WHOA

WHOA - it's been over a month of silence on this blog.

As you'll find out, much has happened, most of it somewhat unexcitingly related to the end of the past term. I have survived a single week of 5 assignments due. I have had to produce 5 more during the ironically termed 'break' since the end of term and today here it is at last: MY DAY OFF ! One single day of nothing related to work, one day to catch up on email, to vaccuum and clean my drawers and put away the winter clothes. Today's a happy day! And welcome back to this blog (I'm always amazed when I hear that some of you are still checking in).

Speaking of blogs, I've mentioned some of my housemates in the past. There's one, a woman from mainland China, who's doing development studies. We always have political or economic conversations, conversations about feminism, about international relations. Sometimes she cracks me up with her blend of naivete, militantism and insight; for instance she had me review an application essay she wrote to a program in Germany about the new Europe. Now, she's boycotting all Japanese products on principle (her grandparents barely escaped a massacre) (Note that this occurred about a week before all hell broke loose between the two countries). In her essay she was explaining that she thinks China but mostly Japan ought to learn from Germany about dealing with its past. The way Germany was portrayed in her textbooks apparently was a Germany that pulled itself by its bootstraps and singlehandedly became an economic powerhouse by sheer will and magical dealings with its past. There is no mention in her textbook of the Marshall Plan; and when I mentioned that she ought to think about the other countries, the ones that were mature or cynical enough to say, let's put this behind us and work together now; she didn't understand why. I went on explaining that Germany could've hardly become an economic powerhouse if the rest of the world had boycotted all of its products. She said that was such Western logic! I'm not too sure what she meant.
Most recently she's been (finally?) seriously woken up from her dream. So far she thought China was clearly the center of the world and that it didn't matter at all that there wasn't democracy. Her friends and her all use blogs to keep in touch with home (they blog on a Chinese blog, friends at home can read it, it's a lot cheaper than phoning every day). Recently though all their blogs were put on hold, and yesterday when she tried to submit a blog about 'big country syndrome', it was repeatedly rejected on grounds that it contained sensitive material, i.e. censured. The same thing happened to her friend last month when he included the picture of a past Chinese leader fallen out of favor. The sad story is that if they put the same information up on a blog like this one, it's not accessible from China. So not only will she lose all her articles and links when she goes back, her friends and family also can't read it. I'm really not trying to make fun of her - she is very smart, dedicated, incredibly open and keen on all kinds of new experiences from hard rock to baking cookies; but it's fascinating to watch her pride and disenchantment evolve.