Americans lead a relaxing life and have frequent touches with nature. This is so different form Chinese. Although Chinese cherish the beauty of nature and prefer the fresh air, they just don’t take the nature as part of their life as Americans (except for people living in the countryside). After we started our program here, our interns just kept leading us to hiking on mountain, swimming in lake, or going for a canal walking. But this time is the coolest one—canoeing!
Although the process was practicing my muscle more than having an adventure as I thought, I still felt something about this experience, which I could not tell, was exciting .The James River today was so calm that the only waves were caused by the motorboats passing by. I didn’t even get any part wet! Maybe the feet, but only because I put them into the water… Most of what we were doing was keeping pedaling, pedaling and more pedaling. At first we thought the pedaling was funny because we were all excited. But no long after, our brains became blank. No one talked any more. The only sounds I could hear were the pedal tapping the water and the sound of breathing. The only thing I could see was the destination. Everything seemed like a trial to our endurance. When we finally made it to the destination, exhausted, thirsty, aching everywhere, we still had a harsh mission—to pull the canoes up to the land. As we climbed into the van and threw ourselves to the seats, nothing could be more attractive than having a shower and a great meal.
On the evening, I met on the internet one of my old friends who used to do canoeing. When I told her about our trip today, she turned more excited than I at first. ‘It’s too exhausting!’ I complained to her. To my surprise, she said ‘That’s why I like it! It feels like I have really accomplished something.’ I suddenly realized that’s the point that made me feel great regardless of fatigue of the body. It’s the feeling of really accomplishing something substantial—using my own power to conquer part of the nature, though the river is not a challenge at all.
completely armed