Juniper Armstrong

Well, 2 weeks ago I started to feel a bit homesick. This was mainly because of some issues with the foreign language department that made me angry. How they deal with things over here is SO different then how things are done in the States that it can be very frustrating- 3 hour lunch breaks, issues not dealt with quickly enough (from my perspective) or brushed aside, etc. This all just puts you in a negative frame of mind which definitely is NOT they way to live in a foreign country because you start looking at everything negatively. At this point, I stumbled across a book, "Survival Kit for Overseas Living", in our office (which is currently 'under construction'...one of those previously mentioned issues haha). The book looks horribly outdated and full of pointless graphs. However, it did have some useful advice for getting through those bouts of homesickness.
Told you the book looked ugly haha Random find in our torn up office:


One of the suggestions in the book, was exploring your environment. Yes, I have lived in Tianjin for over 3 months, but a lot of it I have yet to see. One of the main tourist attractions is Ancient Culture street and I have never even been there. It is a shopping area filled with the typical chinese goods from all different types of minority groups. I went here with one of my students, who is pretty good with her oral english so it is easy to carry on a conversation with her (it is nice to actually be able to joke with a chinese person and they understand your sense of humor etc). We were able to do a bit of holiday shopping and Rosa was incredibly helpful because she was able to bargain with the shop keepers (whitey alert: raise the prices!). Therefore, I was not totally ripped off thankfully. It truly was a wonderful shopping day and totally helped me get over my little bit of homesickness (darn holiday season gets you every time).
Me throwing up the "V for Victor" sign like all my students do haha

My student, Rosa, rubbing the foot which brings 'good fortune'