Fun (or Work?) With Students

Before we started at the bottom of the "hill"

We have been really overwhelmed lately with students wanting to spend time with us. It has been great but challenging. One fun thing we got to do a week and a half ago was hike a mountain in Lanzhou.

Our city here is surrounded by hills (some people call them mountains but I Mike am a skier and know a mountain when I see one). There are many options of what hill (mountain) to hike but the most famous mountain is 5 Spring Mountain because of the 5 springs that used to be located on the mountain.

So 8 o'clock Saturday morning, we set off from campus with 7 students.

The bus ride - 45 minutes no problem

After a 45-minute bus ride, we arrived at the base of the "hill" where some students said that they hadn't had breakfast yet and insisted on eating some famous Lanzhou Beef Noodles and making us eat some too. (Just a note: Eating a large bowl of beef noodles before you hike 1400 vertical feet probably not a wise choice - though Amanda needed the calories!)

Beef noodles for breakfast? Why not; it is the Lanzhou specialty

So, after our quick breakfast, we left on the hike. Since we didn't want pay the 75 cents entry fee we went the "back way" (in hind sight, it was probably more scenic and felt more LOCAL). It only took us an hour to make it to the top where Amanda and I realized that we are getting old and our students are in much better shape than us...

Our students nicely insisted it was because we were used to 800 feet above sea level and, here in Lanzhou, it is 5000 ft above sea level. I tend to agree with them to a point because I am sure Amanda and I are a bit out of shape.

The back way up is also the free way

At the top of the "hill", we grabbed some chairs and sank into them gratefully. We bought some tea and relaxed for a while, singing Christmas carols which quickly drew looks from the other hikers who were relaxing after the climb. After we began to get cold once again, we grabbed our stuff and headed back down the "hill" a different way, much to my delight.

Finally the top and some relaxing

We finally got down and back to the main bus station about 1 o'clock. By then, we all had to go to the bathroom and just wanted to get home to relax. So, some students went their way and we went back to campus with the others.

Back to our bed for a nice little Saturday afternoon nap. Wow, what a trip...

P.S. On this trip, Amanda had her first embarrassing moment: She ripped the backside of her pants when trying to step up on a barrier than was just *too* high.. Yikes :)