October 06, 2017
Hey! It’s definitely been a while since I last posted. To be honest, I don’t feel particularly compelled to post anything - so I suppose this is just posting for the sake of posting. Perhaps if I do it long enough, it’ll develop into a habit and I’ll get into the swing of things again.
Before I get into what I’ve been up to, at least a brief of what’s been going on in my life, I’ll share some of my feelings concerning this very site. Maybe you will be able to relate, even if you aren’t so big into programming, computer science, or even the internet.
I think it is fair to say every “maker” is in a somewhat love-hate relationship with their product. For example, chefs could simultaneously be proud and ashamed of their food. Perhaps the plating is particularly pretty but it tastes like hot garbage. Or perhaps focusing in on the details, the taste is delightful but a bit too mellow. Actually, I should go back and change what I wrote earlier… perhaps it is every good maker that is in a somewhat love-hate relationship with their product. I’m particularly wary of a chef that can’t find a fault in their own food.
The same thing could be said for other “makers”.
Actors are critical of their performances, teachers are critical of their students (ha ha, somewhat dehumanizing I suppose), and so on and so on until we get to computer scientists and their programs.
As the maker of this website, I’m pretty critical of this site too.
On the one hand, I perpetually feel as though this site is in need of an update. Which is funny considering just how plain it is. Really, besides text and two little icons in the top right, this site hasn’t got anything, right? Well, theres still a long list of technologies that went into the making of this site. One example is AMP (Google’s famous/infamous Accelerated Mobile Pages project). In short, AMP is a set of guidelines a website should follow to give mobile users fast loading times. The guidelines are fairly tough, not just on the sort of content you could put in your site (no javascript - that’s a third of your big three web technologies gone!), but also on your content (you’ve got to keep your pages formatted in some way). Thing is, what makes AMP so cool also makes it unpalatable to users. There all sorts of pros and cons to using AMP… but really, I won’t bore you with the details (for now).
On the other hand (heres my second contention with this site), I absolutely hate hate hate reading my old writing. I feel like this a lot of people are critical with their old writing - I’m no exception. I leave them up because I don’t think theres anything harmful about them… embarrassing maybe… but hey, people say worse on social media. However, I suppose somebody else could easily make the case for removing or editing those old posts. “Isn’t this the site you present to potential employers? Old sentimental posts don’t need to go on display.” I mean… fair. But what if I want to give potential employers that “full image” of myself?
I guess somewhere in between those two hands is the lingering, “Why is this site on my resume” and “Why is my resume not on this site”. Tough tough questions for some other time. No promises.
This Summer I studied Chinese in Beijing! Holy crap, probably one of my best life choices so far - no hesitation in saying that. In fact, I’m kind of hesitant about saying “one of” but included it lest you think the rest of my life is solely composed of bad choices (also got to save the “my best choice was applying here winky face” for those job applications).
Well, anyways. Learning a language really opens up the world. Especially when the language is Mandarin and suddenly theres a glimpse of hope that you can talk to 1.5 billion new people.
For a really rawly written flow, this is taking me a long time. I started this at 2:42 in the morning (sleep schedule sucks) and now its 3:46. I just don’t know where to start.
I guess I’ll give a short sum up of what the program was.
The program I did was called Columbia in Beijing, a 9 week language + culture program where students go through 6-9 hours of Chinese a day, 5 days a week (with 1 week off for travel in the middle), and come out with two semesters worth of Chinese credits.
The classes were hosted by Peking University, 北京大学. Beautiful and massive campus. The international students dorm we stayed at, The Global Village, 中关新园, seemed especially accommodating. It’s almost as if they are trying to attract international students. Since some of our early lessons talked about the dorms and their features, I feel the accommodations have been somewhat ingrained in me ha ha. Air conditioner, Service lady that comes to mop up the living room and bathroom (suites are composed of two one person rooms, a shared living room, and a shared bathroom), a TV, and pretty nice wooden furniture - pretty similar to Columbia’s dorms’ furniture.
Classes were held in the “SCSL” building (School of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language) on campus, roughly a fifteen minute walk from the dorm - at least for a turtle like me (I’ve heard some claim that the walk took a mere 12 minutes for them). This building also had an air conditioner. Thank goodness, since it was hot. Beijing in the Summer is hot. Hot and humid.
My class had seven students and five teachers. For the first four hours of class, from 8 to 12, we usually had a dictation test followed by grammar review. After that, we would have lunch. Following that, one on one sections with the teachers. Although I initially was pretty afraid of the one on ones, I eventually came to look forward to them. Overall, class wasn’t bad, though on paper it seems somewhat frightening.
Weekends we had activities planned for us. A lot of them were pretty touristy - Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, etc… but still - what a great learning experience, or rather, great experience in general! While in China, probably starting from my trip to Shanxi, I became particularly enamored with Buddhism’s strong influence on China. I don’t think we have anything which holds a candle to that in the states.
Besides that, I found myself in the hospital three times due to food allergies. Speaking of food. Extraordinary. Food in China, minus the food that got be all messed up, was delicious and eye opening.
So. I realize that was rushed. It’s super late. 4:22AM. TSM just beat FW, what a time to be alive. Next time, I’ll pick off from hospital visits + food.
Thanks for reading!
Billy
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Bear with me, this is amazing.