So hot... so humid...

...but oh the things to see and do.

Last night I went to the P.E. college and participated in a Taekwondo class that practiced the same techniques I did when I was 10. Talk about rigid movement - it was like doing a poor version of 'the robot'. Though I was a bit impatient because I finally got the Internet working on my own machine and I wanted to get to using it and upload some pictures.

I got back to my room and showered, and within a few minutes of getting out of the shower, a couple students came knocking at my door (to add to the problem my two towels were in the washing machine at that moment so I couldn't dry myself in the conventional manner). Anyway, I got invited to go on a hike up one of the mountains near the campus with the "Crazy English" club.

The hike took place around 6:00 this morning. We biked out to the base of the mountain (where I had gone a couple days before when I had a free afternoon), and halfway up the mountain we celebrated one group member's birthday with a fruit-filled spongecake (there were close to twenty of us).
The students were very nice and wanted to include me in all that they did, but therein lay the problem; I like to go hiking to get away from excessive socialization and the press of civilization. I certainly don't mind going hiking with others, and I don't mind talking to others on a hike, but in my experience there's a sort of unwritten, unspoken "non-speaking" rule in regards to hiking up a mountain - you talk all you want when you have a break, and while hiking you strive for silence. You focus on breathing and enjoying the scenery ...in silence.

Apparently such is not the case in China, I scarcely had a quiet moment. So many group members wanted to talk to me and practice their English. And when I tried to speak in Chinese they would usually just answer the question and then jump right back into English (sometimes it's almost impossible to get Chinese practice, no one wants to use the native tongue with foreigners.)

At the top of our ascent (we only went about halfway up the mountain) I climbed some tall stones to get a better view (and get a bit of distance from everyone) and my 'daring stunts' had some of friends freaking out.

We had lunch at a restaurant outside the university and a little ways away from the town. As usual I was reluctant to leave food uneaten, knowing no one is taking it home for leftovers, and I noticed we still had a lot of steamed rice. One of the girls told me not to worry because it can be reused. That relieved me as far as knowing that there won't be so much waste of food, however learning that my lunch included potentially reused rice from someone else's meal left me just a little discomforted.


One last thing I'll mention was that all along the paths ascending the mountain there was a fair amount of garbage, from plastic bags to packaging, to cigarette packs and bottle caps. Having lived so long in Oregon where such things are almost unthinkable I found the quantity of rubbish astounding.
A couple days ago I had been brainstorming ways to help clean up the river that runs through the town, and today I found the opportunity to do some clean up on the mountain. I and the other students only collected a plastic grocery bag-full of rubbish, but the students found it very inspiring - maybe I can use it to affect some real change in the near future - garbage cleanups in exchange for special English lessons (hey it starts with a dream).