Where do you come from?

[TAW]

I was born in The Valley in Arizona and spent most of my time moving from suburb community to suburb community. I've lived in Glendale, Peoria, Phoenix, Mesa, Surprise, and Anthem. The last part of the Valley I ended up living in for the past 6 years is Glendale so I consider Glendale/Phoenix area to be my stomping ground. Phoenix is a wretched city that's consistently bathed in sun that makes it impossible to be outside for more than 10 minutes. The wind during the summer feels like being inside of an convection oven and the people are dimwitted morons but I don't blame them because it's honestly hard to work up the energy to use your brain after having the heat zap away all your energy.

That's Phoenix. It's a small cityscape surrounded by a gigantic suburb. Each suburb is a different socioeconomic class. From the upper-class Scottsdale capitalists, the middle class of Peoria, and the lower class of the inner-city Phoenix; we have it all.
Want to get across the city out of the heat? You better have a car because this populace city is home to one light-rail and a bus system that smells like piss. Or you can get a taxi from Discount Cab and pay $30usd to move across one city block. I guess that's fine if you're from Scottsdale, but if you're from that neighborhood, you're probably driving a Porsche. Want to do things in Phoenix? Well, you're shit out of luck. We have beautiful mountains that are too hot to climb past the month of March, so that's out of question. You can see a movie or visit one of the five crappy malls. We have an old Castles and Coasters at the Metro Center mall which is pretty cool, but watch out while you're leaving because you might get mugged.


Right now, my new home is in Tianjin, China. A place that would disembowel Phoenix and kick it into a giant pit because it's far superior in every way than Phoenix.

Here's Tianjin. A beautiful city that's 30 minutes away from Beijing, China via the high-speed train that only costs $8usd. Tianjin is flooded with streets full of five-story malls and people. It's home to some of the coolest architecture as entire districts of the city are modeled after European construction. Want to find some foreigners? No problem, head your ass over to Nankai district right off the WuJiaoYao subway station and enjoy a multitude of bars and cafes geared at the foreign students who study at the nearby Nankai and Tianjin University. Want to see some places that are more "authentic China", no problem. Head over to the Ancient Shopping street by the beautiful Eye of Tianjin ferris wheel that spans over the river. Or visit the ancient Drum Tower where you can buy a massive amount of art supplies for extremely cheap because of the streets geared at outfitting art students.


Look at it, it's beautiful and amazing. I won't be leaving Tianjin for a long time. Also, did I mention how much I hate Phoenix?