Political Meetings Behind the Great Firewall

China did it again. For the past couple weeks, I couldn't get on Facebook, Youtube, whatever. No matter what server I used with my VPN, nothing was happening. Turns out China is a lot more powerful with the internet than I thought.

In the beginning of March, China had a big political meeting happening in Tiananmen Square. It was so big that they upped the Great Firewall to a point where no VPN could get through. Anything remotely Western was blocked. It seemed like you couldn't even download anything. So there wasn't much to do internet-wise. I'm not clear on exactly what came out of this meeting. The only things I know for sure are that China started a new anti-domestic violence law, and apparently gay people are banned from TV. (As in TV shows can't show gay people anymore.)

Last night was the first night in almost two weeks that I'd been on Facebook or YouTube. And honestly, it wasn't that bad. A little boring, but it's not like I wasn't productive. I read a couple books, I managed to find some movies on Youku that were worth watching, which was a task in itself considering you have to pay for all the good ones on Youku. I even managed to start a contest with a co-worker on whose remembering more Chinese from an app he and I are both using. For me it's a refresher, and damn, it's a nice crash course in reading Chinese. And the best part? It motivated me to buy a plane ticket early.

The one other thing it made me do was realize how crap it would be if China managed to permanently shut down VPNs. If anything, it's made me really push the use of WeChat to people back home. Not a lot of people use it, but if China does this again, I'd have no way to talk to people back in the States. Except for a very small amount of people. So ever since, I've been pushing for people to use WeChat like crazy.

Moral of the Story: Discover the joys of WeChat.

A Somewhat Fresh Start

With Chinese New Year come and gone, I'd decided I was going to make some changes, myself. The biggest of said changes was finally getting out of the tiny apartment I'd lived in for the past two years for something a little newer, a little bigger, and a lot nicer.

When I walked in after moving all my stuff, my mood was a lot lighter. I'm in a good mood when I wake up in the morning, and I'm in a good mood when I go back to my apartment to sleep. It's amazing what a lot more space and an actual couch will do. There isn't a TV here, but honestly I don't think I even need one. If I get a lot of visitors in the future, I'll probably invest in a TV, but for now I don't think it's necessary.