Blow by Blow- 18 march

18/3/2011

Friday! Usually Friday’s the day where everything seems to slow down, until by midday you were wishing that it’s already Saturday afternoon, so you can sleep your time away.

However, when you’re here, everyday feels like the same.

Cold。 APPG in the morning.  I’m massively doing nothing but that. It’s a fair deal all right; I’m trading my holiday for free time in class. I’m getting used to it, maybe if I could deposit all my free time in a bank of some sorts,

I’ll be rich then. How nice.

Went to a teahouse for IS class today.

And took a photo of a guy sleeping, bad habit of mine, I know

Nothing wrong with that. It's real. Not primped up smile fake. This is real life, dammit. It's the stuff people should see beyond the smiles against the tourist attraction like some dammed tourist. 

People actually go to teahouses to drink tea. And I thought pulling out the tea set and tea leaves was good enough. No, you have to follow numerous steps and procedures to do that. Then the way I make at home must be the version with 80% off.  Just put the leaves inside and let them cook before pouring the water out

This is a sample of a special type of clay they use to make the best kind of teapots (they are supposed to retain the flavor of tea so much that you can eventually not use the tea leaves and just add water. Nasty stuff)

Bunch of teapots on display. Different teapot shape has its own specific name, as displayed below. And I thought teapots all looked pretty much the same. Well, they all pour tea, don't they? Right??

I'm looking at this chart all over again, and yes, they look quite different. Each type of tea has types of teapots best suited for it. I only have 1 type of teapot at home and I use it for all the tea I have. Does not include the kind in tiny teabags. Goodness, the way we drink tea is really slipshod. 

The table we were seated around at for tea. This is a rather poor picture, I know. Can't get the full length of the table into the picture. Tried to take the cups, but got blocked by all that light again. grrr.

 The tea hostess pouring tea into my cup. Couldn't get a picture of the tea flowing into my cup. Another wasted shot.

. But I certainly learnt a lot about the tea culture here. They prize the flavor and heat of the brew, unlike me, where I’m just drinking cause there’s too much in my house.

I shall make it a point to drink tea more often.

On the way back, we met some fellow Singaporean students from SP. This probably shows 2 things, 1) there are many overseas Singaporean students; 2) there are many Singaporeans in Tianjin. I think it’s both.

The reactions to foreigners here is different from other places in china I visited. After you reply that you’re from (insert any other place except china here), usual response I get is a stare and a normal question of getting used to the weather, and then full stop. But the people here are genuinely interested about your life and story.

I believe they adapted to be more receptive towards foreigners. After all, 8 countries once held their strongholds in the same city. With so many foreigners living in their city, the locals have probably have learnt to accept them as an integral part of society, which was unheard of in china during that period of time, having closed its doors to the rest of the world, finding a city which welcomed them was like stumbling water in the desert. Gold.

There is much to learn about them. 

Where is the picture? Hm.. I don't know, neither do I care. This time's comes out a bit short. Sorryy