Geocaching

After tragically missing the very last chance to post a June update, I have decided to give up on monthly updates (jk The summer semester is finally over. As an international student, I’ve hit the six-credit summer limit, which means I am, at long last, truly free. Naturally, this activated my run-around-everywhere mode. (Funny how I moved to America and then never researched a single trip. Am I actually just lazy?) So far, July has consisted of one day in the cowboy town, one day around downtown Fort Worth, and one day around downtown Dallas. Total loot: museum maps +3, traditional caches +2, EarthCaches +2, virtual caches +4, the final coordinates for one mystery cache solved, and two multicaches abandoned at the very last stage (next time for sure). Driving skill ++, travel experience ++, cultural literacy ++ (citation needed). ...

It is that time of year again, and naturally the annual retrospective cannot be omitted. Let us see how much I can finish before 11:59 p.m. ( One thing worth mentioning: I gave my experiences in the Puzzle Hunt community this year their own article. On one hand, I feared I would hit WeChat’s character limit and leave no room for anything else. On the other, judging from the feedback I have received all year, not many people around me are particularly obsessed with this subject. The video made its earth-shattering debut during the puzzle team’s TPAPWRAPA livestream on the 29th, then appeared on Bilibili together with the companion article. If you are interested, please follow Zhuge Tianyao on Bilibili. Thank you! ...

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving break! American geocaches are beginning to seem suspiciously homogeneous. So far, I have found at least six hidden in similar places, including the only two physical caches on campus. Damn it, I have not seen a single one resembling the ingenious camouflaged caches Teacher Nano once showed me. Must Chinese Taobao teach these Americans a small lesson in the manufacturing might of Yiwu? Then again, this pattern gives me more time to read the story behind each location, because that is honestly the only interesting part left. Perhaps this is simply geocaching adapting to America’s great road-trip culture. At least I can confidently write “found” in my log instead of behaving like certain newcomers who search for my cache in Hangzhou, fail without ceremony, immediately post “Needs Maintenance” to pressure me into sending a friend out, and then demand a revised hint and lower difficulty in one seamless chain until the answer is practically placed in their mouths. You only realize how demanding players can be after becoming a cache owner. I wonder whether any of my own “did not find” logs at the beginning of the year caused someone else the same trouble. ...

Classes officially began today! With my roommate enthusiastically leading the way, I reached all three on time. (Applause.) The material was fairly basic—it was the first class of the semester, after all—but I did meet quite a few new people. Their names, however, still refuse to remain in my brain. Come to think of it, I do not believe I have even mentioned my roommate’s name. He is Joel, a local American majoring in mechanical engineering. At today’s residence-hall meeting, he displayed extraordinary extrovert powers. Bantering back and forth with the returning students was one thing; the man spent an entire afternoon seeking out new students to talk to! Please mentor me next time, sob. ...

Step outside the frame: the America Arc does not necessarily have to be about America, does it? I have wanted to summarize this stage of my geocaching journey for ages, but life stayed busy. Now I have a workspace of my own—or procrastination space, depending on your definition. I cataloged the hunts I had joined, looking proudly at title after title in my bookmarks. Somehow I have played this many hunts in less than a year. I also prepared for CCBC 16, creating a dedicated workspace both to keep personal information out of recordings and to help myself focus. A little setup somehow produced forty-four pages. Absurd. At last, I can begin writing. ...

I have been preparing a bit over the last few days and remain hard at work editing, so the diary has a perfectly legitimate reason to coo quietly and disappear. There is actually plenty worth recording: I petted the cat at the dive shop, saw a whole lot of sharks, and led my family on a brave caching expedition through the resort! Come to think of it, this may be the first time I have “run into” another geocacher while actively hunting. Thank you to that kind lady for the directions; without her, we would have left empty-handed. ...

It all started when I wanted a container to hold a logsheet for geocaching. A pressure-resistant tube caught my eye immediately: watertight, corrosion-resistant, easy to store—exactly what I needed. There was just one tiny detail I neglected to consider: the diameter… So I brought it home, only to discover that the logsheet! Would! Not! Fit! With no better option, I went downstairs to hunt for a replacement. I ended up at the toy store I used to frequent as a kid, and somehow the owner still recognized me. I explained what I was looking for, and he led me over to a shelf of bottled candy. One glance and—oh, perfect. I promptly bought two bottles, took them home, peeled off the labels, poured out the candy, and behold: two magnificent message-in-a-bottle cache containers! ...

Every ordinary encounter in life is a miracle. With my main business in Weihai finished and my second run through Drive complete, I could not wait to race outside—on a bicycle, naturally. The downhill journey delivered plenty of scares but no disaster. (How can the road downtown have no bike lane?) Once I reached the familiar place where I watched the sunrise on my first day, I turned and followed the coast. Cycling beside the sea is fundamentally different from walking: for one thing, you must admire the view while avoiding the crowds. None of that is the point of this entry, though. ...

“Crowded” no longer begins to describe Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City! May Day has not even arrived yet! Stamp collecting guided the entire Forbidden City trip. By circling from station to station, I somehow visited every building, including the Meridian Gate and Gate of Divine Might, both with temporary exhibitions. I also joined a volunteer tour of the Ceramics Gallery and took photos of everything along the way. Explore! ...

Zhuge Tianyao skipped one update and never rose again. The End. Alright, I was simply lazy. Now I am living alone, feeling bored, and want something to write—so the updates return. … A planetarium must contain a sufficient quantity of astronomy! (Applause.) As the name implies, it must be hardcore enough that every child thinks the displays were written in an alien language (?) before it earns my approval. Ahem. Perhaps that goes too far. But the dome theater at the planetarium truly was orders of magnitude better than the one at the science museum. I even heard parents consoling children who had fallen asleep by telling them the show was “too technical.” ...