Squat toilets

http://gojackarmy.blogspot.com/2005/03/sere-survival-evasion-resistance-and.html

I had promised to post some pictures from last summer's trip, but I am a slacker/busy college student. Anyway, I ran across this today--the middle picture shows two squat toilets in all of their glory. The pictures are from the military's SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) school, but could have just as easily been in downtown Beijing.

我要回去中国！！！（I'm going back to China!!!)

I'm extremely excited about this. Four other Sewanee students and I are headed to Shanghai with a Political Science professor to do some research on the sociology of urbanization/modernization. (Dad read the press release and thought it sounded kind of pedantic...which it is, I suppose. But I think it will definitely be interesting research.) We'll be there 5 weeks, paid for by AsiaNetwork, looking at how life has changed for the residents of 4 different streets in different parts of the city. We'll be doing a good bit of filming, and lots of interivews (with a translator, thankfully) with the residents. I am definitely excited about this. We'll also be going to Hong Kong for 2 days. It should be a really great trip!