Table Tennis: Leg Strength Required

(Patty)

It's already been a week that the Bears have been in Hangzhou, and time is absolutely flying by. This morning we were whisked off to the gym where we were given ping pong paddles, shown into a room of 10 tables, and were told to go at it. For the first twenty minutes or so, our gym teachers silently watched us playing and we thought we were doing reasonably well until one of the teachers came over and told us we were doing everything completely wrong. After that, we started learning how to really play table tennis (I for one never knew that it required both stamina and leg strength). After an hour, the slightly sweaty, slightly sore group of Bears made our way to our next task: dance lessons. The group walked into the room untalented and uncoordinated, but walked out an hour later masters of Gangam Style (we even have videos to prove it, ask for them later).

Quite famished after a morning of hard work, the Bears grabbed a quick and tasty lunch in our private room, and then went outside to enjoy the sunshine (77 here today, sorry to those of you stuck in MA where it's only 35...) and to meet up with our new classmates in English Corner, which is becoming more popular by the day, with around 25 kids participating now. Today, a classmate of ours played the Arhu, while other students will display their talent rapping American songs and ask us questions about life in Dover-Sherborn. Per our request, Apple took us to a foreign book store, where I picked up several good reads, then we walked over to a massive mall in Hangzhou, which housed a foreign food market, and my day was made when I found jars of peanut butter (they only had chunky, but you've pick your battles I suppose). Before we headed back to the school, we took a rest at a Starbucks, very excited to finally have our hands on some good coffee.

I ended the day off with Aletta introducing me to some Chinese music, and me introducing her to some of the more popular music from the states (Adele is a favorite of many Chinese teens). We also experimented with new kinds of tea and hot cocoa, which were cozy companions to my new reading material.