Chinese Astronauts

I was just watching Chinese TV - which isn't a very enjoyable activity in general - and marveling at how normal I found it to be. For some reason every other station had a program on Chinese opera. The singers were in their traditional costumes, faces fully painted, disco ball rolling, multi-color lighting flashing, and smoke machine in full effect. Very traditional. And one billion people are tuned in. But I didn't find any of that really surprising or funny, just kind of an average occurrence, which was a little disturbing.

I've also found it a bit disturbing this week to know that I've been going to sleep while Chinese people have been floating around in the sky above me. They literally are everywhere now.

Also, it was my birthday on Friday, so I took that to mean I could use all of last week to celebrate. Not too bad. If I felt I needed a reason to drink, that was good enough for me.

I met this French guy last week who was a bit odd. Even for a French. He told me a story about how he'd spent a weekend in a Chinese prison. He deals in textiles and one of his dealers failed to supply him with the product after he had paid for it, so he went around looking for it himself. He eventually found it in a garage in Guangzhou and he and some of his staff broke in. The police came by and arrested him for breaking and entering. Since it was a Friday night, the French consulate was closed until Monday morning. He said the police were very nice to him since he was their first foreigner. He got his own cell and they turned on the air-conditioning when asked. Anyway, the consulate brought their lawyers and settled the matter on Monday and he got his textiles back. He claimed he was so distraught by the entire experience he had to take a three-week vacation to Australia right after. I can sympathize.

So I guess the point is that next time you're bitching about your 40+ hour work week and making fun of the lazy French while secretly envying them, just keep it in mind that their laziness extends to all sectors. I bet the American consulate wouldn't have been closed. Possibly planning some secret covert disaster, but at least open. He did get a three week vacation right after though. Fucking French. If I worked more than 10 hours a week I would totally be spiteful.

Anyway, the good news is that the polar ice caps are melting, thus making water that was impenetrable to oil drillers available. And it appears as though the bird flu is moving west. So since it originated in western China, those of us in eastern China should be the last to get it. Haha suckers.