A Bridge (not) Too Far, after all

Came to China thinking that I would not tolerate any copy write infringement. That didn't last past the first week or I would have been on the next plane home.  Then saw that even my England-based university looked the other way as students copied U.K. books for each other.

Today I, personally, went to the copy shop with an original text and ordered 20 copies for my students.  I know it's not like I'm a chemistry teacher cooking meth, but I did feel a twinge of guilt.  (Oh, now it's gone.)

On top of that, I broke down and bought over-the-counter penicillin from the pharmacy across the street for a respiratory infection. That's something else I used to personally object to.  What's next?  Spitting inside the gym while playing badminton and smoking a cigarette?  Public urination and homicidal driving habits? 

I did the same thing this year. The original American text was over $100. No way was the school going to pay for 35 kids to buy a textbook from America to the tune of 600 some odd RMB each, not to mention shipping time and costs. I once asked a school to order me a textbook from the States and the thing finally showed up around May. 

When possible I do try to use books that are available on Amazon.cn, because a lot is available now that you couldn't get here before (Cenage has some good international editions that are expensive but not jaw-droppingly so) but sometimes the copy shop is a necessary evil.