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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • A few things, how empty and clean it was in comparison (I lived in a city at the time, which could show you how dense Beijing is, like everywhere you go is the most crowded place you have ever been). I also remember waking up from jet lag and my brother was watching that puppet comedy guy on tv and thinking what the fuck is going on here. I was pretty unplugged while I was over there (fall of 2004) so I essentially missed that whole election cycle which was honestly really nice, it sucked that Bush got reelected, but it was good to not be steeped in it while it happened. Since I had a very rudimentary grasp of mandarin at the time I wasn’t really engaging which Chinese pop culture either so I was basically just hanging out and talking to people which was really nice. Chinese social interactions are a lot more structured as well, which I found very refreshing at the time, I didn’t have enough of a grasp of the language to be awkward so that was also really fun.


  • SonofSonSpock@lemmy.mltoFuck Cars@lemmy.mlSo, like a Bus, or Train?
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    1 year ago

    It is also nice to be able to leave when you want, and get off the road to take a break or stop to eat where you want. It is also nice to have the flexibility to move around as you please at your destination.

    I really wish that the US had a functional rail system, let along high speed rail. I fell in love with sleeper trains when I was living abroad in college, it was so nice to get dinner somewhere near the centrally located train station, hop on the train, hang out a bit then get rocked to sleep and wake up at your destination.

    Fuck using a car to commute, I am more than happy to take the train for that, and generally when transit is convenient I prefer to not have to drive.


  • I lived in China for a year after college, and that was basically fine since I was already pretty knowledgeable about the country and I went into it expecting to be off balance and that there would be a lot of new things. What was a surprise was the culture shock when I came back to the US. I don’t think that the jet lag helped, but I remember feeling really really out of sorts for about a week and just generally in a bit of shock about how different life was here having largely not been exposed to it for a year.