Tianjin- you may be a hole in the wall, but you're our little hole in the wall.

9 things I'll miss about Tianjin.

I decided to walk around campus/near our hotel and take some photos to remember it. I don't think I'll ever be back to Tianjin in my lifetime, but I will always have great memories of this place.

1. There are four different lakes on campus. Maybe a little excessive? Well, I enjoy going for runs around them on occasion (I don't work out all that often anymore...oops).

2. Here is where we fell in love with the egg wrap that I told you about earlier. The vendor now knows my order. I try and communicate with her beyond just ordering sometimes but we end up just cracking up because we have no clue what each other is saying. She loves me, and I will miss her (mostly her food though).

Let's not even talk about what went into me getting her to understand I wanted to take a picture with her.....that was a cluster.

This is from the stand next door to the egg wrap stand. It's like a crepe, with an egg scrambled on top of it, then with a crunchy corn filling, onions, sauce, and chili powder. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. But, I feel like I'm cheating on my egg wrap lady when I buy it...

3. 7 Eleven. Where would we be without you? There are 7 Elevens all over the place and thank goodness. I have an addiction to their baozi and it's a problem. Ahhh I'm going to miss those when I leave China. Thank goodness they will still be in Shanghai.

4. Dining halls here are cool, there are 5 on campus. I don't love their food because it never fills me up, but it's pretty delicious regardless. Kat and I are big fans of the dumplings. The way it works is you go up and grab a dish they already have sitting out or point to dishes and they put it on a plate for you, then you swipe your student card which has money on it against a little machine and it deducts that amount.

5. Convenience stores underneath the dining halls. Like I said, this campus has everything! We come to little places like this all the time for snacks, drinks, whatever we're feeling. This is the hallway just outside the store.

6. Room 108 in building 23. I'm not gonna miss this room that much, because it's associated with taking classes and I often fantasize about how awesome this summer would be without classes. But, we have every single class in this same room in the same building. It's like our little home.

Building 23

Room 108

No such thing as dry-erase boards here at TJU.

7. Our cozy oasis sauna. It does feel good to walk into this room after a long weekend trip, or just a long day to relax. I love having a home base, and although it gets toasty in here, we love our room.

I know it looks like a mess, but we're packing up for Shanghai so everything is everywhere...Also, check out how we get the crinkles out of our shirts: hang them in the bathroom so when we shower they get steamed. It takes a few showers, but it works.

Oh, what a lovely surprise to come home to a 32 degree celsius room! New record high...

8. The convenience store right next to the hotel. I buy two huge water bottles here pretty much everyday. And, it's open 24 hours so even after going out for a night we will all stop in to grab anything we need before heading to bed. It's been a lifesaver. Starving and no energy to go get food? Instant noodles from the convenience store does the trick.

9. There was a group of five of us that went out the very first night we were here. We discovered this bar called Green Man... How did we find it you ask? Well, we walked down the street in search of another place we saw online. We got discouraged until we saw a drunk guy stumble out of a building. Obviously, we decided to go in and check it out and bam- there was Green Man. You are welcome China Summer Program participants- we are here at least twice a week. And don't worry, we're pretty much a circus show every time we show up...

DA CREW. Well, half of us.

I got incredibly sad today walking around TJU's campus, it caught me off guard. Man, it's been one helluva month and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Met some of the coolest kids from tech I never would have met otherwise, overcame extreme culture shock, perfected sign language, and learned a lot about myself in the process. Here's to the next four and a half weeks. Bring it on, Shanghai.