Blogs from Tianjin, China, Asia - page 11

I got my haircut last week. My hairstylist was your typical urban Chinese boy. He was hip, and urban cool. He wore dark wash jeans and a chain wallet. He had a big leather collar on his wrist. He also had a hat on that said, "Fuck In A Box". I didn't mean to drop a F-bomb on you all. But I can only be honest in recording my experience. Forgive me. I asked my Chinese partner to ask the hairstylist if he knew what it meant. She giggled and said that everyone here watched American TV, so he probably did. She never asked. It's been about 4 days. I still have the strong desire to walk back to that shop and tell him to never, ever, ever, ever wear that in the USA if he ... read more

First day of lectures today. We talked about religion, philosophy, and cultural influences on China. Then we covered about 5000 years of Chinese history. It only took six hours. I think information started spilling out of my ears. We have different lecturers everyday. A lot of them have worked for USF at one point as a guest professor. If you ever wondered what a classroom looks like at a Chinese University, I can tell you it looks exactly like a classroom at an American University. But they write in Chinese! And look, they don't eat dogs here! They have them for pets! During our lu... read more

When I did my study abroad orientation workshop at USF, they explained that we may experience an inverted version of homesickness when we came back home. Apparently many students (especially in China) get quite a bit of attention while they are abroad, and they experience a...euphoria at their new celebrity like status. I laughed it off. Tianjin has 14 million inhabitants. Nankai University has about 23,000 students not including the internationals who come to study each year. This is the Princeton or Yale of the Orient. This is the University that attracts renowned people from around the world. They have a Mormon Chinese Classic professor here for christ's sake. Oh and did I mention that one block away there's a whole other University? I'm just a drop in the bucket. No one will notice me. And ... read more

We had the day off to roam around Tianjin. And roam we did. While attempting to set up my internet connection last night, I realized that my ethernet port was broken on my laptop. Have you ever tried to explain broken computer parts to a shopkeeper in a foreign language? I snapped back into Mandarin mode real quick after that. I think I've become the unofficial translator of our group. My qualifications include two years of sleeping through Chinese class in college. My poor classmates... On the other hand, the locals are enamored by my attempts at communication. Everyone from the computer guy to the owner of the dumpling shop has been incredibly nice to me so far. That was the most surprising part. I expected to the stereotypical huffy "couldn't give you the time of ... read more

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with food. I'm Cantonese, there's no escaping it. There's nothing my family loves more than eating. Family vacation destinations were chosen based upon the region's cuisine selection. It was only in recent years that I realized some people travel to tourist destinations to sight see....gasp, gasp. That was a serious revelation to me. And there's nothing more exciting to a Cantonese person than Chinese food. So you know that you will see lots of pictures of food here right? Right. Last night the very kind staff at the University cafeteria made this for us. The staff stayed well past midnight waiting for our bus to arrive and serving our meal! It was the perfect meal after a long day of travel. Light, comforting, and the soup warmed ... read more