So much to say about all of the things we are learning, little nuances and half-understood truths that coalesce into the feel of China as a place, a culture and its people...the VPn was down for a few days, and it was not until later that we realized that it had been put down not as some random periodic muscle flexing of the great firewall and the bureacrats behind it, but rather as a specific implementation of said muscle for the purpose of silencing things while the government went through its trasition. This is an enlightening thing to realize. The previous leader and his family, if you do not know, amassed a multibillion dollar fortune while he was in power. Other troubling accounts of the past months concern a variety of articles we have read about developments in different regions and sectors of society here...the children of itenerant workers found frozen to death in dumpsters as they try to fend for themselves while their parents busily power the bottom level of the country's economic growth elsewhere; people setting themselves ablaze in the west in a silent howl for a homeland; country-to-country arguments over territtories that are specks of land but symbolic of huge pride and nationalism, over which old antagonisms are rehashed and domestic angst and built-up tension is redirected toward these other parties to outlet it away from the ruling bodies against which it has accumulated...this is an ancient remedy for indigenous tension and it has been repeatedly used to outsource this country's always-imminent-seeming self-immolation to a 'foreign devil'-type enemy of the season. Beyond these things, there is always much going on, and each passing day blends our lives a little bit more into this country's admixture, an alchemical process that never takes away but rather always induces growth. Here at the school things are going well, and perhaps the most interesting thing is the way most of the foreign teachers here rarely if ever mix with Chinese people...there is a cultural wall that if tangible would be just as visible from space as the great one up north. Chinese language, it turns out, has many words that, since they were borrowed from abroad, have essentially the same sounds as the original words: hence, anatolia, guitar, and many more are phonetically almost the same. All the classes are going well. The latest article in the magazine explores Baijiu, Huangjiu, Pijiu, and Shejiu, and it is posted in the most recent album.
We are all looking forward to the break for the winter festival. We have planned a number of different vacations for the time off, but right now it is looking like we might stay here for most of the time, save our money, and enjoy the local sights, with perhaps a week off somewhere distant.

Had some recent enlightenment concerning the corruption present in this institution itself, which confirmed my suspicions about the leadership here and its principles...but our presence here is not to police a system that has long existed but rather to do the job and provide for the children, both our own and the students.

Book's up to 375 pages.

Merry Early Christmas to all of you!

Lots of Love!