Outside

Got up early in the morning because I had to go for visa fingerprinting. Rode my little e-bike and arrived there by 8:30 a.m., even though my appointment was at 9:15. It seemed like arriving early wasn’t exactly appreciated, but they still let me in to queue up. Then they briefed me, checked my documents, and directed me to a counter. After verifying my details, the staff told me to wait for my number to be called and instructed me to silence my phone and knock before entering when my turn came. ...

I woke up at 5 AM this morning and bought the earliest ticket to Guiyang. After taking a shower, I had no appetite for breakfast. As soon as I arrived in Guiyang, I messaged my mentor. He was so excited that he came early to wait for me at the entrance of the office. When we met, I immediately gave Master Guo a big hug—haha, he seemed a little embarrassed. ...

I slept quite well last night, without any dreams. This morning, Huanhuan’s dad came back while we were still sleeping in. After getting up, I washed my hair, and Huanhuan’s dad went out to buy groceries. At noon, I tried stir-frying pork liver for the first time—it tasted a bit odd, but Huanhuan’s dad thought it was quite delicious. In the afternoon, I went to Huanhuan’s office to wait for her while she worked on her speech draft. After she finished, she bought me some cakes, and then we went to eat Luosifen (river snail rice noodles). It didn’t taste as good as before. ...

Last night, I managed to sleep fairly well, though I went to bed a bit late. Exams really cost a lot of money, especially since hotels turn into a seller’s market during exam periods and inevitably raise their prices. Many hotels have hiked their rates to such an extent that they might as well be publicly shamed on a lamppost. Candidates are truly pitiable—most of them don’t even have stable jobs. The exams themselves are hard enough, and yet they still have to endure being exploited by these people. ...

Continuing from the previous diary entry, a few days ago, I received a training assignment for an adult education program (upgrading from college to university)… 21:17 Arrived Guiyang After arriving in Guiyang, I didn’t want the teacher who was supposed to meet me to stay up too late, so I quickly hailed a ride to the training location—behind the West Campus of Guizhou University. 22:01 Reach the training institution positioning point But when I got out of the car, they told me it wasn’t the right spot and that I still had to walk a bit further. At this point, I started feeling a bit uneasy—about 1% discomfort. ...

Since Huanhuan’s family was heading back to their hometown in Yingwu, we got up very early today. By eight o’clock, we had finished breakfast, packed up, and set off. Dad also came with us, as we were giving him a ride to the coal mine where he works along the way. The road conditions were quite good, and there was no traffic congestion at all. Today’s driving was steadier than yesterday’s, but because I hadn’t slept well, my eyes were very uncomfortable, and I felt exhausted the whole time. ...

2025-03-29 Yesterday, I went to Qingzhen to take a public institution exam—I had applied for the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences. Xiaohuanhuan came along to accompany me, and spending these last two days with her has been so much fun. On the 29th, we had some spicy braised food, which was really spicy, and the ingredients didn’t seem all that fresh either. The next day, both of us had stomach issues. I should probably buy less of this kind of food in the future—making it myself might be better. ...