Hometown
I’ve finally decided on the four classes I’m taking this semester, Signals & Systems, Microprocessors, Electromagnetism, and Data Management. I’m also sitting in on the Friday lecture of Data Management.
Unfortunately, I can’t understand the textbook. I also can’t follow what the professors say in lecture despite already having taken Signals and Microprocessors. I expect my confidence will increase once I start doing homework and comparing my class notes to online material.
I’m really glad there’s no participation grade.
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A) 鼓楼 (Gu Lou) Campus. The main campus where Undergrad seniors, Graduate students and international students live.
B) 仙林 (Xian Lin) Campus. The undergraduate campus where I have to go to take Engineering classes.
Undergraduates have to take classes at the 仙林 (Xian Lin) Campus. I live at the 鼓楼 (Gu Lou) Campus. The two campus are relatively close by American standards, about 18 km or 11 miles. But the first half of that journey is through the city during rush hour traffic, and the second half of the journey is through a maze of construction. Therefore, the bus ride takes roughly 50 minutes.
The kicker is that there’s never enough buses. Teachers and students wait together for the bus at the main campus every morning. Because the teachers must arrive on time to teach class, they’re allowed on the bus first. Then whatever seats are left over are filled in by students. On average, if you’re further than 30th in the student line, tough luck. They don’t call in more buses. They don’t have a Plan B. You have to get to the undergraduate’s campus on your own.
I was 47th in line for the returning bus on Friday, and I missed grabbing a seat along with over a dozen students in front of me and over fifty students behind me. The return trip on the public buses took almost two hours.
[Hint: Answers = Comments] (?)
It’s Unlearning Time
I started classes last week. Officially, classes started three weeks ago, which puts me two weeks behind. That, on top of my paltry reading skills, my abominable writing skills, and my lack of friends in class, makes the semester ahead look steep - almost vertical.
After a week of class, I’ve grasped that I’m poorly equipped to study Engineering here. I have to quickly reintroduce myself to paper and pen calculations and put my computer-based design skills in storage. My professors are trying to teach us how to “push through an equation” (literal translation) to the answer. But before I can do that, I need to make some space in my mind.
September In The Rain - Frank Sinatra
In moments of weakness, I want to drive in the rain with a car full of laughing friends and listen to familiar songs.
Haha homesick already.
I actually shot this on the third night (28th) I arrived in Nanjing; but I’ve just recently secured a stable connection to Youtube.
The group of cyclists are waiting properly in the designated bicycle turning box.
When I was growing up in Nanjing, interesections had no lane markers for bikes. I think it’s a good idea to try to set a traffic protocol for bikes. But even if it works, I just couldn’t believe the waiting box is in the middle of the intersection.
](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kppo12cU811qzdhyoo1_500.jpg)
I was having a rough day. The Police require all foreigners - it’s strange to think of myself as one in China - to have a physical within 30 days of entry, otherwise they void the visa. After rejecting my American physical forms and some first rate red tape hassling, I get to pick up my government approved paperwork next week. I must have forgotten how patient I used to be.
But good thing I walked into a local supermarket to buy band-aids and caught this sign as I was riding up the escalators. I like my legs too.
[Hint: Answers = Comments](?)
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(A) is the building next to my dorm - it’s Nanjing University’s Business School
(B) is the hospital where my uncle is staying.
My grandmother showed me these food stamps that she’s kept since The Cultural Revolution. Truthfully, I can’t believe she held on to these instead of using them since food was so scarce.
The colors are different because I didn’t Photoshop them carefully after cropping the pictures.
My grandmother lives with my uncle’s* family and they’re moving to a new house. I was helping her pack up when I came across this portrait of my grandfather taken after he had fallen terminally ill. I’ve never met my paternal grandfather; he passed away from gullbladder cancer a couple years before I was born.
I stared at the portrait for a good ten minutes before taking a picture of it. It felt comforting to finally put a face to the man central to so much family folklore.
*In Chinese culture, relatives are denoted with special terms by which side of the family they are related to you by and their seniority in their generation. My grandmother lives with my 2nd Paternal Uncle. 2nd means he is the second oldest son. He has two older sisters, but they are counted separately.
My room after some rearranging but without any decorations. The contract specifically prohibits rearranging the furniture.
It has AC (shock!).
Nanjing, Finally
I arrived in Nanjing on the 25th and promptly moved into my 3-Star-hotel-grade residence hall. My room is probably in the top 1% of student lodging in the entire city. I have a private bathroom and a Polish roommate named Luke who speaks English.
So the story goes. I’ve been trying to find a place to keep up my pull-ups routine. So I was excited to find that the outdoors exercise areas - imagine a playground for retirees - had pull-up bars.
But just as I was heading out of the door last night, I reached down to pet my cousin’s dog. Unfortunately, my hand passed too close to a hidden bone and the dog pounced. I felt a tooth slam into my right index finger before I pulled away, and luckily I only had a bruise instead of a bite. My finger was swelling and I still wanted to do pull-ups.
[Great Idea Turned Bad While Studying Abroad #1]
I decided to try a one-handed left-hand pull-up for the first time. I used my right hand to assist a little by grabbing my left elbow. I managed a full pull-up, released myself and discovered that the muscles in my left torso were throbbing. Ok, a little overdone, I thought, but you’re supposed to rip the muscles a little.
[Great Idea Turned Bad While Studying Abroad #2]
The next morning, even my right hand stopped hurting, so I decided to practice some normal pull-ups. I completed a set of eight and was stretching my legs when all the muscles down the left side of my neck to my lower back snapped. I couldn’t stretch it out and ended up wobbling home, unable to turn, raise or lower my head.
To remedy the errors of youth, my aunt, Lu Wei decided I needed ancient medicine. She snuck me into the busy appointment schedule of a Chinese Traditional Medicine doctor who effortlessly inflicted leg-jerking pain on my neck - with his elbows. After a cocktail treatment of acupuncture, contortionist messaging (not picture - included repetitive high velocity elbow-to-neck blows) and fire cup heat therapy, I felt the same, but with an adrenaline rush from the additional pain. And then suddenly an hour later on the subway, the neck pain subsided all at once.
If you’re looking for a picture tutorial on how to steal (fix) a public lamppost in the middle of a crowded street in broad daylight.
