Shenanigans

As a group of young college students we try to make the most of every situation. Sometimes we find ourselves on a bus or subway waiting to arrive at our next destination. On other occasions we are just wandering around enjoying the sights, but find that we need to spice up the moment with a fun activity or test the limits of sanity with some outrageous behavior. I would like to share our fun games and activities.

PARKOUR:

Sometimes while surrounded by nature a strong desire to climb on things will take hold. It might be a tree or a beautiful rocky landscape that might seize our inner child, overthrowing aside any sense of being a proper citizen. On rare occasions, when we are completely consumed by the high of adventure, our athletic skills burst forth and with a cry we test the limits of our parkour skills. If you do not know what parkour is just educate yourself with some YouTube videos or look up an episode of New Girl where Schmidt shows off his sweet moves. Trust me it is worth a look.

STATION DASH:
An excellent game to play while riding the metro is something I like to call "station dash". My friend Tyler and I played this on our first journey on the metro or subway. What you do is when you come to a stop/station you run or dash off of the current car you are on and see how far down the train you can run before the doors close and it takes off again. The first time we only made it three doors down just to get to the rest of our group. We recruited Ryan and tried again, this time making it ten doors before dashing back onto the train. Needless to say we gave the Chinese people something to talk about at the dinner table that night, and the looks we received were priceless! An excellent game for those looking for a thrill and who like to push their luck.

FOOD ROULETTE:
My final game that we recently found we enjoy to play is food roulette. Since none of us speak Chinese and have only begun Mandarin classes, we are forced to point at something on the menu and hope for the best. We experienced our first game at a restaurant called Happy Kitchen, where you can pick multiple dishes from a menu. The dishes are then brought out whenever each dish is ready and placed on a spinning centerpiece so everyone can share the food. Well, we circled a few pictures on the front of the menu so we knew at least a couple things we were getting. For the rest though, we just went for it, picking things at random and hoping for the best. We did a pretty fine job, picking mostly soup and with some incredible luck ended up with something similar to chicken dumpling soup. Everything ended up being very delicious and everyone enjoyed the experience.

I have been remarkably lucky to have this opportunity with people who are just as adventurous and crazy as I am. Every moment I have spent in China so far has been nothing but fantastic and I will cherish the ridiculously fun shenanigans that I have had for the rest of my life! Just for the record the last two pictures (the metro and food) are not my own. I try to use photos I take, but have not taken the time to capture good food or metro pictures.

With that I will bid thee goodnight. I will see you when I see you :) With love from China