A Weekend of Firsts

1. First overnight guest.

My dearest friend Bethany came to visit before she had to fly back to America.

It was the most wonderful Friday in the history of ever.

2. First night intentionally staying up past 10pm. 

It was very hard getting up after only 3 hours of sleep, but it was so worth it.

3. First time a Chinese taxi driver has ever good naturedly/sarcastically joked with me/us in Chinese.

He told Bethany 别回来。中国不要你。(Don't come back. China doesn't want you) as we were exiting the taxi at the subway station.  This was after we had told him how she was going back to America today, but really hoped to come back to China.  (It was quite obviously a joke.  Don't worry.  Everyone was smiling and laughing. :) )

4. First time riding the subway in Tianjin.  

Subway Selfie

5. First time sending someone off at the Tianjin West Train Station

6. First time riding the Tianjin subway by myself!  

And first time EVER seeing a metro station in China with this few people

7. First time eating 煎饼果子 (jian1 bing guo3 zi), a thin pancake with egg, green onions, cilantro, spices, and a guo3 zi (a fried dough twisty thing).  It's a Tianjin breakfast specialty.  And it's delicious.

A tiny piece of the guo3 zi

What was left of my jian1 bing by the time I got home

8. First time problem solving my way into having 2 yuan to take the bus.  

I proudly bought my jian1 bing with exact change.  Which meant my smallest bill was a 5.  Oops.  

So I wandered until I found a small market that sold my favorite cold drink.

Bing1 hong2 cha2: Iced tea = 3 yuan

9. First time finding and taking the bus in Tianjin by myself!  Huge thanks to the PandaBus app.

And only my second time taking a bus in Tianjin.  

So I now know of 2 different bus lines that go back to my apartment complex:

857 and 703

10. First time having a lengthy conversation with a Chinese gentleman after getting off a bus at the same stop.

He taught me how to say his teaching subject: Economic Management 经济管理  (jing1ji4 guan1li3).

I taught him about Claude Debussy.

Otherwise we both completely understood each other.

It was all in Chinese.

It was awesome.

11. First time taking a nap at 10am because tonight will be my...

12. First time going to an all company dinner/gathering!

I hope your weekend is full of joyful adventures too!

Thankful

In the spirit of transparency, honesty, and vulnerability, I want to share this with you.  Today started off as "one of those days".  The kind where I found myself crying at my kitchen sink at 6:30 am while preparing my lunch. 

Nothing huge had occurred to upset me.  It was just a build up of little, seemingly unimportant things. 

Like how there were 10 little fruit flies hanging out on the wall behind my sink.  And flying into my hair.
Or the feathers covering my living room floor that had come out of my couch cushions two days prior when I took off the covers to wash, and had had absolutely no energy to sweep up. 
Or the couch cushion cover zipper that broke when I tried to put the clean cover back on. 
Or my stomach that has just not been feeling normal for days. 
Or my 2nd grade class the day before that went HORRIBLY
Or my feelings of loneliness at school while I get used to my teaching schedule and the long lengths of time where I do not teach, or see another human being, and sit and work in my freezing cold classroom by myself.
Or the all-Chinese text message from my phone company that when run through Google translate seemed to be saying I owed 600 yuan in overages.  Which made no sense.
Or the fact that my cellphone said it had no service/network.  Which made me think my cell service had been shut off.

So in order to combat all of these tiny little negatives weighing me down, I decided (after some more crying, and lots of caring, praying friends) to focus on the things I'm thankful for.  So here goes:

1. The many friends who saw me in my sadness and talked to me and prayed with me throughout the day
2.  The 2nd grade class that went really well today
3. My 5th graders (half of whom are boys), who when told they could sing higher and better than they were, actually listened, tried, and succeeded at singing higher and better
4. The chance to help out the secondary choral teacher make recordings of voice parts for practice tracks of some really awesome pieces of choral music.
5. A conversation in Chinese with the fantastic, joyful woman who cleans the music wing.
6. Catching the 3:30 bus after school to make it home by 4.
7. A cool breeze to walk home in.
8. Almost blue skies

 9. Yummy cold noodles from a street vendor: 5 yuan, or $0.82.  Take that, Dollar Menu

 10. This view while I ate my noodles.  And the open doors and windows to let in a breeze instead of using the A/C

 11. Being able to walk to go buy groceries
12. Making salad with chicken, fresh veggies, and a yogurt-dill dressing for super cheap.  I've now bought and cooked chicken the same number of times as the last time I lived in China (that was for a whole year).  Chicken is just more readily available here in Tianjin in ways I feel safe purchasing it.

 13. Finally finding and buying tape so I can put up things on my walls.

 14. Finally getting the paper for my thankfulness poster so I can remember to be thankful each day before I leave the house.

Rejoice Always, Pray Without Ceasing, Give Thanks in All Circumstances

What are you thankful for today?

Destiny

I almost didn't leave my apartment this afternoon.

My apartment is nice and cool and air conditioned.  Outside is crazy hot with the most stifling humidity I have ever experienced.

But I needed vegetables and things with which to make dinner, so I unwillingly stepped out of my apartment and made the 10 minute walk to the Family Center grocery store.  I am so glad I did.

Because I left my apartment I:
1. Got to chat with a couple from my company for a few minutes
2. Picked out some fresh veggies at the market
3. Literally almost cried in front of the milk section because the milk I bought 1 week ago is apparently no longer carried, and I didn't know what to do (not everything can be positive...)
4. Got some advice on which rice to purchase from a British person (I still didn't buy rice, though, as I want more advice from people in my company.)

All the rice options...

5. Successfully purchased my groceries
6. Bought a hot water kettle from the local hardware/housewares store
7. Chatted in Chinese with the lovely man who runs said housewares store
8. Learned the words for latitude and longitude in Chinese from said man. (They're Wei3 Du4, and Jing1 Du4 if you're interested)
9. Got to chat with another couple from my company for a few minutes
10. Struck up a wonderful conversation in Chinese with a young woman and her mother over the young woman's adorable 1 year old girl (see more below the pictures)
                 AND.......
11. Made my first real dinner in my apartment

Dough for my tortillas

Veggies and eggs for inside the tortillas

Homemade tortillas

My dinner

More about number 10.  I almost passed these people by with no more than a wave.  But they were trying to get the cute little girl to say hello to her Ayi (auntie), a.k.a. me.  I felt compelled to stay and talk with them a little, so I asked them how old she was and this started a conversation about where I'm from and what I'm doing in Tianjin.  After the grandmother forced me to take her seat on the bench, she asked me if I was teaching English at the international school.  I corrected her to tell her I'm teaching music.  She then excitedly informed me that she is a music teacher, too.  She teaches voice lessons out of her home right in the complex where we all live. And her daughter is a cellist in the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra.  I then talked with them both for about another 15 minutes.  In Chinese. Mostly...

The daughter, Liu Chang, and I exchanged *WeChat information and promised to keep in touch often.  The two women also said we will get together again soon.

Before I left in order to get my cold items in my fridge, Liu Chang told me that she believed our meeting was 有缘 (you3 yuan2), or 'destiny'.  I'm inclined to agree. 

I am extremely glad I decided to step out of my apartment door.

Liu Chang and I

*WeChat is a Chinese app that serves as a free instant messaging and social media platform.  And it works across countries too, so if you want to get WeChat send me a message and I will add you and we can basically text halfway around the world for free.  And it's in English, so don't worry about having to decipher Chinese.