Diary

09:31 Started Studying Just finished debugging the code. There are always so many things to do in my own room—thinking about folding laundry, taking out the trash, what to eat for lunch… Before I knew it, a lot of time was wasted on these little tasks. 21:41 Finished a Vocational Aptitude Test Scored in the top 35%. It was okay—still plenty of room for improvement. This afternoon, I completed a set of “Comprehensive Application Ability” exercises, then cooked some rice and went grocery shopping in my pajama pants. Bought a lot of stuff: strawberries, choy sum, cabbage, tofu, and pork belly. Originally planned to make it last two days, but I got greedy and wanted to eat everything. Ended up not being able to finish it all by myself, so I called my brother over to share the meal. ...

The weather is so nice today! Yet I didn’t step outside all day. I was sluggish in the morning, fiddling with this and that, and before I knew it, the morning was gone. The printer keeps acting up a little—I’ll send it back and try a replacement. Today, I worked through a set of practice tests. The Administrative Aptitude Test was manageable, but I still need more practice with summarization and synthesis for the Comprehensive Application Ability section. I should also familiarize myself with the basic formats of various writing styles. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle a few more test papers specifically to sharpen those skills. ...

I slept very well last night and didn’t wake up until 8 o’clock this morning. I dragged myself out of bed slowly. The day before yesterday, I received an email stating that I would receive an annual funding of 25,000 CAD, with a minimum of 100,000 CAD over four years. At the time, the email mentioned logging into the system to accept the offer, so I spent the entire morning today checking but couldn’t find any new information to accept. I gave up. ...

Kunming finally saw clear skies today after several overcast days. This morning, Da Huang Fangfang took us to a nearby place where we had some particularly delicious and affordable rice noodles and vermicelli. We ate until we were quite full. We also visited the Luoyu River Wetland Park, where we bought two small nets to catch tiny fish and shrimp. Today was much better than yesterday, and we managed to catch quite a few small ones. ...

Today was a day out for fun, and we got up lazily. Fangfang was on duty all day today and couldn’t join us. We managed to trick Lao Sao into coming over at noon, and he even brought his own potatoes. Then, Da Huang went to buy some oyster mushrooms to fry. The fried potatoes and fried oyster mushrooms were simply delicious. We also visited the Expo Park today, but it wasn’t very exciting as there were charges everywhere. We strolled around casually, and at the end, we sang songs with a few outgoing and optimistic uncles and aunties outside the guard booth, which was quite a social experience. ...

The materials were submitted yesterday. Early this morning, little Huanhuan arrived, and we went to Yunnan University Hospital, then to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. In between, we also checked my lingual frenulum, and the doctor said it was normal. Haha, I felt a little disappointed. In the evening, we had dinner together at the same place where I had previously eaten with Brother Deng Zhongqing. Old Sao is really quick when it comes to giving money, it’s done in the blink of an eye. From now on, I’ll have to prepay the money there first. ...

This morning, I got up slowly and leisurely, and since my hair was quite oily, I decided to wash it. I took a taxi to the Provincial Department of Education. I spent 6.5 yuan to photocopy a document at a nearby print shop. Printing things outside is really expensive. Color copies cost 1 yuan per page, and black and white copies cost 0.5 yuan per page—it’s practically robbery. I still feel like buying my own printer was a good investment, as I can now frequently print things like record sheets and such. ...