biking<div>So last Tuesday I went on a fifty mile (80km) bike ride to 'black dragon pond' &nbsp;and thoroughly exhausted myself in the process (so i didn't actually go to the pond because it's a three mile hike from the base of the mountain). &nbsp;This week I went with Debbie and Paul (two teachers from the vocational college nearby). &nbsp;Paul has an electric bike so they took that and followed me on my normal road bike (which I bought a new seat for so the ride didn't feel so long haha). &nbsp;We got about twenty two miles in (which is almost there right?) and Pauls bike died (ran out of juice), so we pulled into a, thankfully, very close food stuffs store (think like a privately owned 7-11/convenient store attached to their house). &nbsp;We bought some food (though we had packed a picnic lunch) and I awkwardly asked if we could buy some power from them. &nbsp;She flatly refused the money but said we could charge our bike. &nbsp;We ate some food and headed out and walked the remaining portion of the trip to the base of the trail. &nbsp;The road thusfar was mostly tea country which is pretty, and it's on the reservoir which adds some rivers to the mix of rolling hills with what looks like giant staircases of perfectly trimmed tea leaves. &nbsp;We had left at 7am and arrived there a little after 9am. &nbsp;the hike to the hike took another hour through a winding hilly country road, and then we got some ice cream at the town at the base of the hike. &nbsp;we set out and hiked for about five miles before we ran into another town (mind you we have one person with knee surgery and one person with a hip replacement) where i asked how lost we were. &nbsp;It turns out we had passed the pond and had been hiking for the mere pleasure of it........ we turned back immediately (the scenery was reallly pretty, walking in a valley or the side of a mountain and looking up at oceans of tea mixed in with boulders, various incandescent butterflies that Debbie said were morphs of some kind and had a super dark blue hue, and a river running through most of it). &nbsp;We found the hole in the wall trail divergement that led to the pond on the way back and stayed for an hour or so absorbing the cool water from the stream. &nbsp;We begun the trail back rather reluctantly. &nbsp;I think 7 miles was more than enough hiking for us. &nbsp;We went at a pace that got slower and slower thinking just around the next bend will be our little 7-11, but it never was. &nbsp;The road is pretty busy and was just a two lane road, so we often had to squeeze when big trucks came roaring through it. &nbsp;About halfway through the hike a van stopped and asked if we were walking to xinyang (which is where we were going but on the bikes since it's 20 miles away) we said no we just need to go to the store nearby so they offer to take us woohoo! &nbsp;we get there lickity split, but in transit we begin to talk and it turns out these tea farmers go to a house church in xinyang! &nbsp;What a blessing. &nbsp;We swap phone numbers and give our thanks. &nbsp;Then we get the bikes ready and I more insistantly ask if we can pay for electricity (it's not cheap out here i think, and most people really are strapped so I felt very compelled to do something, though in hindsight I may have been pretty rude). &nbsp;We left a thank you note too and she asked what God we believed in, and we said we believe in Jesus and she said me too! &nbsp;So it was a pretty awesome experience :) &nbsp;we biked back much more quickly because it's downhill on the way home and spent the rest of the day applying aloe vera and eating ibuprofen.</div><div>That's the only highlight really. &nbsp;I've been able to hang out with students a lot more as the semester has progress (I think now that they know me I'm less intimidating) &nbsp;and hope to foster some friendships out of it. I also made friends with the internet guy (my house has the hub for my neighborhood so he comes by frequently) and we're having dinner tonight.<br><div><br></div></div>