A quick update. Last week, I wrote about a friend of ours here (Noah) and how he hurt his back in a motorcycle accident. Well this week he flew home to get further medical help. He will be in a cast for 6 weeks and recovering for 3 months. Noah is a great friend to our family and will be missed.
Heather has been working like no one's business at the local gym! Since her knee/back injuries she hasn't been able to run like she used to, but recently she has taken up spin class, pilate's, kick-boxing, and fit ball. When I first heard the name spin class, I thought to myself, "do they spin in circles? And if so, how is that exercise, it's sounds more like fun/leisure!". But no, spin class is actually one of the hardest things known to man (according to Heather), it's an intense hour of biking. Most people don't survive it, but she has been going each night during the week to one or more of these classes. I should also say that fit ball for those who don't know what it is, is when you balance yourself and do exercises on a huge ball... I can't find the words to describe it. It's nice here because a gym membership is so cheap. And if your wondering, yes I (Matt) also go, but I mainly work on sculpting my guns.
Chinese Culture 101, so something I haven't mentioned before is how important firecrackers are in the culture here. Each time a restaurant or place of business opens or is remodeled, they always set off TONS of fireworks, in the middle of the day. I heard someone say it is to ward off evil spirits, but I'm not sure. Anyways, the other day a huge amount of fireworks started to go off across the street from our apartment. It sounded like a war was going on. And for 5-10 minutes they were constantly going off.... Oh, and by the way, that was at 7:30 in the MORNING! I just looked at Heather and had to laugh, because of how interesting life is here. I will say this as well to also put it into perspective, if you go 2 or 3 days without hearing fireworks something is wrong.
with joy,
the petersons
