A walk home from school

Since the weather has turned nicer a couple of times a week I like to walk home. There are three options when thinking about walking to school. One I would never take - that's the way over the very large bridge filled to the brim with cars. The other is a back way - a little longer and also has many cars and lots of exhaust. The third is actually a dirt road through the fish market area, across a short bridge and continuing on the dirt road until you get right before our school.

It takes 30 minutes to walk home. And below are a couple of pictures... The thing I cannot convey to you are all the smells....On this walk there is the canal that you walk beside for a while that is quite stinky. Then you pass the fish market and the smell of all the fish that were sold in the morning is still lingering. Because this is a back area there are also other countless smells before you actually get to the apartments area filled with vendors selling everything from eggs and vegetables to tofu and fried flat bread. Enjoy the pictures!

I first leave school. For those of you that have never seen, this is TIS. It was originally built as an office building but we have turned it into a school. I teach on the 5th floor (the one with chinese characters on the tile) but my room is on the other side of the building.

The road in front of the school has a large area for people to ride their bikes (or walk). To the left is a very busy 4 lane road.

In the picture below you can see the canal to the right (it's pretty much a ditch with bad water in it. And on the left you can barely see the main road and bridge bearing left. At that point you can also see some tall pink buildings. I will end up in that general area.

Crossing the bridge, over one of the larger canals. Tianjin has many canals but they aren't really connected. The city is at sea level and not too far from the ocean. 100 years ago there were many more canals and peope traveled on them in sampans.

After the bridge it's just a little stretch by the fish market till you get to apartments and paved roads again.

I often stop and buy some eggs, vegetables for dinner or pineapple on my way home. This is how we buy eggs here. And right below is a picture of a fruit vendor. Currently, I enjoy buying pineapples, strawberries and mangoes for a very reasonable price.

This is the street my apartment is off of. I consider this one of the ugliest streets in tianjin - so much concrete and more and more cars parked here every week.

This is my apartment building. I live on the 4th flood of the building directly in the middle.