(Drew)I had a great weekend. It began on Friday with going out to KTV with our host brothers and sisters and one of my new friends from school Michael. Michael wants to come to America for College so he is taking a four part test with reading, writing, speaking and listening. Although i forget the name of this test its all in English and tests to make sure kids could get by in an American university setting. Michael is allowed to write something up for his spoken part of the test and asked me to help edit it with him as a native speaker. Saturday the school took us to a pottery museum/factory. We all made our best attempts on a pottery wheel making what sort of look like pots. We got a little frustrated, and the pottery master had to re-center our pots several times. Later on Saturday i had supper with my family which was followed by Eve and Cady coming over for movie night. It really ended up being just me and Cady watching Across the Universe because Eve and Mark just worked on homework. Sunday morning Eric, one of my classmates, took me sightseeing in Hangzhou. His mother is English who works several hours outside Hangzhou so she doesn't come often. His mom has never spoken to a native speaker of English before so her spoken English was probably not representative of her actual knowledge of English. Her English was still very good.
We went to Li Feng Pagoda on the south shore of West Lake (Xi Hu). We took a bunch of pictures of our trip with Eric's I-phone. I didn't realize that it was an I-phone until today when he had it in school. It was a perfect day for seeing the Pagoda. There are five floors to the pagoda each one has artwork all around the walls. The wood carvings on the first floor were absolutely amazing I'm regretting not bringing my camera. The view from the top was gorgeous (no not resembling a gorge). You could most of west lake which still had a layer of mist around it because it was still before noon and the sun had not scorched it off yet. We also walked through the hill adjacent to the pagoda which was very tranquil and shady, again regretting not bringing my camera. After the pagoda we drove through a park near by before heading back to my house.
For lunch we went over to Eves house where Cady had made us pancakes. Slightly lemony but still good, and all was well because they had a jar of peanut butter. Everything is good with peanut butter, that should be one of Newtons laws actually. I was very full from lunch and had only a few minutes back at the house before i set off with mark and two of his friends to a nearby agricultural university that had ping pong tables you could rent out. Marks parents also showed up to exercise. I ended up playing marks dad in ping pong for quite some time. I played ping pong for about 4 hours straight. I'm addicted. Although i think I'm getting pretty good at ping pong i was playing next to a kid (I'm estimating to be 9 years old) who could barely see over the table and I'm pretty certain i would not be able to score a single point on him.
Ive found that everyone in China loves sports, although in Hangzhou high school i don't see a lot of talent besides in ping pong and badminton. Those are the two sports that everyone can play in China. Hangzhou High school along with many others in China are big fans of the NBA more specifically the Houston rockets with Yao Ming and Tracy Macgrady (T-mac as I've heard him referred several times).
My running after school is going well. I think our private gym classes are awesome for keeping us in shape. We do yoga type stuff that improves our flexibility and strength. We also have done a lot of core exercises which is important for a runner, like me :).
Monday English corner we met many new people, English corner is growing exponentially it seems. By the end of the trip the entire school plus some random strays off the streets will be attending. Monday we met the four kids that are coming to D-S. I already like them naturally. They all seem very friendly. I also met two junior girls, one of which had gone abroad last year for six months to Washington state. If she hadn't told me that she had been to America i probably would have guessed because the way she talked was very Americanized. I found we speak with many expressions and not proper English in every day conversation. When you speak to your average Hangzhou student they use proper English. The girl i met talked very much like i do with my friends and used expressions just like us. She also just arrived at the school this semester and seems not to follow the rules such as no pierced ears and wearing a uniform, what a rebel. Many seniors don't wear uniforms either, they always use excuses such as it is in the wash or its lost. We have already been asked many times what we are doing next weekend, its quickly turning in a problem only having two days on the weekend. I want to see so many people and do different stuff with my various friends i need some sort of time machine to do everything.
Another awesome blog post to keep everyone back home entertained. One last quick note. They finally gave me a chair in class, YES! so comfortable... until now i had a little stool with no back. And i can lean back in my chair because I'm in my back row (sorry mom).
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