I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while but it is the winter break in the Chinese school system and that means that universities across the land have basically closed down. During the term there are five dining halls open to all now there is just one that is still serving a couple hundred students a day. Needless to say mealtimes are mortal combat. People form perfect lines to pay for their food tickets but once that formality is dispensed with, it is survival of the fittest (Ph.Ds v. Masters v. ungergrads v. foreign students and teachers.) If you don't have a battle plan or are skittish about having to jump in with elbows and knees blaring you WILL end up with the last cold bowl of rice and mush from the bucket of leftovers.

Moreover, all school buildings are closed/locked (which means no access to the T1 broadband they got going in the office) and the dorm staff who are barely existent when school is in session now performing as if they were in a morgue (read: treating those still in the dorm as if we were dead.) All this makes me think that what the school wants to say is that during the break you can either go home, go travel, go to hell...we don't care just get the $%^& off campus or else suffer the consequences. I'll have to remember this next term when I'm teaching...I wonder how they will like it when I teach with the same go to hell attitude.