Tianjin

So it appears my drifting day are over for the time being. I am officially settled in Tianjin for the next 11 months. Yahoo! No more suitcase livin’ for me! For the first time ever, I am the owner of an apartment lease for which I pay rent monthly and an am required to maintain. I feel so…grown up! My apartment is a little studio on the 31st floor of a newer building in an older part of town, which is great because I can take advantage of the more traditional Chinese lifestyle and air conditioning simultaneously.  My neighbors are a lovely couple who have a small daughter who plays the recorder…every morning…at 6am. I’m not complaining really. She’s pretty good and it’s a much better sound to wake up to than an alarm clock. Yes, I am very pleased at my new spoiled position.

As for the city itself, I am happy/relieved to report Tianjin is right up my ally as far as cities goes. Despite its 11 million inhabitants, Tianjin somehow maintains the local charm that I was craving in Shanghai and unable to find. The city was divvied up into countless foreign concessions back in the day, so each little sector is really a city of it’s own with it’s own personality and architecture.

There are only three subway lines (opposed to Shanghai’s miserable sixteen) which I rarely use as my work is a 20min walk from my building. I also found myself a swell little gym down the street complete with spin bikes, treadmills and a pool! Surely you can imagine my excitement. And to top it off, right across the street is a wonderful open-air produce market where I can buy pretty much anything that grows in the ground. To be honest, I doubt I’ll ever buy veggies in a supermarket again! Although the fact of the matter is I rarely need to buy groceries because my neighborhood has a plethora of delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurants of which I have become a regular. At 7-12 Yuan/meal ($1-$1.50), most days it’s just more economical to eat out! Plus, if I ever get a hankering for western food, there is also a mall about two blocks away that has a Tex-Mex restaurant, a Cold Stone Creamery, a Subway, and a foreign grocery store where I can buy cheese and skim milk. What else could a girl want really! (The photo is of the other Kid Castle foreign teachers and I out for Tex-Mex. My tacos were satisfactory ;)

As for the city itself, it has a good vibe. A river runs through the middle (a not disgustingly polluted river might I add) where people take ferryboat cruises at night when the city is all lit up. The river also has a great promenade on both sides making for a lovely evening stroll (minus the mosquitos). Sadly the proximity to Beijing makes for less than desirable air quality. Some days I think I would be better off smoking cigarettes rather than breathing the air. At least cigarettes have filters, but I suppose I can’t have my cake and eat it too. I figure I’ll take the hit for bad air to live in a cool place…for now.

The local food is delicious and nearly every restaurant has vinegar and chili sauce on the tables, which is always a good sign in my book. Tianjin is mostly famous for it’s variety of yummy street snacks. They mostly seem to be some variety of fried dough and meat, so I usually stick to noodles or rice instead. Steamed buns and dumplings are also everywhere and I must say, Silk Soy Milk ‘aint got nothing on the soy milk here which they make fresh on the streets in huge bubbling pots for about $0.20 a cup. Needless to say, I’m not starving by any means. J

Work is also going really great! Kid Castle only has three branches in Tianjin (Shanghai had a night-mareish thirty seven to make a comparison) and I am the only foreign teacher at my school. It is a hoot because all the Chinese teachers are women and we just have a ball together and I feel extremely lucky to have such a friendly work environment. My classes great with the exception of one very naught bunch on Friday evenings, but I’ll whip ‘em into shape soon enough…maybe… The younger ones are sickeningly adorable and last week I was given a drawing of Hello Kitty by a 4 year old. My heart melted.

Also I recently made a trip to IKEA to get a few things for my new place with my co-worker Rena. We had a blast goofing around in the display rooms and I bought a few houseplants with the hope that they would clean the air in my room. We’ll see. Meanwhile this is what I’m missing out on in Idaho…awww, what a cutie! Well I think that’s all to report for now! I miss you all tons and hope everything is a wonderful as you want it to be! xoxoxoxo