On Monday Linda and I rode to the Vanguard and I took a movie of the trip. I don't think it will be a very good movie because it wasn't very crowded on the streets but it was a good dry run because it allowed me to experiment a little with riding a bicycle and holding a camera with one hand and steering with the other. So today when I go to the bakery for bread maybe I can make another little movie to show a little better what its like to ride the streets of Tianjin. When I should really record is Saturday afternoon near the walking street but I don't think Linda will go near that place on Saturday again - now that's crowded.
I find myself wanting to study and review Chinese when I have free time right now - and read. I am so slow to learn the vocabulary. I just have to go over and over it, and then I still forget within a coulple of days. We both want to continue to review while we're in the states this summer. I hope we take the time. I'm talking to my students next week about keeping up their English during the summer. I want them to develop a simple plan and try to follow it or else they will lose a lot over the summer and have to begin again in the fall. We'll see what they do.
I'm also rereading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler. It is such a good book. There is a little mystery story in it, too and I'm a sucker for mysteries but it also gives great insights into China today. He has some long conversations via letter and in person with some of his students from his teaching days and they are so interesting. It helps being in China, I'm sure, to really see what he is talking about on some level even if I have not at the places he is talking about. I can see some of what he talks about here in Tianjin. But I am anxious to see more of China. I had one of my students write about her home town.
" My hometown is a small town near Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang Province... The climate is much damper and warmer than in Tianjin. Its scenery is just like a piece of brocade woven by streams, rivers, hills and fields, which is dotted by lakes and springs. No wonder the tourism is highly developed.
"As it's pretty hot in summer. I always prefer to visit my friends who live in the hills. Their houses are constantly cool without air-conditioning or even fans. We go fishing or picking wild fruits nearby their homes, resulting in holding bunches of wild flowers to dot our living-room. I really love the fantastic sunsets and sunrises when perching on the hills...."
That's the part of China I really want to see. Up in the mountains in southern China in summer. Maybe next year.
I'm out of time this morning, time to post.