'The Joy Luck Club' lied to me.

It has been an interesting first month here in China. Just a few cases of food poisoning later, and I already feel I am finally getting my sea legs.

For all intensive purposes, this is me.

That isn’t to say it has been without frustrations. I learned, for example, that “Chinese almonds” are not, in fact, almonds at all! They are cyanide-laden apricot pits and eating them raw will most definitely kill you. The good news? Chinese hospitals are everything you ever thought they were and I have a body adept at metabolizing poisons.

But now that I benefit from a squeaky-clean intestinal track and a new appreciation for the FDA, it’s time to get down to business: The business of figuring out how to access my Blogger without resorting to taking ferries from the mainland every time I have such delightful observations to post.

I’ve been debating whether to just bite the bullet and buy a VPN, but somehow that seems like a cop out. As a child of the Internet Age, shouldn’t I be able to maneuver around a measly little Communist firewall? Answer: Yes.

Stop being a pussy,
A