Chapter 173

I woke up around 10:30, with a bit of the accummulated soreness from the exercise done in the last days. The Belarusian and I had oatmeal and melon slices while watching BJJ videos, then we rode rent-a-bikes to the gym. He recently started training as well, so just before capoeira class, we rolled a bit and it was great fun. Then the Venezuelan got in on his lunch break from the hospital, along with the Togolese, the Uzbek Korean, and the young Chinese guy. Five continents represented. The Belarusian directed the practice, we drilled a few moves and then played in the roda for a long time, including a capoeira-BJJ hybrid game that went back and forth until he eventually caught an armbar.

The two of us rode to a small pizza restaurant that he loves, a hidden hole-in-the-wall that looks very unassuming but makes great pies. I had one with salami and olives and he got two vegan ones, without the cheese and with a high pile of various vegetables. We devoured all this food and got some supplies for tonight’s planned camping.

The American from Hefei invited us to go play ball hockey at his school, we went there just as they were about to start. He works alongside a bunch of Canadians, and they have weekly games, I was quite eager to join. It was great fun, we played for almost two hours, I was pounding Gatorade to replenish the gallons of sweat I was losing.

We went back home and finished packing everything, stuffing all our luggage in the car now parked on the street. A dim-witted guy came on a scooter and said we have to pay 10 yuan for the parking. A total parasite. He had some kind of uniform and gave me printed receipts, no idea if his authority is legitimate but I also know that if I ignore him and speed off he might cause much more trouble than 10 yuan worth.

It had been quite an active day but it wasn’t over yet, I drove the car to the mountain, parked, got all the camping stuff from the trunk, and we hiked the 20 minutes or so to the lake. The gate is unmanned past 18:30, so there no shurgwaydingers trying to prevent the dog from getting in, or noticing the tent we were carrying. We set up camp and jumped in the water, which felt awesome, and then I opened my first beer of the day, which felt even awesomer. I fired up the camp stove and cooked sausages and onions in one pan for the carnivores, and mushrooms and tomatoes in another pot for the vegetarians. The Belarusian had the idea of adding a glug of baijiu in the fungi stew, afraid that the tomatoes on their own wouldn’t provide enough moisture, but then it overpowered everything. He then balanced it by adding beer. A true gentleman’s culinary experiment. Eventually the Venezuelan joined us and we had a little party, downing beers and singing songs, before he took the trek down the mountain. Great times with great friends.