Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kosh on September 25, 2005, 03:22:35 am
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Since I came to Nanjing. I live in Jinling High School, on the campus. Most of the teachers and students live in dormitories on the campus. There is a wall around the campus and guards at the gate. The guards have no weapons though.
The school itself is really nice, far better than the high school I went to in America. Every room has a projector and a computer connected to it (when I mean projector, I don't mean the crap overhead projectors in America, I mean the computerized ones you find in big corperate conference rooms). Most schools in China are not this well equipped (I'm told), but this is a very prestigious school. There are several very nice gardens on campus as well as 2 ponds, complete with fish. Yes, FYI it IS a public school. The other teachers thought that all the schools in america are like this, but they were very surprised when I told them that this was unheard of in public schools in america.
I have lots and lots of students. They do seem to like western food alot more than I ever did (I love the local food). There are a couple of McDonald's and KFC's in the city, but I never go to them. Most of my students like me, but they also hate Bush. That's fine with me because I hate him too.
In the city there are lots and lots of construction. I mean ALOT. I've never seen so many big construction projects before (then again Portland IS a lot smaller than Nanjing). I live in the inner city, and there are at least 6 big construction cranes in this area. There are, of course, more in other parts of the city. It's like they are practically redeveloping the entire downtown area. Then they are also adding onto the city too.
I do get lots of stares when I go into the streets, not only because I'm a white foreigner (so I stand out real easy) but also becuase many of them have never seen anyone as tall as me. I almost never go into the city alone because it is very easy for me to get lost. Last week 2 of my students offered to show me around the city a little bit. We spent the entire day at the Confucious Temple (during the old dynasties the students would take their imperial examinations there). There are many more historic places to see here. The city is very large, and also very old. It was the capital of the country for many of the imperial dynasties, so it is no surprise that it's name translates literally to "southern capital".
I would take pictures, but the batteries for my camera are low, and the only adapter I could buy from the company (no, it did not come with one when I got it, it was a gift) was a 110/120 Volt one which is worthless here because the electrical system appearently uses the European 220 Volt system. Good thing the AC adapter on my laptop is rated to handle it. I am not sure if my CD Burner will work, I haven't risked plugging it into the wall. I'm more afraid of it catching fire just ruining it. I'll try it sooner or later. I might just go head and buy a new digital camera. Appearently some of the higher end cell phones here do have digital cameras built into them. My girlfriend's camera is like that, which brings me to another point......
I do have a girlfriend now.
Any questions?
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How tall are you, anyway? That one pic you posted made you look 6'7" or something. :p
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Close. I'm 6'6".
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Originally posted by Kosh
My girlfriend's camera is like that, which brings me to another point......
I do have a girlfriend now.
Told you'd pull pretty easily over there :D
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You're in Nanjing? Wow. That's a stone's throw (ok, maybe not, but its not too far either) away from here...
Glad to know you're enjoying it though. :D
Oh, and grats on the GF :D
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visit an electronics store and see about getting a comprable AC adaptor, they -may- have one to suit.
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Originally posted by Kosh
I do get lots of stares when I go into the streets, not only because I'm a white foreigner (so I stand out real easy) but also becuase many of them have never seen anyone as tall as me.
I think they expect you to go Godzilla and destroy the city, it might be me though
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Originally posted by Turnsky
visit an electronics store and see about getting a comprable AC adaptor, they -may- have one to suit.
[color=66ff00]Yeah, they're bound to have something that will work for you.
They're the cheap electronic's capital of the world afterall.
[/color]
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quote:
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Originally posted by Kosh
I do get lots of stares when I go into the streets, not only because I'm a white foreigner (so I stand out real easy) but also becuase many of them have never seen anyone as tall as me.
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My brother had the same problem in Japan (6'5"), he would walk past schools and the kids really would crowd up to the fence going 'ooooooh' as he walked past, he found it hilarious :)
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Dude, I envy you. :)
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Grats on the GF. Glad things are going well for you man. Have fun but dont get into trouble.:D
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I'm going to hope to god your girlfriend isn't one of your students.
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Originally posted by BlackDove
I'm going to hope to god your girlfriend isn't one of your students.
She's not. She is 25 and has a bachelor's degree. Even if I did not have a girlfriend I would still never date my students. My students are very friendly and curious (boys and girls).
It is interesting that a lot more girls here are interested in computer games than in America.
I sometimes see traffic police here and police officers riding old bikes, but other than that they are a rare sight. Today I had to go to the police station to deal with getting my residence permit. I saw a lot more women police officers than I ever saw in my 20 years in America.
There also seems to be lots of holidays here. Like next week is the National Day holiday (think independance day) and the holiday is a week long. So I have a week of no classes.
I am very happy here. I have a fairly good job, a girl, what more could I want?
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"I told them that this was unheard of in public schools in america."
WRONG!
:nervous:
Every room in my High School has a projector (HD) setup and an elmo connection (think digital camera version of overhead). No more overheads at my school. There are quite a few courtyards to eat lunch in. There are three seperate places to get lunch at my school, the standard school lunch, the student store, and the middle store (run by the school but with many goodies). In addition, students can get off-campus passes to got eat at anywhere they choose so long as they are back when class starts. Oh, and the library has a bazillion computers, all with DVD drives and burners as well as all the Macromedia and Adobe suites you could dream of. It's funny that you are going to China for school when we have a bunch of exchange students here from China, Persia, Russia, and Japan. At least that I know about. Plus we have a swimming pool and park right across from us that we use for swimming team and for peoples EIS.
My school owns. :D
We even have a flash website...
http://schools.lwsd.org/RHS/
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Originally posted by Kosh
She's not. She is 25 and has a bachelor's degree. Even if I did not have a girlfriend I would still never date my students. My students are very friendly and curious (boys and girls).
It is interesting that a lot more girls here are interested in computer games than in America.
I sometimes see traffic police here and police officers riding old bikes, but other than that they are a rare sight. Today I had to go to the police station to deal with getting my residence permit. I saw a lot more women police officers than I ever saw in my 20 years in America.
There also seems to be lots of holidays here. Like next week is the National Day holiday (think independance day) and the holiday is a week long. So I have a week of no classes.
I am very happy here. I have a fairly good job, a girl, what more could I want?
The ability to have a frisbee match in Tienamen Square? When a group of students went there they started playing frisbee with the locals but the authorities quickly broke it up.
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Tianamen Square is in Beijing. Why would I want to spend 2 hours on an airplane to go there to play frisbee? :wtf:
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no one, but you could go there to STAND UP TO A TANK!!!!1
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Originally posted by Kosh
Tianamen Square is in Beijing. Why would I want to spend 2 hours on an airplane to go there to play frisbee? :wtf:
The point is that you can't enjoy certain freedoms in China that you can elsewhere. You don't have freedom of assembly.
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It's funny that you are going to China for school
:wtf: I teach here. (I didn't see that earlier)
The point is that you can't enjoy certain freedoms in China that you can elsewhere. You don't have freedom of assembly.
Perhaps, but it is a lot more free now than it used to be. In the next 10 years it will continue to become more free while the US will likely continue it's slide towards being where China is today.
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You seem to be having a right go at China today deep; any particular reason why?
(Not that I'm saying they're not an oppressive regime removing individual freedoms under the twin banners of 'morality' and 'security' etc etc, but it does seem a trifle disproportionate to the actual thread content)
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And besides Deep. do you really think I don't know that? I knew what I was getting myself into before I got here. I'm not stupid.....
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Sorry, I missed that part. Sounds like fun though. However, my particular school is every bit as good as the people there thought it was.
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Out of curiosity are your students children of prominent Government officials?
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Never been to China. Sounds nice. I think I'll always prefer Japan, though.
^
*is heavily biased due to having lived there for roughly half
his life*
Good to hear you're getting on well. :)
http://www.outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html
No idea whether it's true or pure balls (latter more likely than not), but it seemed...appropriate.
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Originally posted by redmenace
Out of curiosity are your students children of prominent Government officials?
From what I can tell, none of them are. Jinling is a prominent school in Jiangsu Province, but not in the entire country.
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Originally posted by Jetmech Jr.
http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/japanese/teacher.html
http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/japanese/teacher1.html
:lol:
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Funniest thing I have read in a LONG time.
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Man oh man I'm sure glad my students aren't like that......
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Make sure you read all of them. Trust me, you will never view Japanese culture in the same light again :shaking:
P.S. Speaking of which, I happened to just catch part of one of the Naruto episodes that have started showing on Toonami (and after watching it, I have absolutely no idea why so many people like it), and one of the characters in it actually used a kancho move on someone else. Right down to the "thousand years of pain!" line. I just couldn't believe it. Absolutely nuts. :p
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Originally posted by Mongoose
Make sure you read all of them. Trust me, you will never view Japanese culture in the same light again :shaking:
P.S. Speaking of which, I happened to just catch part of one of the Naruto episodes that have started showing on Toonami (and after watching it, I have absolutely no idea why so many people like it), and one of the characters in it actually used a kancho move on someone else. Right down to the "thousand years of pain!" line. I just couldn't believe it. Absolutely nuts. :p
Agreed, reading all of them is sort of mandatory after reading the first one.
Hilarious stuff :D
As for Naruto.. well the manga is better, but I like the anime too.
I haven't watched any of the episodes on Toonami (mainly because I don't like dubbing.)
I thought that particular Kancho scene was funny.
The first 14 episodes or so are more of an introduction, the pace picks up after that.
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That site is great. Check out "Protecting the Merchandise" and "Negotiations with the Enemy." :lol: :D
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How much longer are you going to stay in Nanjing? I have not yet been to China but from what my parents told me (they had a trip there 4 years ago), it's a nice place to visit. Oh well, I will visit the country in the future if I get a chance but I am not dare to wonder there by myself in the next 5 - 10 years.