Man-Handled
Michael,
Here I am in intriguing Beijing, after an exhausting flight across the Pacific. Luckily I had a window seat and good companians–an Aussie couple named Carole & Dan Walker, recent immigrants to California. Dan was wearing a Hawaiian style shirt with California icons (lawn mowers, barbeques, etc). He watched all 4 of the in-flightmovies, one of which was Eight Below, the only one I watched. Dan tried to shield Carole’s eyes during the scene where an Antarctic leopard seal tries to bite one of the plucky dogs.
I’m finding the staff in my hotel are eager to please, but few know any more English than I do Chinese. However, everyone I’ve met is unbelievably polite. This afternoon when I was trying to find my way from the city bus stop to the Friendship Hotel, an energetic little woman on the street man-handled my suitcase up the stairs of the passenger street overpass, then down the other side, all while I was trying unsuccessfully to wrest it away from her with one hand, while I rolled my carry-on bag with my other. Then this powerful lady hailed a taxi and told the driver where to take me. All I could do was smile and say Xiexie (thanks)!
-rakkity
PS:
I’m finding that Google can’t be reached from here. I can’t even go to Google mail. Have the Chinese embargoed all of the Google sites?
Yes, they have. http://www.google.cn works, however it is censored (and in Chinese). Also http://www.gmail.cn (but, not reading Chinese, I cannot tell if this is legitimately gmail or not…)
Comment by pesky godson — July 18, 2006 @ 4:12 pm
This does not speak directly to your Google quip, but it is interesting just the same.
In China It’s ******* vs. Netizens
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NYT) 760 words
Published: June 20, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F00816FA35550C738EDDAF0894DE404482
You may not be able to open it unless you are a Times Select member. It speaks to the inability of the government to stop the blogosphere.
Comment by Chris — July 18, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
I tried Googling the next day, and got through. Maybe Google is so popular it gets swamped? I’ve accessed it 3 days in a row now without a problem. However, other sites seem to be randomly inaccessible at times.
Comment by rakkity — July 19, 2006 @ 10:16 am