The Onion

I knew that The Onion is an online satirical newspaper that leans a little bit to the left politically. What I didn't know is that there are newspaper stands all over New York City distributing the paper for free. The current paper has a headline poking fun at President Bush. I generally find the paper funny, even if I don't always agree with the political points it makes.

Boot Camp at NYU

Classes don't start until next week. So why am I at NYU now? Well, I'm attending an optional, free, "math boot camp" to review calculus, differentiation, integration, linear algebra, etc. The boot camp is meets 5 hours per day for 3 days. The two teachers leading the boot camp will be the two teachers who teach the two different sections of "Math for Economists" this fall. I thought one of the professors did a better job at explaining and was more logical in thought. After attending class today, I came home and switched sections!

This is Warren Weaver Hall, where the math boot camp is being held. Once the semester begins, however, I will not have any classes in this building.

This is the giant arch in Washington Square Park on NYU's campus.

In a basement surrounded by Jews

After being back in the US for just six days, I found a new apartment. This is quite a feat, as I've been told it is really difficult to find descent safe apartments for an affordable price. For example, apartments in Manhattan cost $1500 for some studios and recently I saw an advertisement at NYU for a 3-bedroom apartment for $3500 per month! My new apartment (rented on August 25th for $720 per month) is located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Midwood, where most residents are orthodox Jew. My studio apartment is about 300 square feet in the basement of an office building. Above me is a psychologist's office called the "Phobia Life Line" and beside me in the basement is a podiatrist's office. It's really just one big room with a kitchen on one side and a couch and desk on the other. The couch is my bed!

Kentucky Birthday at the Otolaryngologist!

This is my first birthday in Murray since, well when? Here's where I celebrated my past birthdays: 2005 (Beijing, China), 2004 (Pasadena, CA), 2003 (Kihei, HI), 2002 (New Orleans, LA), 2001 (Detroit), 2000 (Champaign), 1999 (Champaign), 1998 (Murray). Wow, it's been 8 years! That was 5 college degrees ago.

Yes, today is my birthday! How did I celebrate? I went to visit my otolaryngologist! What's that? Well, it's a doctor who deals with nose, ears, and throat. So you know I must really be old - that's what old people do - go to the doctor on their birthdays! I have been having some trouble with my nose over the past two years, and so I went to get it checked out. This past summer I did visit the Tian He hospital in Tianjin regarding this, and they took a Catscan and had me come for treatment on three consecutive days. I took my catscan with me and the doctor told me I have a really bad sinus condition which will probably require SURGERY. Thanks, happy birthday to you too.

Tomorrow, my parents and I will fly up to New York. I need to find an apartment and get ready for life at NYU. I don't really have time for surgery!

Via Kyoto & Colorado Springs

Well, I'm back in America. After 55 hours of travel and 5 flights (Beijing-Osaka-Los Angeles-Colorado Springs-Denver-Nashville), I finally made it back to Kentucky!

I left Tianjin around 10am on Friday morning to go to the Beijing airport. Fortunately, I was accompanied by 4 wonderful friends of mine. After an emotional goodbye, I checked 2 very large bags each weighing exactly 30 kgs (66 lbs), and continue on with my 2 carryons (one of which weighed 35 kgs (77 lbs)! I then boarded a short international flight to Osaka, where Japan Airlines put me up in a hotel for free because there were no connecting flights leaving until the next day. This was no accident - I intentionally purchased my tickets in this manner to take advantage of a free hotel and a free trip to Japan. This was the first time in Japan, making it the 46th country I've been to. The closest I came before was when I changed planes in the Tokyo-Narita airport in 1998 after my first transoceanic flight. While in Japan, I only had time to see part of Osaka and Kyoto, of Kyoto Protocol fame. On Saturday evening, I continued on to Los Angeles, arriving on Saturday afternoon due to the Interntaional Date Line. This was only my 2nd time to fly across the Pacific in a eastward direction. (I've flown in a westward direction 4 times.)

At LAX, I had to grab my bags and go through customs and then recheck them. I then boarded my flight for Denver. The captain told us we would arrive in Denver early. Great! However, due to a serious thunderstorm in Denver, we just circled over central Colorado waiting for it to go away. After circling for some time, the pilot announced that we would run out of gas soon so we were forced to be diverted to Colorado Springs. Of course, by now I'd missed my connection in Denver to Nashville unless it was delayed because of the storm. Fortunately for me, the Nashville flight was delayed until after midnight, which mmade it about 4 hours late! I arrived in Nashville at 2am, where a different (and much older) set of 4 friends met me. We didn't get back to Murray until 4.

What travel! It hasn't sunk in yet, but my life is really going to be different now that I'm no longer living in China!

G'bye Mate!

Jin Yi has left Tianjin. She's now in Weihai, her hometown, where she will quickly pack and get ready for her flight to Australia next week. This morning she flew from Beijing to Weihai. She had been living in Tanggu where she worked, but since her fight leaves Beijing at 7, she needs to catch the 4am bus to Beijing from Tianjin. The question for her -- where should she sit with all of her belongings while waiting for the bus 4am bus? The answer? My apartment. So Pan Ke, Feng Fan, and I had a going away party for our friend last night. Jin Yi's boss in Tanggu gave her a ride to Tianjin and then she was able to store all of her things in my apartment:



Believe it or not, her biggest suitcase is not pictured here! It was very amazing that she was able to get onto the plane with so much stuff! Then we went out to eat hotpot together:



Jin Yi trying to hide from my camera behind a glass:



Then we went back to my apartment to do, what else, play cards!



Amazingly, we stopped cards to watch Sesame Street! It was the first time they had ever seen it. They were especially interested in watching Elmo show children how to mail a letter, as "Elmo" is Jin Yi's nickname:



As 3:30 rolled around, it was a mad scramble to find taxis to get over to the bus stop. I thought I had seen people cry before. I was wrong! The flood of tears that emerged was quite amazing (or depressing, depending on your point of view).

Jin Yi has been a big part of my life in Tianjin. She helped me fix my laptop, got me my apartment, taught me Chinese, but, most of all, she was a true friend. In life, there are few people with whom we can really be close friends. Jin Yi is one of those special people in my life. Thank you for the memories.

Xinjiang Food & World Cup

Yesterday Yang Xi "the computer man" came over to help fix some problems with the laptop. Afterwards a group of us went to eat Xinjiang food:



We then made it our goal to stay up late enough to go watch the World Cup together. So after eating dinner we came back over to my apartment and talked and played cards until 3 am. Then we rode our bikes over to McDonalds on Guangdong Lu to watch the 3rd Place World Cup game between Germany and Portugal. Afterwards, I stayed up burning DVDs but the others all took a short nap at my place. Here's Yang Xi trying to sleep...



Germany won the game 3-1 by the way. I was rooting for Portugal, whose Chinese name putaoya translates to grape teeth!

Dinner at Tian Ta

Tonight Pan Ke, Jin Yi, and I ate dinner at Dong Po Zhou Jia Restaurant near the Tianjin TV tower. Some pretty good eats there!

Injection #4,321

Over the past two months, I have not been so healthy. Or, being the optimistic person that I am, I should say...over the past two months, I've been getting healthier! That's because I've been going to Tian He Hospital at the corner of Fukang Lu and Munan Dao to receive medication via IV (or as my Chinese friends like to call it, an injection)! I've had several people visit me during these fun hours at the hospital. Today was Jin Yi's turn...



I'm not an expert on Chinese medical practices, but I think biting the tube is not the proper way to help the patient improve!

Migrant Recyclers

Today I decided to recycle some of the bottles I'd saved up from various parties over the past month. I get 0.2 RMB (or about $.02) for each 2 liter or 1 liter bottle and 0.1 RMB (about $.01) for each 600ml or similar size bottle. After living in Michigan for three years before moving to China, I had gotten in the habbit of recycling my bottles. Of course, in Michigan, you get $0.10 per bottle! (And in Kentucky you get nothing.) Here is a photo of me and the woman who came to pick them up:



For this stack, I got about 25 RMB (about $3). Doesn't sound like much, but when you can buy lunch in the student dining hall for 3 RMB ($0.37), you can make that money go along way. Anyway, I want to comment a little bit about this young woman. She is my age and has 3 children. Her family lives in Anhui province but it is difficult for her to find a good paying job there. So she came to Tianjin as a migrant worker. She collects bottles for $.01 and gets paid $.02 when she turns them into the recycling center. And she makes more money by doing that than in her home province. How sad. Actually, the money is not as bad as you might think. She made about $3 off of me in about 45 minutes. If she can find 8 customers each day, she could make about 200 RMB per day (or about $25). Assuming she works 30 days per month (and believe me, I've seen these migrants out working every day), then she can earn 6,000 RMB per month! For comparison, a new college graduate from TFSU makes about 1,700 RMB per month. So perhaps I've overestimated her earning potential, but it isn't as bad as it sounds at first. Still, to have to leave one's family behind is sad. She is a very friendly person and even has business cards! Please keep her and others around the world who have to work so hard to provide for their families in prayer. Seeing her at work makes me realize how much God has blessed me. It is a shame how often I forget to thank him for all He's provided. (Remember James 1:17)