Suzhou Winter

Coming to Suzhou after being in Minnesota was a laugh in winter's face. It was 60 degrees when I landed in Shanghai. What a joke. When the semester began again, my Southern Hemisphere colleagues were talking about how cold it was. Puh-leez. It was mid 40's. MID 40's!! What a bunch of cracker jacks.

Here's what's happening in this chilling winter:

This old man isn't letting winter slow him and his roller blades down.

It's strawberry season. $1/pound-give or take depending on size and quality of the strawberry.

More weird animals are place randomly around malls.
Anwer looks really cold, but it's only because we drove the E-bike. 

Oh hey, Mr. Walton!

What society is.

It's hard to tell, but these cars are lined up for car washes... from the swampy area nearby.
They bring their own buckets and supplies and just get it done.

Yankee Candle showed up to help with the odor issues in greater China.

It did snow very briefly the other day. I prayed really hard for a snow day, but no such luck.

Running in the dark.

I have always been a morning person. As an attempt at New Year Resolutions and beginning my training for the Great Wall Half-Marathon in May, I have been running before school. The weather has been ideal--low 40s. I only run when the pollution is below 150, which has been 3 days this week. I leave around 5:10 AM, and it's dark, really dark, sometimes creepy dark. This is what it looks like:

I almost always have the right of way. 

I like the mornings because it is quiet. There is little to no traffic. I don't have to wait at stoplights as much. It can be a bit eerie at times though. One of my first runs, I made the mistake of running by the lake and a canal that continues to my house. Some of the lights there were not on, and it was scary. Luckily, I don't have to fear monkeys here, but the occasional cat is enough to push the blood pressure through the roof. 

It reminds me of a really dumb run I took in Madison one time. I was training for the Indianapolis Marathon, and it was summer time. It was so hot all the time. I decided to run after work one day and thought the arboretum was a suitable place because it forced me to run through and not cut distance. Well, it got dark when I was in there, and there weren't any lights. The surrounding trees created a darkness that I had forgotten existed while living the city life. It was so scary and very dangerous. There were a few cars that were driving through. The scariest part was when an equally dumb cyclist was pedaling through and did not have a light either. We literally almost collided. 

Now, I stick to the streets with lights and try to avoid collisions. I listen to my podcasts and enjoy the occasional, "HELLOOOO!" from men on electric scooters. 

Things to love about America

Trampolining with Lisa

Fresh Snow

Everything about this photo

Traveling in winter

College Football

Gma and Kiki

Gas <$2

Driving through a town that puts snow in the middle of the road: Silver Lake

Running with CARA

During a short visit to Chicago on my way back to China, I got convinced/tricked/coerced into running with my friend's training group CARA. I was uneasy about the run because I had not been "training" in the last two months because of the Chinese pollution, school stress, and general laziness. When my friend told me about the run weeks earlier, it sounded fun.

Waking up at 6 AM on Saturday morning in Chicago to run 6 miles was seeming a lot less fun when I looked out the window to see a fresh dusting of snow. It was even less fun when we went outside and determined that it was raining. When we went back inside to get another water protective layer, I had considered all of the scenarios of getting back in bed and never running agin.

The concept of group running is not lost on me. I was a cross country and track enthusiast for six years in high school. We ran in groups. We motivated each other. We looked on with understanding when we saw each other collapse in pain after things called "hill workouts." Coming back to America, I was excited to see what the business of running was like. I was thrilled to join in a group of other people who felt it was necessary and appropriate to run in snowy rain on slushy trails through Chicago at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning. I was not disappointed when we saw numerous runners, CARA and other, running along the lakeshore path that morning.

We joined our pace group of 19 individuals and started out on a 6-mile run. I asked little questions because it's running--not much to know. Our pace leader soon taught me otherwise. Elisabeth and I found our places in the two by two running line. We were the second in line, and it didn't take long for us to resemble something like this:

http://runningtips101.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/running.jpg

Our leader insisted aggressively that we leave no gaps between runners. I felt like I had joined some weird military program in China and had to fall in line or die. My heels were continually clipped by the runner behind me, but I didn't blame him because he feared for his life also! Shortly into the run, the leader sprinted up to tell Elisabeth to move over two inches because she was pushing me to the middle of the path. Fall in line, or die. I almost forgot to mention the military chants that were happening. Due to the rain/snow, the path was pretty gross. The leaders would shout: "WATER!" "RUNNER UP!" "RUNNER BACK!" and my favorite "FOOTING!" which sounded a lot like "PUDDING!" Safety first, or die. It seemed so redundant to keep shouting water and pudding because there was water everywhere! I just kept waiting for someone to slip so I could watch the dominoes fall in a pile of pudding.

Back in the People's Republic:

Quiet streets for early morning jet lagged runs
no snow, no ice, no military march