This last weekend was unexpectedly warm, the internet had forecast rainy weather, but we ended up with very little rain and lots of sun. This meant that we spent lots of time outdoors. On Friday, we went outside to play some badminton and ended up playing with a variety of students and getting a chance to talk to a bunch of them. Sports has been a good way to meet a variety of different people, many of whom are interested in learning English but may not have much of a language level and our Chinese has sadly still be insufficient to hold long conversations. We have been watching episodes of Law and Order, Full House and other American TV shows when we have had free time or while we eat and that has been fun.

On Saturday, we went walking with the dog and ran into our friend Tom, from volleyball. He walked with us and we had a chance to talk about many things. He is very active so this could be an opportunity to have someone to run with (he runs 6 laps in the morning at 6:30 and 10 laps later in the afternoon). Maybe too much for me though. He invited me to go play basketball later (although he did not show up). This has been something hard to understand in China, it is common to make an appointment and not show up--at least it has happened to us a few times now. But I did go and play ping pong with some students, they are now not quite as shy to call and invite me to play sports. It is fun to try new things, but now finally my skill level is getting closer to a normal Chinese level. Later, I went to play basketball too. Maybe I will learn to not try to do everything, but I would definitely rather be outside then indoors especially when it is nice out.

Sunday was super beautiful, with temperatures almost into the 70's. Patty decided she could not stay indoors any longer, so she put on many layers and we headed out for a walk in the countryside. I showed her some of the places I had been taking the dog walking, such as the Brick Factory, the Rock Quarry, and we watched many farmers plowing fields or working in the sun. We were heading home for lunch when we met one of our friends, Leo and his girlfriend, who were going for a hike. They wanted us to come climb the mountain with them. It was nice out and we thought they meant the one close by so we said, "Sure." What we soon found out is that we were going to walk almost to the airport, a very long ways away, and climb the highest mountain the area. It was a beautiful area with small fields with high stone walls and we ended up walking on those walls to get to the mountain. Well, Leo and I and SanSan walked on the walls while Patty and Joy (she asked for a English name) walked through the fields. We took lots of pictures of us on top of the mountain (including Patty near the edge of a large rock). It gave us a breath-taking view far into the countryside. While we were walking another friend called and wanted to go hiking, so I again said, "Sure, I am sure we will be back by 2pm." We arrived home at exactly 2 and I headed out for another hike, this time to a park to go play cards and enjoy the weather. It was another long walk, but it was worth it. It was a park with a memorial to the soldiers who fought and died in the Revolution including a very famous person, Wang Zhan Yuan, a leader in the Early Revolution. We ended up walking around and then playing cards for a while. I returned home just before 5, such as long day. We had our fellowship later that night, because our leader was gone visiting students. It was a long tiring but incredibly blessed weekend. We sent out some pictures from this time. I hope you all enjoy.