Local friends

Time for another Tianjin life post. I haven't been posting recently b/c I've been pretty busy interviewing for part-time teaching jobs, and now, preparing lessons for those jobs. It's crazy, but I now teach at three different places near Nankai University and Tianjin University because none of the part time jobs offer me enough hours, only max 4 hours. But the pay is relatively good, and it's good experience in how to teach different sized classes and different levels. Most stressful is the Saturday afternoon 6-7year old beginner English class. The boys, being spoiled only children, are little monsters who scream, jump up and down, and can't sit still. After two hours, my ears are ringing from the constant high-pitched noise. I've decided that teaching adults is much much easier and more enjoyable.

Yet in the midst of my busy-ness, I've had some time on weekends to hang out with new Tianjin friends. This is the kind middle-aged couple I met on my trip to Taishan. They graciously took me under their wing, and invited me to their home for dinner two Sundays ago. It was so good of them! Aunt Tong made homemade potstickers, babao zhou (literally 8 treasures porridge, with red beans, dates, pumpkin, and other nutritious ingredients). She and her husband Uncle Wang also cooked some lovely seafood dishes. I also got to meet their daughter and son-in-law, and their big fluffy white dog WangWang. The dog is really quite beautiful, with such soft fur. Aunt Tong's daughter and son-in-law also took me to visit the famed Tianjin greenhouse and wholesale flower market as well as the pet market (where there are rows and rows of caged dogs howling and barking at you). Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures there. I'm getting too settled into life here and forgetting to whip out the camera. :/ At the end of the night, Aunt Tong also prepared a whole bag of potstickers and 8 Treasure Porridge for me to bring home. It was so generous and sweet. The abundance of food lasted me for over a week.



Last Friday, I also went out to dinner and karaoke (KTV) with some Chinese friends from the university. They're all like 4 or 5 years younger than me, but when we're singing Jay Chou and S.H.E. songs together, the age difference doesn't show at all. It was pretty fun singing so many Chinese songs with Chinese people. They couldn't believe how many mandarin songs I knew. I guess I'm pretty well-acquainted with Chinese pop music after all.