Monday, April 19, 2010

A New Community

Tonight was the first warm night in a while. It was humid from a fog that seeped into our city but it felt refreshing. Kyle and I decided to go for a run. The campus we live in doesn't have a track but we've found one in the neighboring campus.
We discovered a new community on that dark track. There were all kinds of workouts being performed...some I'd never seen before! The young college guys would sprint around the track for a few laps. Satisfied with their run they'd go to the pull up bars in the center and start doing really fast sit ups. The young college girls, arm in arm, talked rapidly as they walked around the track or leaning lazily on the bars in the center talking on their cell phones. Older couples walked around the track backwards swinging their arms in huge motions across their bodies and then out again. One woman walked the entire track several times with her arms raised above her head the whole time. There were little children racing each other in the center being watched carefully by their grandmothers. And of course there was an army training for the new college students taking up all of the lanes on one part of the track. (In China all the college students must have army training their freshman or sophomore year.)
As you can imagine all these different activities made a regular run on the track quite an obstacle course! We plan to be regulars on this track and make some friends along the way.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Climbing Hills



Sylar, A student of mine, grew up in Hangzhou and knows a lot about the city. For months we've been talking about climbing the hills next to west lake and today we had an opportunity to do so! Sylar, Butterfly, Kerri, and another friend came with Kyle & I!
We experienced a completely different side of Hangzhou, one we'd never seen before. We left the hustle and bustle of the city streets and started the climb. Stairs of course. Like our Huang Shan Christmas but not near as strenuous. Once we climbed to the summit we sat on rocks and looked at the city below. It was an awesome feeling to find a place of retreat from crowded buses, busy streets and over populated sidewalks. Today we found our favorite place in Hangzhou.