Tuesday the 10th of June

I’ll start with some old news that I haven’t gotten around to sharing. 

I found out the dance phenomenon that happens in the street outside my window is not particular to my part of town. Apparently it is a big thing in China! I took the bus to meet a friend and ended up at one of the city plazas. As I waited for my friend, I decided to explore a bit. I found out that the Chinese like music. In my stroll around the plaza a counted five different PA systems set up, one was playing popular songs in English, another was amplifying playback music as someone sang what seemed to be traditional Chinese music, a third PA system formed part of a karaoke set that accompanied enthusiastic and terribly out of tune participants, another one accompanied a theatric musical show with a small circle of observers.

The one that caught my attention the most, however, was the one that played back to back one minute snippets of different songs while a crowd of people moved together in surprisingly good synchronicity. As I watched the number kept growing. It was like a daily flash mob, although I think that is kind of a contradiction of terms. You could tell that some were joining in for maybe the first or second time. I could see why they would join in, though, the rest of them made it look so easy. After a few embarrassing moments however, most of the new-comers would exit stage left. The vast majority of this growing mob just jumped right in step with the rest. 

The number had grown to somewhere around a hundred people by now. There were all different kinds of people, male, female, young, old, thin, heavy. Some were enthusiastic as they made the movements and others had facial expressions as though they were enjoying afternoon tea in London. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I watched the older dignified men and ladies stepping to the rather hip music, but it seemed to make perfect sense to them. It was like an elaborate exercise program (I imagine that that is probably one of its main functions).

The dancing in front of my apartment has become more elaborate. They have added colorful flags and traditional Chinese fans to some of the arrangements. It’s fun to watch. My friend says that it isn’t for any real purpose, they just enjoy it. 

In other parts of life, I finally made it down to the university basketball counts on Sunday. Within five minutes of my arrival I was being filmed and asked to repeat Chinese sentences and tongue twisters. I explained to them that I only speak a couple of Chinese words. No problem, just repeat after me, they encouraged. I did my best to repeat things as I heard them. The tongue twisters were the real challenge. After trying to get me to repeat a few different ones they concluded that it was good enough. I am sure I completely destroyed the Chinese language, on video none the less! They said it was for a school project and I hoped it would never find a large audience. I am glad that YouTube is blocked in China! They gave me some chocolate goodies for helping out. 

There were about 16 basketball courts all lined up next to each other and they were a packed with people. About half of the courts had official games going on, complete with referees and jerseys. The other half had half court pickup games of three on three and four on four. The losing team or teams waited at the side of the court for their turn to play again. After about twenty minutes of watching someone gestured for me to be on his team. I gladly accepted. 

We quickly lost our first game, even though we had the tallest Chinese dude that I have ever met on our team. The game was make it take it, first to four points wins. People were calling their own fouls and people seemed to be having a good time. My one form of communication was giving my team mates a high five or a pat on the back, both of which I did quite frequently. After each game, win or lose, I gave each team mate a high five. Someone on the other team got a kick out of getting me to give him a high five too. After several games they started to warm up to me, despite the fact that I couldn’t make a single outside shot. I made a few fancy moves followed by a couple of lucky layups and tried to hustle on defense. It was enough to give them the idea that I had played the game a few times before. 

By about game fifteen I was about dead. I felt like I was playing basketball in a car with the windows rolled up on a hot summer day. My luke warm water didn’t help the situation. I thanked them for the games and when they insisted for the second time that I stay for another game, I shook my head and ran my fingers across my neck to let them know I was dying. They laughed and waved me on my way. 

As I walked the two and a half blocks back to my apartment, all I could think of was how good it was going to feel to get into a cold shower and cool down my throbbing head. 

Still wet from my shower I stood underneath the AC for a few minutes. I emptied one water bottle, then another water bottle. I tried mixing in some instant Chinese tea medicine stuff that my friend Lily gave me. She said it was supposed to help keep you cool on hot days. I drank a couple of water bottles of that, too. Then it was time to find some food. I grabbed whatever was easy and just kept eating and drinking until I was full. 

Later on that night I lay in bed wondering why my stomach felt so weird and why I couldn’t sleep. Come to think of it. I wonder if that medicine tea stuff has some sort of stimulant in it. All I know is I was up till about three in the morning. 

Thankfully, I have a good book that I am reading called “forget me not”, a book written by the wife of one of the best climbers in the world, Alex Lowe. 

I still feel a little strange in my stomach so I am being careful with what I eat. 

All of that said, I had a lot of fun and look forward to frequenting the basketball courts over the next year. I need to get in better shape though, and maybe learn how to pace myself a little more. 

Today I made sure to climb the stairs to the roof again. High above the hustling city streets I did push-ups and even found a place to do some pull ups. I felt like I was in the rapid sequence scene of a movie, getting ready for an amazing feat. You know, when the inspiring music is playing and within like two minutes the guy turns into this super fit Rambo looking guy. It was a lot like that, except for at the end of my two minute exercise scene I was just looked a little more tired. None the less, it has begun.