Wait, We Have Snow At Home?

(Brandon)

The past few days have been unusually warm and sunny. In other words, quite welcomed by the Bad Luck Bears (who might have to change the name if this weather persists). Today peaked in the mid-seventies, and the Bears made the most of it. We had another few things to check off on our to-do list.

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).

3 March 2013: That K-Pop Swag (Or Maybe Not...)

(Deanna)

The Bad Luck Bears and our host siblings all decided to voyage shopping today and spend time together. For me, my day started out meeting up with everyone and then we walked in a street full of shops and knickknacks. We went into a marketplace where kabobs of all sorts were sold such as assorted fruits, pork, chicken, squid, crab, shrimp and so on. You could see people eating noodles and kabobs throughout and it only made us want to try everything. We each tried different things that we enjoyed. After each getting our kabobs and pastries and such we continued browsing the street of shops that interested us.

Life in Hangzhou

(Patty)

It seems as if The Bears are finally getting settled into life here in Hangzhou. This morning, the five of us were sent to the head chef to learn some traditional Chinese cooking. We were accompanied by our two faithful interpreters, Apple and Tom, both of who are seniors in Hangzhou. The pair are able to spend time with us because of their senior status; Apple has already been admitted into her top choice university and no longer needs to attend high school classes, and Tom is in AP classes (not too different than the ones at DS) so his schedule is different than that of other students.