Time flies...

We're leaving China in less than a month. I can't say I'm sad about it. Especially in the last few days - in which we met the Chinese bureaucracy again. To make things short- Rob needs a new visa, and we need a registration form for him, which is hard to get coz without knowing we "broke" the law- he didn't register again after coming back from Germany (in China you need to register as a resident - and let them know exactly where you are all the time). This means that he needs to pay a fine and show our contract to the apartment. Problem is that the contract ended yesterday, and we're staying here with the landlords permission. No prob you say? just get the landlords to get us a new contract or something? true. But we couldn't reach them in the last 2 days. Well we got them today, but this story isn't over yet... Not very interesting I know- but my point is that I'm really getting sick of this place, and now- as the cherry on top-blogspot is blocked again in China. At least that's what I understand- coz I can't go into any of the blogspot blogs. If I had to say how I feel about it today it would be a mixture of frustration and anger. I thought about the question whether I'll ever want to live here for more than a short period of time, meaning- more than a year, and I must say that now the answer will be "no". There's tons of good things about living in China, if its the cheap prices, or the interesting challenges you meet everyday, the great food (just pay attention to what you're eating - to not be surprised...), and even the occasional nice Chinese person you meet outside (and I admit- most of them are nice ppl) all of the above do not make me feel it's worth all the rest. I'm tired of being stared at, tired of dealing with the system all the time, and that's even though I'm not naive: I know that bureaucracy is the same shit anywhere on this planet. Here it has another dimension to it: The big brother knows all. I can not deal with that. I'm such a person of live and let live - and I just can't live in a place where someone above decides for me what websites I'm allowed to see. I can't wait to be back in Europe, and later Israel- to read in Wikipedia (I miss you my love!) or just click my favorite blogs list- and not get a page that sais "Action Cancelled"...
I still want to travel a bit, when you travel you usually don't see these little problems, or they just don't annoy you as much, but I am ready to leave.

(The answer to the last post's question is: Yes. It is.)

Well- If you have read my last post- you know that I can't see my blog. Fortunately, Knock on wood (I'm still Jewish- can't stop the habit) I can still write new posts. If that ever changes- I promise I'll do my best to write new posts and publish them somehow here.
After being personally affected by the policy of this country- negatively may I say- I must admit that even though I'm happy with my life here as it is- being a student, having blue skies a few days a week (that's gonna end in about a week or two...) living with Rob and so on, even though I'm happy here- I can't not think about all the ppl here that don't know what they're missing. I'm not sure that they should know what they're missing- coz I seriously believe that here- it will just bring to chaos. After living here for a short time, adding the 6 months I spent here 2 years ago- I must admit- that for the Chinese ppl- this may be the ideal solution. But how far should this go??? I obviously dislike being affected by it- especially coz I AM NOT CHINESE. And I do know what's behind that big wall, and I do know other things- And: I do have my own ideas, my own thoughts and judgments. Therefore- I really don't appreciate being censored like this. I don't care if the Chinese ppl can't read this blog. It's not for them specifically. Its for me, and for whoever is interested in my life. I really respect the government here- otherwise I really couldn't have lived here for a while. Maybe not even travel. But they have to decide- either they close all their doors to the outside world- or they open them in this way that ppl like me - from the outside world- don't feel entrapped in their decisions. I'm usually not the type of person who sees it all in black or white, but the gray area here- is really hard to see through.
I hope this blocking of my blog's website will be over soon, as I understood- it had been blocked until a year ago- then they unblocked it. I seriously thought they are making good changes- but maybe I was too naive, or maybe (and most probably) I just still haven't figured them out.

Is it really censorship???

For the last few hours I've been trying to log on to my blog, and another blog of a friend of mine (in Blogspot as well) and it just doesn't let me log on... What is weirder (but maybe good) is that I can still log on to the page where I add posts... Rob has tried to log on at work- and couldn't as well, but Dorian (the one I was trying to read her blog) who's in Germany - told me she can log on no problem... I'm worried that the stupid Chinese might have blocked the pages ending with .blogspot.com - their censorship is just outrages. I really cross my fingers they haven't done such a stupid thing. Just 2 weeks ago or so- I found out that they unblocked Wikipedia- which was a really great thing- and I thought: "oh! they're actually advancing!!!" I hope these thoughts wont be proven false...
So let's hope together- that I didn't just move to the dark ages!!! (well at least lets hope it's not gonna be so dark...)