Long Weekends

One of the awesome perks about this study abroad program is that we only have class 8-12, and from Monday to Thursday. With only 4 day weeks, that allows us to travel and do lots of stuff on the weekends. This past Thursday, we went to Wuzhen (which I just realized I posted a picture of in my last post, but didn't really explain). So, as I said in the caption, Wuzhen is a city built on canals, similarly to Venice. Everyone with the UW program (27 of us, including professors) took the 2 hour bus ride out there, and got to spend the entire day touring the city. The city was really unique, we were given a tour that sent us all around. At times, the city seemed fake, almost Disney-world-like. I honestly thought it wasn't real for a while, but then I would see a lady hanging laundry, or a guy through the window kicking back and watching tv. At night, the city was especially cool with all of the buildings along the canals illuminated. Here's a few pictures from my trip to Wuzhen:

 Some houses along one of the canals. 

A worker asleep in one of the boats on the canal. Really cool to ride in one of these at night.

I alluded to the mountain behind the campus in an earlier posts, and today, Cooper, Ben and I hiked up it to take some pictures. Even though we went in the morning, the heat and humidity still got the best of us. Besides a drenched shirt, the hike was really enjoyable. In total the hike is a about 720 steps carved into the side of the mountain. It's actually the most popular form of exercise for us to run up the stairs of the mountain, I did it a few times this past week. Before we went this morning, we thought it was pretty clear, but it turned out to be a classic China day - foggy and hazy. 


For the first time since 8th grade, basketball is a big part of my daily life again. I play just about daily now, 4 on 4 pick up games with UW guys and Chinese students. The Chinese students, and just Chinese people in general, LOVE basketball and the NBA. By far the favorite team around here is the LA Lakers, and the favorite player is definitely Kobe Bryant. I guy I talked to today was actually really upset that the Lakers are out of the playoffs.  I’d probably say that they care more about the NBA on average than the average American person, which is really surprising, and a little funny. I can have a better conversation with a Chinese student about an American league, than I can an American. Another interesting thing about their infatuation with the NBA is that is the style of basketball they play. Us Wisconsin kids can do pretty well against them because of our size advantage, but the Chinese players are so good at ball handling, one on one and jump shooting it’s ridiculous. They legitimately play NBA style pick up basketball, which includes minimal passing and no rebounding. Not only do they play a different style, but they wear one too.  Yesterday a guy wearing two polo shirts, with popped collars, khaki’s, and flip-flops schooled the crap out of me one on one.  I honestly don’t get it, I looked like a fool.