University of Tianjin

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Well, the best place to start a story is at the beginning. We got to the airport, 3 hours ahead of our scheduled departure time only to discover dad forgot we needed to get visas. To be able to leave on the next day’s flight, we left the airport. We thought we were going to take a taxi in, but fate had another plan for us. Instead of such limited-space type travel, a limo driver approached us. Not your typical limo driver. One that if he approached you on the street, which he did, your first thought would be bus driver. After a glance at each other and a “what the heck” we followed the bus driver to an old white limo that looked like some rock and rollers had rocked it and rolled it. Even still, he was charging the same amount as the taxi drivers, so we drove into NYC in a stretch limo to the Chinese Consulate. A horrible passport photo, 80 bucks a piece and 2 hours later, we were handed our permission to enter the country. China is one of the only countries you need a visa just to go visit. I guess they figured they’ve got enough people.

Heading for Penn Station, we caught the next Jersey Coast NJ Transit Line where I ran into Baca Poker of all people! Now there’s a blast from the past. It was a shame she was in a hurry because she’s been traveling the world too and I wanted to experience swap.

Because of this change of plans, I was lucky enough to now be able to go to my high school’s fall performance of Jack and Bean stock. Now when I saw lucky, I mean unlucky. I convinced one of my best friends Paul to sit through the first act with me. He had a date and I decided sitting 30 feet from an old piece of Styrofoam eating fried tofu was more stimulating. I did get to see one of our other best friends parents, chat with eight and half month pregnant Kasi Anne Sweeney, find out that a girl that I knew in high school had cancer and passed away while still having time to willingly approached my old director only to be ignored.

Waking up bright and early to drive 50 minutes to the airport to wait for a 4-hour delayed plane that would be followed immediately by a 13-hour flight and a 3-hour car trip was #1 on my “I want to do this” list. I always make sure to have one of those lists going at all times. What was actually quite a thrill, was flying straight north over Canada and up to the North Pole. Because of the earth’s rotation, it’s actually an hour and half faster to do it that way. Never thought of that. I got a real kick out of watching the screen in the isle show where it was day time and night time, where we were in relationship to land and the rest of the world and how cold it was right on the other side of the window I was leaning against.

I was conveniently positioned directly in front of Talladega Nights and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and conveniently located in front of me was a series of snacks and meals which included a choice between fish and steak. Not two things I would usually want to consume in airplane food fashion. Later, I was enlightened to the fact that there is something I would less like to eat on a plane. Around hour 10, the tall male flight attendant who had more than a silver spoon up his ass threw ice cream and cheeseburgers at whoever hadn’t miraculously been able to fall asleep. Cheeseburgers in plastic on a plane. What will humankind think of next?

When we landed in Beijing, we proceeded to the baggage claim and costumes area. I was saddened that there wasn’t an army of airport employees in red traditional clothing to help get bags off the carousel and to point you in the right direction like the Beijing Airport orientation video said there would be. I smiled when I thought of those helpers in the Newark airport. Ha. They wouldn’t last a New York minute. I felt like a celebrity when we walked into the area where friends and loved ones were picking up their friends and relatives. You’d think they’d never seen a person with blond hair in their lies. Everyone stopping, staring, waving. I guess that makes sense. If you’re gonna stare, you may as well wave. A little man with a Tianjin University Pennant and a sign saying “LOVE” waved us down and packed us into a car to travel another 3 hours to Tianjin University of Finance and Economics. It was more like 3.5 hours when you factored in the fog, which even at the slightest amount, everyone on the road slows down to about 20 miles an hour. 2 of these hours were spent in great need of a bathroom, much to my chagrin. When we arrived, we went straight to the Director of the Great Wall Program’s office, chatted with him and hit the sack.

The next morning we woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed (kind of) and ate a "western style breakfast. HA! Only a picture of this can do the sight justice. Soon after, we got
all dressed up and went to prepare for the graduation ceremony of the first class of the Great Wall program, which is a Business and Finance Master's program at the University. I sat in the front row, my dad on stage, because he was the commencement speaker. He made a great speech about how to be a professional in life and how that "condemns" you to be a student for life (sarcasm there). His secret to life and to make sure not to confuse a map with the territory was also included. Great speech. He really is as smart and genius like everyone says. The students all ADORED him. They all wanted their picture taken with him. Professor Shafa, President Jiang, and Vice President Yaing all LOVE him too. They keep trying to convince him to be a full-time professor, but that’s not happening. There’s no way he would leave the life he has in the US behind.

Professor Shafa is so intelligent. He’s the kind of guy you’d travel half way around the world to give a commencement speech to a class of 30 people for. He speaks pretty good English and can pick up two peanuts, tip to tip, at the same time with chopsticks. Vice President Yaing is some important member of the Communist Party. They all think he’s a spy. President Jiang doesn’t appear to speak English to the untrained eye, but every once and a while he was say something like “You like Chinese food?” or “So happy for your to be here.” He could get away with jumping up on a stage during a performance of Cats. He has a big round face and a smile that could melt ice. Our first full night in town, he took dad and me out to dinner at this HUGE restaurant in Tianjin
that was three stories high and had escalators. By the time we got up to the third floor, it looked like a hotel. Fancy ceiling lights in long corridors and shiny wallpaper on wall that were only interrupted by doors leading into private dining rooms. We ate with President Jiang and Vice President Ying, a translator and Grace around a HUGE round table with a lazy Susan in the middle! The food kept coming in and we kept eating as it came. A new dish would arrive and President Jiang would laugh, spin the lazy Susan toward him, take a big piece of whatever it was and put it on my dad’s plate on his right, then do the same for m plate on his left. The cook came in and carved the duck right in front of us. They take pride in the fact that they can cut the duck in a way that there is skin on every piece. Later on, because dad and I missed the live performance of music, President Jiang had three musicians come into the room and set up their instruments. They played 3 very beautiful traditional Chinese songs. On top of this amazing treat, he surprised us with presents. A clock that had a globe in the top of it for my dad and a silk scarf and canister of Green Tea for me!

This entire trip has made me want to take immaculate care of my body. My body is what carries around my eyes an my brain. I want it to do this job for as long as possible.

I've been taking pictures like a madwoman. Tianjin was foggy the whole time we were there, but from what I could tell, everything about it was huge, remote and under construction. The people here are like ants. Anywhere you wouldn't expect to see a person, you saw a person. Imagine driving down the Turnpike up by the airport. Add 100 old trucks that look like they're on their last leg carrying enough to fill 4 trucks while driving in every lane usually taking up 2 lanes, 50 bicycles and motorized carts in the right lane and widen the whole thing by 4 lanes and you have a typical highway here. The lines on the road are really just guidelines. No one really follows them. Oh and also, anywhere you look where there's a small patch of land next to a bridge or behind an exit sign, there’s a person there too. Out in the middle of nowhere, where you haven't seen a building or any signs of life, a person in a dust mask will show up out of the mist brushing the side of the road with a broom made out of straw.
The radio makes the same sounds it does in the US when a cell phone is about to ring, whish is all the time. On our car trips to and from the Great Wall, to and from Beijing, at lunch, dinner, in the restroom, everywhere, everyone we were with’s cell phones were constantly ringing. Each one framed by a “Nihau” and a “Sheishei”. The signs on the side of the road say things in Chinese and sometimes things in English. “Don’t try driving tiredly” and pictures of giraffes in the backs of trucks with Asian eyes saying “Don’t exceed max height” were amongst the more popular signs.

I give props to anyone in China brave enough to ride a bike on these streets. All of the car's front door windows are tinted, so you can’t see if anyone sees you and everyone, whether in a car, on a bike or walking thinks they are the only ones on the road. The traffic lights are light-bars of green and red that slowly gets shorter and shorter to designate when the light is going to change. Oh, and make sure to have a pack of tissues with you wherever you go, because all of the toilets are holes in the ground with no toilet paper.

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Photos

Me and the Prez
This is the President of the University of Tianjin. He doesn't speak a word of English

Professor Shafa
this is Shafa eating some sort of leaf thing. I said I'd eat it if he did.

Art Student Reproduction class
There were about 10 art students in this room copying famous paintings dot for dot

Private Music
the Prez orginized a private performance of traditional music

"Western Breakfast"
Their idea of a "Western Breakfast"...