Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A hesitant post....

There was an article published a few days ago about how blacks and Mongolians are being banned from bars in Beijing during the Olympics. This was originally published by the South China Morning Post (a Hong Kong paper) and has since been refuted by a few sources. Basically, the story is that some bar owners said that officials from the Public Security Bureau in Beijing came around to their bars and asked them to sign pledges stating that they would not allow in blacks (drug dealers) or Mongolians (prostitutes) during the Olympics so that people didn't get the wrong impression of China.

Beijing authorities have said that they know nothing of this and no such ban has been issued and no such pledges signed. I believe that they would never be stupid enough to do anything so official and forward. I do believe, however, that some lower level police officers probably went to the bars and warned the bar owners to make sure that there were no black people in their clubs dealing during the Olympics.

The point of me writing this, though, is not to support or refute the article.. but to talk about the comments left on the article. (It's on the Huffington Post as well as a few other news sites) The comments infuriated and baffled me... They said things such as "This is all just a lie and is another example of the white man trying to keep black men away from Asian women." I'm sorry.... WHAT?! This is no way makes sense. The article was originally published by a Hong Kong publication, which has no white involvement... about Chinese people... and black people. You can throw your conspiracy theories at me that the white man rules the world and therefore this is a valid statement, but I will fight you on this and not buy into that belief. It is true that white people have an influence here, but I assure you that it is not to keep the blacks away from the Asian chicks.

It is true that there is a growing number of African drug dealers in Beijing, so the leap from black people to drug dealers is not completely unfounded, but it's still pretty ridiculous. In general, Chinese people are pretty racist (I've blogged about this before!) and this just takes it one step further. There are all sorts of accounts of racism in China, particularly against people of darker skin, and I wouldn't say that they're machinations of a white media. As time goes on and China grows more powerful, the white man is becoming more and more absent from China... just as he was a mere 30 years ago.

At any rate... I thought this was an interesting topic, though a bit frustrating. People draw weird connections between things that aren't necessarily connected. There are too many conspiracy theories for our own good.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Facebook and real books...

I'm not sure how many of you have seen Facebook's latest facelift... but I don't really like it. Maybe it will grow on me, but right now I find it to be rather cluttered and I really don't like the mixing of the mini feed and the wall. Blah!

I guess it doesn't really matter as I can't say that I use Facebook all that often. Usually just for birthdays and to say hello to people I haven't spoken to in a while. I'm actually sort of bad about keeping up with my Facebook...

In other news... I've been reading a lot lately!!! It's really exciting. I've been enjoying it thoroughly and am excited for my travels because it will give me some extra time to read. That probably shouldn't be a factor, but it is. I'm currently reading The Plague by Albert Camus, which is something I have been meaning to read for years. I really like it so far, and am hoping that I have some time tonight to finish it. I think I might read Brave New World next. I have never read it and I feel like I need to if for no other reason than to understand all of the references to it... same with The Great Gatsby.

Tonight will have to be my book-picking night for my trip. Eek! I'm a total nerd :)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Babies!!!

Lately it seems like everyone is getting married and having babies! Today my sister had her first baby shower. It went pretty well I think, considering that most of the women didn't know each other before today and my sister had almost nothing planned. We basically just sat around and ate pastries, watched Renee open gifts and did a book swap that Renee orchestrated. She got some cute baby stuff which is awesome. I haven't given her anything yet because I'm sort of broke right now... but I am thinking about looking into some stuff while I'm in Australia, and I am also thinking that I want to buy them a Wii when I get my next paycheck.

I'm really excited to be an aunt!!! Renee leaves really soon to go back to the States to have the baby. She leaves on August 18th and will be gone until December 1st. I think she's really excited to get out of China for a while and see her family and friends and to spend some time outdoors. She will be staying in Seattle with her mom until the baby is born, and then moving a little outside of Seattle into a rented house with Sage, the baby and Bailey. Sage will be back and forth, and Bailey will fly over with Sage sometime in September. The baby is due on September 25th, though Renee has been given a couple due dates so we're not really sure when the baby will actually be born!! The 25th is the earliest one though. 

Andrew got a scholarship to come to China at the end of October... which ruins my plans a little to be home by then. Oh well, at least I will get to show him around Shanghai a little bit and tell him about my life for the past year!! My tentative plan is that I will leave the first week in November and return to the States. I will probably just fly into the west coast and go and visit Renee up in the Seattle area. I really want to throw her a baby shower out there... I know it will be after the baby is born... but her Stateside friends will want to see the baby anyway... not just a pregnant Renee!! (even though she's really cute pregnant, I think they'll want to meet the little one) They're being surprised so I'm anxious to find out whether it's a boy or a girl. Everyone at her office swears it's a boy because of how her stomach is or something.

It's actually really interesting for her to be pregnant here because there are so many Chinese old wives tales about pregnancy. They have all these little tricks and stuff for telling if it's a boy or a girl because here you're not allowed to find out the sex of the baby because of the whole aborting all the girls thing. Plus, they have a lot of superstitions like she's not supposed to leave the house a month before the baby is born and a month after the baby is born. Or... she's not supposed to wash her hair for the first month after the baby is born. Or cut her hair for a year after the baby is born. I don't know why... 

But yes... I'm extremely excited for the weddings coming up and for the babies that will be born soon!!! I leave in three days for Australia and I can't wait to see Ronnie and Kristina again. I'm really looking forward to seeing Sydney, too. I've been back in Shanghai for like two months and I'm already itching to take a break and see something new!! That's probably sad... my wanderlust is out of control.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Things are improving....

So after my bitch of a day the other day, I have had two pleasant ones. Nothing great, but I also haven't felt like fleeing the country lately. Sadly, that's a step up.

For the most part I enjoy living here, but there is still a lot about China that I will never get used to. I am not cut out for living here long term, and am anxiously awaiting my return home. Please don't misunderstand me, I have enjoyed my time here and will continue to enjoy it until I leave. However, China will never be a place I can call home. China is so different from what I am accustomed to in a lot of ways, but I think I could get over that. What really bothers me about being here is that I will forever be considered an outsider.

Unlike living in Europe or many parts of Latin America, I will never fit in here. This is not a country where diversity is commonplace and accepted. It does not matter if you were born here and have lived here your entire life, you will never be Chinese if you aren't of the Chinese race. In contrast, if you were born in America, and so were your parents, and your parents parents, but THEY were from China.. you will always be Chinese. It's a very race oriented society, which is new for me and I'm not sure that I like it.

America definitely has a race problem, but after being overseas I realize that it's not nearly as bad as we all think. As far as the rest of the world goes, we are pretty progressive in our acceptance of diversity and our attempt to talk about it and embrace it. Diversity is not only supported in America, but encouraged. Here, people of darker skin (even if they are still Chinese) are discriminated against openly. I encountered the same thing in Spain and in Latin America... and if you're actually black or, heaven forbid, Muslim, then you're really discriminated against. I miss the diversity and the relative acceptance of the US. I miss being amongst people such as myself and not feeling different all the time. By "people such as myself" I mean people who don't notice the color of my skin... not just white people.

Maybe I'm just too sensitive. There are a lot of people here who are white, black or other who live here and seem to be happy. Then again, they don't usually try to be a part of the Chinese community... they just throw themselves into the expat community. I like the expat community here and it definitely is a major comfort, but its constantly changing because Shanghai is such a transient city so I will never feel settled here. I might feel differently if I didn't have so much waiting for me back in the States, but since I do I will say that while Shanghai is a great place to come for a short period of time, I'm ready to go home. I plan on enjoying the hell out of my last few months here and I'm glad I'll have some time to say goodbye and do all the things I've been meaning to do. I know I'll look back on this time and China with fondness and probably be bored out of my skull when I get back to the slow-paced South... but at least I'll be home.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

On a lighter note...

I saw a dude wearing a shirt that just said BALLS across the front. 

I also saw a chick wearing a very girly shirt that read SAN DIEGO DAD in bright pink letters. 

Makes me wonder what shirts with Chinese characters on them say in the US.

A terrible day...

Today was horrible. Just horrible. This morning I had to go to the police station to reregister myself for God knows what reason. They gave me a bit of a hard time about it because my visa is actually expired now because my paperwork is still being processed so it just looks like I'm here illegally. After that I had to go and pick up my tickets for Australia which was annoying because I wasn't able to change my tickets like I had hoped. :( 

After going to the Qantas office I had to go out to Pudong to apply for my residence permit. This was just more of a hassle than anything and I'm still not entirely sure what it was that I did there. Everyone was speaking in Chinese and I don't really understand the process anyway. All of these errands took about three hours and it was really hot outside so that I was just miserable all morning walking around and taking the subway all over town. By the time I got to work at close to 12:30 I was in a pissy mood and just wasn't in the mood for anything, especially not work. 

This morning wasn't even that bad... it was just the fact that I had to do all of this shit and worry about my visa and not be totally sure that I would have it ready by the time I leave next Tuesday. I am just so sick of this and I can't wait until it's done. I'm thankful that Greg and his coworkers have worked so hard to get it done for me and that I haven't really had that much to do, but I just am sick of thinking about it and having to worry about all of it. 

Then of course because I was in a pissy mood I got in a fight with Andrew because he said something stupid that set me off as is wont to happen when I am in a bad mood to begin with. Argh. Also, this was as at work so I was just totally on edge and freaking out not so secretly. I'm not always so subtle with my anger, even though I know that I should be. I almost burst into tears in the office today but luckily was able to somewhat hold it together. Just one of those days. I cancelled my tutoring for tonight so that I could come home and just sleep and watch TV. I'm really glad that I did because I couldn't take being around people tonight. I have to get some work done tonight with Renee that I am not looking forward to doing, but it shouldn't take long and Renee doesn't ever upset me so I should be good.

Anyway... here's hoping tomorrow is better and that I manage to calm myself down tonight and sort things out with Andrew. 

Monday, July 14, 2008

Regrets?

For most of my life I have been able to truthfully say that if I were to suddenly die the next day I would not look back on my life and regret anything. I have never been one of those people that puts off things until the future. If I want to travel around the world, I do it. If I want to move to China... well... I do. In the past I have followed my heart without regret, determined to never look back on my life and say, "I wonder what would have happened if I had had the guts to do what I wanted." 

It's not always easy. In fact, it's often downright terrifying to do what I want to do. Other times it's easy, but mostly it's hard work that is well rewarded. I bring all this up because recently I have become a little disappointed in myself. I know what I want but am scared to jump. I'm letting small things hold me back. Years from now, if I am able to reflect upon this time in my life, I will probably not regret it. My fear, though, is that I will never make it to that point. 

Life scares me. Not because I'm afraid to live it, but because I'm afraid to lose it. The fact that I have come to fear death scares me more than anything because I was never really scared of dying before. I always felt a sort of immunity knowing that I had done everything I wanted up until that very moment. True, my life would have been short and unfinished, but I would have died happy. Of course there are little things that I would miss or wish I had done, like tell my family I loved them more and showed my appreciation for the people and world around me more than I have, but nothing life-changing. I've lived a charmed life, and I haven't let the negativity of the world around me drag me down too much. Nor have I ignored it.  

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I have an intense interest in human nature. This is manifested in my interest in genocide, war, politics, human rights, and an infinite amount of similar things that all represent some aspect of human nature. I want to figure out what it is that drives people. Why do we all think that we are immune to the shortcomings of others? Can we really be so ignorant as to think that all the warriors of the past were savages and all the victims innocents? Are we so arrogant that we don't realize that none of us are innocents and we're all at least a little savage? 

My reading list and my movie choices represent a rather depressing aspect of the past of the human race. It's a small wonder that I haven't driven myself crazy with it. Though I might not have reached a dangerous level of depression or insanity, I have jaded myself by reading about so many accounts of human cruelty and savagery. The things we do to one another... 

I got to thinking about all of this because of the book that I just finished reading, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. A great read that I recommend to anyone that is remotely interested in human rights and how capitalism and the greed of the United States is slowly destroying our little world. My boss recommended it to me and loaned me the book, and I really enjoyed reading it. It spoke of how the man, John Perkins, felt that he needed to write the book as a sort of cleansing of all the things that he had done in the past that went against his conscience. Things that he had to justify to himself and others for years that he could no longer bear. He felt that he fucked the world and had to apologize for it and to create awareness about the things that he had done in order to somewhat remedy his actions. Not to completely make up for them, but as a sort of peace offering to the world and those that his actions harmed. He sold his soul years ago for money and power, and he wants it back.

Basically, he would go into developing nations and convince them that they needed to take out massive loans from organizations such as the World Bank that they couldn't possibly repay. He did this through overblown econometric models that promised massive returns on these loans and investments in the country's infrastructure and economy. He was employed by the private sector, that then benefited from these loans because the countries would use the money to hire US companies to build their infrastructure, schools, etc. Naturally, the country would be ultimately unable to repay the loans and would be left indebted to the US and essentially under its power. A sort of economic colonialism if you will. He refers to this as the building of the US's global empire, and after reading the book and  taking into account all that I have learned about US politics and international policy, I am inclined to believe and agree with him. It reads like a conspiracy theory, but it's damn convincing and is based in an awful lot of fact. 

I could write about this for days... but I won't. I'll just say that the more time I spend on this earth, the more I realize what I want to do with my life. At one point I wanted to go to law school and practice corporate law. Now, I realize that there is much more to life than money. Money is corrupting and useless in the grand scheme of things. It provides materialistic comforts that are only vaguely satisfying and I would rather do something with my life that will give it more meaning. I don't want to be famous or go down in history for changing the world, but I do want to leave it with no regrets. I want to live each day as though it were my last. Not by partying and living life at a breakneck speed, but by never holding back. Always going after what it is that I want and never disappointing myself again. 

I need to get my life back on track and figure out how to do the things that I want. I have never let myself down before, and I don't intend to this time. There are certain things in life that I will probably always fear, but I don't want death to be one of them. It is inevitable, so there is no sense in fearing it. I just want to be ready for it when it comes. My last thoughts must not be of all the things that I did not do, or of all the things that I wish I had done, but of the things that I did and the ones that I loved. 

Transformers!!!


I saw a car that was totally decked out Transformers style. I see a lot of cars like this around Shanghai that have the Decepticon insignia on the back so that the drivers look totally cool. This car took it to a whole new level though. It was painted in the black and white of the police car. Except instead of Police it said Transformers. It still totally had the "to punish and enslave..." phrase painted on the side of it and the little insignia on the back.

It was pretty freaking funny. People are really strange and I have to wonder why anyone would seriously want to drive around in a car like that. Don't get me wrong, I loved Transformers. The toys, the TV show, the movie... pretty much everything. I still don't want to dress my car up as one though. That just seems weird.

Unless..... they do exist!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

A good weekend...

This weekend was pretty great. Not for any particular reason, but it was a lot of fun and I was able to kick back and relax for a lot more of it than I have been able to these past few weeks. I left work on Friday, went to the grocery store to pick up some things, then came home and cooked, played with Bailey and watched the 11th hour in preparation for the Green Business Forum on Saturday hosted by my company. (www.nextstepshanghai.com) The movie was interesting and I agree with a lot of what it said. I liked that it utilized fear to get its message across but it didn't go overboard. I wasn't turned off by its preachiness, which is saying something considering that I usually hate being preached to.

Saturday I woke up and went to teaching at 9:30. The annoying part about getting up that early to go and teach was that when I got there... there was no one else there, and the door was locked. Now, I can be pretty patient and I go with the flow for the most part (I think...). However, my Saturday morning was annoying. The lock on the door was frustrating, but what was really annoying was when I got ready to leave at my scheduled time of 12, the woman I work for was like oh well you still owe them 30 minutes because you started late. 

Maybe it's a cultural thing..
. or a company thing... I don't really know, but where I'm from it's not my responsibility to make up the time that was lost because I was standing out in the hall because someone forgot to unlock the door. Also, I was all by myself when I first got there. No one else showed up until closer to 9:40, and only 2 of the 4 students that came were there before we were let into the office at close to 10:05. I started teaching at about 9:50 out in the hallway while we waited for the office to be opened, and while it wasn't the most comfortable or convenient place I've ever held a lesson, it worked. So basically, 20 minutes were wasted because people were late... and there was the slight inconve
nience of being out in the hallway. We get let in and we have a nice lesson.. the other two show up at close to 10:30 and I finish the lesson at about 12:05. I walk out and she's like oh well there's still like an hour left because you started late. I just about screamed. 

I have no problem with waiting outside... with waiting for students to show up that are late... with any of that. However, it is not my responsibility to make up time lost because of any of these things. If I were late, obviously I would make up the time, but I feel that in a classroom setting like this you get the 2 1/2 hours from 9:30 - 12 no matter what time you, the student, decide to show up. For m
y one on one lessons I'm a little more flexible... and honestly any other day I probably would have been more flexible as well. Yesterday I had no time to play games like this though. I had planned out my day carefully... Lesson over at 12, run home to change for work and take out Bailey so she's not cooped up all day, take a taxi over to the Grand Hyatt in the Jinmao in Pudong for the forum and be there by 1:15. I didn't have time to waste!!! Shanghai's not a small city, and getting from Xujiahui to where my house is takes about 20 minutes by cab, and it takes almost 30 by cab to get to Pudong.... so you 
can see I didn't have much time to work with. Am I wrong for thinking that I shouldn't have to make up the time and that I should have in fact been paid for all 2 1/2 hours that I was there? Am I crazy? Self-entitled?

Anyway, that was my one hiccup in an otherwise pretty smooth weekend. I got to the Grand Hyatt only a little bit late and the forum was actually pretty interesting. We had two panels and I really enjoyed the first panel. The second panel was not nearly as good, and we were running about an hour behind so by the time the last speaker spoke... less than half of the people that had been there at the start were still there. It was sort of sad, but I still thought that on the whole it went well. After the forum the whole staff (almost) went out for dinner for Nenette's goodbye dinner. 

Nenette is one of our lovely interns that worked with us for the past 4 months during her study abroad here in Shanghai that is now going back home. Dinner was great. Good food, good company, lots of laughter. They all went out together afterward, but I opted to go to a friend's house party instead. I hadn't seen Griff (the host) or anyone else from that crowd in a long time because of going back to the States and all of that, so I was excited to see them again. 

The party was fun. I met some interesting people and saw most of the people that I expected too, and a few more that I didn't expect to! I drank more than I should have... which meant that today during the day I didn't feel so hot. As a result, today was spent lounging on the couch and watching movies!! It's been a long time since I've had a day spent predominantly on the couch. I just ordered food and parked myself in front of the TV for the majority of the day. It was awesome. By the way... Lars and the Real Girl is a fucking hilarious movie. Not because anything overly funny happens, just the premise is ridiculous. I really enjoyed it. 

I had teaching tonight, and only one student showed up. It actually was nice though, it's a lot easier to engage in conversation and encourage speaking when there are fewer people! Plus we were talking about the American economy so I had lots to talk about. Next week is politics and I'm really excited for that!! I really like talking about politics with people and explaining how the American political system works. It's not necessarily the best system, but it's sure as hell interesting. 

Friday, July 11, 2008

Kitten...

I saw the tiniest kitten the other day that I really wanted to take home with me. I was walking to the subway stop and it came walking up to me and mewed and my heart just melted. It was so small I was afraid to pick it up, but it wouldn't even have filled the palm of my hand, and it couldn't have been more than 4 inches tall. Of course it was wandering around the streets of Shanghai with no mother in sight and was right around lots of bikes and cars. I wonder if it made it...

I'm always a little afraid of playing with street animals here because rabies is sort of a problem, not to mention the fact that there is a lot of disgusting stuff for them to get into. This little kitten already had ticks or huge fleas or something in its fur. It was adorable though and made me look forward to getting a cat of my own even more!!!

Also... another great craigslist post... http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/dal/705407729.html.

I like cats.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Assassins?

Awesome blog post about a phishing scam. Some people are amazing...

http://bumpontheblog.etowns.net/?p=236

I would think twice before deleting it. I sort of hope I get this one.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Air Conditioning Installation

My office has been unnaturally hot lately given that we didn't have an air conditioner for my half of the office. Shanghai's heat has already reached unbearable levels (with the heat index it's well over 100 degrees here) so it was about time we fixed this before everyone went crazy with the heat. So my bosses bought a unit for our side of the office and some guys came to install it yesterday.

The installation process was insane!!! Four seemingly scrawny Chinese guys show up with massive AC units. One internal and one external. The larger of the two is now perching on a ledge outside our window. How they got it there? Well we have really tall windows, broken up into various frames that all open. They opened the top frames as well as the bottom windows, took a harness and wrapped the machine up in it and basically lowered it out the window. The looped the rope over the top window frame and then pushed the machine out of the bottom one. I was a bit terrified that the frame was going to come crashing down... as it is made of wire and there was a bunch of glass underneath it so I didn't think it would be able to support the weight. Miraculously, it did.

The best part though, was when the guys were hanging out the windows and standing on the tiny ledge that this huge machine was being put onto. Remember, we are 6 floors up, yet they felt no need to be holding onto anything or to loop a rope around themselves and the window or each other. I was truly scared that someone would fall and kill themselves. They, however, didn't seem very concerned at all.

Everyone made it out alive and they successfully installed the AC... though it's still hot in here because apparently one of the buttons on our new machine is broken. Oh, China.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Cultural Differences

Last night I taught a class on cultural differences between China and the US. This was my conversational English class so I encourage the students to talk and share their thoughts, but unfortunately they don't know much about American culture so they weren't overly talkative. Except for one guy... who was adamantly defending China. He failed to realize that I was not in fact insulting China, just pointing out some things that I thought were funny that are different here. Some of the things I find rude or just gross... but most of it are just quirky little differences that I experience here as a laowai (foreigner).

There are a lot of things that irk me about China... and there are definitely days where I don't want to deal with them. For the most part though, I realize that it boils down to cultural norms and that theirs and mine are simply different. Here, spitting is not frowned upon. Littering is commonplace. Squat toilets are considered to be the cleaner option and you don't put toilet paper in the toilet, but in the trash can next to the toilet. Traffic laws are completely ignored and yelling isn't rude... but draws a crowd. We talked about all of these things and more... and most of them just were entertained by my playful banter about the Chinese ways... and I poked a little fun at American customs as well.

One person, though, just wouldn't let anything by me. He kept disagreeing with me and saying that he didn't think that was how Chinese people are. Sometimes they're so proud. I don't get offended when Chinese people say that all Americans are fat and sleep around. Or that we all look alike.. so I'm unsure why some of them get offended when I point out things about their culture and societal niceties. Oh well. I hope no one took any real offense to what I said, because it wasn't meant to be offensive. I like China, and support the fact that we are a very different people with different expectations and habits. Not good, not bad, just different.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Anyone want a moose?

http://laughlines.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/if-you-want-a-free-moose/

I really enjoyed reading this. Can you imagine? It's worth clicking on the Read More and reading the full advertisement.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

One of those weeks...

Ever just have one of those weeks where everything feels like shit even though nothing actually went wrong? Well this has been one of those weeks. The fact that it has been such a shit week is strange because it has been a relatively calm week for me. No, it's not my time of the month, and I'm not sick... I'm not really sure what it is.

To make matters worse... my plans to go to Australia the week before Ronnie's wedding are being foiled by the fact that I don't yet have a way to re-enter China. The bureaucracy here is just amazing. I never would have imagined that this much red tape would be wound around me, restricting me from doing so many things. With any luck I will be able to slice through enough red tape to make it to the wedding, just not as early as I had hoped. Oh China... how you complicate my life.

My distance from all things familiar and comfortable has plagued me this week more than ever. This is due in part to the fact that I haven't been able to communicate with Andrew, and in part to the frustrations that I have been experiencing with planning my trip to Australia. There are other things affecting my mood as well, but they are less clear cut and not as easily analyzed and expressed. Maybe someday I will understand myself enough to be able to take a step back and look at my mood and declare what is at the root of it. For now I will settle for empty speculation and hope that with age comes clarity.

Wow...

This morning on my way to work I saw a beggar woman in the subway with a large tumor on the back of her neck. Initially I thought it was one of those inflatable airplane pillows, but as I drew nearer I realized that it was connected to her. I wonder if she can still use it as a head rest...

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

My First Snippet...

On my walk home from teaching tonight, a Chinese man played Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On as loudly as he could on his cell phone. Proudly singing along to the song and dancing a little as he walked. Only in China is this an OK thing to do.

Resuming with Blogger and the name change

For those of you that know me and know that this is my third blog address in less than a year... I thank you for sticking with it. 

Being here in China makes certain things difficult that I never would have expected. One of those things is writing a blog. I started my SixMonthsinShanghai blog not realizing that it would later be blocked in China, making it insanely difficult to update. So I started a weblog blog... which basically sucked. Weblog doesn't allow comments and the interface is strange and just not great. Well... China has now unblocked many blogger blogs, and so I can now post to Blogger so I am trying it again.

This is actually my same blog, but I changed the title and the domain name because I would like to be able to continue this blog even after I return to the States. If you missed my other blog... well you didn't miss much. If you really want to you can still check it out at camillethinks.weblog.com. 

Now... What's with the new name? Well, funny things happen all the time here in China, and I know that they happen back home too. Either I read something, see something or experience something that is funny or interesting or just noteworthy. I want to start blogging about these things, whether they warrant one line or one page. Hence, the Daily Snippets and Long Stories. I will also be filling in the spaces with things about my life and other things that I see fit. I am going to try to update this more often... but I will no longer apologize for not updating frequently if it doesn't happen. Deal with it! 

Welcome to what I hope is my permanent blog. Apologies for the confusion and thanks again for following me here...