Coming back from a hamstring injury I worked at increasing total mileage and looked forward to running every place I went. A real motivation was the 300 km in 8 weeks challenge I out to my cross country team.
I started in Philly. I really do love that city. I posted pics earlier in another post.
I learned to get around Pittsburgh running between Ryan and Rebecca’s house.
By the bus station near liberty ave
Near PNC park
Along the heritage along the river downtown. Really nice place to run on both sides.
Running races with my friend Michele Belak.
Race to the Moon before the race which started at dusk. I came in 1st in my age group.
Bushy run battlefield run. I came in 1st in my age group and Michele came in 2nd!
I ran on some pretty hot days.
And also on Clearwater FL. This was on the bay to Gulf road.
I also visited my son at his work at the strip in Pittsburgh.
One day I traveled further to look at pictures of Becca and a few friends that were being displayed at Maggie’s farm.
Besides the pictures of birds I also snapped pictures of deer.
The one thing I miss from before I moved to China is learning something new and creating with my bare hands. I have not bought craft items here but have had the yearning to try something I have not had the opportunity to do before. I saw this pottery tour and class and couldn’t resist. Sometimes you just need to get your hands dirty.
After a very long week, this is exactly what I needed.
Pottery is a gift from god to humans
No matter how small a force is, it will splash somewhere.
Even the weakest wind breaks the stiffness of the air.
I’m going to escape from the fickle city for a while
Just a little while
To care and comfort myself
About the pottery tour and class:
It sounds like an old forest in a deep mountain, but it’s just a small hill in the suburb of Panyu district. An artists couple want to concentrate on their art work, so they moved out of the city, and built up their workshop here by themselves. Brick by brick, step by step, they put all their passion and feeling of pottery into this unique place. You can’t tell how peaceful and beautiful this place is, until you come here.
The artist and her husband teach ceramics at university, offer classes, and create pieces on order. They have a couple apprentices working with them. They live the slow life: Growing their own food and living the artist life.
Pieces of pottery are found in walls and walkways.
This is a shipping container that is their kitchen so it can be moved around if they expand or rearrange.
This is the outsude of the library. In Chinese, to read books is Kan shu. They do research here for different methods, styles, and designs.
Inside the room.
This pottery piece is from the Ming dynasty.
This cat is actually for on top of a roof. If there is a storm coming, the wind will make a whistling sound through the cats mouth.
Outside the gallery of artists pieces.
Inside a large pottery piece is a turtle.
More pictures around the property.
Many different kinds of pots and figurines.
Many cups and shards add interest to everything.
Storage area outside the potters area.
The kiln. The artist gave us a tour after a history of pottery during the first tea.
One side of the classroom.
During the first class we learned a few basic techniques for creating plates. We were able to make multiple pieces from which we could choose the one we liked best (we could pay extra for others we made).
This is a rectangular serving plate. It is upside down to dry into shape over a form.
This one has a design in the plate of a tree. I did not take a picture of it before I put it on the form so hoping that it comes out okay and I can show you later.
After lunch we were taught how to use the wheel. It took some practice. My mug did not turn out as hoped. It definitely had character as it leaned quite a bit.
I did make a pretty decent bowl.
They did make a video of the second pottery class.
After the class we had another tea and snacks while learning more about pottery and history.
There were many beautiful pieces in the tea room.
Inside the artists gallery. These are not for sale but samples for those to place orders.
We did try some Chinese calligraphy. It is much harder than it seems.
The place seems like it’s far away. It is in the far reaches of the city and the hustle and bustle feels much farther away. The tour included transportation, 2 Chinese tea with snacks, healthy lunch, 2 pottery classes, calligraphy class, and one item that we made (they fire and glaze the pieces). We also had the opportunity to buy extra pieces we made for 50 rmb each (7,44 USD). They glaze and fire those as well.
It was a rainy, cold, and dreary day. Perfect for learning something new and refilling the soul.
I workout occasionally with a group called K2Fit. They actually come twice a week to my apartment building and we can buy a pack of classes and go whenever we want.
This Sunday they hosted an event at the crowne plaza hotel several metro stops away for a childhood cancer foundation. For 300 rmb (43.34 us), they held a workout on the roof on the helipad. I went with my friend Nicole and also met another teacher at the elementary school.
Before the workout. That is Baiyun mountain in the distance.
We started out with zumba warm up, some HIIT, squats, push-up drills, then abs. This picture was taken with a drone.
I am in the purple mat in the foreground.
Zumba
Following was a brunch. You could also purchase glasses of champagne that also went to charity. The views were fabulous, the mood contagious, and it was a lot of fun.
A great time. A little burnt, very tired, and ready for a nap when I got home.
On one of the mountains in Hong Kong is ocean park. I was originally not excited about an amusement park but this one had animals and more importantly pandas! PANDAS! 🐼
Pandas are tightly controlled by the Chinese government as to where pandas can be found in the world.
There was an exceptional aquarium. Many of the species you can see everywhere but a few Asian species I haven’t seen.
I went on a water ride and one roller coaster. How’ve I didn’t more time looking at animals.
Red panda.
Pandas.
Otters
Monkeys.
Sturgeon.
Turtles.
Of course I had pictures taken with costumed characters.
To get to the different areas of the park you either take an underground tunnel ride or a cable car ride across.
And I ate Korean barbecued squid which tasted like jerky.
After ocean park the other coach and I went to Victoria Peak to see it at night. What did we learn? At night it will take forever to get the tram back down. When you get a taxi it is impossible to get a good rate as they week refuse to take you. If your want to get down fast then you agree to pay. But overall worth it and beautiful at night.
One other interesting thing I saw on one of the rides to the hotel and my long run the last morning was the Catholic cemetery tucked into the hills and near overpass.
I traveled with 13 students to Hong Kong for APAC (asian Pacific athletic conference). This is the last meet for the cross country season. Students are placed in home stay so they spend the nights with host families. Coach schedule is pretty exhausting but chaperoning not as difficult except to contact the home stay parents each night to talk to students. They spent the days with us.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and walked the course with other schools. It is a tough course with 1k being a tough uphill. The 1k down is on different surfaces and part pretty slippery. Here are a few shots while in the course of the views which are spectacular.
Hong Kong International school is beautiful and on a hill as everything is. They really optimise space here and the school and views are breathtaking.
The next day was the race. Of course it rained which made the course treacherous. Our kids are not the fastest but they are so supportive of each other and have definitely improved this season.
I will still run with kids twice a week with those that are interested.
After the race we went to ocean park fur the afternoon. Student’s then went back to homestay and coaches had the night free. The last day was a competition with can jam and corn hole games to build cooperation and team building. Then an awards ceremony before heading back to the train to go back to guangzhou. What a nice end to the season.
Despite the risk of being over scheduled, I joined the book club at school right away. I figured that I would always have an excuse to wait until another month and it would be better just to begin. As I spend most of my time in athletic pursuits, this would be good for me.
Two months in we have read Born A Crime by Trevor Noah and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Though this second book was slow to start it really was an outstanding book. How a gentleman at the fall of the Romanov empire who is placed under house arrest in a fantastic hotel survives and expands his life helping those around him and is better because of it. Though I desired for a better ending that answered my questions, I was amazed at what different people took away from the book depending not only about world view but I think also what decade of life you are in.
There were so many parallels to any time there is a change in government especially when they are diametrically opposed (cough cough, the US). Generally throwing the baby out with the bath water and then realising that things are not going well later and back peddling a bit.
To commemorate this book, we met at Katusha, a Russian restaurant. Tatz, who is one of the elementary admin, is Russian and shared some interview podcasts with the author she found. Here is a picture of the group.
I really need to get better at taking selfies.
We had an incredible discussion about the book. There were so many things that people pulled out that it was such a rich discussion.
We all ordered shared some common dishes and then ordered one individually. It was a great dinner, beautiful restaurant, and even had a lounge singer (background in this pic).
Borscht. Made with red beets.
Herring salad. This is a layered salad that was really well balanced. I really liked this dish.
Piroshki. Stuffed with potatoes.
Potatoes with onions.
Pancake stuffed with salmon.
Very yummy. They also had other European foods. It is a busy restaurant. Many Russians eat here so must be good too.
Next book for the book club is Educated. My goal for next month is to not be reading at the last minute!
