GREETINGS FROM TIANJIN, CHINA. I'm currently blogging from my laptop at a local Starbucks (or as the Chinese say, xīng bā kè) on Nanjing Road. As the post title suggests, I attempted to visit this blog earlier, only to be confronted by one of those ambiguous "server errors"… the "server is not responding," "the server connection was reset," blah blah blah. Well, I suspected something was afoot, and with the aid of iBypass, I confirmed it — my blog is a victim of the Great Firewall (though I doubt my URL was blocked specifically… more likely some other site on the Awardspace domain provoked the ire of some Chinese censor)!

So what am I doing here? Visiting my ailing grandfather, mainly. And while my dad is attending to his well-being, a Chinese friend of mine, Wang Zhengyuan (王正元), is showing me the sights of Tianjin. He brought me to all sorts of local museums, and took me to his university — the students in his English class were apparently excited to meet me. I even forget some of the things we did together. Anyway, he's taking me to another local university tomorrow. And on Monday, I'll be taking a train to Hangzhou.

I initially signed onto this trip a few weeks ago with the intention of merely accompanying my dad and shopping for cheap clothes. Due to my recent, intensified dislike of Asians, I resolved to bear the surfeit of Asian-ness as best as I could. However, unlike my last trip four years ago, I'm not constantly dragged around to tourist hives like the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace. This time, the experience is a hundred times more authentic. Not only am I being guided by a real Tianjin native, but I also got the opportunity to speak with Chinese students my age, purchase whatever food I like, and walk the streets of a bustling metropolis without the dead weight of a digital camera around my neck.

At any rate, this trip has proven to be a true cultural exchange. It's a way of finding myself, in a way. Like my identity as an American. It's slightly disquieting to be constantly identified as "my American friend" by Zhengyuan or have others say "she's from America," "she's American," or "she's a foreigner." As I've never strongly identified as an American before, I've had to make some adjustments. Nonetheless, after my experiences here, I have to agree. I am an American. I'm not really anything else.

Well, I am a world citizen, too. But that's another story.

So, here's to the country that makes accessing my blog hugely inconvenient, and to the country whose portly inhabitants I love to hate. Good night, all. It's 9:22 in the evening, and I shall return to my apartment momentarily.

Until next time,
Jenny-fa, from Tianjin, China

P.S. I'm also keeping a mental tally of the all the obese people I've seen in China. After one week, it's now 15.