On Saturday morning, we all got some running clothes on and prepared for the Amazing Race, Beijing University style. Our program planned a scavenger hunt around campus so we could get to know the area better. We had different tasks to complete, like eating spicy food and repeating a Chinese tongue twister, and I had to climb the rock wall, which was 60 feet high, for my team. However, my team, due to a lacking in athleticism and enthusiasm, came dead last in the race.
After about three hours of napping, I went out to dinner with my language partner, Percy. Percy is what I would call a cool dude. He is very proud of his region of China, which is in the Northeast. He introduced me to his girlfriend and another friend of his, and then we sat together for a long time trying to communicate in Chinese. Although extremely patient with me and very interested in everything I had to say, he did tell me that I open my mouth too big when I speak Chinese. I responded that maybe my mouth was just bigger than Chinese people's mouths. He said if that was the case, that all foreigner's mouths were HUGE! So apparently the trick is to speak Chinese through a very small opening in your mouth, but I haven't mastered it yet.
Then Percy and I parted ways and I headed over to Pyro's, a pizza place that the owner, Rich, has newly renovated. He threw a hawaiian party and gave everybody cheap pizza. He also gave us lots of flowers and a dj, but I went to bed early that night so I missed most of the more intoxicated festivities.
I went to bed early because, at 6am, I woke up, put on my hiking boots and my one sturdy pair of jeans, strapped on my backpack, and travelled about an hour and a half by bike, subway, and taxi to the Lido Holiday Inn, where Beijing Hikers was preparing to leave for a hike through Quarrymen's Pass. I signed up for the hike a couple weeks before thinking that it would be a nice chance for me to practice my Chinese with Chinese hikers. No chance of that, as I soon realized that Chinese people do not hike, and actually don't have a good word for hiking. The closest they have is 爬山 which means mountain climbing. The people I hiked with were all European and American. I made friends with two British women and a French woman, and was amazed when, upon getting to the mountain, one French man strapped his three-year-old to his back in preparation for the hike.
We started up through the pass, and we were walking through an old village, complete with braying donkeys and smoking huts. We went further up through the mountains and after walking on a steep winding path, we came to one more house. Hayden, the guide, had even marked this house as the old woman and the old man's house, and sure enough the old woman ran out of her house to greet us as we came up to meet her. She was 83-years-old, and had all of three teeth in her mouth. The old man was sitting on his front stoop, working on a chair and giving us all a toothless smile. 
The old woman ushered us into her home, giving us all big hugs as we passed by her. She had laid out sunflower seeds and cherry tomatos for us in the room that serves as her kitchen and her bedroom. She had many of us sit on her bed while we ate. When she saw the three-year-old, a beautiful little girl whose mother is Chinese and father is French, the old woman got really excited. Chinese people love children, and this woman bent down and put her nose up against the little girl's nose, smiling a big smile. It took a moment for the little girl to move from stunned to terrified, but when she did everyone laughed and the old woman promptly handed her back to her mother.
In the meantime, I had finished my share of sunflower seeds and went outside of the house to explore. The place was a little like a petting zoo, with a donkey, a mangy cat, and some chickens. I made friends with the donkey and he let me pet him and take some close ups!
After that, we left the old house and really started hiking. The way up was quite steep but also very sunny. There was very little mud or snow, and the way up afforded some beautiful views of the mountains.
However, on the way down, this side of the mountain was in shadows, and it was still covered in snow. We had to slip and slide our way through brambles, low hanging branches, and worst of all, snow. It wasn't very steep, but it was slippery, and pretty challenging. We came out into the sun at the end to climb up one more time on the route, and once again we were on dry ground. This time the climb up was much steeper, and at the top we stopped and had lunch. The way down was once again icy, but it went by very quickly and finally we had finished our four hour hike. The best part was that Beijing Hikers provides all kinds of snacks and drinks at the end, which are much needed. And the house by the road that we passed on the way to the bus had, you guessed it, puppies!
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