Last weekend, 3 buddies and I took a day trip out to one of the surrounding mountains and decided to test our manhood. The mountain we chose was around 14,700 feet, and the route we took provided the desired adrenaline rush and difficulty we were looking for.

The day started like any typical guy trip… our van got a flat tire!

A slight detour and $3 later, we were back on the road. One of the many blessings about China is that most manual labor type jobs only cost between $3-$15. This includes… patching up tires, welding bikes back together, shoe repair, rewiring electrical stuff, ect.

We arrived at our destination about an hour later and set off on what would be a 7 hour hike through the snow (snow we didn’t know was there).

We chose the ridge-line that we thought would give us the best chance of making it to the top, but it would also prove to be more difficult than we initially thought. And we quickly realized the importance of wearing/having the correct snow gear.

It may not look like much, but here are a few pictures that might help show how steep, and somewhat dangerous, it really was…

Stop for a mid-hike snack, rest a bit, and more pictures…

After we broke through the clouds, the views were amazing!

Here’s a quick video of us maneuvering slowly up the mountain…

As we were nearing the summit, the last 500 feet or so was the most technically challenging for us. Only two of us decided to continue — the other two would wait for us to come back down.

As we neared the summit, the fog begin to set in. Luckily it didn’t bring any more snow. But it did make visibility a little more difficult…

After almost 5 hours of hiking, my friend and I summited!

The thought of having to go back down the way we came was discouraging, to say the least. Luckily Bear Grylls, on his show Man vs. Wild, taught me how to properly slide down a mountain.

In roughly 30min we had slid about 2,000 feet… I only came away with some bruises on my left hip and a scrape on my back.

Here is a picture of the mountain we summited. You can see 2 slide marks running through the middle of the mountain… those were made by us!

As we reached the bottom, the skies opened up and gave us an amazing view of the surrounding mountains.

What a blessing it is to live in a place where we only have to drive an hour outside of town in order to experience this. It is so good for the soul. We had amazing weather, great fellowship, and a really tough hike! What more could you ask for?

October 1st is Chinese National Day and all students have a week off from school. We celebrated by taking a trip out west to Xinjiang province… It is China’s largest province and shares a border with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (as well as 3 other Chinese provinces). So there are a ton of different peoples/cultures that have helped to create this amazing place.

Kristen and I are definitely not “foodies,” but we appreciate trying new foods and Xinjiang is a great place to do that! Take a look:

For the times when your stomach is feeling a little queasy, you can choose from an array of Uyghur medicine concoctions. See if you can recognize the animals hanging in the window…

On a more serious note, Xinjiang does have some of the best food in China. The markets are full of fresh bread/nan, nuts, berries, and lamb!

But our favorite were the “Shawarma’s”… Shaved chicken from a rotating spit, placed inside a tortilla with french fries and some other goodness…

One of the places we visited was called Turpan. It’s famous for their grape production, ancient ruins, and a water canal system built in 200 BCE that they still use today.

As you can see, this place is super dry! How did they live out here??

One of the coolest things we found was this little guitar shop (although they are not guitars…I just forgot what they are called). These instruments are famous among the Uyghur people.

Here is a video of a 10 year old boy rippin’ it…I’m pretty sure we were watching a prodigy!

This past month, Kristen and I took a trip to Xi’an. Most people know Xi’an for the famous Terracotta Soldiers, but there is so much more to experience. In order to get there, we took an overnight train (our first in China), which was an experience in itself. Our “room” had 4 beds, and we were with 2 other girls… awkward! They were sisters from our city, the oldest of which was traveling to Xian to deliver her baby. They were great roommates – shared their snacks with us, went to bed early, and didn’t snore 🙂

Upon arrival we bargained with a man, thinking he was a cab driver, to take us to our hotel. He proceeded to take us to this van and we hopped in the back…

You would think after 1 year of studying a language, we would be able to bargain for a little better vehicle. Maybe that’s part of year two’s curriculum.

Everyday for breakfast we would stop and get one of Xian’s famous “rou jia mo” (literally meat sandwiched bun).

Our hotel was in a great location, just inside the city wall! Xian’s city wall is one of the oldest and most in-tact in all of China. It’s approximately 8 miles in circumference, and it’s popular to rent bikes and ride around it.

We were also within walking distance of the famous Hui Quarter, where approximately 50,000 Hui (a Chinese Muslim people group) have lived for almost 1,400 years. It’s famous for its ancient mosques, and delicious snacks.

From our hotel, we were a 10min walk to the bus station that took us to the surrounding areas. Terracotta Soldiers were one of the stops. For those who have never been, it is pretty incredible. Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, ordered the construction of the army around 200 BCE. His intention was to have them buried with him, and protect him in the afterlife. Much of the army is still buried, and currently being excavated! Interesting side note, he is also the guy who began the building of the Great Wall. The dude loved him some protection 🙂

We also took a trip out to HuaShan, one of the five sacred mountains in China. Unfortunately, the day we went, the air quality/cloud cover was really bad, so the views were subpar. This is the view of the mountain from our bus…

At this point we thought about staying on the bus and heading back to the city, but we decided to climb it anyway. There are 5 total peaks you can climb, but we ended up climbing just one of them. It was rough. Basically vertical the entire time… two hours of nonstop stairs.

But luckily we have a pretty sweet filter on our camera that eliminates cloud cover… gotta love technology!

Great trip over all! Gotta run… craving a slurpee from 7-11, I mean Peter.

Something about living so far from Texas, and missing Austin, has made us swing far in the direction of embracing ATX hippie culture — more than ever before. As you’ve seen over the last year, my head has added a ponytail. In addition to physical appearance, we started making kefir and kombucha, and practicing yoga. Kefir is a fermented milk product that contains high levels of different vitamins and probiotics. Our thought was that because our stomachs are still adjusting to a lot of what we eat here, we figured incorporating more probiotics into our diet would help, and kefir is one of the best ways of providing it.

So every morning, Kristen changes the milk and we have a jar full of kefir that we eat with our lunch.

Kombucha, according to wikepedia, “refers to any of a variety of fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea drinks that are commonly used as functional beverages for their unsubstantiated health benefits.” I love that last part…”unsubstantiated health benefits.” Yea, I don’t really know how or why we hopped on the kombucha bandwagon, but we did. We think it tastes good and if we receive one of those “unsubstantiated health benefits,” then we’ll take it. But beware, the picture you are about to see is scary/grotesque…

To really embrace our new “hippie” ways, 3-4 times a week, Kristen and I do yoga together. We have a sweet app that we use (this is my plug for the yoga app called Yoga Studio – you all should download it). Kristen has always enjoyed yoga and I have “participated” (I use that word loosely) in a few classes back in Texas. But with some joint-pain recently, I decided to give it a try.

My flexibility may need some work, but I can “crow” and “head-stand” with the best of ’em…

All kidding aside, yoga has gotten rid of the pain I was feeling in my hip, and has helped my flexibility a ton. I can touch my toes now!!! So my encouragement to all of you would be to give yoga a try. It’s a great compliment to strength training.

I’ll end this blog with my favorite yoga pose, and one that I have fully mastered. It’s called “corpse”.

Kristen and I, two weeks ago, were invited to participate on a Chinese game show (this is not a joke). It was the Chinese version of the American show “Wipe Out,” and it was free to compete. Basically, you just have to complete a series of obstacles without falling in the water, and every finisher gets a free refrigerator! Then all the finishers would compete at a later date — the fastest finisher winning a car.

So, when our school asked us and a few other classmates to participate, it was a no-brainer. The worst that could happen is that we would embarrass ourselves on regional/national (?) television. The school coordinated everything… signed us up, and even caravanned us to the course across town.

The men went first. Kristen was able to film me from a TV in the dressing room so, for better or worse, that includes interview time and special camera angles. Yes, I was being interviewed in Chinese. No, I had no clue what they were asking me  😉

After the victory, I was exhausted. I spent way too much time on that revolving thing, since I had a hard time finding the red bullseye button. On a side note, before I started I gave a shout out to my mom, but they immediately turned the cameras to our friend in the stands. They thought she was my mom… my mom ages well 🙂

In all, we had 15 men compete that day, but they filmed all through July so I have no idea how many total men competed. Out of the 15, four of us won the fridge… all white dudes (3 from US and 1 from Canada)!

After the men were done, the women were up next. Kristen had to compete against 67 girls and she waited 5 1/2 hrs before she was called!  But when she was called, she was ready!!! It was cool, they let me walk beside her and film her entire race.

We are the proud owners of 2 new fridges!!! (Btw, you have to do the moving yourself)

We gave one to my “family” (who they kept showing during my video)…. after waiting and cheering in the stands for 6 hours, they’re more deserving of the fridge than we are!

Another cool thing is that after Kristen won, they interviewed us together which will definitely air on TV. Hopefully, we can find out when, and watch it. Out of the 67 girls who competed, 4 won a fridge! But most impressive is that the vast majority of those competing didn’t know how to swim… so on top of the anxiety of competing, they had to overcome their fear of drowning. You could see how freaked out they were when they hit the water.

We always wanted to compete on a game show, but who knew it would be in China! We’ve now qualified to compete for the car, but unfortunately we will be out of town and unable to attend! We’re super bummed!! Maybe next year.

We will end this blog with a couple of still shots that we took that day…

Ramadan is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammed. Muslims fast during the holiday, from sunrise to sunset, as an act of faith and worship towards Allah. Because Kristen and I live in a city with a large Muslim population, and have made a few really close friends, we have been blessed to be able to experience much of what Ramadan is about. We were invited by one of our friends to break fast with his family one evening, and were able to attend their prayer at the mosque.

We had great conversations and their hospitality was unmatched.

Last Friday was the Eid al-Fitr (denotes the last day of Ramadan) and, in our city, this is a big deal. More than 250,000 men (women do not participate) showed up for morning prayer and Kristen and I were invited to come watch. We arrived 2 hours early, and many were already starting to set up their prayer rugs. One of the main avenues in our city was blocked off for maybe a mile, so that everyone had space to worship.

As much as we tried to be respectful and stay out of view, it was nearly impossible…

Here’s a short video of that morning’s prayer:

We’re so thankful we got to be a part of this experience.

Our school has done an amazing job of showing us “waiguoren” (outside country people) hospitality and kindness. They have thrown multiple parties for us and recently took us on a day-trip to a national park to celebrate the end of the school year.  It was one of the prettiest places we have been, and had a ton of fun.

The climate we live in is pretty dry, so we were surprised to see tall trees, waterfalls, and even an animal or two. Half of the experience was being a part of a Chinese tour group… pile in a bus together, drive directly to a point of interest while taking pictures from the window, hop out and take 87 more pictures, hop back in the bus and find the next spot. This place is known for known for hiking, so we hope to make it back someday 🙂

A Tibetan prayer house…

But the most fun we had was reading the English translations of the signs…

A beautiful composition summarizing our trip. Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Over the last month, Kristen and I have really begun to find our groove here in China. We have successfully opened a Chinese bank account, taobao account, and alipay account (so we can purchase things online). All 3 of these have been huge encouragements for us, and have really made us feel like we are finally figuring out how to do life here. But the biggest encouragement happened last Friday, I (Danny) passed the Chinese driver’s license exam and received my license. I know this may not sound like a big deal, but you must score a 90 or higher to pass the exam!!!  Many of the driving laws are different from the States, plus I have to be able to read the signs – in Chinese. The driving test has been translated to English, fortunately, but the translations are not the greatest. I had an app on my phone to help me prepare and here are just a few of the questions I had to know:

Now you have a better idea of why this is so exciting that I passed. To brag a little on myself, I scored a 96… no big deal!

I wish this was the end of the blog post, but Kristen told me I must share my driver’s license picture with the world. So here it is…

Yikes! I wish I had a good excuse, but I don’t… because literally every picture I take for an important “identity” photo (passport, school ID, etc.) is honestly the worst ever. Just so you know I’m not exaggerating, below, from left to right, are my passport, US driver’s license, and my Chinese school ID photos.

The passport photo looks like I got stung by a big bee. The US license is not bad, but with all that blue space, I look like one of those voodoo tiny-head dolls. Finally, my Chinese school i.d. just looks goofy. Where’d my eyes go?

I already get questioned at airport customs because no one believes the passport photo is me. But now if I show them any other form of ID they will definitely think I’m lying. None of the photos look like me. This is a real problem!!!

Oh well, can’t worry about that now. All I can do is keep a positive attitude and see where the wind takes me.

Recently, we were invited to a BBQ with about 10 of our Chinese friends and another foreign couple.

Of course, being born and raised in Texas we were super stoked by the idea… it has been over 9 months since we last ate BBQ. This was not the “normal” BBQ experience we were used to but, just like most of our experiences here, we were totally blown away! It is still the coolest thing we have done here in China.

We drove about an hour out into the country side and rented a tent (which includes a live goat). This means we had to kill it, gut it, and then grill it. The whole process took most of the morning and half of the afternoon. Kristen took a bunch of pictures of the slaughter, but we will spare you the details.

However, we did want to try and give you an idea of what it was like.

Meanwhile, Kristen was back at the tent preparing all the side dishes.

Honestly, this meal has been our most favorite meal we have had in China. The meat was delicious and the whole experience priceless! We are so glad we were invited on this trip.

The last 2 months has not only brought back our competitive spirits and our love of sports, but has also given us a clear understanding that our bodies just don’t recover like they used to.

At the end of February, I (Danny) played in a huge basketball tournament here in our city with the winning team taking home 10,000 yuan – roughly $1,666 USD!!! With that kind of money on the line, there were a ton of teams whose skills ranged from absolutely terrible to really good. My team consisted of all foreigners – the only foreigners in the tourney – and we were all waaaay past our prime. In 48 hours, we played 5 games. We ended up winning 3 games and losing 2. However, if we had won 1 more game, we would have had to play 5 additional games. Knowing that, as much as I hate losing, I don’t think my body could have made it through another 5 without an injury of some sort. It took me about a week to get over the aches and pains.

After each game, I took pictures with the locals and of course my wife 🙂 I was voted (self designated) MPP…most popular player. I think it’s the hair. One of my buddies was in a taxi on the other side of town (about a 45 min drive) and the driver asked him if he knew the long-haired blonde guy! True story…I guess I can’t cut my hair now!!! Besides, Kristen thinks it gives me edge, whatever that means.

The second big event of the semester occurred a couple of weeks ago. Every school in China, from elementary through college, holds their own track & field competition. All students are “highly” encouraged to sign up for an event…or 3! So I ran the 100m dash, 4x100m relay, and threw the shot-put. That’s right…shot put. Kristen ran the 100m dash. We thought that the shorter races would be a better fit for us! The embarrassment of not training would be over soon.

Anything China does, they do it big! Naturally, we had an Olympic-style opening ceremony with each department parading around the track in matching uniforms. Some even performed dance routines. Our foreign language department, however, was a big blob of mismatched old people. I think our director was embarrassed so he gave us all umbrellas that morning, so we “matched”.

Now for the good stuff. The opening event was the men’s 100m dash and I just happened to be in the 1st heat. No joke, I had roughly 2 minutes from the closing of the ceremony to the start of the race to change and warm-up. Not looking good so far!

Here’s a video of the results…

As you can see, I got obliterated, but I didn’t get last 😉 In my defense, the winning time I was an 11.07. That’s fast, and it would not have mattered had I been 10 years younger.

Next up – the women’s 100m dash.

I’m so glad I married an athlete 🙂 Kristen dominated her heat. But now was not the time for gloating, she needed to focus. The championship was in 2 hours and the competition would be a lot tougher.

BOOM…Silver Medal Winner. Considering she has not done a single sprint since college, she did amazing. So proud of her and glad someone brought honor to the Franklin name!!!

The following day, I had to rebound from a disappointing race and throw shot-put, as well as run in the 4x100meter relay.

Because I had never thrown shot-put, or even held the shot, I watched a few how-to videos that morning in order to keep from injuring myself. I wouldn’t call it flawless form, but I did my best!

After putting on a show, I succeeded in not destroying my shoulder and ended up 9th out of 55 competitors, with a best throw of 7.94 meters. Before you think that is good, the world record is 23.12 meters.

The last event – men’s 4x100meter relay. The video you are about to see shows my team in lane 1. There were only 3 teams in our heat (heat #6) but after the embarrassment of my 100 meter dash showing, it was time for redemption. I’m the 4th leg.

It was a bummer seeing our third leg go down with a torn quad and I tried my best to catch the second place guy, but I had nothing left. The lack of warm-up and the red bull we downed 10 minutes before the race didn’t help!

Overall, I’m still proud of our Kristen’s ability to compete! In hindsight, I should have signed up for this event…