Ping Pong Tournament

I got a chance to see some of the members of the SIAS ping pong team in action the other night. We were hosting a tournament and I think some other schools had teams there, but I can't be sure...but the trophies looked pretty cool and there were a lot of people there (yeah, yeah, I realize it's China - of course there are a lot of people :-), so I think it was an important tournament. It was fun to watch for a little while...it looked like the type of thing you might see on ESPN when there is no baseball, football, basketball or even hockey to watch. Its amazing how good some of these guys are. Makes you wonder how many thousands of hours they have practiced.

What I miss most...

The things I miss most so far:

1) Definitely my family and friends. The whole family got together this weekend in Chattanooga, which is rare for all of us to be together at once, so I hated missing that. It's weird being so disconnected from all my friends too, after having been so connected before.

2) Warm homemade chocolate chip cookies. You just can't beat my mom's homemade cookies, they are so good :-) Someone bought a mix of chocolate chip cookies in Zhengzhou and made them about two months ago and I about passed out because they were so good - and that was a mix!

3) Food. The food in Peter Hall is not bad - they try and make some western meals for us, but they aren't nearly as good as the real thing. I eat out too, and the food is actually usually pretty good. But if I had to choose between restaurants here and in America, America wins. The biggest negative is not having as many snack foods to choose from probably. I know chocolate chip cookies are a food, but they are important enough to get their own category.

4) Driving. I haven't really been craving to drive, but there are times I just wish I could jump in my CRV and drive around...actually I wouldn't want to drive on the streets here, because I would like to continue my record of not ever having a wreck.

Zhuyu Mountain

This past week was a National Holiday in China - meaning no school! So I went with Nathan and Rebecca Hillman, some married friends of mine, and a lot of SIAS students to see some beautiful waterfalls and climb the Zhuyu Mountain. Unfortunately so did thousands of other Chinese people! The concept of waiting in line is not in their vocabulary apparently because I was always being pushed, shoved or passed while "waiting" in line. Typically going into nature is very calming and peaceful...this went against the norm. Thankfully climbing the mountain was much more peaceful because not as many people were eager to make the climb. Overall, I was very glad that I went because it was indeed beautiful and I met some cool students and had a good time with the Hillman's. I'll be sending more pictures of the trip to those of you who are on my email list...so if you haven't been receiving any emails from me and you'd like to, just leave a comment and I'll add you to my list! :-)