehli instead of Shimla. The last week the Shimla area encountered the heaviest snowfall since 1990, in some parts of the town 73 cm of snow fell within 24 hours. As a result most roads and railroads from Dehli to Shimla are either closed, or so difficult to travel they might as well be closed.

Im currently still preparing some stuff for my trip, i did my last shopping today, and i did want to get some snacks and stuff for the journey, but i figured that airport security would jump all over me if i wanted to bring several bottles of "unconfirmed fluids" (otherwise know as coke/pop) aboard, so ill just buy my stuff as i go along.

Tomorrow will most likely be spent organizing all my stuff and packing my backpack, but so far preperations are comming along nicely.

See you next post

First Post!

So there it is, the first post on my travelblog! In a week and two days, i'll be hopping on a plane to India for a month. Right now though, im still firmly on dutch soil, being busy with preperations and all sorts of stuff. I figured i'd start my blog in English, just in case some foreign people might be interested in what i have to write/say, if dutch is preferred by a lot of readers, i might start posting bilingual, or create a dutch shadowblog.

Oh and so you know, i will be taking a digital camera to India, so pictures will be taken. It might take a while though before they get posted, since my internet connection in India probably won't be fast enough to upload large pictures, so most likely i'll take care of that back in Holland.