Hot Springs, music, the Tianjin expat community, and such

I downloaded some new music, finally. It's been a while. I became so used to listening to whatever Paul was listening to, since he is such a music connoisseur and I always enjoyed what he picked. Now I don't have him to fill my ears, so I had to take action. I downloaded Fever Ray's self titled album as well as Mumford and Son's album 'Sigh No More'. I also now have Echo Lake's 'Woods', sent to me by Paul :-) A couple of weeks ago I sprung for an album by the Carter Family as well as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. All of these bands have songs I extremely enjoy, but I can't help but feel as if something is missing. I haven't found my album of the moment yet. but I will continue to search.

I do know that I'll come back to the US with a ton of new Chinese music - since apparently there aren't any kind of downloading laws here? My tutor gave me a site for downloading, and I'm excited to get started.

So what have I been up to? mmm not much I guess. I went to the hot springs in northern Tianjin two weekends ago (the weekend after BeiDaiHe) and had a relaxing weekend with some friends. The hot springs are at a resort we stayed at - five star! But everything's so cheap in China, it was great. We got a Japanese style room complete with tatami mats, beds on the floor, and a tea set. We learned a few weeks ago the art of tea making / pouring, so I made sure to take advantage of this opportunity to make tea the right way.

We got some dinner and then went to the hot springs! You go into the locker rooms and they give you a uniform swimming suit which is very...interesting - or you can wear your own. We all wore our own, but took the one they gave us anyway as a souvenir. Here we all are wearing them:

So we went through the locker rooms and then joined with the guys at the hot springs. You walk through an indoor area first with a few different hot spring pools, and then you are outside and there are all different pools in various temperatures and content. It was pretty awesome - the setting is in a huge garden- ish area, with real ponds etc around the hot spring pools. The hot springs are set up with rocks etc and one of them even has a cave you can go into. We eventually found our way to the green tea hot spring, as well as a red one? I think it was like...red flower (that's what we translated it as anyway). Those were pretty fun. They had a few pools with the little fish that will eat the dead skin off of your feet, but those scare me and anyway they cost money so we opted out.
After a few hours in the hot springs we went back to the room and had a relaxing night of card games tea, and a little pijiu (beer).

We returned to campus the next day with softer skin and feeling refreshed.

Recently everyone on the trip has discovered a local Expat(riot) bar / restaurant called Helen's, and I think we have all fallen in love.
I do believe it's safe to say I am beginning to miss home. As soon as I walked into Helen's and the smell of Western food as well as the Western decor hit me, I was so much more relaxed. I hadn't realized until that moment that I am indeed quite out of place in China. I have been enjoying myself thoroughly, but it is nice to be back home for a bit. And the place is filled to the brim with...white people. It was kind of a shock, since I've only seen like three non-Chinese people walking around Tianjin before this.
So I went with a few people for open mic last Thursday and it was kind of interesting, since they have obviously not organized their open mic yet. Josiah told them he wanted to play, and they turned the music off and put a microphone up to his guitar and a microphone up to his mouth. He played, then I played, and then they went back to playing songs from the restaurant's playlist. The audience seemed to enjoy it though, weird as the process was, so I think I'll go back next Thursday. It just feels so good to play for people again.

Anyway, we went again on Friday night, this time for the nice list of cheap drinks offered at Helen's. The first drink I got was one called the Cowboy - a mix of cherry brandy, kaluah (sp?) and cream I think? Anyway, it's absolutely amazing. I tried a couple other drinks after that, all amazing, and finished the night with a bit of hukkah and games.

We went again the next Wednesday for Melissa's Birthday:

I decided to spend the weekend in Tianjin, instead of traveling like I have other weekends - I just wanted a weekend to rest and catch up on my studies. So I spent a lot of time studying and a lot of time watching movies. I enjoyed myself, and now feel very much revived.

There are a few things about studying abroad that frustrate me. These are the things:
getting to know a whole new group of people - that is awesome. very fun and exciting and new.
The thing is, in a situation like this, there's no one who actually knows you. I had forgotten what that's like, being around people who don't know you're background -what you've done in your life, what you are passionate about or what offends you.
It makes me appreciate everyone back home that much more, since I've come to realize how conscientious they seem in comparison to people here. There have been a lot of 'your mom' jokes, as well as suicide jokes? Which I didn't even know people made. I think I had begun to assume everyone around me knows my history, since it's been like that for a while. But in a new situation, I am brought back to reality - people do make those kind of jokes, so I suppose I'll just have to accept it and let it pass.
It would probably also help my mood if my teachers stopped asking me about my mother when teaching us new grammar. "What did your mother tell you when you decided you wanted to go to China?" "When you're mother tells you to clean your room, what do you respond?" "Does your mother listen to your father, or does your father listen to your mother?"

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I like everyone a lot.

However, my mood is suffering just a bit. Though I suppose I’m being too sensitive.