Don't plan to watch "Friends" in China

I've had to deal with stomach problems and fever over the past three days, and it's probably from something I ate. (It might've been my unfortunate discovery of the 1 rmb red-bean popsicle that other night.) As a result, I've had to rest at my aunt's place. I finished reading the last 300 pages of the Fountainhead. I finished the last 200 pages of another book. When I got bored, I watched TV. In China, English TV can be agonizing if you watch it alone because most of the time, you're staring in disbelief and you'd wish someone was there helping you make fun of it. That's because there's only one English channel, a publicly funded channel that has no commercials. It relays the same five shows throughout the day. The news shows are perhaps the most annoying- the anchormen were probably plucked off the street just because they could speak a hint of English. They have white dudes with British accents, but are quite ugly. The weather-man is a lanky guy, and REALLY ugly. The Chinese reporters are not ugly, but their English is often inflected with a ridiculous accent so disturbing that has made my gastro even worse. "Dialogue", a talk show much like Larry King Live (they even have the small round lights in the background), is not so much a debate, but a bunch of people attempting to understand what the other is trying to say.