China

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We made it! After a super long flight (two layovers) we arrived in the Beijing. As we collected our luggage, Kohle and I put on our party hats (there were still 13 minutes left of Anna's birthday) and headed through immigration. After causing a scene in the airport we hopped in a taxi, beer in hand, and were off to Tianjin (the city Anna has been teaching in for the past 5 months. After a 3 hour cab ride, we headed to bed after a chat with John. While Anna was back at school Monday, Kohle and I were off to explore. We walked for hours, taking in the sights and trying not to be hit by cars, people, and mopeds. While this is considered to be a less busy Chinese city, it is still complete mayhem to us. After some failed attempts at getting into some buildings (we are yet to master rotating doors)we were feeling very adventurous and decided to get a foot massage. It was one of the creepiest experiences of our lives. My masseuse was young and sweet. Kohle's, on the other hand, was a middle aged man who insisted on making eye contact the whole 80 minutes and resting his jewels on her shoulder. After Anna got off work we went to very authentic chinese soup place where you grab a tupperware tub and pick from a bookshelf filled with veggies, mystery meats and spices and take it to the man standing beside the burner outside. The food was pretty good and only cost 12RBM ($2CAD). We've spent the past couple days here exploring in the day and checking out different restaurants and markets after work with Anna. On tuesday we went to Anna's class. The kids were hilarious. Let's start with some names: Cinderells, Zero, Wind, Bond (after James Bond), Moon, and many more. Anna asked the class to introduce themselves and tell us something interesting. One student said, "my name in Ariel and miss Anna told us you were smart and pretty.. and I a say it is a facta" (we liked her). The kids were so cute and funny! Last night Anna and John's Chinese friend, Edward, came over, along with 10 of the Canadian teachers they work with, and taught us how to make dumplings. We had a blast. Two of the teachers were from Nanaimo and graduated from Mal the same year as Kohle and I (small world). We are off to Beijing Saturday morning with Anna for some shopping, exploring, and maybe a few beers...

Kristen

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Photos

happy birthday!
aww... girlsuhh!! So happy to meet you here in China :) They met me with BDAY hats- 13 minutes left!

Anna's kids
A few of Anna's students :)

ha- teaching. sort of
Anna and Wind... "you see Wind...its like this..." HA.

dumpling party
Edward taught us to make dumplings.... mmm. yum.

Comments

[Mike]

Travel
Sounds like an adventure, enjoy. Dad. (oh, Kohle's Dad)

[anonymous]

I' m so happy you have a blog, now I can stalk you!!!!!! yayyyy. Ps, keep the massage stories coming, pure gold!!

[Emily]

that last message was from me, I just forgot to put my name on it, oops!

[michelle]

Off to a good start
Kohle, You guys seem to be having a great start to your trip. I gave Olivia one of your foot massages (sans the jewels, didn't know that part yet/not sure I will be sharing that w/ O)...I kept yarding on her arm and staring deep into her eyes as I did it. We both had quite laugh. m