The great firewall; limited connectivity

Friends family and colleagues,

I wanted to get a quick post out to let everyone know that I’m now moved into the institute dorm and contact will be limited. Currently, there is no internet available in the dorm. Additionally, the firewalls at the institute are much more stringent than they were in the hotel. I have to connect to a physical network, which renders the VPN useless. Sites that I've found to be blocked include: all things google (though Dr. Yao did say that google scholar was allowed), Facebook, and all UF websites. That includes my email. Normally, I would just use my old Cornell email (but that’s powered by google as well). My blog is also blocked. It appears that Skype still works, as well as Whatsapp on my phone. One solution is to go across the street to the forest mall where they have decent WiFi. I had the chance to talk to Myriam last night, which was nice.

I have a local sim card which allows me to make phone calls and texts to people in China. This makes it useful for contacting my boss here if there is something I need. The mobile network doesn’t seem to be working properly, which I’ve found is a common problem with American phones in China. So I’m paying for a gig of data that I won’t use. It’s just like Verizon.

WiFi here is spotty usually. There are a lot of hotspots, but most of them are secured (especially at the institute). The range on most of the routers is about 3-5 meters, which isn't bad if you’re right underneath one. The speed fluctuates depending on how many people are on the network. This is something I realized at the hotel. I had great speeds at 5:00 am and midnight. Generally speaking, the speed is much slower than American networks.

Regardless of the connectivity situation. I will do my best to post as often as I can. I want to thank you all for supporting me and being patient with the connectivity issues. (Especially you Myriam, I love you).