Pirate Radar posted:

Spain rules. Where in the country will you be?

oohhboy posted:

LOL. I straight up told you guys I do exaggerate or change some details to varying degrees for dramatic effect.

oohhboy posted:

LOL. I straight up told you guys I do exaggerate or change some details to varying degrees for dramatic effect.

Do you really think Haier is being completely honest with his posts. The stories he tells I believe no doubt has some embellishments or reordering events for pacing to it makes for a better story. He might have found out what the peanut girl had, but omitted it to let the imagination run a little wild. The stories could straight up fake, but he has your attention and I have yours.

Relin posted:

is reused wooden chopsticks still a thing in china? bacteria love to get into the nooks and crannys of wooden/stone things (anything porous). there should be a movement to at least some form of plastic chopstick if they're going to be cheap and not have new wooden ones for every meal

LentThem posted:

today was a real winnr of a day. my aunt had to work so i had the day to myself, seemed like a good day four betting on the races if you get my drift. i found a massage parlour with a decent price, down a hallway on the third floor of a building in Tsim Sha Tsui, lots of little lights that really made me feel christmas. I remember this building had famously been the site of a zoning issue with the government when i was a kid, im pretty sure i remember hearing on the news at the time that a few people served time because of it.

I go inside and theres only one woman available, she was okay looking but had short hair and i really wanted someone with waist lenth hairs. I got angry and almost left disappointed but then a girl with long hair that was okay but not quite as long as i wanted (but even prison slop is a feast to a starving man) was available so she took me to a room and the situation was really tuning back round

you guys are going to really enjoy my breakdown of the different massage services and our haggling over price where i clearly came out ahead. I dont have time to write it up today but you guys are deffo going to like it tomorrow

kia ora

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

My parents live in Barcelona, so I'm hoping to be there, too, but I'd be happy enough elsewhere in the country. I've lived and worked in Spain before and know that it's a lifestyle and place I enjoy (although hopefully I won't be stuck in the deeeeeeep countryside again, unless I'm actually doing arch work [not bloody likely in Spain].)

Fleta Mcgurn posted:

My parents live in Barcelona, so I'm hoping to be there, too, but I'd be happy enough elsewhere in the country. I've lived and worked in Spain before and know that it's a lifestyle and place I enjoy (although hopefully I won't be stuck in the deeeeeeep countryside again, unless I'm actually doing arch work [not bloody likely in Spain].)

Magna Kaser posted:

I see this sentiment a lot from Chinese learners and it makes me wonder if there are ESL learners out there who see "color" or the word "eggplant" and go "Man stupid Americans don't know poo poo thank god for proper English from the UK".

Atlas Hugged posted:

I actually had to Google Translate what ladron wrote because I had zero idea

oohhboy posted:

LOL. I straight up told you guys I do exaggerate or change some details to varying degrees for dramatic effect.

Do you really think Haier is being completely honest with his posts. The stories he tells I believe no doubt has some embellishments or reordering events for pacing to it makes for a better story. He might have found out what the peanut girl had, but omitted it to let the imagination run a little wild. The stories could straight up fake, but he has your attention and I have yours.

So it really should be me telling you to take it easy. I have been having fun the whole time bitching or no bitching as the journey good or bad is my goal, not to walk back through the door back in New Zealand with no stories to tell.

But for real I am coming out today a winner.

She turned up and we took a Taxi to Wong Tai Sin where the doctor was. The medical "Complex" is in the Temple Mall North or is it south? I looked it up and they can't seem to make up their minds. But of the two malls it is the one with the dirty façade.

There are about 6 practises next to each other but none of them work cooperatively with each other although one was a dental surgeon. This meant they all waste a lot of space by having duplicate pharmacies which naturally waste space resulting in higher rent. But they have their system for better or for worse.

Of all the doctors she could have chosen she chose the busiest because of the whole big lines must mean he is good! There was a practise right next door that had a 5 minute waiting time instead of the 40+ just to see this doctor.

Of course this is Hong Kong and the place looks more like an old school package delivery service as there are boxes and boxes of medical supplies filling most of the waiting room with barely enough space to get to the doctor's door. Half a dozen people have spilled outside waiting just like me instead of heading next door. I try to read the inscriptions on the window next door but failed to ascertain why we couldn't have gone there instead as it didn't appear to be a speciality.

Name finally gets called up and the doctor is a slightly over weight, maybe about 55 years old. Behind him is multiple shelves with filled completely with patient files. Like outside the inside is full of packages. I wonder if they really do go through that much supplies or that everyone else uses his office as storage and pay him so that their practices look professional. There is some sort of organization to the madness.

He goes straight into it asking all sorts of questions which I thankfully could answer without issues. He is furiously writing this down on a notebook no different than one found in class. Like doctors everywhere his writing is mostly intelligible to the average person and on some level might have been a show. Unlike the other patients before me I stay on point and only take up 2 minutes at the most unlike everybody who seem to take long enough to tell their life story. He tells me not to eat fruit(Vitamin C has a laxative effect) or too much meat(Lack of fibre) and normal water(!) instead of Hot or Cold.

The consult ends with a "Are you afraid of needles?" I say "No" and I am promptly shown a alcove where a nurse who is standing by I spot some really old glass ampoules with the break open neck inside an open stained box. She takes a minute to draw what I assume is either antibiotics, vitamins or saline. A quick jab in the butt and I am back in the waiting room waiting on my prescription.

This takes quite a while as the look of madness is madness. My name is finally called to the window where I get handed 10 different medications with instructions all in Chinese talked in terms I don't understand. The variety of meds was clearly more of a shotgun like approach to the problem. The nurse tells me to have hot water because it is healthy and have some fruit. We pay the $500 and make our way out.

My Aunt asked whether I want anything to eat being that I woke up and went straight to the doctors. I know I should have something to eat as my hunger signals is still broken so I reply in the affirmative. She moves around going to towards food outlets only to turn away. We get to a McDonalds where she sits down at. I assume we are going to eat there so I start looking at the placards. I turn around seeing her staring at the medications but then puts them away. I sit down next to her perplexed before she tell me to put it into my backpack.

We leave, continuing to with her continuing to meander stopping to buy some traditional snacks to take home for herself.

As we walk around some more I get a message from my Sister. It is a photo of the playing card I gave her so that Chow Yun Fat could sign it when he appeared at the pastry shop she works at. I am ecstatic and perk up immediately at the news but ask why it reads 2016 as the year of signing? She replies maybe it had something to do with the year of release of From Vegas to Macao. I look it up and nope, he just got the year wrong. But that is ok because that card is still badass and now it has a little bit more story to it I can tell than a card with the correct year. It is so getting framed at the first opportunity.

The meandering continues as she points out eateries we are not going to eat at. We finally get outside and move pass the bus terminal before she realises she is lost. She says we have to head to the MTR to get her bearings. Maybe she wanted to take the MTR back home. Nope, she exits and starts heading towards my home.

She continues to point out places to eat taking me on a tour while getting lost again before I point out which way to go this time. I keep thinking this will be the place where we are going to get something to eat but we continue with her tour. We take a detour and things are not going great downstairs so I finally take control. I straight up said "This is the place we are going to get some BBQ pork on rice to takeaway and we are heading home".

We get inside and she tries to convince me to stay here and eat. It looks dingy like every other place you would not find in a guide book for tourists, even ironically. I turn up my assertiveness a notch adding "*No* we are not staying here to eat, we are taking away". We leave with the food in hand and a start power walking the couple hundred meters home stopping by a 711 for some bottled water and personal hygiene supplies.

I take the lead as I now can't meander at all. She continues to point out eateries and how this has this or how nice the food is while point out the obvious as always.

I finally get home and make for the toilet with some urgency. We finish lunch and start going through the medication(Thankfully has the names in English) jotting down the notes on the laptop as I go taking them one at a time. She continues to insist that I take them all at once. I continue to take them one at a time as I needed the water anyway and it allowed me to mark them off as taken while taking notes.

We finally get to the Kaopectin. She got rather distressed when I poured the correct measure into the cup I was using that had a small amount of water left in it so that it was easier to see what I was doing and making it easier to drink. I knew it didn't matter as the Kaopectin was meant to mix with the food and water. She doesn't let this go even as she heads out the door. She leaves in a bit of a huff having pushed accidentally the only button I have seen so far, questioning her intelligence.

So again she gets me in trouble or close to it before I pull myself out of the problem because of her good intentions. I wish it wouldn't keep happening but she is infallible in this regard. However we do get the important things done even with her unintended actions so mission accomplished

Going to see John Wick 2 with the Brother in Law. It is going to be a good finish to a winner of a day.
I don't think she is mental, just not quite all there with her quirks nor is she the brightest. Most of the time I let her do her thing but sometimes you just have to step in and when you get frustrated you sometimes end up stepping on a neck.

JacksAngryBiome posted:

If you have to resort to fiction to make the story interesting then it probably isn't worth telling in this thread.

Jose posted:

i skip them because they're far too long

oohhboy posted:

LOL. I straight up told you guys I do exaggerate or change some details to varying degrees for dramatic effect.

Do you really think Haier is being completely honest with his posts. The stories he tells I believe no doubt has some embellishments or reordering events for pacing to it makes for a better story. He might have found out what the peanut girl had, but omitted it to let the imagination run a little wild. The stories could straight up fake, but he has your attention and I have yours.

So it really should be me telling you to take it easy. I have been having fun the whole time bitching or no bitching as the journey good or bad is my goal, not to walk back through the door back in New Zealand with no stories to tell.

But for real I am coming out today a winner.

She turned up and we took a Taxi to Wong Tai Sin where the doctor was. The medical "Complex" is in the Temple Mall North or is it south? I looked it up and they can't seem to make up their minds. But of the two malls it is the one with the dirty façade.

There are about 6 practises next to each other but none of them work cooperatively with each other although one was a dental surgeon. This meant they all waste a lot of space by having duplicate pharmacies which naturally waste space resulting in higher rent. But they have their system for better or for worse.

Of all the doctors she could have chosen she chose the busiest because of the whole big lines must mean he is good! There was a practise right next door that had a 5 minute waiting time instead of the 40+ just to see this doctor.

Of course this is Hong Kong and the place looks more like an old school package delivery service as there are boxes and boxes of medical supplies filling most of the waiting room with barely enough space to get to the doctor's door. Half a dozen people have spilled outside waiting just like me instead of heading next door. I try to read the inscriptions on the window next door but failed to ascertain why we couldn't have gone there instead as it didn't appear to be a speciality.

Name finally gets called up and the doctor is a slightly over weight, maybe about 55 years old. Behind him is multiple shelves with filled completely with patient files. Like outside the inside is full of packages. I wonder if they really do go through that much supplies or that everyone else uses his office as storage and pay him so that their practices look professional. There is some sort of organization to the madness.

He goes straight into it asking all sorts of questions which I thankfully could answer without issues. He is furiously writing this down on a notebook no different than one found in class. Like doctors everywhere his writing is mostly intelligible to the average person and on some level might have been a show. Unlike the other patients before me I stay on point and only take up 2 minutes at the most unlike everybody who seem to take long enough to tell their life story. He tells me not to eat fruit(Vitamin C has a laxative effect) or too much meat(Lack of fibre) and normal water(!) instead of Hot or Cold.

The consult ends with a "Are you afraid of needles?" I say "No" and I am promptly shown a alcove where a nurse who is standing by I spot some really old glass ampoules with the break open neck inside an open stained box. She takes a minute to draw what I assume is either antibiotics, vitamins or saline. A quick jab in the butt and I am back in the waiting room waiting on my prescription.

This takes quite a while as the look of madness is madness. My name is finally called to the window where I get handed 10 different medications with instructions all in Chinese talked in terms I don't understand. The variety of meds was clearly more of a shotgun like approach to the problem. The nurse tells me to have hot water because it is healthy and have some fruit. We pay the $500 and make our way out.

My Aunt asked whether I want anything to eat being that I woke up and went straight to the doctors. I know I should have something to eat as my hunger signals is still broken so I reply in the affirmative. She moves around going to towards food outlets only to turn away. We get to a McDonalds where she sits down at. I assume we are going to eat there so I start looking at the placards. I turn around seeing her staring at the medications but then puts them away. I sit down next to her perplexed before she tell me to put it into my backpack.

We leave, continuing to with her continuing to meander stopping to buy some traditional snacks to take home for herself.

As we walk around some more I get a message from my Sister. It is a photo of the playing card I gave her so that Chow Yun Fat could sign it when he appeared at the pastry shop she works at. I am ecstatic and perk up immediately at the news but ask why it reads 2016 as the year of signing? She replies maybe it had something to do with the year of release of From Vegas to Macao. I look it up and nope, he just got the year wrong. But that is ok because that card is still badass and now it has a little bit more story to it I can tell than a card with the correct year. It is so getting framed at the first opportunity.

The meandering continues as she points out eateries we are not going to eat at. We finally get outside and move pass the bus terminal before she realises she is lost. She says we have to head to the MTR to get her bearings. Maybe she wanted to take the MTR back home. Nope, she exits and starts heading towards my home.

She continues to point out places to eat taking me on a tour while getting lost again before I point out which way to go this time. I keep thinking this will be the place where we are going to get something to eat but we continue with her tour. We take a detour and things are not going great downstairs so I finally take control. I straight up said "This is the place we are going to get some BBQ pork on rice to takeaway and we are heading home".

We get inside and she tries to convince me to stay here and eat. It looks dingy like every other place you would not find in a guide book for tourists, even ironically. I turn up my assertiveness a notch adding "*No* we are not staying here to eat, we are taking away". We leave with the food in hand and a start power walking the couple hundred meters home stopping by a 711 for some bottled water and personal hygiene supplies.

I take the lead as I now can't meander at all. She continues to point out eateries and how this has this or how nice the food is while point out the obvious as always.

I finally get home and make for the toilet with some urgency. We finish lunch and start going through the medication(Thankfully has the names in English) jotting down the notes on the laptop as I go taking them one at a time. She continues to insist that I take them all at once. I continue to take them one at a time as I needed the water anyway and it allowed me to mark them off as taken while taking notes.

We finally get to the Kaopectin. She got rather distressed when I poured the correct measure into the cup I was using that had a small amount of water left in it so that it was easier to see what I was doing and making it easier to drink. I knew it didn't matter as the Kaopectin was meant to mix with the food and water. She doesn't let this go even as she heads out the door. She leaves in a bit of a huff having pushed accidentally the only button I have seen so far, questioning her intelligence.

So again she gets me in trouble or close to it before I pull myself out of the problem because of her good intentions. I wish it wouldn't keep happening but she is infallible in this regard. However we do get the important things done even with her unintended actions so mission accomplished

Going to see John Wick 2 with the Brother in Law. It is going to be a good finish to a winner of a day.
I don't think she is mental, just not quite all there with her quirks nor is she the brightest. Most of the time I let her do her thing but sometimes you just have to step in and when you get frustrated you sometimes end up stepping on a neck.

Atlas Hugged posted:

I think it's apples and oranges. The thing with traditional versus simplified is that it's not just one letter different. It's pretty easy to figure out that color and colour are the same word, especially since it's a consistent pattern. I actually had to Google Translate what ladron wrote because I had zero idea what it said.

For reference, here's the simplified and the traditional together:
选择 / 選擇

Adjacent it's more obvious, but on their own I thought the first character was going to be pronounced like 先 (xian) and the second like 棒 (bang). But of course it was xuan and ze respectively.

The thing is, the increased complexity of traditional doesn't make them any harder to learn. As long as you are learning the characters mnemonically and slowly learning a stable of radicals and then expanding on them, it's pretty simple. The different radicals tend to inform the meaning of the character or the pronunciation and there's a logical progression to them. Simplified largely throws all of that away. Plus, they're just ugly, though I guess that's more subjective than the other reasons.

WarpedNaba posted:

Isn't that already a thing though? Not modern Beijing, though - I haven't been keeping track of AC but I don't think they went beyond the Industrial Revolution.

oohhboy posted:

I enjoy writing them as much as the people reading them.

hakimashou posted:

Don't listen to the haters ohhhboy your stories are good and interesting to read

Haier posted:

EDIT: I just realized I have seen probably 90% of the people wash dishes without soap, too. They use the sponge (or a wet rag) to absorb and smear the oil. They use cold water to wash everything, and to clean chopsticks they rub them together rapidly. It's loving disgusting.

ladron posted:

if your parents need a phd in multicultural education plz hmu...

Magna Kaser posted:

In 2017 this is true, but when handwriting was how you had to get poo poo done simplified characters had a lot more appeal. These days it's not really better or worse and it's all about aesthetics, which is why you still see traditional characters all over the mainland and they have even had talks about bringing them back every now and again.

If you wanna read about some even wackier things than simplification check out Gwoyeu Romatzyh which is from the ROC era and who's designers thought it could potentially even replace characters entirely.

BONGHITZ posted:

you were given an injection and you are taking mystery drugs, drink some gatorade

Pham Nuwen posted:

Well if you hate writing them that much, why do it?

hakimashou posted:

Don't listen to the haters ohhhboy your stories are good and interesting to read

JacksAngryBiome posted:

If you have to resort to fiction to make the story interesting then it probably isn't worth telling in this thread.

ladron posted:

heh, I was a prof at yonsei, the seoul not wonju one

oohhboy posted:

.

Glenn Quebec posted:

Glenn Quebec posted:

Worst part of the year is coming up: I have to play make escort with my Hong Kong counterpart. Once or twice a year she comes to New York for some reason and I'm basically her bitch. I don't know how since we are equivalent to one another but it's just a given because we have to work with each other all the time.

The past three years:

One of my three bosses: "Oh, hey Glenn. Eustace is coming next Thursday. You'll show her around right?" And I say yes because I'm a colossal pussy.

Que receiving an email from her for a one hour meeting everyday while she's in town.

Invariably I have to stay late and chat with her about nothing but it's slightly work related. Without fail on Friday we will get drinks with the team and I'll have to take her to her hotel (because NYC is so confusing and scary) I'll say yes to a few drinks at the hotel bar and she will be on the edge of blacking out before I leave to go home.

Nevermind that she has been to NYC about 5 or 6 times in three years. Everyone expects me to babysit and I cannot unfuck myself out of this short of a role change.

AMA about my annoying HK counterpart.

Glenn Quebec posted:

"let's skip some protocol between each other (I.e. leave me off these emails and conference invites.)" She titters and covers her mouth and tells me I'm so bad. How? How am I bad? What have I done that's bad? I get giggled at. Almost the same response on the phone or by email.