Tianjin (Tee-an Jean) 天津

On tuesday, our class took a group field trip to the newrby city of Tianjin, we visited one of the officially designated sightseeing spots, an old culture street. The architecture has been maintained, but the stores there now all sell knickkancks, paddywacks, and if you're aavvy enough, maybe even a bone or two. But they also have a lot of really cool stuff too.

This was the opening alleyway, in the background, through the haze of pollution, you can see a modern skyscraper, if you look hard enough.

My classmate, and fellow amerian allstar, Andy Burns.

We found a small sculpture exhibition gallery. The artists have preserved their craft through 6 generations, and their method of craft I must admit admiration for, even though sculpture typically leaves me cold. The sculpture pictured below is a tableau of mthe 8 d(t)aoist immortals. I'm planning to visit the major daoist temple in Beijing in a week or two, I'll give more detail then.

My Indonesian classmate, Yonkie, he's a great pal.

Hiding behind a stranger is my spanish classmate, Christina, or as she's called in china, MoDi

After the chinese culture street, we went to visit the Italian Style town, which had a whole of of places to take pictures, but not much else, besides coffee places, knickknackeries and a few italian restaurants.

It seems even statues aren't free from the terror of typos, 'the travesl of marco polo' indeed.

More of my lovely lovely classmates, from left to right, front to back, Jenny, Febby and Maria.

Up in the skies, it's a bird, It's a plane!

So, I began my trek across the territory of the avians this morning at 6:45AM EST. Now, after (6:45-10:30 add an hour for time difference)= ~5hours + (8 hours flight time?) = 13 hours in traversing, I'm finally awake. Ater finishing my first book 1 hour in, I sat and pondered the cliffhanger of an ending. Man pitted against man in a duel to the death, where only one can win. They leap off a cliff together, to fall to the hard ground below in each other's embrace, once brothers, now bitter enemies. But did they really die? Magic knows no bounds.

Anyway, Dallas Fort-Worth airport was huge, as always, with a tram that I thought I understood, until I overshot my destination. Minor problems, of course, I had plenty of time to make my gate. I even got the chance to eat at Einstein's Bagels, a holdover from my days at ASU. Mmmmmm, bagels. In the airport terminal there was a construction of plactic, funcitoning like an echoing chamber, I'll try and get a picture of it on my way back through, 5 months from now.

Wow, 5 months suddenly strikes me as a long time to remember anything. I'll be gone for almost half a year. I'm starting to get a grasp on how long that really is. Less than half of my longest relationship, less than third of the time spent living downtown, time that seems, now, to have flown by in a rush of breathless memory-making, merry-making. Perhaps this will be the same, and I'll be writing like this on my flight back, and be struck by the similarities of my situation.

Korean Airlines is very nice. The cabin is spacious, the uniformed, flight attendants sharp like the crisp fold of a freshly laundered sheet. The rows upon rows of american travelers, with their graying hair on top of their head and upon their faces. Koreans returning to visit family, having spent years away for study or work. Filies, going to visit parents with newborns, or young. A sea of expectation, all going somewhere planned. S much forethought from all these people, none simply wandering, their next few weeks a rigid plan, in orr to reach their home on time, to seal that business deal with time for relaxation,or to return home sooner to loved ones. Traveling strikes me as a quintessentially human endeavor, wrapped up in our sense of place and identity. Where are you from, serrah? Ah, you're American!
Where are you going, madam? Ah, you're a student.
What do you do for a living? You fly a plane! You must love to travel!
or perhaps I'm simply being silly.

-Ben