Lunch in Tianjin

     I have begun volunteering one afternoon a week at A & E's school.  Since it is a K-12 private school, they have need for helpers at all levels.  Another expat, Diane, lives in my same apartment complex and has a background in special ed; she will also be volunteering, even though she doesn't have children at the school.  (Hers are all grown up.) So we drive in together.
    Last week, as we met to discuss the different volunteer opportunities, a group of us went out to lunch, at "Aaron's".  Just walk down that sidewalk on the left, and there is a nice little restaurant that serves wonderful food.  The owner is Australian.  Some of the food is Thai. And some of the entrees have ingredients like SOUR CREAM--a commodity like most other dairy foods that is hard to come by here.  I had a noodle dish much like a stroganoff.  That was a pleasant surprise! (Sidenote:  not much milk here--cheese and butter are VERY expensive and sold only to foreigners.  But there is a LOT of yogurt--and it's really good--not as sweet as American yogurt.)

    The first three of us are John Deere wives, and live near each other. I'm the "youngest" one here, having been here only 1 month.  The fourth, Keli, has lived in China for 6 or 7 years, and lived in Sweden before that. She has a daughter Ellie's age who, although she is an American, has never lived in America.  She's not looking forward to the culture shock of living in her "home" country when she goes to college next year.
    We have found that so many of the expats living here have lived in another foreign land first.  I know I have found this culture easier to take since I had already learned to navigate amongst the French.
   I have really been grateful for the help the other women have offered who have been here longer.  There is a "we're all in this together" camaraderie, and I am enjoying it.