New bikes

Well we finally got bikes this week. We're excited now, although we haven't gone anywhere together yet. We're going to. We tried to get bikes that look like regular Chinese bikes. Most people we have spoken to have had bikes stolen at least once. We're trying to avoid that but it almost sounds like its a right of passage in Tianjin. So the first day we got them Linda came along to make sure she liked her bike well enough and it fit her ok, then she went off to class. The man who helped us get the bikes (his English name is Bob) then took me to get bike locks. He told me later that we shouldn't get a lock from the same person we buy a bike from because they might have a key for the bike lock so all they would need to do is follow us to where we parked the bike and then they could immediately steal it. So, you ask, are our bikes stolen? We have no idea. I trust Bob, who took us to buy the bikes and the man who sold them to us was a friend of his. That's all I know.

My first foray onto the streets of Tianjin was interesting. We first rode through Tianjin University campus. It's big and beautiful at this time of year. It is, in fact huge. At least compare to the campus we teach on. We rode through the campus and came to a street that Linda and I have been on many times when we rode the bus to go to Home Depot and IT mart (the technology market). It's much closer than I thought - at least when we cut across the university campus. This street is always busy - lots of traffic. It's a lot scarier on a bike than it is on a bus. But I survived. We crossed several streets of traffic (only once against the light), rode down a side street and then turned into a market. This is a huge outdoor market, with 3 parts. The front of the market is food - an open air vegetable, fruit, nut and meat market. The next part is a huge bicycle parts market. Bob always shops with the same vendor so he gets the best price they offer - our bike locks cost 15 RMB each instead of the 50 RMB price that they would have asked me had I been alone. The third part is a place where one can buy used things according to Bob. Sounds like a huge flea market to me. We did not go there. After we bought the bike locks, Bob offered to take my picture with the vendor. The vendor really got a kick out of that. The picture is posted.

I found out about the flea market by reading this post. Do you think James forgot to tell me?

After that we rode back to Tianjin University Campus, Bob took me to Nankai University campus. It adjoins Tianjin University Campus. Nankai is where we go to English corner each Sunday morning. Bob graduated from Nankai University in Physics. So we took a tour of the campus. He showed me many buildings and talked about the history of the school. This is also where Premier Zhou Enlai graduated from in the 1920s. He was the first premier in the PRC after the communists took over in 1949. He died in 1976. He is much loved by the Chinese people now. Bob attended from 1978 to the early 80s. This is right after the Cultural Revolution.

We rode around to different parts of the campus for almost an hour. He even got me inside a building that houses a very famous artists portrait of two of China's most brilliant mathematicians of the 20th century. You will notice that I have no names for any of these people. This is because it was an oral lesson and I have no idea how to pronounce or spell any of the names Bob told me about, so I have also forgotten the names. Let me just say that it was a fascinating and fruitful journey. Again, Bob did me a favor, then spent some time with me, then expressed gratitude that he had been able to do it. After an hour when I said I had to go, he said he had to go too. I realize I need to get a picture of Bob for the blog that will be another day. For now there are some pictures of me at Nankai University.