Crazy government firewalls. Who are they really blocking websites from anyway? The people who care to access forbidden sites are the ones who know how to skirt the firewalls! Every teacher at my school has some type of proxy that they use to access Facebook... these aren't massive secrets!
Anyway, had a rather chill weekend (which I guess is technically not over!). The water pressure issue isn't nearly as bad as I expected, or at least for OUR building. A Chinese friend found out that our building has its own pressurization system that 'should' last through the 4 days of low water pressure. I'm still going to take a shower every chance I get just in case the next time I go to access my shower the water isn't there.
Other places are apparently not so lucky. We went to eat at our favorite, cheapo Italian restaurant yesterday. They definitely did NOT have water, and they are also located in one of the more upscale buildings in this area. After realizing that, we decided that eating at home was probably a better option. At least we know that our dishes are clean!
Yesterday we went on a shopping spree for our Discus fish so that our aquarium could be finished! Chinese fish stores are like most other things in China. There is much disregard for the comfort of the animal life within the confines. Of the two fish stores we've discovered here, both tanks of Discus fish were WAY overcrowded and many of the fish had ich. We went ahead and decided that we'd buy the fish we wanted anyway and just treat the tank and cross our fingers that the medication kills the ich. It's one of those internal conflicts when buying animals here... you want to give the poor things a better life, but are you encouraging them to keep overcrowding fish tanks by purchasing from them? I cry every time we walk through a pet store or animal market area... you can't even imagine how many cute puppies and kittens are crammed into cages they can't even move around in. Will it help for one person to make a statement of not buying fish? Although you can argue that about most things, "Can I, alone, really make a difference here?" we decided that in this particular instance, the answer was 'no'. Even if we spoke fluent Chinese and could explain to the owners why we would not buy from their store, they would totally NOT get it and just laugh us away with a 'whatever you stupid foreigner' kind of attitude. There is very much tradition and "penny pinching" (jiao pinching?) around here, and if somebody's parent or grandparent did something a certain way, then there will be no change... God forbid you break a "tradition" or change anything that is!
We did buy our Discus fish. We got three orange ones and three blue ones. Research shows that these would have cost $50 or more easily in the US... but we got each fish for an equivalent of $3!!! Insane! I tried to take some pictures and never realized how difficult it is to photograph fish! Here's one of the better ones.
Anyway, had a rather chill weekend (which I guess is technically not over!). The water pressure issue isn't nearly as bad as I expected, or at least for OUR building. A Chinese friend found out that our building has its own pressurization system that 'should' last through the 4 days of low water pressure. I'm still going to take a shower every chance I get just in case the next time I go to access my shower the water isn't there.
Other places are apparently not so lucky. We went to eat at our favorite, cheapo Italian restaurant yesterday. They definitely did NOT have water, and they are also located in one of the more upscale buildings in this area. After realizing that, we decided that eating at home was probably a better option. At least we know that our dishes are clean!
Yesterday we went on a shopping spree for our Discus fish so that our aquarium could be finished! Chinese fish stores are like most other things in China. There is much disregard for the comfort of the animal life within the confines. Of the two fish stores we've discovered here, both tanks of Discus fish were WAY overcrowded and many of the fish had ich. We went ahead and decided that we'd buy the fish we wanted anyway and just treat the tank and cross our fingers that the medication kills the ich. It's one of those internal conflicts when buying animals here... you want to give the poor things a better life, but are you encouraging them to keep overcrowding fish tanks by purchasing from them? I cry every time we walk through a pet store or animal market area... you can't even imagine how many cute puppies and kittens are crammed into cages they can't even move around in. Will it help for one person to make a statement of not buying fish? Although you can argue that about most things, "Can I, alone, really make a difference here?" we decided that in this particular instance, the answer was 'no'. Even if we spoke fluent Chinese and could explain to the owners why we would not buy from their store, they would totally NOT get it and just laugh us away with a 'whatever you stupid foreigner' kind of attitude. There is very much tradition and "penny pinching" (jiao pinching?) around here, and if somebody's parent or grandparent did something a certain way, then there will be no change... God forbid you break a "tradition" or change anything that is!
We did buy our Discus fish. We got three orange ones and three blue ones. Research shows that these would have cost $50 or more easily in the US... but we got each fish for an equivalent of $3!!! Insane! I tried to take some pictures and never realized how difficult it is to photograph fish! Here's one of the better ones.
Some of our new Discus fish... the blue one is really iridescent-y!
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