Hello again
from the smoggy city of Tianjin! On a side note before I get into the meat of the
blog, thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes. It was so nice to hear from my family and
friends back home! I miss you all dearly and love you all very much! Thank you,
thank you, thank you!!!
Ok so
things have been pretty busy around here the last few weeks. Work is going
great and I even found a language exchange buddy whom I meet with on
Thursdays. I help her with English for
an hour which is fun because I know NOTHING about grammar and when she asks why
the word would and wood are spelled different but
pronounced the same, I get to smile and say say, “I dunno…it just is.” Yeah, I bet that really clears
things up for her…. In return I get an hour Chinese lesson, which is mostly me
asking how to say sentences vital to my existence, such as, “Please don’t talk
about me in Chinese while I’s standing next to you, because I understand and
it’s awkward.” “Where can I buy a screwdriver?” “Why are you so surprised I can
feed myself with chopsticks? I’m not impressed you can use a spoon…” “Do you
have these pants in a bigger size my? My American tushy doesn’t fit in a size
0!” and most importantly “Please don’t smoke in the elevator right next to the
clearly marked NO SMOKING sign. It forces me to suffocate for a 31 floor ride
down to ground level and therefor lowers my overall happy meter for the day.” Yey!
I am still on the lookout for
actual Chinese classes, but as it turns out there aren’t too many foreigners
here so it’s proving a bit more difficult than I imagined. I’ve also gotten the
chance to explore outside my neighborhood more, and am getting better oriented in
this decent sized city. The other day I
took a walk down to the river at night when it was all lit up and there were
people dancing and selling things and even a few older men fishing!! It was
pretty neat to see. It kind of made me
wish people did stuff like that back home, or maybe they do just not in Idaho
haha. Next time I won’t bring a purse
that I have to worry about so I can join in the fun!! Sorry the video is
sideways…I can’t for the life of me figure out how to rotate it, ugh technology. The weather is getting pretty hot but we have
the occasional rainstorm blow through just long enough to clear the air and
flood the streets for a day. It’s a real treat.
Also one of the girls at work asked
me over for lunch to her house the other day where her parents showed me how to
make dumplings and let me pick cucumbers in the garden!! Her Mom is a pro and
makes like two dumplings per second (exaggeration…sort of) and her Dad showed
me how to make picked cucumbers. Not
like we think of pickles, but still very delicious! It was a real hoot,
although turns out I have a lot of practicing to do before I can make pretty
dumplings…mine were more like dough blobs really. After lunch we just chatted and watched
Chinese Idol (Yes, it’s a real thing AND it is EXACTLY like American Idol…but I
don’t recognize the judges…dear God, what is this world coming to?!), and they
even sent some leftover dumplings home with me! What a treat!!
To add to
the fun, last week was my birthday and I had a great time!! I was given this
tiny cake and some other adorable gifts, including a doll, a mug with a Chihuahua
on it, and a monkey purse. I felt so
loved! On the Sunday after my birthday all the girls and I went out for a big hot
pot dinner (boiling pots of broth in which you cook meat and noodles and
veggies…so simple and so so good) at the mall to celebrate and I felt really
lucky to have such great co-workers and friends in my new city!!!
Although I
did not really celebrate Fourth of July this year (I know…shame on me!) I
received this picture of how Charlie spent his holiday. Such a great picture right!! Thanks a million
for getting this to me Angela, you’re the best doggie-sitter ever and I miss
you both!
Last but certainly not least, just
in case anyone is dying to be my pen pal, this is my mailing address here in
Tianjin (Yes it ALL has to go on the envelope and it’s probably just easier to
print it off and glue it on):
Madison
MacNichol
天津市南开区
北城街245号
吉的堡少儿英语
300000,
天津
中国
Tianjin
Nankai qu
Beichengjie
#245
Jidebao
shaor Yingyu
300000,
Tianjin
China
Also please don’t send much more than letters and absolutely
nothing of value. Mail customs has a
dirty little habit of opening foreign incoming packages, taking all the goodies
and forwarding the empty box to the recipient.
True story.
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