Sports and socializing

So turns out a big way to socialize on this campus is sports.
Maggie and Peter were sweet enough to take me to play badminton and tolerate my horrible skills and be patient enough to teach me how you really are supposed to hit the birdie. It was super fun. They thought it was funny that I laughed each time I messed up. Oh yes, I get the comments all the time here, just like in America: wow, she really laughs a lot. What can I say, it’s one of my trademarks in English or Chinese (or any other language I might attempt).


Swimming is also another way to meet people. Ben goes swimming consistently because a lot of his guy friends go all the time. It’s pretty entertaining. At first it was a little terrifying because I am pretty horrible at swimming. And by horrible I mean I know how to swim, but can’t get anywhere fast, and always feel like I’m drowning when doing freestyle. And then I discovered that the Chinese version of swimming is socializing with a few laps in between. You swim a couple laps and then talk for 10 minutes and then swim a couple more and talk some more...It’s pretty fun. Plus, right now in the pool there are lots of children because school hasn’t started. They are very curious about us and once they figure out that we speak Chinese (although they have more trouble understanding our strange accent than most of our college age friens) have a blast playing with us and following us around. The other day Beth and I made friends with a bright little 10 year old girl who insisted on following us back and forth down the lanes and even escorted us back to the showerroom when we were done. She told us we were the first foreigners she had ever met. I always forget that we are so uncommon in Taigu.

Teller tried to teach me how to do freestyle correctly. Now I don’t feel like I’m drowning, but I go about ¾ of the length of the Olympic sized swimming pool and am too out of breath to keep it up. Breaststroke is my savior.

The shower room was another thing of terror initially. Here I was, already stared at with clothes on, and I was pretty terrified to take them off in front of Chinese women. For better or for worse though, I guess I look surprisingly like a Chinese woman naked if they can’t see my eyes. I heard a couple arguments between people about whether I was foreigner or not. (It is really entertaining here the amount of discussion about you that goes on right in front of your face.) The usual conclusion was foreigner as soon as I looked over at them.

I keep up my running occasionally, but running is difficult because the air gets pretty bad pretty quick after the morning. Also, it is not a thing to do when I am feeling shy--I get stared at incessantly wherever I run. In spite of the fact that they have two tracks here, no body seems to run but me.