Touring
Tuesday, we spent the day running at the park around the corner, adjusting to the time zone and messing around in the very strange Walmart. Less than five minutes away was a large park with a jogging path around a large lake. The city of Guiyang had laid down the track material and set up aid stations around the park for the athletes to use! Flocks of Chinese groups waited around the lake and took pictures of all the countries running around. We also discovered the strange toilets... Which were just fancy holes in the ground with a flush. The Walmart just a block away was underneath a large apartment complex and definitely was the strangest Walmart I've ever been in. There was a live fish market with jumping fish, toads and turtles all around. The idea was to buy a toad and hide it in John's room but Lauren and I didn't want them to kill the toad after we bought it!
On Wednesday, we ran in the park again but most of us had a hard workout. Once we completed our workout, which ranged from 3 mile tempos to 6x400s, we visited a Buddhist Monkey Temple around 30 minutes away.
Before the entrance to the park, street vendors and shops lined the street. All the junior girls bought matching Asian bear scrunchies to wear in the race Saturday! Although the pineapple and fruit looked clean enough, the different, unnamed meats were a slight bit on the sketchy side. I'm almost positive that pigs' hands and other animals were just fried up right there on the spot. Once we went through the gate into the park, we heard the distant calls of monkeys mixed with large cries of triumph; those victory shouts, however, came from the men playing chess in the masses. After a short, yet very steep, ride up an old, creaky gondola we reached the top of the "mountain." From there, we hiked down through Buddhist temples while feeding the monkeys that lined the path. We fed the monkeys peanuts and jolly ranchers but Connor seemed to have trouble with some of the monkeys. Both him and Lauren were attacked while attempting to feed the monkeys and it was possibly the funniest thing I saw all day.
Lauren being attacked
After passing through the temple of the Buddha, which had hundreds of different statues representing the different Buddhas, we descended into the unexpected. Lauren and I were surprise attacked by old Chinese ladies wanting us to sing with them. After singing an odd version of doe-a-deer, horribly off key might I add, we copied a few traditional dances. Needless to say, if Cerake's frighteningly embarrassing video ever gets out, Lauren and I are goners. Overall it was definitely my favorite touristy day of the week.
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