Beijing

I stayed up late two nights in a row solving an overseas puzzle hunt, hence the missing updates. My sincerest apologies! Next time something like this happens, I will warn you in advance! But how did you know our team was the twelfth to finish all twelve puzzles? The meta drops at 2:00 tomorrow morning, so tonight I absolutely must sleep early! Hence the early post ( Over the past few days, my exercise volume has decreased slightly, but at the same time, my interactions with my classmates have increased. Sometimes I wonder if running to the library all day is really the right choice (after all, I also slack off in the library, cough cough), and activities with my classmates should also be an important part of life. ...

Finished another write-up and posted it on Bilibili! Come see! After eating lamb chops at noon, I had a sudden whim to set off early and do some treasure hunting near my destination. Checking on the subway, holy cow, there was actually a park nearby with 7 caches inside! It could easily be called a budget version of the Olympic Forest Park! The key point is that this so-called “Zhongguancun Park” is not well-known, qualifying as a “niche camping holy land” where you can not only ride bikes directly inside, but even park for free! ...

Did you know? Beijing has a place called “Hangzhou Park,” and it has exactly one way in or out. After playing basketball, guided by Geocaching, I arrived at this park. From the spot where you walk in, you can only see the sign of some hotel. Turning left at the intersection where you are prompted to turn right, this hidden little park appears right before your eyes. Honestly, without Geocaching and Amap, I would never in a million years have walked in here. According to earlier logs, even some people who live nearby had no idea the place existed. So although today’s hunt ended empty-handed—and cost me one broken camera, www—the joy of unlocking a new location still outweighed the disappointment. (MY CAMERAAAAAA.) ...

When I got home last night, I realized I couldn’t find my house key. I was thinking of retracing my steps from yesterday to search everywhere, but this morning, I found it safe and sound right at the coffee shop! The sudden relief made me sit in the cafe for another whole morning ( So there really isn’t much to write about today, other than working on biology and writing a Write-up (anyway, even if I write it out, no one will understand it, sad). If I must say something, it would be that I was singled out tonight to give a presentation, sharing my experience using AI, like how to write prompts. Thinking back, these skills were probably honed during the translation process of the Omnibus—things like being polite to the AI, stating requirements clearly, knowing the limits of contextual memory, and so on. My friend had a good opinion of my assignment, though it is highly likely because everyone else was complaining about how hard it was, while I actually came up with some real stuff (even though it was a very, very rough draft with many areas needing improvement). ...

Because I slept really late last night (was it actually last night?), it was a great pity that I couldn’t drag myself up for the morning run today. The reason is that I scored a bargain on Xianyu (a secondhand marketplace) for a pair of Shokz bone conduction headphones at a very low price. According to the description, there was noise in the right ear and it was sold as-is for spare parts, but when I received it, it looked practically brand new (99% new), so I was secretly delighted. I must test its battery life tomorrow morning; if it can survive in temperatures just a few degrees above freezing, I will have made an absolute steal! ...

Squeezing this in at the very end of the day. I was out almost the entire time, then came home, finished the She-She Hunt meta, and overloaded my pig brain so thoroughly that the diary had to wait until now. Today’s meeting and the subsequent public lectures were exceptionally inspiring. The lecturer spoke about “a testimony as bright as a host of stars,” and since I’ve always loved stargazing, this resonated deeply with me. Even though Paul had never been to Rome, he knew so many co-workers there; this made me reflect on my weakness in remembering names and face-blindness and whether I need to improve… ...

Just you wait, I am definitely going to write over a thousand words today! It is simply hard to describe the experience of this entire day; it feels just like a dream. After waking up early and squeezing onto the subway to get to Peking University (PKU), I felt like I hadn’t quite woken up yet, so I decided to wander around first before the “Hundred Clubs War” (club recruitment) started. The mandarin ducks and magpies by the Weiming Lake were cheering, and the black and white swans bobbed their heads along, making me doubt even more whether I had come all this way just to shoot birds. I took out my phone wanting to do some Geocaching at PKU, only to tragically discover that I had forgotten to bring my power bank. In a flash of wit, I pulled out my laptop to charge my phone, which barely saved my life. Under such pressure, I regretfully failed to find any hidden treasures. I’ll come back next time! ...

Today, then, was a day for doing what I was actually supposed to do! In the morning, I messed around with my US visa application in the library for a long time, only to find out that the school had already prepared the I-20 for me (so what was I busy with over the past few days…). Seeing the photo requirements, I took immediate action, running to a photo studio to spend 33 RMB on passport photos and printed out the originals. In the evening, I chatted with a friend online, and then filled out the form until midnight (this crappy website times out every few minutes, making my blood pressure skyrocket). ...

At small group last night I realized my sleep schedule was somewhat irregular, so I went to bed early. (What a convenient excuse for skipping an update~.) Making up for it today. To be honest, I didn’t do much yesterday. In the morning, I was extremely frustrated by the garbage internet while trying to register my university account at home, so in the afternoon, I went out to play basketball (actually, I asked the coach to add Mondays and Wednesdays so I can work hard on my stamina and show off to the morning run classmates tomorrow, hehe). In the evening, I went to the small group and tried to print a Cheat Sheet using the printer in the shared space, but failed after messing around with it for ages. Right when I was having dinner, my roommate posted some mouth-watering food photos; trying to distract myself by opening my phone, I saw a notification that read “20 Must-Try Air Fryer Delicacies.” Tears of drool streamed from the corners of my mouth. ...

I practically lived in the library all day, then learned that it closes at six. Just as I posted on WeChat Moments that day, I was slacking off making lyrics LRC files. I found Bilibili’s note-taking feature particularly suitable, but unfortunately, there’s a daily limit and it automatically posts to the dynamic feed, which doesn’t fit my internet “I” (introvert) persona ( Also worth mentioning: I finally bought a charger for my camera batteries. (My Sony dying halfway through a museum a few days ago nearly broke me.) I charged all three overnight and immediately went out the next evening to shoot like mad—only to learn that Beijing’s cold passes equal judgment on every battery too fragile to endure it. AirPods fall. The Sony RX100 falls with them… ...