Conversation Between Esper and Castaigne
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  1. Castaigne
    August 21st, 2015 10:25 AM
    Castaigne
    well I'd have to get accepted first lol! But yes the international ones are very attractive haha. I'm also fortunate enough to have lived in Europe for a little while so I have some experience under my belt!

    That's a very strange thing to hear ._.; It sounds exactly like a disease lololol
  2. Esper
    August 21st, 2015 9:03 AM
    Esper
    Oh, around the world? Just hearing that you've got international prospects makes me think you should go for one of them. A chance to live abroad is a great thing.

    From what I'm told, my friend didn't have any particular interest in having kids then, as she put it, it was like a switch in her head turned on one day and she really wanted kids after that. It all really sounds like a drug addiction and/or mental illness to me.
  3. Castaigne
    August 21st, 2015 8:54 AM
    Castaigne
    The one in SF is a local government fellowship. The goal is to get new graduates involved in local government and try to get them to make a career out of it. The other fellowships are academic but they're scattered around the country and the world haha.

    Luckily I haven't seen any of my (close) friends become parents. Yeah there's a lot of craziness there and I still can't wrap my head around "ok I'm going to spend the rest of my life with this tiny asshole as my sole concern." But it seems anything less and then you'll spend the rest of your life going "WHY DIDN'T I SPEND MORE TIME WITH THIS GUY WHO GREW UP TO BE A DICK"
  4. Esper
    August 21st, 2015 8:46 AM
    Esper
    Is that like an academic fellowship? There are a lot of good schools around here.

    From seeing some friends of mine become parents I can see all the good intentions, but also a lot of the craziness and the way being a parent supersedes everything else in your life.
  5. Castaigne
    August 20th, 2015 11:59 AM
    Castaigne
    I've been thinking about applying for a fellowship in San Francisco... They claim it pays enough to cover cost of living so we'll see haha. I'm also applying to four others so it's not as if I'm dead set on it.

    Yeah I was pretty unhappy myself. I think parents just have really good intentions for the kids that they upset themselves a little bit. Being a parent is tough and being a kid is tough and you put the two together and you get a couple decades of poor decisions lol
  6. Esper
    August 20th, 2015 11:41 AM
    Esper
    Oh my god, I could go on and on about the craziness of living here, but I'll spare you that. It's a shame though, there's a lot of nice stuff in the area and us middle class and poor people can't enjoy it so much.

    Yeah, I would have been an unhappy kid if I were put into martial arts. I wasn't even into sports. But, you know, some parents have this image of their kids that looks very little like the kinds of people their kids are.
  7. Castaigne
    August 20th, 2015 11:20 AM
    Castaigne
    I did Taekwondo when I was a kid and it's just so... bleh. Watching good people do it is pretty sweet but in general I'm not a fan of the "sign up your chillun's for martial arts to build CHARACTER" because it really does none of that lol. Just have them play sports or whatever and build some teamwork too.

    I feel like pretty much everyone is in the hinterlands in SF lol. My mom grew up in Palo Alto but they moved before everything went crazy so she's always kicking herself at how much her childhood home is worth. I really want to visit the area but not enough for the price tag -_-
  8. Esper
    August 20th, 2015 11:05 AM
    Esper
    To be sure, I see Taekwondo schools here, and the Aikido place I went to for a while was next door to a gun shop. :s Odd contrast.

    But like I said, hinterlands. I'm kind of on the cusp between the gay, hippie-dippie, tree-hugging SF area and the outer redneck central valley area where they don't care so much for the environment or gay people.
  9. Castaigne
    August 20th, 2015 10:57 AM
    Castaigne
    I've never been to the West Coast but I've always liked the vibe I get. Here everything is really combat oriented/external, you can't throw a rock without hitting a Taekwondo school which is great if you're into kicking and jumping around, but it's hard to find a place that's more authentic. I go to the closest school that has that historic approach and even then it's miles and miles out of the way. It's totally worth it though lol.
  10. Esper
    August 20th, 2015 10:32 AM
    Esper
    Well, I don't live in SF itself but its hinterlands, but yeah, there is a place in my town and there was a class at my school when I was in school. Probably there are more. It's got that kind of hippie-peace-loving kind of reputation after all, and we love that here.
  11. Castaigne
    August 20th, 2015 10:07 AM
    Castaigne
    I've always been curious to try aikido, but there's not a lot of opportunities for me to do that here. I think aikido is more like a cross between pakua and shuai jiao but I'm not that familiar with any of those arts lol. I bet you have great opportunities for schools in San Francisco though. Kind of jealous haha
  12. Esper
    August 20th, 2015 9:53 AM
    Esper
    The more you know

    But I think I understand. It's vaguely similar to Aikido which I did a little of.
  13. Castaigne
    August 20th, 2015 9:48 AM
    Castaigne
    Actually it was created as a fighting art, it just has an internal focus. Back in ye olden times only the strongest and most flexible people were even allowed to study it. Another thing people don't know is that an external art like kung fu also has it's basis on internal aspects. The fact that Tai Chi is a great way to build flexibility and save energy is just a bonus, the same way kung fu is a great way to build explosive strength and resilience. Both of them were developed as ways to discipline body and mind.
  14. Esper
    August 20th, 2015 8:44 AM
    Esper
    I had no idea that Tai Chi had a martial side.
  15. Castaigne
    August 19th, 2015 5:14 PM
    Castaigne
    I do a martial school of Tai Chi. Technically all of the schools are martial but mine is basically "the" one for combat applications.