Episode Details

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

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

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

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