China Missions 2008 - Bike Ride

Day 8 we took a three-hour bike ride into the countryside near campus. We rented bikes for 1 RMB (which is like 15 cents), but of course these were not high-quality bikes. The chains on several fell off and had to be fixed along the way. I was a bit nervous about riding on the dirt roads, but it turned out fine. It was a great workout and the guys helped us with the difficult areas (like lifting the bikes across the railroad tracks, going up a very steep hill, etc). For the most part, it was a relaxing, beautiful and scenic ride! It was fun attempting the very steep hill. We all lined up behind each other, and one at a time, peddled like crazy to get some momentum going before hitting the hill, and out of 20 of us, only 2 guys made it. It was hard!

Getting ready to start our bike ride

















Crossing the railroad tracks to the country side





















































































We found an abandoned house and took some fun pictures :)

















Aww... don't they look cute?

















After the bike ride, we showered and got ready for dinner. I only ate a tiny bit for dinner because Rita was taking me out for hotpot. It was good, but very different from how we eat hotpot in Taiwan. All the food is on 'sticks' and you go and pick them out and put them on a tray. For example, a stick will have 3 fish balls or a piece of leafy vegetable, which is weird to me, haha. But we had a wonderful time, we ended up eating and chatting for over two hours! Over dinner I had the opportunity to share with her about Christianity in general and some of my own personal experiences. It was really awesome. Later that night, a bunch of us hung out in the hallway before going to bed.

Alicen and Clerise, they're both in high school

















Justin and Brett, they're in college

















Me with Ming and Courtney, they're both in college, yes I felt a little bit old :)

















Brandon and John with our new friend Bond

















Me and Bond, he's a very intelligent and thoughtful person. We had a couple of really good conversations in the hallway. And no, we did not plan to wear blue striped shirts that day and I didn't even realize it until after we took the picture.