From an internet cafe in Shanghai, April 25th, 2000

I am in Shanghai now, surrounded by Chinese computer nerds palying computergfames. The interne connection at this internet cafe is a modem on their one hpone line. So far it has been a very surreal experience. Shiny towers literally irght next dor to tiny streets crowded with people, food for sale, and trash. Tomorrow we leave the comforts of the city. where latein script is quite commoin, though the most english we hear is calls of"hello". We have learnedsome indispensible characters to help us srvive: bean, rice, meat, noodles.

The people are generally very friend and like to try to hold converattioms with us. Once we start tralking to one person, to ask directios or becuase they are curious about us, other people take notice, watch, and often join in. We happened upon the gay serction of People's Park last night. What started out asplaying with polaroid pictures, was then changed entirely by one of the six's repeated questioning of me of whether I was gay and how big my penis is. It was in jest so it wasn't a big deal. When we had enpough, we said goodbye and gave them a polaroid.


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