Thursday, October 2, 2008

Getting settled in Calcutta

I was only home to visit in the US for about a month. I came to Calcutta on September 16th and I'm slowly adjusting to a new city and a new way of life. After a few days in a bad housing situation (I was living as a paying guest in a family's home) I now a nice little studio apartment in a good location. My apartment was literally a studio. The owner is a photographer and there's still some photography equipment in the corner and the backgrounds are rolled up and hung at the ceiling.

I'm taking Bengali classes twice a week at a cultural institute called Ramakrishna Mission. Classes are good but I need to find a tutor and another job or volunteer op in my free time. I've got way to much free time now.

The best part about being in Calcutta is Bengali food. It's supposedly the best food in India. And I loved Indian food to begin with. I'm hoping to learn to cook some Indian dishes myself but I haven't had a chance to go to the market yet or find a good teacher.

I will update more as I get a chance and once I get internet access in my apartment I plan to write much more. In the meantime know that I'm safe and sound here and slowly getting settled into life in Calcutta.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I've updated. I'm back in the US now. I've been here for the past few weeks and it is really nice to see family and friends again. Plus, I got here just in time to experience the famous Grange Fair. It was the height of my excitement as a child but now its just a place to run into people I used to know and eat lots of fried foods.

In one week a new era for my little blog is about to begin. I'm moving to Calcutta, India to study Bengali! It will be quite an experience I' sure and I'll try my best to update this blog with stories about what I'm up to and what I've seen and experienced.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Return to PA

My job finished July 16 so I will be returning to PA August 19. I just wanted to update all of you.

I'll be home at least a month before I head off to Calcutta, India to study Bengali. That's the language my boyfriend and his family speak.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Did you know you MAKE it rain?

Well, apparently in China the gov. can make it rain! Or at least that's what everybody's been saying. Apparently they've been spraying some sort of chemicals into the air above the city to make it rain on appointed days. Creepy huh?

Looking at the weather forecast for Tianjin you'll see that it is to be 0% chance of rain all week then 100% chance on some random day. That's the chosen day!

I guess the purpose is to clear the dust out of the city and help with pollution before the Olympics. And the closer we get to the start of the Olympics, the more often it rains. I sure don't remember it raining this much last year.... I hope these crazy rain stories are just some big conspiracy theory but who knows. In this country, anything could happen.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Gymnastics World Cup

I went to see the gymnastics World Cup last week. Tianjin hosted it and I've wanted to see a big gymnastics meet like this since I was little. The even ran into the director of the whole thing at Rajdeep's restaurant during the 3 hour break between finals. He said the US wasn't there because they were too busy preparing for the Olympics. China cleaned up on most of the events. Especially Chang Fei. I bet she'll win a few medals at the Olympics this August. The North Korean gymnasts were especially small. I wonder if that is because of hard living conditions or genetics.

I made signs to cheer on China. The other side says 加油!(go!)

Cheng Fei on beam. She looks 10 years old but she's probably 20.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Earthquake

Hi everyone. Just to let you know, the big earthquake that hit southcentral China did not really affect where I am. I'm hearing that thousands are dead and the shocks of the earthquake were felt all over the country and bordering countries. But there was no damage. I didn't even realize anything happened until I saw it on the news.

So no worries, all is fine!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

My Grade 3 Students

I took my camera to school to get a few pics of my classes. I actually forgot to take it to all my classes but I did take it along to my grade 3 class. These are my cutest kids too and they are by no means camera-shy!

This is my grade 3 class. Can you guess which group are the little angels and which ones are the trouble makers?


Well, Jimmy was camera shy.


A few of the girls. Babara (no, not Barbara) the one in pink, wears those pearls every day. She's so cute but oh so temperamental.



Jerry is my favorite! I love his rosy cheeks.


And these three are the biggest mischiefs in the class.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

If you crash, they will come

Chinese people are the most curious people I have ever encountered. That's not curious in the sense of interesting (although they surely are), I mean they are snoopy. They like to have their noses in everything, especially if it doesn't concern them. Let's take a car crash as an example.

I've had the opportunity many times to witness how passersby react at the scene of a car crash. They flock towards the action. You could have a crash in the middle of nowhere and within an instant you'd have a herd of spectators crowding around to assess the damage for themselves. I just happened to be walking by this quiet intersection in Tianjin the other day and I saw a car bump into a motorcart. There are three rules in China when you have an accident:

1. Do not move your vehicles from the crime scene. Not even a foot to let other traffic by. - I once saw a bus knock a bicycle over. The bus had been crossing 3 lanes of traffic at a diagonal and would not move, therefore blocking 3 lanes of rush hour traffic. genius

2. Shout loudly and insist that the accident was the other driver's fault (even if it was yours)

3. Always call the police. (you're supposed to) unless it is clearly your fault then haggle with the other driver about compensation, shell out some cash, and rush off.

So this car/motorcart accident I saw amounted to no more than a small scratch on the van and it could have been dealt with in a few minutes but...
The police and some curious onlookers arrive.


Then there were more. I don't even know where the guy with the hard hat came from.

Anyway, I think its interesting that so many people are interested in other people's affairs. In the end, I'm just like them though. After all, I was standing there watching and taking photos too!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Sunday Out

Hi everyone. Keep commenting, I really enjoy hearing from all of you. Problem is I (yet again) can't access the page where I can reply to your comments. That doesn't mean I'm not seeing what you write though!
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Today was a beautiful Sunday in Tianjin so I got off my lazy butt and took the bus to a coffee shop where I studied Bengali for a while and then met up with a few friends and walked to a big book store. It's really big - 6 floors. But only 1/4 of one floor has English books. Anyway, here are a few photos from my day.

The first one here is my apartment area. Lovely little yu shui yuan (jade water garden). Lots of Koreans and some Japanese live here. Still, I feel like the only foreigner.


Below here is the canal that separates my housing area from downtown Tianjin. The air is noticeably cleaner where I live. Don't judge by the picture - I changed the colors on the photo. This city does have a little color :)


The third photo here is quite random really. As I was walking to the bus stop I passed a group of workers who were digging up trees and replanting them along the sidewalk. I don't know what was wrong with the original trees but I guess it gives these guys work. They're probably getting paid about 600yuan a month (around $90 a month).

Last is the cover of a Chinese textbook my friend and I were checking out. I think a better title would be "Upper Intermediate" but we found their translation of "Quasi Advanced" a little more amusing.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

End of winter vacation

Well sadly my long winter vacation is about to come to an end. I've had over a month and a half off and it was wonderful. After traveling with my sister and brother-in-law, I still had a month of idleness. I made use of my time by going to the gym and studying Bengali like there's no tomorrow. Here are just a few photos from my break.

To the right is a photo on the ice at the Tianjin TV tower, Tianjin's one and only landmark. Left to right: my friends Robin, Sudev, and Sumanta. You could rent skates or these little sleds on runners that you sit on and push yourself around with long picks. We just walked around since the ice seemed too bumpy and skate rental seemed a little pricy (20 yuan per person! - $2.50)






Left is Rajdeep checking out the skates.








The two photos below are from Valentine's Day. I had never actually celebrated it before, and doing so in China was something special in itself.

























Last but not least, Chef Lyndsey. Like the apron? It's the year of the rat folks.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Spring Festival

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

The New Year was on February 7. On the eve of the new year everybody, including small children who should be nowhere near explosives, goes out to a fireworks stand to load up for the big night. You can get anything from sparklers to industrial sized stadium show fireworks. At midnight on the eve of the new year everyone goes out in front of their apartment gate to set them off. I guess the idea is that on the eve of the new year the evil spirits come to earth and the firecrackers help to scare them away.

So this New Years Eve I loaded my bicycle basket up with a long chain of firecrackers, rockets, and the like and road to Rajdeep's apartment. We set them off outside his apartment gate (not that I really believe evil spirits were going to get us but, better to be safe right?) then we road to our friends' place on the 21st floor of an apartment building - a great place to look down over Tianjin and watch the fireworks madness. We got to their apartment just around midnight and I swear every Chinese person was out in the streets with firecrackers in hand.

There wasn't a second of silence - fireworks filled the sky and the deafening sound of thousands of simultaneous firecrackers being set off was almost unbearable. They were setting these things off in the middle of the street even as cars drove by. ... the view of all this from my friends' flat was really wonderful. It was like a very colorful doomsday.

Well, 5 days later and the fireworks are still going off every second. My crazy neighbors seem to find if necessary to set off long chains of firecrackers outside my apartment building all night long, every hour on the hour. They begin at 4am and continue until about 9am. EVERY NIGHT!! I'm going insane. I can't hear myself think. I can't even hear my TV with the volume on high! I thought of calling the police last night but then, what's the point? This is a national holiday. Everyone is setting off firecrackers. Heck, it's probably the police who are setting those things off outside my window!

The lesson here folks is that, Chinese New Year may sound like an exciting holiday but do yourself a favor and never, NEVER come to China at this time of year! I'll try to get some photos of the fireworks salesmen but I haven't had a chance yet.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Winter Vacation

Sorry folks. I know it has been awhile since my last entry, so here's a long overdue post...

I'm now halfway through my contract working at the Korean International School here in Tianjin. The first semester went pretty well. This was my first teaching job where I didn't rotate schools. That made it nice because I got to teach and get to know the same students, unlike my old teaching jobs where it was hard for me to remember my students' names because I taught over 600 at 4 different schools. Plus it's nice to have my own office space. It's nice to be permanent.

I'm also halfway through my winter vacation which started in the beginning of January. One of the perks of teaching at an international school is that you get 2 months vacation in Jan. and Feb. Sounds nice right? Well the first few weeks were great. I got to relax, my sister and brother-in-law came to visit, and then I got to relax some more, and more, and more. Well I'm quite frankly tired of relaxing. I don't want to do the whole 'tour around southeast asia tour' that a lot of other westerners do here. I don't want to spend so much money. So, I'm stuck here in Tianjin doing nothing all day.

I've been trying my best to keep myself busy by studying Bengali (my boyfriend, Rajdeep, is from Assam in northeast India) and going to the gym. I admit though that all this time off has forced me to develop an addiction to dvds.

Here's a photo of Rajdeep and I. He's executive chef at an Indian restaurant here in Tianjin.

Erin, my sister, and her husband Curt came to visit from January 15 - 24. It was a pretty short trip so we packed a lot in. Here are a few photos of the places we visited. First off, I met them at the Beijing airport and we took the bus (2.5 hours) back to Tianjin.

First we took a trip to Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin. You can find any kind of traditional Chinese arts, crafts, snacks, etc here. The red lanterns and red paper cuts you see are being sold in fullforce for the Chinese New Year which is coming up on Feb. 7.

The next day we (Erin, Curt, Rajdeep, and I) hired a car that drove us to the Tianjin section of the Great wall at Huangyaguan (yellow cliff pass). It was a long drive and the outskirts of Tianjin which we drove past were pretty much a barren wasteland. But the wall was awesome and a nice break from the city.

This section of the wall is in good condition and supposedly hasn't been reconstructed like the sections around Beijing that most tourists go to. We were literally the only people there. It was all up and down, with lots of steps and steep hills.

The next morning the three of us, as well as two friends from my work, went to Tianjin airport for our flight to Harbin, a city in the far northeast of China that's famous for its snow and ice festival. The airline we flew on was called Okay Airline (just OK?). Why couldn't they have called it something like Excellent Air, or Great Air, or something more reassuring...? Well we got onto the plane and just before takeoff smoke started coming out of the vents and all the passengers started freaking out and jumping out of their seats. Turns out they just forgot to close the vents while de-icing the plane. Nothing for us to worry about, but they sure didn't do a good job calming Erin down. She was freaked out and thank God she didn't jump ship.

Harbin was FREEZING COLD! It was around -30c everyday. Here are a few photos of the snow and ice festival in Harbin. It was really amazing. Although I got frostbite every time I stepped outside, I really enjoyed it!




More stories and photos from the rest of the trip to follow!