This weekend we went to Hangzhou, to visit our fellow brothers and sisters, to run in the Hangzhou International Marathon (we ran the 6.8K race), worship Him together, hike in the tea fields, and rappell down an 8 story building!
This blog will be short and sweet I just now decided :) It'll be a "Top Ten" list describing the top 10 things about this weekend (in no particular order).
1). Hangzhou is beautiful! It was nice to get away from the 'real' China in Wuhan, to a beautiful/green city.
2). Western food! I ate so much delicious food that I haven't had in 3 months. In one day I ate 3 Bic Macs, fries, cheese, and some delicious desserts.
3). RUNNING IN A RACE!!! I am very very happy and excited to have been able to run in this race. It was a blast. I haven't run a race since my marathon in May, and it was an exhilarating experience running a race in China. Pretty funny though, because there were so many people wanting to take pictures with me after the finish line, tons of photographers taking pictures of me, and a lot of people just wanting to talk to me. Still haven't gotten used to this yet, kind of weird and awkward! I must look like a foreign professional runner ;) The finish was fun too. It was me and another Chinese guy. I was about to breeze past him into the finish, but he did a double take. As soon as he saw me he took off sprinting. So I let him get ahead a bit, and after a few seconds I took off! Passed him before finishing. The race was a beautiful course too. Around a part of the famous West Lake. It is considered China's most romantic area, and I can see why! With temples and pagodas peaking out from the tree covered hills lining the lake, the warm autumn day was full of red, yellow, and orange trees. Great race.
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| The Wuhaners. |
4). Hiking the tea fields. Incredibly beautiful and peaceful place. We hiked up the tea fields from a small village, and had a cup of tea afterwards.
5). Rappelling down an 8 story building. The guys we stayed with are avid rock climbers, so they have a sweet setup on their roof to repel down. Scary at first while stepping out onto a little ledge with 8 floors beneath but epic. As I was repelling down I went by a window with an old lady doing her laundry. I greeted her in Chinese and she greeted me back without surprise (considering I was a foreigner a foot away from her window repelling down, I was surprised that she wasn't surprised)!
6). Fellowship with all the FOCers! A large group of us gathered in Hangzhou for fellowship. Seeing everyone again was great. Fun people.
7). Group w-rhip service. With over 50 people jam packed like sardines in a small apartment, sitting on the floor and anywhere we could find room, we sang, pr-yed, listened and reflected on what He has done for us. It was great.
8). "Friends" replica coffee shop. We visited a replica coffee shop and apartment from the TV show "Friends." I haven't seen the show that much, but it was still pretty sweet!
10). Great people, places, and a great G-d!
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