It was the summer of 2005. My best friend was living in Tianjin, China, and I spent three weeks in July and August visiting her there. These are the stories from that trip.

»First Days
»Phone Calls and a Chinese Parade
»August 2nd
»Birthdays and Scattered Thoughts
»Dong Xi
»You Can Eat
»The Weather!
»And They Call it Blessing
»On the Road Again
»Beijing Days
»Chinglish

I was talking to my friend House yesterday on MSN. He asked me to give him a good English name. When we first met him, we asked why his English name was House. It seems his family name means house, so that’s his English name. When he asked me for a new English name, I mulled it over for a bit, then asked what his name means.

“True man and lovely,” he informed me.

I went on a couple name web sites to see what I could see. I also looked at my picture of House to test each name. I came up with two that worked- Gabriel and Justin. I like Gabriel better for him, but it would be cruel and unusual to ask a Chinese man to pronounce Gabriel, so I went with Justin.

Tomorrow morning, when he logged on, we had the following conversation (yes, my verb tenses are correct. It’s Thursday there).

me: I think you should keep the name House. It makes you special and easy to remember. If you want to have a more common name, Justin is good, and I think it fits you.

House: thank you very much. you are so kind to consider my english name. i shall sellect my enlish name between House and Justin. when i decide, i shall tell you—my warmhearted friend.

Edit: A certain Justin I know thinks this is hilarious. He keeps typing hahahaha at me.

Upon our Friday night arrival in Beijing, Becki and I caught a shuttle to the Sino-Swiss hotel. Wow. Nice hotel. Never stayed 4 star before. Hee hee! We were so tired we just kicked back and ordered pizza for dinner. We did make use of the indoor/outdoor pool though, after the thunderstorm abated.

Saturday morning we had a rocking good breakfast at the hotel then caught a shuttle into the city. We shopped at the pearl market and Silk Street. We had lunch at Grandma’s Kitchen, a restaurant started in Chengdu by an American expat from the South. Imagine a restaurant run by a southern woman that caters to expat Americans. Lunch was incredible. I had a huge philly cheesesteak sandwich and iced tea served with a tiny pitcher of honey, and we split a banana shake. There was actual banana in the shake. Mmmmmmmm!!!! Grandma’s Kitchen is also right in the middle of the foreign embassy area, so we walked past several, including Austria’s.

After our adventures, we went back to where the shuttle would pick us up. I should mention here that it was hot and unbearably humid Saturday. We were at the shuttle stop for about five minutes when we saw a couple that had been on our morning shuttle. The four of us waited together and talked until almost 4:15. Still no shuttle! So they decided we’d take a cab. The man tried to get one, but no luck. Becki knows how to hail a Chinese cab, so she found us someone who knew where we were going and would take us there. All four of us piled in, and 60 kuai later we were back at the Sino-Swiss. The couple paid and gave us a free taxi ride. Woohoo!

The next half hour was a dizzying series of phone calls. We were planning to meet Joy, Paulo and Wendy for dinner, but making the arrangements was very interesting. Joy is Becki’s friend from Chengdu (her name used to be Twinkle). She lives in Beijing now, as does her boyfriend Paulo. Wendy is another Chinese friend from Tianjin, but she lives in Beijing now as well.

Wendy

So we finally met for dinner a bit after 7. Since Joy and Paulo are from Szechuan Province and Becki used to live there, we went to a Szechuan restaurant. Wendy and I thought we were going to die. The food was SO spicy! Oh my goodness! It was agony. Paulo felt bad for me and ordered a bowl of rice. Wendy and I shared it. It was all good, but so very spicy. After dinner we walked to a restaurant/lounge (that’s what the sign says). It turns out we were back in the embassy district, so almost everyone there was waiguoren. What was REALLY funny was this group of Korean guys who were at the table next to us at dinner also showed up there. We hung out there until 10:30, and as soon as we left, the sky broke open and let loose an incredible downpour. We were on foot.

We finally found a taxi for Becki, Wendy and me to get back to the Sino. We had decided Wendy would stay with us. We said goodbye to Paulo and Joy and climbed into the taxi. Wendy forgot the Chinese name of the hotel though, and the driver took us to the Holiday Inn! Oops! We turned around and tried again. It was still pouring. Parts of some roads were already flooded, and before long we saw hail bouncing off the road! It was a dark and stormy night, indeed!

Well, I didn’t manage to get any sleep Saturday night, so Sunday was certainly fun. Actually, I fell asleep for an hour… 10 am to 11 am. 11 am!? Checkout in an hour! ACK! So we all went into a packing frenzy. Three girls, one hour, and one bathroom. Yikes. We made it, and before long we found ourselves at a local restaurant area that offered several dining possibilities. We chose the Greek one. I’m a Greek food geek. I’ve now had Greek in Paris, Moscow and Beijing. Never been to Athens… After lunch we sat in the Starbucks next door and talked for a few hours. Then we grabbed sandwiches to go from Subway and headed back. Wendy got a shuttle into the city to go home, and Becki and I got an airport shuttle.

  
Greek and Starbucks in Beijing

Goodbye Beijing.

My birthday typhoon was so crazy! It rained for 24 hours from Monday morning until Tuesday morning. Because of the typhoon, my birthday lasted almost all week. Hee hee.

Monday after previous post: Watched a silly movie. Maybe Runaway Bride. I forget. We’ve watched many silly movies. OH! No, it was Kate & Leopold- very cute. Met Lydia, Becki’s Chinese teacher, for dinner. Went to the Hundred Jiaozi Restaurant. So very good! There was a funny teapot that was… well… I’ll post a picture later. Lydia spent the night.

  
A not-so-little teapot. That spout is several feet long! Then there was the rather busy tea…

Tuesday: Lady came over to give pedicures. Got $10 pedicure. Mmmmm. Happy feet. I made lunch and Lydia learned quesadilla, tortilla and taco. Lunch was visual aids. Jessi, one of Becki’s new roommates, came home. For dinner we had an invitation to Kim & Patrick’s place. Patrick made an incredibly yummy marinade for the chicken wings and an equally yummy salad dressing. Then they taught me a really fun game called Settlers of Catan. It was a really great night! As soon as we got home there was a huge electrical storm.

Wednesday: Rode to school again. Worked on Becki’s classroom. Rode to Cybermart. Becki bought ethernet card for Jessi’s laptop and wireless router for apartment. I bargained for and bought an mp3 player. I even asked in Chinese if they had the one I liked in 256 meg instead of the 128 on display. I was pretty proud of myself. My Chinese is finally working again now that I’m leaving. Met Jenn, Amanda(Chinese) and Grace for hot pot dinner. The Chinese girls came over for ice cream and Phase 10.

Thursday: Did absolutely nothing most of the day. Watched Zoolander. Fell asleep. Got another Chinese massage. Yay! Met Grace at the real Uighur restaurant for dinner. So glad I got to hang out with Grace one last time.

At our local Uighur restaurant. So good!

Friday: Woke up to Jessi making french toast. Mmmmmmm! Then Becki’s dad called and said he got clobbered on the head at Coco’s by a sugar packet attack from my dad. Now we’re getting ready to take the shuttle to Beijing, where we’ll stay for a few days until my flight on Sunday.

I will be incommunicado until I land at LAX. At that point my phone will switch back to America (I have China Mobile at the moment).

Goodbye, TJ. I’ll be back in Upland Sunday night.

Chinese characters tell stories. They were developed thousands of years ago to unify the many spoken languages of China in one writing system. The meaning of each character, then, is implicit in the pieces used to create it. If you know the meaning of each part, you can find the story of the character’s meaning.

Fu is one such character. The elements of this character include one, person, garden, and God. This character, in a small space, tells the creation story, and they call it blessing.