Life In 19x19

It sounds like an amazing adventure, Hushfield I wish I could do the same thing, but if I don't have my wife and daughter with me, I feel like my arms are gone. And while my 5yo daughter loves weiqi, I'm not sure if I can justify taking her out of Kindergarten for several months to study it! [This is completely disregarding fact that none of the three of us are within Yan Laoshi's 15-35 year old limit for his foreign students. And job. And money.]

It does sound like an awful lot of fun, though. And I am sure you will be a terror on the go servers when you get back! Your games look absolutely awesome.

Sam: I understand the sentiment. By the way, from early June to the beginning of August there were two people staying here: an 8-year old little girl and her mother (who said she didn't meet the age requirement, but a gentleman doesn't ask). So don't take the age requirements too strictly. It's just a guideline. When it comes to go, as with many things in life, the question isn't "Who is going to let me?" It is "Who is going to stop me?"

The sleep-deprivation monster sure did stop me from going all out in one of my last teaching games with Yan Laoshi. The night before, somebody starting blasting their car horn at three in the morning for what seemed like forever (I believe the mathematical consensus is that when you're trying to sleep anything you can't count on two hands is an infinite amount). The game was played immediately after breakfast, and for one of the first times since I got here, I really didn't want to play. I just wanted a breakfast nap. It was a bad game.



Well, bad games happen. This one highlighted the shape problems even more than my previous games. I studied some more 5-3 joseki in the afternoon, then reviewed a bunch of tesuji problems and cracked one or two more chapters of the intermediate tesuji and life and death book.

My plan to step it up for my final week didn't take into account that we've been granted a compulsory day off to go rafting. If you don't hear from me again, you'll have definitive proof that rabbits can't swim.

There's no water on the moon, so no wonder they can't swim.

Apparently, rafting for one afternoon is Chinese for full-fledged weekend trip. Before I knew what was what, I was sharing a van with ten other people and at least as many backpacks and went hiking deep in the Chinese mountains. This also included rafting and fishing two almost drowning senior citizens out of the river. Because of the trip we effectively missed 3 days of school, so I've already had my last day at School Pink Stones.
This morning we left for School Stairs after less than 6 hours sleep. After some joseki study I played two games with Li Yi Chen. It was the same thing as last week's teaching game. I was not in the mood for playing, didn't read very far and the resulting games were fast fumblefests. I did get both of them reviewed, and I'll upload them here for your enjoyment.

During the nigiri-phase for game 1, I chose odd, and Li Yi Chen opened an empty hand. Did anybody here read "Get Strong at Nigiri"? Is that even allowed? I'm not exactly a math-wizard, so I hesitated for a bit, not knowing whether zero is odd or even. I eventually turned towards a field I have more experience with (linguistics) and decided that "I took one stone" and "I took no stones" were proof enough that Li Yi Chen had an even number in his hand.



We quickly started another game, but even as I placed the trusted low Chinese on the board, I knew what I was feeling all too well. It's not so much an old friend as the drunken uncle that stubbornly keeps showing up at family dinners. When Uncle Tilt starts speeching, you know it's time to go home.



I stopped playing after that (we'd only been at it for 30 minutes), and decided to study for next week's university finals instead.

But even short games like these can teach something. I feel like I have gotten a bit better at sensing when it's not a good time to play. Though one must be careful not to deceive oneself, I don't think it's the same as avoiding playing in order not to lose. In fact, there was very little attachment to the losses. It's the kind of signal I receive right before I lose interest completely and switch hobbies for the umpteenth time. This is not really a surprise, after keeping up with such a gruelling schedule for most of the summer. Questions of improvement aside, I feel like I've gotten to know myself better as a go player. I'm not the kind of player that cranks out game after game and improves like that. I like taking my time on a game, reviewing it afterwards and then taking a break to come back the next day and play one or two more games. I'm very much ok with that.

As promised, a glimpse into the utter jungle that is Chinese traffic:

Let's start with public transport: the sane option is the subway. This one's actually really safe, as stations use the same system as e.g. Seoul, Korea, where passengers wait behind unscalable plexiglass, with doors at fixed intervals that only open when trains arrive. It's almost impossible to fall onto the tracks, and I really think all subway systems should be using this by now. The downside: stations are far and few between, meaning you might be in for a bit of a walk if you decide to take the subway. This option is for foreigners and people that happen to live right in front of the subway station. A bit closer to the real Wuhan traffic spirit are buses (with open windows, and commuters happily spitting out of said windows, often onto passing cars) and taxis (which already got an honourable mention a few pages back).

What really gives Chinese traffic its unique flavour, though, are the cars. Forget what you think you know about cars. You know nothing, Jon Snow. Being in a Chinese car is both hilarious when you're not the person driving it, and terrifying when you are.

It's total chaos. Direction indicators are a lie. People just go everywhere at once. Every square inch of the road is populated. Cars are parked in the middle of the road. Stopping on the highway is not all that uncommon. The fact that all the roads are "Made in China" doesn't help much either. Most of the people I know back at home, are quite intimidated when buses or trucks come thundering by at full speed, but the drivers in Wuhan are not impressed. Cutting people off is standard practice. There's usually five cars driving side-by-side on a three-lane road. While most drivers seem to have developed superhuman reflexes, two tweaks help to regulate the chaos somewhat.

The first one of these is the horn. If you're not honking, you're just not doing it right. Where I live, using the car horn always has this (slight) hint of aggression. It's not unusual to see drivers hurling obscenities at each other's head right after somebody uses it. Not so in Wuhan. There's not even the slightest bit of aggression involved. Using the horn is a simple safety measure: "I'm coming through. You better believe I'm not stopping so get out of the way, thank you very much." As a result, honking is about as natural as the sound of crickets. At first I couldn't believe my eyes, but the chaos does seem to make drivers much less aggressive than is the case in any European country I've seen so far.

A second tweak is the way in which people react when cars inevitably do bump into each other. A quick stop for measuring the damage usually turns into the culprit admitting his or her mistake and immediately handing over an appropriate amount of cash to pay for the damages. Which is a nice bonus for the victim, as nobody ever seems to get their car fixed. Almost all cars carry the battle scars of life on the road. There's seemingly no need for police officers or insurance papers and both parties are off before the lights have turned green again.

Another thing which I really like are the scooters. They are a convenient way of squeezing past the cars. I don't know if you noticed in the picture above, but there's one important thing missing in all of them: exhaust pipes. China has enough smog-woes as it is, so all of the scooters I've seen so far were of the electrical variety.

There are not that many cyclists, but a ton of pedestrians. They squeeze through the tiny amounts of space left on the road, and are about as unfazed by the whole thing as the average driver is.

Yan Laoshi's son is currently taking the 4-part driver's license test. He passed the first three parts pretty easily. I'm assuming the fourth part consists of parking a car on a moving platform that is being airlifted onto a cruising cargo ship by a helicopter. That's about the level of skill one needs to survive on the road here.

I've never been in China but its neighbour India qualifies for all the virtues you mention. There are traffic signs featuring a horn covering the spectrum from "Don't honk" to "Please honk". I went through the same stages of suspending my disbelief and settled for the interpretation that honking isn't more than asserting one's presence, being even abundant in total standstill.

The rules in Indian traffic are simply Belgian rules reversed: it is pure survival of the fittest or "law of the strongest" as we put it. This has comic effects when Indian colleagues visit our office and watch our suicide maneuvers across the street with bewilderment.

They too are masters at the traffic jam game. A nudge forward, two nudges backward and the implausible equivalent the Indian cars seem to have of abdominal contraction when squeezing yourself through speleo caves. Solved.

One of the issues is that they would be faster by bike or even by foot but a combination of status, safety and wet feet in the monsoon season urge all well thinking citizens into the four wheeled cage.

Well, I'm off to home on my bike making a difference for our planet's future!

Knotwilg wrote:I've never been in China but its neighbour India qualifies for all the virtues you mention. There are traffic signs featuring a horn covering the spectrum from "Don't honk" to "Please honk". I went through the same stages of suspending my disbelief and settled for the interpretation that honking isn't more than asserting one's presence, being even abundant in total standstill.

The rules in Indian traffic are simply Belgian rules reversed: it is pure survival of the fittest or "law of the strongest" as we put it. This has comic effects when Indian colleagues visit our office and watch our suicide maneuvers across the street with bewilderment.

They too are masters at the traffic jam game. A nudge forward, two nudges backward and the implausible equivalent the Indian cars seem to have of abdominal contraction when squeezing yourself through speleo caves. Solved.

One of the issues is that they would be faster by bike or even by foot but a combination of status, safety and wet feet in the monsoon season urge all well thinking citizens into the four wheeled cage.

Well, I'm off to home on my bike making a difference for our planet's future!

I can't agree with this more.

One thing to note in India, at least, is that many vehicles don't have side-view mirrors. As a result, it's bad form to NOT honk when passing, as otherwise they might not know that you are there at all. Driving is definitely a more active and engaged process there, involving lots of reading and communication with other drivers.

As a spectator, I'm sad you're journey there is ending soon. It's been a blast reading about your battles and your studies.

Hopefully you're wrong, and you're not burned out and about to switch hobbies. That would be sad. I'm sure when you're back on KGS, there will be some beautiful, beautiful games.

SamT wrote:I'm sure when you're back on KGS, there will be some beautiful, beautiful games.

Not if he plays me ... my games are ugly, regardless of opponent.

I do hope he plays me, though. I like to play against everyone.

Sam: I think the way I phrased things in a previous post might have given you a wrong idea: I'm not burned out on go at all. In fact, I'm more motivated about it than I've been in years. What happened a few days ago is just the inevitable need for a small break. Think of it like going on a long-term diet. If you allow yourself to have a small snack or cheat-meal every once in a while, it's much easier to keep up with the diet for a long time. Right now, I just have two very important final exams coming up to complete my teacher training, and those take priority over anything else.

Today, there was go: I played my last game with Yan Laoshi. Below you'll find my even game against a professional.



After 47 days, over 50 hours of joseki study, thousands of go problems (I lost count somewhere during August) and exactly 70 slow, serious games my study in China has reached its conclusion. It was a worthwile experience in which I learned a lot about go, myself as a go player and a surprising amount of Chinese language as well. Going by the accounts of the ones that came here before me, this is not the end, but merely the beginning. After a 1-week break for my finals, I'll continue studying go back home. As the goal of this journal was to share the circumstances of studying in China with everyone here at L19, I won't continue keeping a journal once I'm back in Belgium. But I will study. Never underestimate the resolve of the quiet man.

Thanks for reading.

Thank you very much for finding the time, during your adventure, to share your experiences with us. It is a pleasure to read such a thoughtful journal.

It was a pleasure reading your journal. While rereading it I converted a few of your game positions into SL exercises. It's rare to have pro feedback on amateur games.

Your journal was the best thread of the summer. I will miss it. Well done!

It's been a pleasure reading/traveling along with you! Thanks for keeping this journal, and for taking all those photos:

Except for the losses against the three 5-dan opponents, all of my games this week have left a bit of a foul aftertaste. It doesn't feel good to win when you know you played a poor game. Playing stronger opponents forces me to look for better moves. But why does playing weaker opponents lure me into playing worse?

Consistency is elusive for me as well -- and I often have the same response to winning games.

ez4u wrote:Your journal was the best thread of the summer. I will miss it. Well done! :tmbup: :tmbup: :tmbup:

This.
I almost dropped Shogi once or twice after reading your journal. Really inspiring! Thank you so much! =)