She cries, and then she dies! How was that TV show (去有风的地方). Apparently it gets better from there.

How was Chinese class? Is Chinese grammar easy? Sure… if you can read the sentence and understand the meaning.

Workout in! Accessory leg day, then a run up the 3rd ring road to meet for coffee with a friend and former colleague. Bike ride back.

And sold some books! Thanks Mom! Next, China.

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Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 TV Show Cold Open

00:31 Expat Reset Mission

01:26 Run To Coffee Plan

02:53 Eggs And Bag Logistics

04:15 Coder Friend Reality Check

06:14 Automation And China Platforms

07:38 Solo Founder Bottlenecks

10:25 Housing And Lease Decisions

13:17 Sweaty Run And Pace Chase

16:08 Cafe Review And Time Crunch

17:35 Chinese Class And Drama Tropes

19:36 Drama Death Trope

20:17 Kunming Escape Arc

21:14 Why Shows Feel Contrived

22:12 Shadowing Fast Dialogue

23:10 Gaokao Scores And Study Skills

24:27 Is Chinese Grammar Easy

27:30 Characters Before Grammar

30:34 Selling Books Back Home

31:34 Used Books Lose Value

34:39 Purging Beijing Books

36:17 Six Weeks To Decide

36:30 Wrap Up And Links

How was Chinese class? What does HSK 5 really mean? Watching another YouTube channel In Chinese, this lady I guess used to live in UAE and taught Chinese to kids. Does all of her videos in comprehensible Chinese. Mentioned 去有风的地方 “Meet Yourself” TV show.

Up and out in the morning, chest day today. No run.

Recorded another component of the online course.

Thinking of uploading allll of my travel videos to… Pexels?

And talking about living in China, is it worth it?

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Morning Routine Reset

00:29 Expat Life Crossroads

01:35 Cost of Living Talk

03:57 Teaching Burnout Reality

05:22 Automate Work With AI

07:15 Is China Worth It

08:21 Will Chinese Rule

09:55 Chinese Class Recap

10:58 HSK Goals And Focus

17:34 HSK Grammar Frustrations

19:03 HSK Five Reality Check

19:55 Shadowing and TV Advice

21:17 Why Chinese Media Fails Me

24:25 Speaking Practice and Course Ideas

25:03 AI and Accent Training Thoughts

28:06 Gym Morning and Street Chinese

30:14 Caption Workflow and Editing Tools

32:40 Podcast Direction and Better Videos

35:02 B-Roll Library on Pexels

37:10 Wrap Up and Links

Up early and out the door! Trying to get back into running in the morning. Leg day today. Yesterday did 7km “around the block”, today was 3km to the gym, 3.5km back. Is this sustainable? And when do I move?

Did we go to BreadFest in Beijing? NO! 39 RMB for a ticket?? We could buy lots of bread on our own!

Qingfeng Park for the flowers… boy was it peaceful.

Sorting the books, which ones stay, which ones go? And when?!?!

And re-starting Chinese lessons tonight! Gotta get through HSK 5!

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Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Hope you have a great start of week!

00:00 Morning Routine Reset

00:44 Why Record Earlier

02:11 What This Podcast Covers

06:18 Expats And Culture Gaps

08:26 Back To Morning Runs

09:01 Beijing Air And Allergies

11:19 Sleep Patterns And Alarms

16:58 Running To The Gym

20:08 Gym Costs And Membership

21:48 Leg Day Recap

22:35 Morning Workout Focus

23:55 Bread Fest Ticket Debate

26:42 Beer Fest Pricing Rant

27:10 Cherry Blossoms Reality

30:07 Quiet Park Escape

32:16 Decluttering The Apartment

34:35 Selling Books And Stuff

35:44 What Is Stuff Worth

40:47 Chinese Lessons Restart

41:32 Wrap Up And Links

Up early and out the door! Jet lag hits!

Out for a run, 7 km in 59.16, then off to the breakfast place for a small feed, and then the gym for an easy back day.

Spent the day recording the basics of my course. One didn’t record the audio! Grrr!

And it’s getting green out there! Catkins are here!

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great weekend!!

00:00 Early Notes and Routine

00:31 Back in Beijing Jet Lag

01:52 Nap Gone Wrong

04:11 Middle of Night Decision

06:06 Predawn Compound Run

08:56 Breakfast Bike and Protein

10:43 China Tech Frustrations

12:11 Early Gym Habit Reality

14:36 Back Workout and Stretching

15:31 McDonalds and Morning Gap

16:24 Decluttering and Wardrobe

18:17 Decluttering Workout Gear

18:58 Dreaming of Online Workdays

19:29 Building an IELTS Course

20:46 Recording Four Lessons

21:15 Who Are IELTS Examiners

22:51 Learning ClassIn Platform

24:19 Band Descriptors Breakdown

28:09 Course Plan and Monetization

31:22 Finding Students for Samples

34:57 Deadlines Heat and Selling Stuff

36:56 Spring Air and New Routine

38:05 Wrap Up and Links

Cold and rainy, but back at it and into the gym! Light workout to get back into the swing of things.

Spent the day troubleshooting VPNs! The life in China! Do all those people on the socials proclaiming the advancements of China (especially on Threads) actually live in China? Or do they only post about it? Cause I tried ShadowRocket, LetsVPN, Mullvad, and ended up going back to Astrill. Also looked at SurfShark and TotalVPN.

Don’t forget to register!

Don’t forget to eat your noodles! (出门的饺子 进门的面)

Taking photos with the locals (already!)

And time to start cleaning.

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Don’t forget to do your accommodation registration!

00:00 Back in Beijing

01:01 Jet Lag and Gym Plans

03:41 Bare Bones Gym Reality

04:35 Apartment Shock and Visa Free Return

07:26 Workout Gear and Reset Day

10:20 Gym Pricing Math

13:01 Breakfast Stop and Photo Requests

14:57 Foreigner Spotlight Rant

18:07 China Registration and WeChat Woes

20:19 WeChat Registration Hassles

20:53 Gmail and VPN Catch-22

23:31 iOS App Reset Frustrations

24:11 VPN Shopping Spiral

25:36 Why LetsVPN Gets Blocked

27:14 Testing Mullvad and Others

28:18 Shadowrocket Setup Headache

30:20 Privacy Red Flags and Payments

32:25 China Tech Hype Reality Check

33:24 Expat Life and Work Limits

40:01 Noodles Tradition and Resetting

41:02 Wrap Up and Support Links

Made it to China! How is it? How was it?

The flight! Productive, some bumps along the way. First food was good, breakfast not so good.

Paid for in-flight internet and WELL WORTH IT! Paid with points… or I tried to. Contacted customer service and they ended up giving me a promo code for the flight! Free internet!

Got some things done and research did. Vietnam, Canada, Argentina, and where else to do what else?

And did the donuts make it?

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Hope you had a great trip!!

00:00 Back on the Mic

00:16 Landing in Beijing

02:27 Vancouver Stopover Stories

05:08 Expat Life Not a Vacation

07:28 Am I Done With China

11:31 Visa Free Entry and Canton Fair Plans

14:59 Beijing Airport Arrival Goes Digital

18:48 In Flight Wifi and Work Session

21:42 Where Next Vietnam Canada Argentina

28:05 Donuts Survive and Wrap Up

30:13 Outro and Air Canada Arrival

Here we are at YVR!

Importing donuts to see how many survive the trip!

How has it been so far? Mostly eventless, though no WIFI on the YWG to YVR flight. Pretzels were good. And free wine and beer on a domestic flight?! (Didn’t have anything.)

Sorry about yesterday’s episode, I was falling asleep while posting it!

Thirteen hours to Beijing, here we go!

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Safe travels!

00:00 Airport Intro Donut Mission

00:30 Heading Back To Beijing

01:06 Will Border Let Me In

01:56 Business Visa Snag

04:15 Backup Plans And Cambodia

05:49 Transition Year Reflections

08:24 Suitcase Full Of Sweets

11:11 Flight Food And Sugar Guilt

13:00 Winnipeg To Vancouver Flight Notes

13:52 Airline Entertainment Rant

16:23 13 Hours To Beijing Anxiety

17:23 Recording Setup And Time Zones

20:10 Plane Game Plan Newspapers

25:44 Vancouver Airport Love

27:03 Wrap Up Links And Goodbye

OMG I’m at YWG! On the way to Beijing, weee!

Am I excited? I have a confession to make.

How was security?

How long will it take?

And how was Easter? Did you go to liturgy? YES! 7.30 am!

And stuff is going out the door!

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Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

Track listing:

1. ​Exapostilarion
2. ​The Gospel
3. ​Christos Voskres

​00:00 Airport Departure Begins

00:27 Winnipeg Airport Intro

01:20 China Visa Game Plan

04:27 Vancouver Stopover Plans

06:38 Money Work and Apartment

08:59 Anxiety and Career Risk

15:25 Easter Liturgy Marathon

20:27 Procession and Church Rituals

23:20 Easter Hymns And Bells

24:42 Priest Solo And Choir Swap

26:00 Why This Liturgy Takes Hours

26:48 Gospel In Four Languages

28:41 Multilingual Priests Explained

30:36 Sermon And Easter Customs

31:12 Blessing The Easter Baskets

33:54 Family Dinner And Travel Plans

34:55 Beijing Return And Housing Worries

35:58 Clearing Out Books And Keepsakes

37:29 Leaving The Kinder Bunny

39:55 Airport Signoff And Links

41:07 Bonus Tracks And Translations

46:00 Gospel Clip And Easter Refrain

50:57 Final Liturgy Ending

Good day and Good Friday! Or Great Friday as they say in the Ukrainian-Greek Orthodox faith. First time here for Easter since before the pandemic.

Off to Starbucks in the morning (using up my points), the city seems pretty open.

Off to church for the afternoon service! Very different from when I was a kid.

-All in English except for one song

-New shroud

-No clackers

-Cross with thorns was there, but the boulder was not

-No altar boys except for a few men picked from the congregation to carry the shroud.

-Very few kids in general

-We did walk outside on the sidewalk. Mom did not.

Fasted most of the day! Coffee, water and… collagen? Then realized I had collagen in the morning and that is made up of cow skin. Oops.

What’s the plan this weekend?

Two songs are:

Troparion 2

Straladane Mate

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Good Friday Morning

00:37 Back to Beijing Plans

01:56 Great Friday Explained

02:45 Church Then and Now

04:16 Adult Baptism Ritual

05:35 Fasting Slip Up

07:29 Fasting and Nutrition

09:16 Procession and New Shroud

11:48 Sermon and Crooked Cross

15:17 Hymns Language and Demographics

18:33 No Clackers New Traditions

19:47 Service Timing Recap

20:12 Priest Style and Faith Questions

21:52 Bible Origins and Lost Texts

23:27 History Notes on Jesus

24:39 Good Friday Shroud Rituals

25:32 Growing Up in Church

26:51 Who Shows Up Now

27:58 Mortality and Gratitude

28:31 City Open on Holiday

30:50 Calendar Confusion Easter Dates

33:43 Photos as Cultural Memory

34:42 Travel Plans and Money Talk

35:28 Wrap Up and Easter Wishes

37:06 Explaining the Two Songs

44:01 Final Sign Off

Steve, where are you? Have you registered in China yet? Send me your new passport! I guess there’s an inspection going on in the run up to the Trump-Xi summit next month.

Pysanka making done! First time in a long time!

No workouts in, should I be watching what I eat?

And tomorrow’s Good Friday, would you do a complete fast?

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog

Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Cold Open Chaos

00:29 Meet Steven Sirki

01:04 Landlord Drama Begins

03:08 Police Inspection Message

04:06 Registration Confusion

06:47 Why Now Trump Visit

09:10 Back to China Plans

09:44 Gym Break and Diet

14:05 Travel Days and Workouts

15:48 Breaking Food Habits

19:24 Workout Aesthetics Reality

21:46 Junk Food Calorie Trap

23:11 Six Pack After 40

24:09 Good Friday Fasting Plan

26:30 Apple Cider Vinegar Detox

27:33 Pysanka Tradition Returns

31:29 How Pysanky Are Made

35:27 Symbols Colors and History

38:30 Wax Removal Egg Crack

39:53 Wrap Up and Links