Outdoors

I love being outside. Well, I love being outside when the weather allows. Any day now it will be unbearably cold up here in Northern China, so for now I'm enjoying the chance I have to be outside.

First, I got to spend a lovely day at the park last week with my friend of 3+ years who came into town to visit...I hadn't seen him since 2008, even though I've been in China for the last year, I kept being out of town when he would come back to the city to visit...so it was good to see him at last. During the summer of 08 when I was on a teaching exchange program here, he and 2 of of our other friends (who I sometimes referred to as the 3 musketeers) were my best friends in the city....I have some really good memories with them, so I was so happy to get to reunite.

An interesting aspect of our visit, besides the fact that we are now older (if not wiser), is that our roles have been reversed conversationally. When I came a few years ago, I only knew basic Chinese, not enough to carry on a conversation (a fact which he gleefully recounted with laughter, marveling at how I could now converse with him in Mandarin). A few years ago we conversed in English (his third language, and one he was not particularly comfortable in). So, it was my turn to be inferior in language ability... :-)

Anyways, we had a nice time in the park and it was good to be outside.

Popular park activities in China include:

-tai chi (which I have only tried once)

-feeding pigeons (which I did...those with bird phobias steer clear)

-boating (usually an animal shaped paddle boat on some dirty green or brown water)

-fishing for goldfish (kids do this, but I always want to jump in!)

(view from our duck paddle boat)