Last Days

The culture class we had on tuesday was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting ones we've had so far. When I saw the words "Chinese Music" on the syllabus, I admit that I wasn't too excited, considering the Chinese music we've been exposed to so far. I thought that we would be listening to music of the style used in Beijing Opera, but I was pleasantly surprised by the style of the songs that the teacher played for us. The traditional songs sounded very different then the sterotypical chinese music I've heard and the Teacher even played a bunch of famous American songs. The best part was that we were given the chance to actually play the instruments that were present. I didn't have much luck with the bowed string instrument, but I was very interested in the guitar-like instrument the teacher had. I can play the guitar a little bit (this is actually one of the things I miss about being home) and I was hoping that I would be able to play some stuff on the Chinese instrument. It was pretty much for me impossible to play anything with it, but it was very fun nonetheless.

Wednesday was our last day of normal class at Nankai University. Class, which was just review for the final exam, sped by rather fast. Most of the students decided to go back to the Cultural Street to pick up last minute gifts; I ended up buying a couple cell phone charms, one of which is a bean with Chinese characters imprinted on the side. If you plant the bean, the plant that grows out of it will actually have the words on one of its leaves. We grabbed dinner at this fast food Chinese place in a mall close to the cultural street. The food was only so-so and I kind of regretted not going to the Yoshinoya next door (although I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to try it in Japan). Afterwards, we bought some presents for our teachers - we weren't sure what they would like, so we settled on some bath & body stuff.

Thursday was our last day in Tianjin. We had our final exam in the morning, which turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. We had a formal lunch, we ate with the dean of the college we were studying in and, to my surprise, there was orange juice availible. It was from concentrate, but it seemed like 100% juice, which is something I miss from back home. Oranges seem to be very expensive here in China and pure orange juice is usually not availible (it's usually in the form of a orange drink with 10% juice). We then had the closing ceremony, which consisted of speeches, demonstrations, and goodbyes. I was a bit worried about the Tai Chi, considering the size of the room, but I don't think it turned out too bad, considering how much practice we get. I was also happy that my group's skit turned out well, since the group I was in put together a rather strange one that consisted of all three of the group members having the same name as a character from our textbook (Ding Libo). Fortunately, the audience seemed to enjoy our skit and found it pretty funny. We got certificates from the university, took pictures with our teachers, and said our goodbyes.

We got to the train station pretty early, so we didn't have to deal with the huge lines like the ones they had in Xi'An, even though had to wait around for a little bit before boarding the train. The conditions on the trains were much better this time...overall, everything seemed cleaner and less crowded. The train stopped less and we were able to get to Shanghai in ~12 hours even though the distance we traveled was pretty much the same as the distance between Xi'An and Tianjin. Since the train left around 8pm, I was also able to sleep thorugh most of the trip, making it seem to go much quicker.

Even though my month's stay at Nankai has been filled with a lot of work, I'll defintely miss the place. It was a little bit sad for me, going around campus during the few hours of free time we had before we had to board the bus to the train station. I've grown used to the feel of the campus - the people in the dining hall, the stray cats, the look of Tianjin - and It'll be a little weird not experiencing it anymore. I've meet some really cool people, especially my language teachers, and I'm really grateful for all that they've done for us.