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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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.