Bobbing for Apples

Yesterday we experienced our first Tianjin rain. Since it was kind of a gray, smoggy day anyways, it surprised us. After grabbing my umbrella from the dorm, I tried to make my way to the cafeteria for lunch. After only a few minutes of rain, the streets and sidewalks were already an inch or two deep in water. Something you would only notice after it has rained, is that there is no real storm water run-off system over here. Being in the city, most everything is paved over in one form or another and there are not really any gutters or grates for the water to run off into, so it accumulates in the pathways.

Last night, Janet and I went out for dinner. It was an adventure since at the place we went to, nobody spoke English. We struggled with our nascent Chinese and my phrasebook, but managed to order something. It turned out be a pretty good dish of roast duck and a plate of dumplings. Afterwards we wandered around the city for a while before returning back to campus.

This morning we went with a group to a nearby bookstore. It was massive, taking up seven floors with tens of thousands of books. On the first floor was a number of books for Chinese people trying to learn English. I flipped through a few of them, enjoying the interesting simple sentences inside. My favorite was "Americans love bobbing for apples at Halloween."

While I stood in that aisle, I made my first official Chinese friend. A girl flipping through books beside me introduced herself as Zhang De Li (last name first) and explained that she was an English major. We talked for a while and I tried to explain to her where I was from, but I think the only city she knew in the southeastern United States is New Orleans. We eventually agreed that I was from New Orleans.

I think I mentioned before, but our food is progressively becoming more authentic Chinese cuisine. Today among our selection of dishes was octopus tentacles, pan-fried with spicy peppers. They were actually pretty good (taste like a spicy version of Calamari) as long as you don't look at them for too long. Something about the little suction-cup things on the bottom of the tentacles is kind of disturbing to look at before you eat them.

Tomorrow, our group is leaving for Beijing to visit the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and other tourists sites. I'm looking forward to the weekend excursion and will post all about it after we get back!