Rock the Wangba

Wangba = internet cafe. I've got almost 5 hrs until my train leaves for Haerbin, the very most NE part of the Middle Kingdom. I may make it up to the Chinese "siberia," though it has no permafrost. My time here in Shenyang was informative and productive. I managed to learn a great deal about high risk groups here. In the end, I didn't conduct very many interviews but I'm feeling more and more like here in China I'll have to just settle for a Watson, as opposed to a research project. In the end I'm supposed to be on a Watson anyway, right? In case you were trying to figure out what my life in BJ was like, here is a good friend's account of his time there. We spent three weeks together hanging out and getting pisht in my off-time.

Shamelessy copied from my Beijing roommate's blog:

"I'll miss wandering down the hutongs [small traditional Chinese streets] looking for food and seeing all the familiar faces of people trying to sell me things or exploit me in some way (bottle-man, cookie-man, dog-man and bottle-mao to name a few) and sitting on the steps outside the hostel drinking pijiu [25 cent beer] and baiju [chinese rice wine, 120 proof, ~5 cents a shot] until 7am in the morning. I'll miss the boy who makes me 'Chinese hamburgers' (which, coincidentally, taste like a McMuffin) followed by the two girls in my favourite Internet cafe who always look disappointed to see me despite the excellent business I've provided (perhaps because they never succeed in their attempts to rip me off). I will really miss the loud woman who always shouts "harrow!" to me when I walk past her restaurant and underhandedly tries to persuade me to dine there tomorrow." - Dave