Exhaustion looks like this sometimes

Well, Michael likes this picture and demanded that we get it up on the blog but personally, I think I look like shit! To be honest, I felt like it too. You see, Michael's class of Sophmore English majors asked us to join them on an outing about 45 minutes from Hangzhou where we would have a BBQ and a hike. These students are warm and have been very helpful getting a variety of things done for us. Also, these are the best English speakers Michael has for students.

The students rented a bus and tour guide and we met them at 8:30AM. As soon as we got on the road the cards came out and people started to play. The microphone also came out and people took their turns singing and of course, they wanted us to sing a song, and as usual, we didn't dare.

Soon, the bus stopped on a road that was so narrow that we all climbed off of it and started walking toward a dark tunnel. The tunnel was black, damp, curving right and left and about 400 yards long. As cars and motorcycles went through it one at a time and in one direction at a time, we squeezed the wall and finally, came onto the cutest little village you could imagine. This particular picture is while walking toward one of the farmer's homes and looking across a field -- just what you would imagine China would look like, isn't it?

Well, soon we arrived at this home, walked to the back of it and found ourselves in a huge bamboo grove surrounded by tea plants and hundreds of other students from the surrounding colleges and universities. Apparently, we weren't the only ones to think of enjoying the weekend! It was almost magical if it weren't for all the young people cooking in woks and talking up a storm.

About the BBQ. Stop thinking about how and what we have -- okay! Here's a couple of pictures because you know.....they speak a thousand words



Okay, so, why am I so exhausted in the first picture of this post? We didn't just eat some good but weird stuff in a beautiful bamboo grove all day. Remember, the hike part of the day? Well, it started out to be one of those normal hikes where one walks along a stone path that slowly but surely meanders upward toward a beautiful view. We walked about a half a mile and all of a sudden, there's no path. Not only no path, but the hike turned into almost verticle climb. We were pulling ourselves up by the roots of trees and shrubs and placing our feet against rocks and stubs. This went on for about an hour and you can bet your petuty we were all grateful to get to the top without loosing anyone from the group.
Here's a picture looking down from above. We think we climbed maybe 1000 feet from the ground to the top but we don't know for sure and this approximation is looking backward on a day's hike that we'll never forget and probably will always magnify every time we tell it.

One last story of the day if you don't mind. You see, it didn't end at the climb up or at the easier trip downward but kept on going until into the evening. There was the traditional bon fire in the big ole'wok, a TV playing bad old Chinese rock videos with students singing kareoke and a bit of dancing. This lasted until we finally got to board the warm bus at 8:30 PM, get back to school at 9:30, ride our bikes from the school where we left,and then, climb four flights up to our place.

Exhaustion -- it lasted until Thursday.

By the way, we are still posting without seeing what these look like so we hope all is well with this post and that the pictures and copy follow one another. Any comments must be sent to our email address if you would either like a response or would like us to know what ya think about our adventures.