Can you imagine the outrage if that suddenly happened to your town in the U.S. one day? But here it is just an accepted phenomena that from what I gather seems to happen almost every month. When I asked my students about it, they said it was good because it helped the environment. Restaurants are still in operation, although serving smaller menus with all cooking done by candlelight. Night classes have all been rescheduled for lunchtime when there is light to study by. Even the construction on our new campus, which happens mostly at night, is currently halted. I wonder if this ever happens in places like Beijing or Shanghai, where everything is brightly lit and neon signs flash in your face from every corner. What must their power quotas be like?
I have learned that my life without power is a much slower and simpler one. Tuesday, I was wholly unprepared since the power was already out when I received the warning text, so I passed the day wandering around outside and luckily had lots of lesson planning to do to fill my time.
By Wednesday, I thought I was ready. My laptop was fully charged, as were my Kindle, my phone, and my IPod. I got up and started the morning by walking down to the bakery where I had a more limited selection than normal. I walked around campus while eating my sandwich to observe the freshmen at military training. I came back to my apartment and cleaned my bathroom and kitchen. I went to a romantic candlelight lunch with a few of my students. I worked out for an hour and a half (this alone should tell you how desperate I am to fill my time). I finished a book. I wrote this blog entry. I refolded all of my laundry and straightened my room. I took a nap, and then started another book.
And yet, by the time I had done all that, it was only 3:30pm. I cannot remember myself being more productive in a single day in a long while, yet time seemed to inch by simply because I didn’t have the option of doing those things which I waste time doing every day. No g-chat, Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, or Skype. No refrigerator to keep my food cold or hot plate to cook any of my quickly thawing frozen goods on. My bathroom is so dimly lit it's entirely possible I washed my hair with body wash this morning. In another hour my computer will die and then I will probably resort to doodling with pen and paper.
I knew coming here I was going to be giving up certain Western normalcy's, but I am astounded by how intertwined with electricity my life is and how different things are when I am forced to live without it. In a way it's calming; I don't have to be constantly checking my email and I'm free to do things I normally wouldn't make time for. But keeping in touch with friends and family back home is what has kept me from feeling isolated and alone here, so I'm looking forward to Saturday when the power gets turned back on and I don't have to wonder whether I will be able to call home at a certain time or not.
(A much angrier post on this subject may come in December or January if this happens again and I am forced to live without heat.)
(A much angrier post on this subject may come in December or January if this happens again and I am forced to live without heat.)
lindsey! ugh this sucks! :( :( :(
ReplyDeletei haven't looked at your pictures yet, i need to get on that!
Together, the United States and Canada account for 50 percent of energy consumed by the world’s richest industrialized countries.
ReplyDeleteHuge cuts in carbon dioxide emissions -- by 80%, as Obama claims the US must -- simply will not happen.
According to the Worldwatch Institute, if a Chinese citizen consumed oil in amounts equal to an average American citizen, China would use 90 million barrels of oil per day to sustain its needs. That’s 11 million more barrels than the world produced in one day in 2001 [source: Worldwatch Institute]. This is a projection that has unsustainable implications -- what if a nation, China or otherwise, were to develop a 90-million-barrel-per-day oil habit?