birthday in China

tub o' fish

Last night, I had fish for dinner.  Nothing remarkable in that, except in China, you need to pick your fish from a bathtub-like container kept outside.  I see these tubs at stores, markets, and restaurants, and I usually don’t even look, but I did last night.

Every Monday, a group of us go to dinner, a sort of loose dinner club that gets us off campus and keeps us connected.  On this Monday night, we were at a restaurant in CiQiKou, and I was doing the fish picking, or rather, I was standing there looking dismayed, and so I took pictures, relieved that the tub actually looked clean, it had aeration, and the fish were…. lively? Is that the word for flopping fish about to be killed?

weighing the fish, you pay by the weight

Our Monday night out this week was my birthday celebration.  Depending on the time zone, my birthday is either today (China) or tomorrow (Boise).  China has only 1 time zone, completely ignoring any complications that the variation in daylight hours might cause people.  China spans 5 geographic time zones, but since 1949, only uses 1 time, Beijing Time, also known as Chinese Standard Time.   

Naturally, our meal was another lesson in Chinese food and culture. Chongqing grilled fish is a spicy-hot specialty and we had to find a restaurant that served it.   Basically, its grilled fish served in a vat of oil with a few vegetables, and it look terrible.  To me, it takes like all spicy food here; I can’t really tell if I like it because my mouth is both on fire and numb. 

the kitchen. yes, we still ate here

discussing the fish dish, typical restaurant table

hand warmer, oh so cute

teachers from US, Ireland, France, and China

putting out the fire

Chongqing grilled fish

Still, it was a fun night.  My surrogate PC site mate, Jason, gave me a cute hand warmer, like an old fashioned water bottle, except this plugs in to heat up, perfect for keeping my toes warm while I’m on the computer. 

My Internet has been very sketchy this week, and my vpn hasn’t work at all.  Witopia helped me build another custom gateway to get out.  Now I can get on this blog, the NY Times, and Facebook.  But, who knows how long that will last.  Another PCV was having trouble too, and sent out this message: 

(From Witopia Tech Support) 

thanks mom and dad!

"China has locked down alot of locations due to their government meetings.. this is affecting ALL vpn companies.. you will have to test various locations and protocols to see what is working for you... it is varying from location to location inside china which ones are working.  This should resolve itself once the communist congress stops meeting in a week or so.  This is NOT targeted to WiTopia, we are hearing from all providers and they are all having the same issues."