Do fish get thirsty?

This question has been puzzling me recently. Answers on a postcard, please. Also puzzling are the following fish-related questions - 1), do fish get bored in goldfish bowls? 2), would they like to go out and swim freely, or do they enjoy the protection afforded by a bowl habitat? And 3), we eat shrimps, crabs, etc, but why don't we eat goldfish?

As you can see, I've really been immersing myself in Chinese recently. The last few weeks have been a fraction worrying, in that I've discovered I just do not speak enough Chinese. However, the plus side about learning language is that this situation is not out of my control, and I've found some ways to change it. One of them is the dreaded 'language exchange', one hour English, one hour Chinese, etc. I say 'dreaded', because my pet hate is speaking English to Chinese people. So I'm putting up a notice on a noticeboard tomorrow - '1 hour English, 2 hours Chinese'. Seeing as this entire country is seemingly learning English, I expect to find takers.

As for the weather, it's just as weird as China itself. About 3 weeks ago, it was 37 degrees or so. Then it rained for a day, and when it stopped raining, it was about 25 degrees and has been so ever since, with clear blue skies and moderately breathable air. The feel of the city has changed, there are less short skirts around, men are no longer rolling up their trousers to air their shins, and I've been able to study in my room without passing out. With the clear skies, however, you can see just how bad the air is - all along the horizon line, it's just brown, stretching out miles all the way to the surrounding mountains. To think I'm breathing this in all the time is not pleasant. In fact, general unhealthiness of lifestyle is probably the thing I like least about being in China.

Taking advantage of this good weather, I caught a bus out to the countryside and went to a Buddhist temple. Visitors to China may suffer from the phenomenom 'templed out', which is even mentioned in Lonely Planet, and means having seen so many temples that they aren't interesting any more. This is true, but the one I went to had no other people there, and the temple grounds were a very nice place to read Dostoevsky's The Karamazov Brothers (not his best, ed.). The monks invited me to lunch, and then afterwards I spent the afternoon with one of them drinking green tea and, when he wasn't answering his mobile phone, discussing the wrongs of consumerism in modern society and how Buddhism has the answer. At least, I presume that's what we were talking about, I really didn't catch most of it. I did, however, receive a pamphlet.

Today I went to something called Cosplay, with is big in Japan and involves lots of 16-23 year olds getting together in groups and dressing up like their favourite Japanese computer game characters and having people take photos of them. I was pretty much the only person there who didn't like computer games, and not dressing up like a princess from another planet or whatever, I didn't get a huge amount from it. It was still pretty interesting, though, to see how the really cool kids spend their time. And I had some people I knew there, so I got in for free and spoke some Chinese.

In other news, my idea to start running again has been hamstrung by the military. That is, all 1st year university students currently have no lessons and must do military training, most of it on the running track, and lasting all day, every day for one month. It mostly consists of short bespectaled students in Army fatigues either a) practising to stand still for hours on end b) practising to sing for hours on end and c) goosestepping across the football pitch like Nazis for hours on end. The thing that strikes me is how unthreatening and pointless it all looks. Still, nice weather for it.