Week Annivesary in Shenzhen

September 11, 2009

Three purple velvet couches beckoned to us from inside the plate glass windows of Ping coffee. "Jacek," they smiled, "Come eat steak, medium rare." "Isabel, have some crinkle fries with ketchup," and winking they confirmed to her delight "Yes, we have ketchup." "Sofia, how about fish and cut fruit in a fanciful design? We'll even sit still for a picture, and look more blue than purple." "Kif, corn chowder with chicken?" "Stirling, escargot? A Western-style restaurant offers adventure, too." The three purple velvet couches celebrated our week anniversary in Shenzhen with us, down the street and across the canal from our apartment, an apartment with three small wooden stools but no couch and no velvet.

What are the chances that, the day after we set up the VPN, the electricity would go out and government workers would arrive on the 14th floor, our floor, to fix it? It seemed suspicious to me. Stirling, less paranoid than I, wondered why the government would care about us. Because we are accessing blogs that are on blocked servers? Because we are the only foreigners in our complex? Because a friend who lived in Beijing for several years figured every building in their complex was bugged? After dinner tonight, I asked our neighbor how often the power goes out. He said not very often, but that the breaker box on the floor needed replacing to help improve the air conditioning and circulation. I'm going with that explanation, especially since we still have blog access.