(Written DAYS ago, but I post now.)
The plane trip was pretty nice. I kept falling asleep. (I had had about 5 complete hours of sleep between my two last nights in Ohio.) When I sat in my plane seat my eyes began to close almost immediately.
The people I sat next to were quite pleasant and were heading over to adopt a boy.
When I exited the airport – HUMIDITY! as I have never known. (I am all right with it. Everyone sweats – so it doesn’t matter if you also show signs of being wet.)
I have always wanted a ‘fro.
Didn’t know I would get one in China.
(Though, I must say that the rain and sweat do push it down.)
My first day here I got a bike. (Everyone kept telling me I was brave and/or that they were “amazed”.) I guess most new people don’t buy bikes until they have been here for awhile. I don’t think mine was an act of bravery, but perhaps an act of ignorance. (I had not yet ridden in a taxi.)
The Tianjin people see foreigners all the time and so I get stared at, but no one has yet asked for my picture or tried to touch my hair. Too bad. (haha – Though my incomplete phrase is not sarcasm.)
I am really enjoying the people. I had a GREAT interaction (through the interpretation of a lady named Wei Wei,) with a taxi driver. He was asking me if I was a student or teacher, if I was married, if I would stay in China longer than two years, if I would go back to the US get a husband and then return to China, if I would marry a Chinese boy, and if I missed home.
He liked my smile and laughter. I liked HIS smile and laughter! He kept looking at me in his rearview mirror, smiling with a tooth-missing grin.
I also really enjoy the Tianjin accent. (If I can even say that I know what it is.) My taxi driver told me I couldn’t learn Mandarin from him because of his Tianjin accent. When we exited the taxi he turned around to say goodbye. I thanked him in Mandarin (xie xie) and made sure to smile big. How pleasant.
I REALLY want to speak. When I am around Chinese speakers for lengths of time I start adjusting to the pattern of their speech. Once, after having been with only Mandarin-talkers for awhile, I entered a building, heard a Chinese conversation taking place and nearly blurted out sounds that were my concept of the Mandarin I had been listening to.
I laughed SO HARD at myself (inside my head). What was I going to say to those people?! “Goo bwah ee saw”? It would only be gibberish IF anything came. (Which I am thankful nothing escaped my lips.)
All that to say – my brain is ready to GO!
The pollution is not as thick as I was expecting. (As I look out the window…yes…the clouds of smog are thick, but I can breathe.)
When I first arrived my lungs did have a bit of trouble adjusting.
It is strange to go into public places and smokers are there. That gives my lungs (and then my head,) some trouble.
The second and third day I was here there were BEAUTIFUL blue skies. I went out and rode my bike. GREAT!
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