the net bar

our internet is out again,
for reasons unknown to me,
but so is life in a building where water, and electricity goes out too, and where the handy man says he's going to come back and replace the light and fix the computer, but he doesn't come back.



Ned and I both feel a little bummed when the net is down. It is our only life line to connect with our family and friends, and to learn about all the haps outside of our own illiterate and ignorant lives in this small, Inner Mongolian town.


These are times when I miss the ease of things working, of hot water coming out of the faucet, and the internet working at all times day and night. I miss being able to read signs in my own language and being able to order food at a restaurant, instead of pointing and making gestures.


on these days, I want to have a simple, easy life in America and take hot baths, and get an easy job, and not worry too much about the plight of the world, and forsake international travel and intercultural communicatin forever!


with that said,


we are at the "net bar."


It is down the road, right next to park, always with a dozen or so bicycles parked outside.
The Net Bar is dark and smokey. Large comfortable chairs line the rows of computers and ear phones hang over the screens like claws. Transfixed teenage boys and girls stare at colorful flashing screens and type madly on the greasy keyboards. They squint at the screens watching foriegn movies or shooting machine guns at moving zombies.


we pay 2 rmb each per hour, (30 cents) and answer our emails, and I write my blog. After about an hour my eyes sting because of the smoke and my back aches from leaning over the keyboard. I don't know how the Chinese spend so much time here without imparing their health.
My students have between 11 and 14 classes a week, but little homework to do. In their spare time, they come here, and watch American movies and "chat" with their friends back home.


You can even order a bowl of soup, or sip on an ice cold Coca Cola.
why leave?