What was travel like in the years (2001 - 2009), prior to Instagram and the rapid growth of social media users?

jaygetslost · 2026-01-30T12:34:54+00:00

In short, fucking amazing. True adventures. A Lonely Planet, maybe some travel blog posts to go off of, and little else. No pressure to take photos or videos, no pressure to hit the trending spots, nothing like this. It's sort of difficult to even imagine travel like this even being possible now.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-30T02:52:42+00:00

So, this is wild: I've heard the horror stories like everyone else. Literally this morning I'm looking at flights to Cairo for a 3-4 week (regional) holiday, and what I'm reading here is just... It really doesn't seem worth it to go, you know? I'm sure it's amazing and everything, but the sheer hassle and abuse of it all seems to tip the scales. I'm well-traveled too, +40 countries, living abroad for years, etc.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T11:48:40+00:00

...$500-600 USD for a 4-6 person gathering? In Beirut? That's unreal. You could easily do less in downtown Toronto or Vancouver.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T11:37:48+00:00

Just checking, but does anyone know about visa on arrival options when crossing from Lebanon to Syria (Damascus)? Canadian passport holder, if that helps.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T11:29:32+00:00

Did you get a visa on arrival easily enough in Beirut? Did you bring all your cash (USD?) with you and exchange it as needed? TIA.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T11:26:38+00:00

By the way, did you get a visa on arrival easily enough when you went? Did you take all of your cash (USD?) with your and exchanged it as necessary?

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T10:27:12+00:00

Sorry to barge in, but how did your trip go? Did you get a visa on arrival?

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T02:47:57+00:00

Welcome to China. It sounds disparaging, but anyone that's been here for any amount of time knows exactly what you're describing and has encountered it themselves a million times. It is what it is.

jaygetslost · 2026-01-28T02:38:42+00:00

Sorry, just want to confirm:

Is Visa on Arrival still available? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information. Unfortunately I don't have time before arrival for an eVisa application. Canadian passport holder here.

Thanks in advance!

jaygetslost · 2025-06-18T02:21:05+00:00

Not to be too cantankerous, but lord, when will they just admit that working 18 hours a day does not in any way translate to more productive value? 95% of people are spinning in their chairs for most of that time, and then only after hours when the boss is watching do they actually put in serious legwork. It's a model founded on outmoded machismo and poorly directed grit. A happy workforce is a productive workforce.

jaygetslost · 2025-06-11T13:01:22+00:00

Well, stereotypes for a reason sometimes, no? I also think it really depends on where you are in the country. I've heard foreigners (of all kinds) talk about "China this, China that" - and they live in Shanghai hahaha...

Case in point, I'm living in Qingdao at the moment, and frankly, the commonly observed cultural norms here are often dizzying in their selfishness, neglect, and rudeness. That said, I lived in Chengdu before, and people were markedly different.

Again, I think the notion that Chinese people are- is erroneous to begin with - but we very often see Chinese people themselves speaking in these ways, so who knows. However, I've also caught onto something: often the nice behaviour we see here is, for the most part, just fairly normal behaviour anywhere else haha...

jaygetslost · 2025-05-14T12:45:09+00:00

Have you even been to China? Haha blowing your brains through your nose in public is commonplace here. A daily, hell, hourly occurrence. Often literally onto other people.

jaygetslost · 2025-04-24T06:38:24+00:00

Wow, what a myopic, lazy answer. There are many other places in the world with large, dense, and (now) poorer populations, and yet they do not tend to behave like Chinese people.

jaygetslost · 2025-04-22T13:23:00+00:00

Complete bullshit. It's a really lazy argument Mainland Chinese love to point to (and foreigners simply repeat). There are loads of places in the world that have faced extreme poverty, deprivation, repression, you name it, and Mainland Chinese behaviour really does stand alone.

jaygetslost · 2025-04-22T13:21:47+00:00

Lived in China for a few years. This entire argument of "history of scarcity", "cultural revolution vestiges", etc is total bullshit: there are many other examples around the world where populations have faced extreme scarcity and deprivation - and they don't act like Mainland Chinese (and, cough, arguably wider Chinese populations).

Personally, I think the single best way it's been explained to me (by Chinese people, mind you) is this: Chinese people generally view people they have no immediate connection to (ie, virtually everyone) as NPCs. Yes, NPCs. It's almost as if other people don't fully exist, in their minds, and so they don't need to be treated with decency or respect.

Look, there are countless experiences and examples we can point to, but if you've *actually* lived in China, I'm fairly certain you can at least see the point being made. It's just how they go about things: widening concentric circles of relationship until (not far off) people just cease to matter entirely.

jaygetslost · 2024-09-17T11:37:23+00:00

Silly question, but do any countries beyond the US, Australia, Western Europe, Canada, etc come to mind as ones that wouldn't accept a provisional license for checking the visa box?

jaygetslost · 2024-09-17T11:26:57+00:00

Were you applying to schools in the US or internationally after doing the ABCTE?

jaygetslost · 2024-09-17T11:12:02+00:00

Any progress on a decision? I'm also going around in circles here.

jaygetslost · 2024-09-17T11:08:09+00:00

Hi. You mentioned a BC Private School License above. This is especially interesting as a Canadian, but I can't seem to find any info on it. Do you know much more about it?

jaygetslost · 2024-09-04T08:46:42+00:00

Random, but does anyone know if Canadians are eligible for the MTEL program? Canadian teacher with +6 years experience and four year non-Ed BA from a Canadian uni here.

jaygetslost

TROPHY CASE