May 12, 2006
I have a few shameful secrets, one being that I am addicted the Survivor Show and I share this addiction with a friend (who shall remain nameless to protect her reputation). When I am in the United States we will watch the TV show while on the phone with each other. We will comment on the contestant’s personalities, second guess their decisions and generally have fun and a lot of laughs. When I came to China I figured that we would have to give up this obsession for a year. But as they say necessity is the mother of invention. This is how we worked it out. I am lucky enough to have Friday off so I can talk on SKYPE during Survivor time, but just talking and not seeing didn’t really fill my craving. So “Friend X” carries in a ladder from her garage and props it on her wall and places the tiny video cam on top facing her TV. If the Internet gods are in our favor I can watch and listen to a fuzzy version of the show as we have our discussion and laughs. I am aware that I could always download the show from the Internet and watch it the next day, but most of the fun is being able to watch it together. So many thanks to “Friend X” for being willing to do all this finagling just to watch a one hour voyeuristic show. Just in case you are ready to lose all respect for me, in my defense this show is a great Psychology, Sociology and group dynamics field study. (Yeah right…)
