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There's this mansion complex (I hesitate to call it a palace because it wasn't ever home to royalty; they just visited) near here. They call it "Nanxun Ancient Town." The place was finished in the 1920s. Apparently that's ancient in China now. Christ, that's only 30 years older than my mom's house. I mean, it probably was the last place built in that style. It's significant in that regard.
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Dec 17, 2017 04:16
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The concept of old is something I find interesting in modern China. Last place I lived was built in 1992 and was universally described as old by locals. Fair enough the condition was awful but 1992 isn't that long ago. When my wife visited my parents in Europe she was schocked when I told her that the building my parents lived in was built in the late 50's. I've also had songs and movies from about 10-15 years ago referred to as old or very old.
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Dec 17, 2017 04:51
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fish and chips and dip posted:The concept of old is something I find interesting in modern China. Last place I lived was built in 1992 and was universally described as old by locals. Fair enough the condition was awful but 1992 isn't that long ago. When my wife visited my parents in Europe she was schocked when I told her that the building my parents lived in was built in the late 50's. Old is relative in every culture.
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Dec 17, 2017 06:42
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Any movie before 1997 is so ancient it doesn't exist.underage at the vape shop posted:Old is relative in every culture. Yes but there is a funny thing with China insisting to the heavens about the 5000 years poo poo yet things from a decade ago are ancient. The way Chinese buildings are made, though, they age in dog years so an apartment from 1992 is hard for me to even imagine. My newest workplace was finished in 2011 and is falling apart much worse than my American school from like the 1940s. I had originally guessed it was made in the 70s.
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Dec 17, 2017 07:29
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underage at the vape shop posted:Old is relative in every culture. Yes I know. I guess I wasn't clear. I meant that I find it interesting how a culture which prides itself on a long history, and where being old is good has what I find quite a short frame of what's old. I would have expected that old wouldn't be used so often.
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Dec 17, 2017 07:47
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Grand Fromage posted:china sucks if you don't mind my asking, man, what's your endgame? I don't recall that you are married, how long do you plan to stay there, inhaling toxic air around toxic situations filed with toxic people? I'm just guessing at the toxic part from what people have posted.
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Dec 17, 2017 09:15
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I started replying and then Microsoft update screwed me over and I didn't get to save my reply. God drat it. I've been in Thailand for a while. My apartment is great, probably one of the nicest I've ever lived in. I'm sad that despite being only a few years old, the developers made no effort to figure out some way to allow non-residents into the complex and buildings. There's like 4 or 5 buildings in this complex, and there is no system in place for buzzing people in or a code they can use. I have to take the elevator and walk 200m out to the road and open the gate, and then use my card to let us back in, all under the watchful eyes of the little annoying building manager guy that won't even give me a parking pass to give to my family even though my Thai mom is on the lease. My landlord is a girl in her 20s whose family bought her the condo. She has no concept of money and just moved into another condo they bought for her. Compared to the other people here she's asking about 4-5000 less baht per month for rent, and it's fully furnished. Seeing, hearing, and smelling the Mainland tour groups everywhere is awful. I keep getting flashbacks to my time in China, which I've largely forgotten already, and it pushes it more in my brain that it was not a good time at all. I would not say I regret, but I would never do it again, and I have no fondness for any of it. There's this large feeling of apathy about it the more I am distanced from it. India gave my a full reset from the China mode I had gotten into, and now being back in Thailand is kind of reaffirming that China as a whole was and is a very low quality experience in general. Everything is a struggle to find quality that isn't poo poo, whether it's the supermarket products or stuff in shops, the internet, a place to play or relax, and even many/most of the people outside or dealing with. When you're there you get this feeling like you have to push on and you don't notice it much, but you're always kind of searching for a level of acceptable standards, even while being okay with what you've got in China. Most things are simply a hassle or a "I wish this was easier/different" kind of thing. Maybe if I was 23 or something I would feel differently, but add a decade to that age and you already know life can be easier if you want it to be. Money isn't worth it. Chaoshan Girl is coming to visit me, and then later my ex-boss and her family will be doing a tour around the country. They are the only Chinese connections I've maintained, and my Wechat is silent now except for CG. CG and I have never had any intention to be a couple or anything more than friends, but in the future I have no idea if we'll be meeting again. The funny/sad thing is that if she was dual citizen or just not from China, we'd have a higher chance of staying close. She's my good friend and I talk to her every day and all the time, but she's there and I am not there and that's how it's to be. I've been using Tinder here and, after being unable to read the profiles on Tantan due to language differences, I've been pretty disappointed how much fun the Tinder system sucks out of the whole experience. Now that I can read the profiles, I can see how generic the person is, and having the Instagram and Spotify links can back that up when they have 2600 photos of all selfies and a playlist of Coldplay and Bruno Mars. Every profile that's not made by a bot has about 90% the same content, word-for-word. I am guessing the Chinese were even worse about this, but I couldn't read their bullshit. The braces obsession in Thailand started when I was young, maybe about twenty years ago, but it's weird that women here think having giant braces at the age of 30 is a cute and cool fashion accessory that completes your desired "look." I'm swiping left so much that Tinder crashes every time I use it. I've gotten 14 matches so far, but less than half do not have a penis. I tend to not find this out until after they want to add my Line account. One immediately sent me a phone call in it. Me: "Hello?" LB: "Hey, Hello, I am taller than you." Me: "What?" LB: "I am taller than you! That means my cock is bigger than yours!" Me: "Cock?" LB: "You know I am a ladyboy?" Me: "Ohhhhh" LB: "How big is your cock?" Me: "Like a can of soda!" LB: "So fat. Oh my God, it's bad. No. I don't like that at all. No." I matched with a girl with a super cute face who turned out to be hiding a big body. We were talking on Line and I asked what her hobbies are and she said "eating and making VDO." I asked what kind of videos, and she sent me her Youtube channel with videos of her walking around popular markets around Thailand and eating at like 100 places. I watched one where I swear she must have consumed about 4000 calories in her time there. She asked me to join her and be a guest on her show and I had to say no. She can't out-eat me anyway. She might be fat, but I have years of training on how to properly wolf down enough food for five people and then walk it off. She still asked me to "like and subscribe for more content." There are quite a few people on Tantan, but mostly Thais hoping to learn or use Mandarin, some Chinese tourists, and Chinese working in Thailand. I don't want any more Mainlanders, I don't care if they are cooled-down by living in BKK. The other day I saw a really, really old white guy with a white ponytail and in a tie-dye t-shirt and fisherman pants pushing a Razor scooter on the sidewalk. I had a very loud LOL, but respected his no fucks given. big time bisexual posted:guy on reddit describes what it is like to work at a chinese mobile game developer fish and chips and dip posted:The concept of old is something I find interesting in modern China...I've also had songs and movies from about 10-15 years ago referred to as old or very old.
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Dec 17, 2017 09:28
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ladron posted:if you don't mind my asking, man, what's your endgame? I don't recall that you are married, how long do you plan to stay there, inhaling toxic air around toxic situations filed with toxic people? I'm just guessing at the toxic part from what people have posted. Point me to a job that is actually hiring and pays enough to live on and I'll be out tomorrow.
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Dec 17, 2017 09:39
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Grand Fromage posted:Point me to a job that is actually hiring and pays enough to live on and I'll be out tomorrow. that's kind of what I mean. are you just going to stay there being miserable for a paycheck, calculating how much each hour of your time is worth? I mean, if it's all about money, you're making like $1 an hour to hate your life. I get it, for real, but once I started my phd in korea I was 99% sure I would leave when I finished it unless something amazing happened to convince me to stay. Instead, I was just convinced over and over that I should go. so I did. I'm making a lot less now, but I am respected more and have a lot less stress and people aren't trying to be my best friend/ screaming at me for disparaging dokdo depending on how drunk they are, you know?
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Dec 17, 2017 15:08
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e: nevermind just pretend I posted goatse here.
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Dec 17, 2017 15:28
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When I was in China I worked like 30 hours per week and had more money than I could spend. I lived in an urban center with a nice sized apartment. I ate out for every meal and smoked weed every day also. When I got back from China I worked 20 hours per week at a grocery store for minimum wage, then another 10-15 hours per week tutoring children to read for like $20/hour (but I had to drive like 30 minutes+ to each session). I barely made enough money to help my girlfriend pay rent and to eat. My grocery store shifts were like 4pm-1am which sucked super bad. I had no health insurance (not that I did in China either though). I luckily ended up getting a job that paid an actual salary with health insurance after like 6-7 months of that. It was a job I likely would not have gotten while applying in China. It was like a lucky opportunity I got from knowing people in the place I lived, and it wasn't the kind of job that would hire people who were still in China; they wanted to interview people quickly and get them working. Still, if my girlfriend (now wife) hadn't been in the US, the temptation to just stay in China "one more year" would have been kind of big. I hated China by that point and couldn't wait to leave, but the "making too much money I couldn't even spend it all" was because spending that much in China is hard. It only ended up being a few thousand dollars surplus after a year, so if I'd gone back to the US as a single guy, I would have had enough money to pay rent only a few months (signing a lease would have felt scary). I would have ended up needing to work that grocery store job way longer hours which would have limited my ability to find another job at all. It could have REALLY sucked. I also could have gone and lived with my parents "until I found a job" which could also have ended up being miserable. When you compare those options to "stay in China with a job/living situation that is more fun" it is tempting to stay. It's definitely scary though because I feel the "I taught in China" on your resume is at its best if it's one year. If you have "taught in China" for like 6 years on your resume, it isn't any better than one year. People start wondering why you were there so long, and you lose that "young person who did this for an experience and is now back to work in the states" bonus you get if you come back before you are in your late 20s. With all that said, if I were still single I would have quite possibly ended up living in various low-cost-of-living countries where I could work, because doing 9-5 in the US really loving sucks, and the benefits of the US as a first-world country are not always worth the 9-5 grind. Then if you are not lucky enough for a 9-5 and are doing worse jobs, it's definitely not worth it.
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Dec 17, 2017 15:43
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ladron posted:people aren't trying to be my best friend/ screaming at me for disparaging dokdo depending on how drunk they are, you know? which like, makes sense because if South Korea is involved then logically NK should be too but it made me think of this thread
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Dec 17, 2017 19:00
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Working low paying service jobs sucks, but I enjoy not being treated like a space alien when I walk down the street or go into a store to make a basic purchase so there's that.
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Dec 17, 2017 20:41
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Bajaj posted:I matched with a girl with a super cute face who turned out to be hiding a big body. We were talking on Line and I asked what her hobbies are and she said "eating and making VDO." I asked what kind of videos, and she sent me her Youtube channel with videos of her walking around popular markets around Thailand and eating at like 100 places. I watched one where I swear she must have consumed about 4000 calories in her time there. She asked me to join her and be a guest on her show and I had to say no. She can't out-eat me anyway. She might be fat, but I have years of training on how to properly wolf down enough food for five people and then walk it off. She still asked me to "like and subscribe for more content." This is a hilarious sign of the times we live in, like something out William Gibson's Blue Ant Trilogy. angel opportunity posted:When I was in China I worked like 30 hours per week and had more money than I could spend. I lived in an urban center with a nice sized apartment. I ate out for every meal and smoked weed every day also. Was the weed in China any good? How does it compare to stuff in the US? Do you think it was contaminated with heavy metals? How socially tolerated is it?
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Dec 17, 2017 23:05
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Grand Fromage posted:Point me to a job that is actually hiring and pays enough to live on and I'll be out tomorrow. If you want international school jobs you should be looking now, as I was just told by my boss.
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Dec 17, 2017 23:44
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My former student wants me to help her cheat on the TEM-8, Idk what to do. For months she's been worrying about the TEM-8 because she doesn't think she'll pass it. She didn't pass the TEM-4. She says that by failing both of these exams, she won't be able to find a job. She gave up on the graduate exam because she wanted to focus on the TEM 8. She asked me if I could send her answers during the exam (she'd secretly be using her phone). She said that many students will cheat. I told her no. Now she's messaging about how she's worried that she won't pass. I don't know what to say to her....like if it's too difficult, she might not pass. That's just the reality of the situation. I've mentioned getting a tutor and I think she works with someone but mostly studies by herself. I just don't know what to say to make her feel better anymore. God she's asking me AGAIN if I could help her cheat. I can't deal with this!!
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Dec 18, 2017 00:31
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:My former student wants me to help her cheat on the TEM-8, Idk what to do. For months she's been worrying about the TEM-8 because she doesn't think she'll pass it. She didn't pass the TEM-4. She says that by failing both of these exams, she won't be able to find a job. She gave up on the graduate exam because she wanted to focus on the TEM 8. how hot/rich is she?
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Dec 18, 2017 00:36
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:My former student wants me to help her cheat on the TEM-8, Idk what to do. For months she's been worrying about the TEM-8 because she doesn't think she'll pass it. She didn't pass the TEM-4. She says that by failing both of these exams, she won't be able to find a job. She gave up on the graduate exam because she wanted to focus on the TEM 8. Have her pay you up front and cut all contact when the transaction goes through.
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Dec 18, 2017 01:10
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https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GrandSpanishHerculesbeetle-mobile.mp4
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Dec 18, 2017 01:42
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 was this just done for a stunt? theres no way all those fish came from that little blue bin is there?
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Dec 18, 2017 02:25
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Quick someone get a bucket of water. Oh no it was Chinese river water they still died.
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Dec 18, 2017 02:26
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Escape Addict posted:This is a hilarious sign of the times we live in, like something out William Gibson's Blue Ant Trilogy. It was pretty good, but keep in mind I smoked more in China than I ever did here. In the US I only smoke once or twice a year and never buy it myself (because I live with my wife). I never asked how people got it, but I always bought it from some white guy. The fact that this dude sold regularly to me meant that it was unlikely he grew it himself on any large scale, so I'd guess some Chinese growhouses exist who take most of the risk–then likely they sell to foreigners as they are the most likely to buy it. I don't know how badly it might have been contaminated, but it's scary to think about kind of. In 2009-2010 when I was there in Chongqing, it was so off the radar that it was almost legal. I mentioned to one of my clueless Chinese friends that I smoked weed, and he asked me if "the feeling is like having an orgasm." In Chongqing there was a small group of kind of "underground" Chinese people who would smoke weed. They had this music venue/bar in Jiefangbei, and they'd do poo poo like that fire rope swinging, listen to music that wasn't total garbage, and smoke weed. In Chengdu that scene was way bigger and cooler, though I only ever spent one weekend there. My friend was in that scene and I visited a bar that was 90% Chinese people, and they had anti-PRC posters on the wall, and people were just smoking weed as if it were legal. Everyone I talked to there was pretty cool. It was literally the only place I'd ever been in China where a bar like that was predominantly actual Chinese people rather than like 80% foreigners with a few token "cool" Chinese people. That group of people would go to Shaokao places and just light pipes and joints on the middle of the street. They said no one knew what it was or would think anything of it. I wasn't really comfortable doing that because I didn't want to ever end up in a Chinese prison, but I did feel safe enough to have like a quarter of weed in my apartment. In retrospect that likely was not smart or safe at all, because if something happened and they for whatever reason decided they wanted to gently caress me over really bad, that likely could have given them a good reason to do so. On the other hand though, I feel if they really wanted to do that, they could just make up or plant whatever charge/drugs they wanted on me. I only ever smoked in my apartment or in friend's apartments, and we just hung out in there and listened to music or chilled. I rarely even went outside when I was high because it was super disorienting to be super high and walking around in China and speaking Chinese. Some of my co-workers would smoke on campus right before English Corner. I would NEVER do that because English Corner is scary enough sober, and smoking on campus seemed incredibly dumb to me.
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Dec 18, 2017 02:48
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Weed is pretty everywhere in Chengdu. The suppliers are mainly Tibetan, they and the Uighurs and some of the other local minorities are into it.
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Dec 18, 2017 02:52
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Grand Fromage posted:Weed is pretty everywhere in Chengdu. The suppliers are mainly Tibetan, they and the Uighurs and some of the other local minorities are into it. well, now, china looking better and better
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Dec 18, 2017 02:57
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When I was living in Shenyang it was growing everywhere. Even right in the city there would be a vacant lot and tons of plants growing.
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Dec 18, 2017 03:48
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Blistex posted:When I was living in Shenyang it was growing everywhere. Even right in the city there would be a vacant lot and tons of plants growing. You should have picked it so you could be the white version of the weird foreigner picking weeds in the vacant lot. In Vancouver it's dandelions that they're after.
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Dec 18, 2017 04:01
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Wow, thanks for the replies! I've always wondered what the weed scene was like in China. Do you think it's very different in Beijing and Shanghai than the cities you lived in? I wonder what it's like in Hong Kong or Taiwan. It's interesting how the populace's ignorance has resulted in a permissive environment, unlike Japan where their ignorance makes them vilify it.
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Dec 18, 2017 04:06
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It's not permissive, you are incredibly hosed if you're caught. It's just that people are so ignorant even cops don't know what it is.
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Dec 18, 2017 04:22
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This is the worst fish ladder I've ever seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ukSkYhpuv4
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Dec 18, 2017 04:25
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Grand Fromage posted:It's not permissive, you are incredibly hosed if you're caught. It's just that people are so ignorant even cops don't know what it is. I've heard stories of Japanese cops arresting JET program kids for growing weed, but the cops needed to use a book to identify the plant since they had no idea what weed even looked like. Guess Japan is more of a tattletale culture than China? Angel Opportunity's story sounds so cavalier when weighed against the potential consequences. Though I suppose he's right when he says that it's not like they even need a legit reason if they want to gently caress you over. What are the best and worst Asian countries for illicit drug use? I've heard Laos caters to that crowd big time. Conversely, the Philippines under Duterte has gone full Judge Dredd. Are they more hardcore than Singapore now? Japan and Korea are great for drinking, but seem bad for everything else. Is China in the middle then? And how different is Taiwan?
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Dec 18, 2017 04:44
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Malaysia has had the death penalty for drugs for quite a while now.
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Dec 18, 2017 04:46
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I haven't been to Laos but in Cambodia there is weed everywhere and it's either legal or no one cares, you can go get it on your pizza or whatever. I also have never been offered so many drugs anywhere else I've been. Guys following me down the street shouting YOU WANT COCAINE?! HEROIN? METH?
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Dec 18, 2017 04:58
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Escape Addict posted:I've heard stories of Japanese cops arresting JET program kids for growing weed, but the cops needed to use a book to identify the plant since they had no idea what weed even looked like. Guess Japan is more of a tattletale culture than China? Japan is crazy when it comes to weed, I know that much. Just having it come out that you smoke it, like, ever, will be enough to destroy your professional career, even if you're an "artist", you'll just never get work again; if you're lucky, it'll only be for a few years. It's so bizarre, but then, Japan has some really weird ideas about all manner of intoxicants and what effect they actually have on you (most of them seem to think weed imposes some sort of LSD trip, for instance). I seem to recall that half of Asia has, like, life or death penalties for any form of drugs (hard drugs?), in particular Singapore (and now the Philippines), as you mentioned, as well as Indonesia. Something tells me that Thailand is somewhat stoner friendly, particularly given the fact that I have this one (female) cousin who spends every possible moment vacationing there when she isn't planting trees in the BC interior professionally well into her early 40s (and only barely outdoing her father and step-mother in terms of vacation time booked there). I'm about...90% percent sure they aren't going there for sex stuff.
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Dec 18, 2017 04:59
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If you're Korean you can get arrested and prosecuted for smoking weed in a different country, even if it was legal where you were. Korea is funny because weed was historically a huge part of the culture (there are Japanese carvings where they put a giant high times pot leaf on the sails to indicate a ship is from Korea) and was only banned in the 1960s and now they're completely loving batshit about it.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:01
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Yeah japan has crazy ideas about weed. I remember in high school all the more straight laced japanese students would be SHOCKED to learn anyone in class smoked, like how are you getting good grades and having aspirations for scholarships and not resigned to your destiny of being a hard core criminal drug dealer or something??? Then some would get really rebellious and try weed and be really disappointed that it wasn't some insane mind-altering hallucinogenic high.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:02
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Grand Fromage posted:I haven't been to Laos but in Cambodia there is weed everywhere and it's either legal or no one cares, you can go get it on your pizza or whatever. I also have never been offered so many drugs anywhere else I've been. Guys following me down the street shouting YOU WANT COCAINE?! HEROIN? METH? Some of them are trying to bait you and work with a nearly police officer who demand bribes and poo poo to avoid jail time in loving cambodia if you incriminate yourself
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Dec 18, 2017 05:08
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cash bribes or harvey weinstein bribes
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Dec 18, 2017 05:10
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basic hitler posted:Some of them are trying to bait you and work with a nearly police officer who demand bribes and poo poo to avoid jail time in loving cambodia if you incriminate yourself That sounds fun. I did not want any cocaine or heroin so I kept walking. The weed pizza places are all over tho nobody seems to care about that.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:14
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Taiwan has the death penalty for importing drugs but it’s not deployed just for bringing weed into the country. The punishments can be pretty harsh though, and Taiwanese prison is not fun. The most common drug in Taiwan among non-foreigners is (I think) ketamine, since you can make that in a lab, which isn’t really my bag but if you like it then you like it.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:23
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Grand Fromage posted:That sounds fun. I did not want any cocaine or heroin so I kept walking. iirc their cannabis laws are to the effect of "legal for putting in food because our food uses a lot of it" but "insanely illegal to use recreationally" which is mostly just set up to be a foreigner trap. There was a goon who got stuck in cambodia a couple of years ago, he made a thread in GBS but i have no idea how to go about finding it.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:33
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