FIREWORKS!! These fireworks were right outside my apartment. Notice how high (or should I say low) they are! Craziness!

My Chinese New Year celebration began with a visit to my friend Gretl’s hometown, Tianjin.  I left shortly after my class at Nong Da finished.  (And after a lovely pizza lunch with a few of the other foreign teachers.)  The train ride to Tianjin was exactly 30 min.  We left at 4:30 and the train stopped at 5:00.  This was the fastest train ride I had ever been on.  Literally.  The train is one of the fast trains in China.  It topped out at 330+ km/hr.  When I arrived at the train station in Tianjin, Gretl was there waiting for me so that we could take the bus back to her place.  It actually took longer to get to her home than to get from Beijing to Tianjin!  I had a lovely supper with her family and then taught her a couple card games while we ate M&Ms and watched some Chinese TV! 

The next morning, we headed to an antiques market with Gretl’s father.  Having conversations through a translator is a little difficult.  I wish my Chinese was better!  I was impressed with Gretl’s patience with me and her ability to go back and forth between English and Chinese.  She was amazing!  We were able to have a ‘conversation’ over lunch about hunting in Wyoming.  Her dad wanted to know how much it cost to hunt and what kind of animals could be hunted.  He was really nice and very patient. 

After our lovely lunch together, we headed to Gretl’s grandmother’s home.  The plan for the day was to teach me how to play Ma Jiang 麻將 (the real game, not the lame ‘windows-matching-tile’ game on the computer).  Her grandma explained the game to me (with Gretl translating again) and then we decided it would be best to learn as we go!  Those who know me well will know that this was a highlight of the visit because of my love of games!  I caught on quickly and even got three ‘dragons!’  Apparently, a dragon is not something that is too common to get. Gretl told me that she has only ever gotten one!  I told her it was beginner’s luck!  We played for quite a while with her aunt, uncle, dad, mom, and grandma taking turns and all of them letting me play every game.  I think they wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing by the time we were finished playing.  They also told me to practice saying the names of the tiles when I discarded them so I could practice my Chinese.  Gretl keeps telling me how awesome my tones are!  🙂  Must be the music background. Now if only I knew more words, especially verbs.  I really liked that I could understand a lot of what her grandma was saying even though I didn’t understand the full meaning.  I don’t know if that makes sense to you at all. 

After playing Ma Jiang 麻將, we cleared the table and began the dumpling making.  This is a tradition in China.  Families get together, make dumplings (jiaozi) and then spend time consuming them.  I was learning how to make dumplings from the master: Gretl’s grandmother.  It was hilarious that I was the only one in an apron…an apron that they insisted that I wear…an apron made for a Chinese sized person!  I was really bad at making dumplings.  I had one or two that looked like they were supposed to look.  The rest were edible but not the best looking dumplings!  Gretl took many pictures of my time with her family but I haven’t gotten them from her yet.  When I get them, I will share them with you.  Her family also wanted me to play piano for them.  I’m not the greatest when it comes to memorized piano repertoire so I was glad that Gretl brought along some music.  I played and Gretl and I sang and everyone loved it!  Her grandma and I were instant friends! 

We hung out for a while and then Gretl, her cousin, and I left to go visit a coffee shop.  Her cousin could understand almost all of what I was saying but lacked the confidence to respond to me in English.  The three of us sat there drinking coffee and chatting for a while.  Gretl wanted me to teach her cousin some card games.  So I taught her a new one that they both liked.  Actually, I think Gretl might be addicted to it!  Any time we had some down time she wanted to play it!  🙂  She’s like the Chinese version of me when it comes to games and being competitive! 

The next morning we walked around the ‘European’ part of Tianjin.  I always seem to find the non-Chinese parts of Chinese cities.  They tried to explain to me why there is so much European architecture in the city.  I didn’t really understand what they meant.  We ended up eating at an Italian place for lunch and then visiting the “Tianjin Eye”.  This wheel is 120 meters tall.  It is surpassed in height by the Singapore Flyer, the Star of Nanchang (in China), the London Eye, and the Great Berlin Wheel.  There is a bigger one being constructed in Beijing on the east side of the city.  Beijing’s will be the tallest in the world at 208 meters.  The Tianjin Eye took 35 minutes to make one revolution.  It also claims that it is the only wheel of it’s type to be constructed on a bridge.  We enjoyed the ride but I was a tad uneasy since I am a bit afraid of heights. 

This was the view from below the Eye.

After our ride on the Eye, we wandered around for a little while longer before I had to catch my train home.  Another 30 min. train ride back to Beijing and then about an hour on the Subway.  The subway ride was pretty surreal.  There were almost no people riding the subway.  The city has died down because people have gone to their hometowns for the festival.  One would think that in a city of over 14 million people there would be more than 10 people in my subway car.  Not so. 

My plan for the evening was to meet a Chinese friend for a movie.  He said he would find one that was either in English or had English subtitles so that I could understand it too!  I got a message from him saying that there were no good movies playing and that maybe we should just meet somewhere for a drink.  I suggested just watching a movie at my place and he agreed that it was a good idea!  So, I figured I had enough time to get home, take a shower and go grab some supper.  As I was getting supper to go he came into the restaurant and asked what I was doing.  I told him that I hadn’t had a chance to eat and was just grabbing some supper.  He then told me that he brought supper!  Ok.  So, we walked back to my apartment and I put my supper in the fridge.  Then he informed me that he needed to use my kitchen so that he could MAKE supper. 🙂  Thankfully I had the sense to do my dishes before I left for Tianjin and the kitchen wasn’t too bad.  He made–you guessed it!–dumplings.  We also had some chuar and spicy bamboo with peppers.  The food was good and the company was great!  We ended up watching the replay of the olympic opening ceremonies in Chinese with him translating!  All in all, it was a really fun, totally unexpected night!

After he left, I thought I would end up going to bed fairly early.  I putzed around for a bit while listening to the constant sound of explosions outside.  Even though the city had much fewer people, there were still millions shooting off fireworks. (Hey, when you start out with more than 14 million people, missing a few million still leaves you with a few million.)  🙂  I think that almost everyone in the city had to be shooting off fireworks at the same time.  It is difficult to describe the magnitude of the noise.  You know when you see footage of a war-zone on TV? Yeah…kind of like that, but possibly louder.  Imagine your typical Fourth of July fireworks display. Pretend it took some steroids and then multiply that by about 100 and you might be getting close to the chaos that was occuring in Beijing from about 8:30 pm to about 2:30 am.  Granted, it was a little more tame during the hours before midnight but still a constant din.  It died down a bit after 2:30 when I went to bed.  Either that or I slept really well through it.  I woke up the next morning and people were back at it again.  Sunday during the day was much quieter.  In the evening it started again and I wondered if we would have another show that evening.  Fortunately, it was not nearly as crazy as the previous night.  And now, the city sleeps. 

I will leave you with some pictures of my time in Tianjin.  This coming Wednesday I will travel to Seoul, South Korea.  Look for a blog update sometime when I return from that trip.  HIS blessings to you always!

This was part of the market that Gretl and I visited with her dad. Here, people are buying a bunch of decorations for their homes. It was pretty crazy there.

This was a crazy Chinese restaurant that we walked by. There were many 'sculptures' like this made out of chunks of pottery. The dragons were pretty cool!

Another part of the market. Notice the red lanterns. This is a popular and significant decoration for the festival. I'm not sure why. I should research.

This was part of the temple that was near the market. Along this wall are many 'plaques' with different styles of Chinese calligraphy. It was pretty cool.

More of the red lanterns

People hung red decorations on their windows and on their doorframes.

This dog was dyed by his owner to look like a panda.

Anyone want to go to the 'Outlandish Tourist Area'? I'm sad that I didn't get this one straight on.

And this one is only because it is Valentine's Day