What has two steering wheels, a roof, two rows of seats, and four wheels? You guessed it: a bicycle! Today, three students took me on an island cycling adventure. We went to an island just outside of Zhuhai, which faces the South China Sea. There were many people out there enjoying the weather and scenery, including small armies of young children collecting crabs they yanked from the rocks on the sea.

            Because there were four of us—me, my teaching assistants WenWen and Lingnan, and another student named Bi Shuang—we rented a bicycle for four. It was a blast! We cruised around the island, stopping here and there to go out on the rocks next to the sea. We tried to race a couple of the other bicycle groups that passed us. We always lost, but we had a ton of fun competing.

            After our island adventure, we had a very popular Chinese meal called “Hot Pot.” Think of a typical American buffet, except that you cook your food at your own table. We got all of the foods we wanted at the buffet—beef, frog, fish, noodles, vegetables, even pig brains!—and put them in a large bowl of boiling water at our table. I’m adventurous, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat the pig brains.

The Hot Pot meal was very fun. I have a lot of respect for Chinese culture and traditions, including how their meals are set up to facilitate social connections. I often eat my lunch alone at my desk, so this is a nice change.