Thesis project!

I actually started writing my thesis today- I have about 500 words in a document! I met with my mentor on Monday and he urged me to take my timeline seriously. That, in addition to being finished with all of the pre-project paperwork, has jump-started my efforts. I organized my thoughts and goals and will easily have a fifteen page paper in a month or two, which with feedback should grow to the twenty or thirty pages it needs to be. As long as I keep plugging away!

It is, however, rather challenging to write easily comprehensible things about things about the way that policy happens in China. The book I am reading at the moment (by which I mean: it is sitting next to be in my chair at Capanna's Coffee and Gelato) says that, "China's environmental laws are general and often intentionally ambiguous" and also that the relationships between the three main policy-making entities (the Chinese Communist Party, the State Council, and the National People's Congress) are "not clearly defined- either formally or informally." Ah, well.

The book is also careful to note, however, that although many Westerners believe policy-making in China to be rigidly top-down, with decisions strictly enforced from above, regulation can definitely be influenced by regional and local entities. So, ambiguous, but not hopeless.

I feel I must remind you that you were warned this blog would be boring until I actually leave the country.