In which there are Technical Difficulties, a sheepish expression, and a steely look of determination

Right. So.

Way behind.

My poor mother was convinced that I had started spouting anti-PRC seditious propaganda on this blog and had somehow had my POSTS filtered, thinking that my dated posts had actually been written on the dates they discussed and had sloooooowly crawled their way through Chinese censors to your eyes. No, in fact, I just haven't had the opportunity to get new posts written. This is due to the combination of a)shitty internet connections and b)being on a Yangtze boat trip for a few days, which meant no internet. I should clarify that the shitty internet connections were not necessarily shitty per se, but were shitty in re: my checking my e-mail, which meant that, for instance, I spent three hours on line in Chongquing trying and failing to communicate both with the outside world and with those I was coordinating with in China. Harumph, I say, and twirl my colonel-like moustache (look, Alan, a joke just for you, when you emerge triumphantly from Bamboo Curtain land!).

I also wanted to note that I feel like my last post may have contained quite a bit more of a "oh, these dirty natives and their dog-eating, non-english-speaking ways" sort of tone than I meant it to. This is what happens when it takes you three hours to send and retrieve ten email messages. You get cranky. And the cranky transmits its flavor to that which you are saying, even if that is not the tone you mean to convey. So, just to be clear: I love China. I love the Chinese people, who have been, in the aggregate, UNFAILINGLY polite, kind, helpful, and pleasant. With the notable exception of Beijing cab drivers, about which more later. I do not consider the failure of Chinese people to speak English to be their problem, I consider the failure on my part to know anything more than "ni hao" and "xie xie" to be mine.

However, I still can't get behind eating dogs. Which, to the best of my knowledge, relatively few Chinese people actually do, at least on a per capita basis.

So. Now that I am once again in a situation where I can regularly and smoothly access the internet, I will do my damnedest to bring this blog up to date.

Still to come: Gorges! Boats! Urban chaos! Lots of stairs! And the great cities of China, Shanghai and Beijing.

ETA: I've just realized that, since blogger dates posts according to the time you START writing them, as opposed to the time you POST them, it's no wonder my mom was confused. I didn't post the last post before this one until late in the day on July 18th, not the 14th, as the date stamp would suggest.