Our last month in Tianjin
After 10 months of living in Tianjin we finally made it to our last month! June was full of exciting days out and adventures, as well as a lot of packing, but we made the most of our last month as residents in Tianjin by spending a lot of time biking around the city.
On the first day of June it was International Children’s Day. The university had been looking for volunteers to act in a play to be performed in front of terminally ill children so Owen, Robin and I decided to volunteer. We spent most of May rehearsing the show and perfecting our lines for the big performance in June. Robin got to play Patrick from Spongebob, Owen was a narrator and I played the winner of the dance contest and got to give a child a prize. When it came to it the show was a hit and all the children loved it, it made it feel worthwhile seeing the smile on their faces as they sang along to our songs. This experience not only let me improve my Chinese but I felt it was truly special to know we did something that made these kids happy.
For the last month Kirsty and I compiled a list of things we’d like to do and see before we leave Tianjin including go to the museum, see ancient culture street, visit Nanshi food street and more. This resulted in taking the night out of studying every couple of days and biking to wherever we wanted to go.
The first place on our list was the Natural History Museum, which of course we had already been to but it had since become a favourite of mine. We even saw there was an Earthquake exhibit we hadn’t seen last time so we got to explore that. Right across from the Natural History Museum is the cultural museum which we visited two years ago whilst on the summer trip, we decided to go there and have a short look around before deciding we were too hot and retreated to the shopping centre nearby for some frozen yogurt.
Our next visit was to ancient culture street where we were able to buy souvenirs for our families. Bartering in ancient culture street is very important. My method tends to be when they offer a price, reply with an extremely low price that’s cheaper than you want to pay, then keep going up in small increments until you get to the price you want for it, once you are close threaten to walk away and they usually give in or offer better prices. It may seem like you’re being rude but you’re almost always being nicer than what a Chinese person bartering so don’t worry about being rude, it’s all about being confident. Afterwards we got a 卷饼 and biked home.
On our way home we noticed a really cool looking street so we decided next time to check it out. The area was a bunch of side streets next to 滨江道(the main shopping street) and we spent ages cycling around looking at all the cool shops. It was much more what you’d expect China to look like with many small businesses and people sitting outside enjoying their meals together. Afterwards we came across a park where we relaxed for a bit before getting a sudden craving for Domino’s pizza. We decided to use our map skills and track down the pizza. Upon arriving at Domino’s we realised it was more expensive than we wanted to pay so we ended up ordering garlic bread and potato wedges which turned out to be much different from the ones we expected but we enjoyed our meal anyway.
After helping at Miss Sun’s school she invited us to have dinner with her at a restaurant to say thank you. I was very excited to find we were going to have Peking duck – something that has become a big favourite of mine since coming to China! It was great seeing her again but thankfully she is visiting Scotland around the same time I get back so there isn’t too much need to be sad about it.
Exams were soon once again upon us and we all worked hard to get the grades we wanted and soon it was the leaving date for many of the scholars. The halls were filled with piles and piles of rubbish and things too heavy to take home, we even said goodbye to our massive Peppa Pig cutout. Seen as we were going home soon we decided to go out for a last scholar meal in an Italian Restaurant near the uni. The restaurant had many pasta and pizza dishes ranging from about 12yuan to 24yuan so there was something for everybody and downstairs was a huge arcade which we all spent a couple of hours in afterwards playing games and winning prizes.
Soon it was July and many people had flights booked for the first week. People left in dribs and drabs, we said many sad goodbyes and walked them to their buses and trains. After saying goodbye to the final group of people leaving, the remaining few decided to get a McDonalds together as we talked about all the good memories we had. The next day we went on a cycle to Food Street were we bought a strange porridge thing and then went to play with a toy plane in a nearby park for a bit.
The day before I left it was time to say goodbye to my language partner. After spending a year practising with her I was sad to say goodbye. I bought her a cuddly dinosaur toy and told her the story of the Loch Ness Monster. We promised to stay in touch and even now we still message to see how the other is doing.
Soon enough it was also our time to leave and begin our travels in July...
