Internet Cafe

This is the craziest internet "cafe" I've ever been too. Red drapes close off light. The front door is locked, you have to enter from the back. Right now, as I type, the young owner is staring over my shoulder. I don't think he can read English. Internet connectivity will be a bit more spaced now, but I'll make up for it by still writing every day and posting every other day or so. I promise to have more aesthetically pleasing pictures than the "this is my soup" and drinking pictures.

I received a Chinese name today, as well as a nick name. The Chinese have a very hard time saying "Trey" and so call me "Tree." I've resorted to drawing a bearded stick figure on the board and writing my name above and then a stick figure tree and labeling it. No help. Dru has starting calling me Big Tree, followed by a Native American "how" at times. "My brother," (as the Chinese like to call my darker skinned colleague) finds it funnier than I do.

I traded a man an English name for a Chinese name. I named him Thomas after Thomas Friedman because his name meant something like "big strong world." Mine name is.... [drumroll] Hao Qingrong, which means Strong Tree and also loosely means "very relaxed." I dig.





A welcoming present, a melon, from the staff. It came with the knife like that.


The view from the driveway of the place we're staying


You can kind of see the Great Wall in the distance on the mountain



A wall. Symbolic in some way.



The actual building we're sleeping and teaching.


Tags: Treyopia China Stories Life Tianjin Jixian Photography Students Teaching