Today is the first day of registration for new language students arriving at Nanjing University. I’m not part of this activity since I’m leaving in about seven days, so it’s bittersweet.

Things are moving fast and the deadline is moving closer to buy gifts, say goodbye to friends, and do all I wanted to do in Nanjing. At the same time I’m looking to the future, doing coding challenges for job interviews and sending out emails looking for work.

A friend of a great Icelandic friend from the last two semesters came to Nanjing for the first time, and the usual crew and him had some craft beer at a hostel bar by Fuzimiao. It was one of those nights that made me prematurely nostalgic.

Coding

I have a coding challenge from one of my interviews. It’s pretty easy – Take in JSON, validate it, run some logic on it, and spit out some output JSON. I’m using Go, and am having my first crack at gomodules. They’re easier than I thought since go build will automatically import the most recent version of any package you have listed in the imports. Easier than $GOPATH!

Things I’m Liking

• An Honest Living: Longform essay by Steve Salaita about his rise from tenured professor to public school bus driver.

Misc

Jack’s Dream Corner: Last night I was moving through rooms in a densely populated apartment complex in Hong Kong, upsetting people by barging into their house while looking for something. I finally got outside, and an ugly man showed me two ugly old ladies and asked “Which is more beautiful?” (Of course the diplomatic answer is “It’s hard too choose between the two of you beauties.”) Then I was on a boardwalk and a strange, conspiracy-neckbeard type told me I should pay attention to “lunar obelisks” since they “point to the moon like dowsing rods.” I told him I didn’t care and he told me “I’m a politician, when I’m in power I’ll remember this.” His accomplice stole my earbuds that were hanging around my neck and whipped me with them in anger. My mom in the background said “they keep taking pictures of me!” Then I woke up at a good time: 10am. ??? Very vivid. Too much good beer before bed.

I got some banggin’ tea: 正山小种.

My VPN is getting slower and slower, making it hard to work on things here. I hope to ride it out for the two weeks I’m left in China.