the waiguoren's perspective: Internet Drama, and other things.

Internet isn't included in our neat little Taiji-research-Chinese package; we're in charge of getting it ourselves. At first, that didn't sound like a big deal - just a minor glitch in the system, since we had to wait until school began, two weeks into our stay, to sign up for an account. There's a "90 kuai" foreign option and a 10 kuai internal option, and the price is per month.
But wait; foreign students can only get the foreign option, and it's 120 kuai per calendar month, hello!

There was a surge of seething frustration at the IT office, a tense discussion with our assistant program director, and a carefully worded (but forceful) email to the Pitzer representative.
In return we got a flippant reply that we were warned of this, and that $58 dollars isn't a big deal for students, tee hee bye!

I guess we got up in arms over something that was in the handbook, but I really think it could have been handled more maturely on the Pitzer side, too. And to be honest, it is 30 kuai/month more expensive than the handbook said.

Anyway. This is frustrating. Perhaps we can take this money out of our research fund...

Apart from this, I have a few ideas for my photo essay - on the One Child policy. I saw some crazy artwork at 798 and they had some really creepy paintings of little girls, as well as a huge photo collage of 3-person families. I've also noticed exactly how much careful attention small kids are given and how their grandparents - and parents, although I rarely see them with parents since they work - are constantly teaching them. Advice and tai ji and English and what's that? and how to read... it's intense. I don't think I could handle this sort of pressure.

Actually I think this photo essay is supposed to be about Beida, so I don't know what to do at all, but at least I can start working on a later photo essay on the One Child policy! Maybe for now I'll just do a collage of surprised faces and call it "People's Reactions To Me When I Say I'm Studying At Beida", because it would be very accurate, and it would depict how highly regarded the institution is. Whenever we whip out the red IDs, we get some pretty incredulous - and admiring - stares. Waa!

And to wrap this up - I woke up at 7:30 this morning, and upon peeking out the crack between the curtain and the window thought, "The light is so white! Ha, I thought it had snowed for a second!"
And then I actually pulled back the blinds and a gentle, dainty snow was falling, tiny little flakes. It only really stuck to the trees and the ice - it melted on the roads...