Blogs from Tianjin, China, Asia - page 21

My Biggest Workout Since Landing in China Well Friday rolls around, I'm tired from a week's work, tense from sporting my backpack daily, and well, I think still full of kinks from the 16 hours on an airplane a month or so ago. It was time for my first massage. Yvonne (another teacher at the school) brought Shelby and I to her favourite masseuse. This is not like any massage I have ever had. It was fantastic but not relaxing. She was working out my knots with her elbow. Karate Chopping my back. At one point she had me on a stool, with my hands behind my head, with her back to me, she locked her arms through mine, bent over and lifted me right off the stool. While parts were...painful, most of the time ... read more

This time I will chronicle a few of the adventures of the past week. We will have a blog about school life soon. I am trying to keep everyone happy by balancing adventure blogs with daily life blogs. It should however be noted, that since moving here, our daily life and mundane tasks have all become mini-adventures. Our trip into Tianjin On Saturday August 18th, "the group" decided to take the light rail into Tianjin proper (Teda being more of a suburb). Luckily Xin, the new math teacher, joined us. Xin grew up in Tanggu (next door to Teda), moved to Canada in 1996, and was convinced by our principal to come back to teach at Teda International. I should think the benefits of having Xin along should therefore be quite clear. For instance, even with ... read more

Hello and big hugs to everyone. We have arrived safe and sound in China. It has been quite the adventure already. We boarded the airplane full of excitement. We were seated beside a very sweet older chinese lady, whose English was barely better than our Mandarin. She immediately wanted to make conversation and try to help us learn her language. The plane was huge, and had all the bells and whistles. Our seats had been changed to those by the emergency exits so we had extra leg room. Everything was great. We pulled off to the runway and turned back. There was possibly a problem with the fuel pump. By the time they fixed that, they had to get another pilot and change half the flight crew and get them all entry visas. So we should ... read more

url='/Videos/4197.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4197.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'And the crowd goes wild!url='/Videos/4198.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4198.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Boogie nights in Tianjin IMPORTANT NOTE: There are many fresh pics and a couple of videos on this entry to check-out!!!!! DAY 1 Saturday was our first full day in China. I wrote about our breakfast and bike ride in "...and then we were in China...", so let's pick up after that. I'm starting to appreciate the way this trip is beginning. Instead of hitting it full-on and trying to see every single thing I can on the tourist radar, we're sort of easing into it. Spending most of the first week of this trip in Tianjin is helping me get a feel for how things work here. Plus, we're doing things we would never be able to do on a typical tourist traj... read more

Woensdag 4 juli. Vanmorgen hebben we in ons hotel een westers ontbijt genomen. ’t Is erg lekker en overvloedig: brood, koffie, thee, confituur, ei, … We zijn een dag langer in Huangyaguan gebleven. De locatie is goed en na de verhuis van kamer, is deze ook Oké. We hebben een mooi binnenpleintje tussen de paviljoenen. De kamermeisjes (of gangmeisjes) zijn vriendelijk maar eerder lui. We bezoeken vandaag de Oostelijke Qing graven. Hier liggen keizers, keizerinnen en concubines begraven. Er zijn in totaal 5 keizersgraven. Dit is het grootste antieke complex van China, dat bewaard is. Het vervoer gebeurt vandaag met een minibus. Bij het onthaal van het hotel wordt alles geregeld. Wim vindt de prijs schappelijk. Een uurtje rijden en we zijn er. Om 15uur komt de taxi ons weer oppikken. Het complex is zeer groot ... read more