Brave new world

This website is currently blocked in China. It's not the first to receive this treatment, nor will it be the last, but it's somewhat annoying, to say the least. Not because of this, but partly driven by the on-off random(?) blocking of other websites here, we decided to shell out for a proxy server. There are free ones available, but as far as I understand it, they're slower and less reliable. Plus, I particularly wanted one which would give us s UK IP address, thus enabling us to watch British TV. Yippee!!!

In other news this week... Pingixang College has been subject to an inspection by... erm... some inspectors, to decide if it's good enough to become a university. Obviously, this would be a great thing for the college - more money(?), better facilities and certainly higher enrollment figures and probably higher standards among the students enrolled. We've yet to find out whether or not the college was successful, but I can't really see it happening just yet.

Anyway, the curious thing about the whole inspection period was the preparation. All of a sudden, things that had needed doing for weeks, months and even in many cases years, suddenly got done. My multi-media classroom this week was in the best condition I've ever seen it: there was a full compliment of curtains at the windows, the projector screen which had had some writing on it had been cleaned / replaced and the projector was working properly. Fantastic. Many cosmetic changes took place around campus as well - painting and particularly a big clean-up operation. The students were drafted in to clean classrooms instead of their usual evening reading. They were also told to clean their dormitories, which were later inspected by teachers / other students. They were exhausted, poor things... Even the chickens that live on campus seemed to have been hidden away somewhere.

There's a small street out the back of the campus which we have dubbed 'filth street' (for obvious reasons!!) which is usually full of small shops and stalls selling all sorts of things, but particularly food and snacks. This was completely closed last weekend and many of the signs, explaining what was sold in each, were removed. The reasoning behind this was probably partly to reduce rubbish, but I have to wonder if there was something more behind it. Who gets the rent from such shops and stalls? Anyway...

The campus was much cleaner for a couple of days, including the classrooms, which was nice, but it won't last, I'm sure. Excuse my cynicism, but the dirt and the filth is already creeping back, just days later. It would be nice if things were done all the time, not just because there was an inspection about to happen.

Oh, the chickens are back as well...