To begin, let me introduce you to three very dear friends, Emily, Ben, and Meghan:
Emily was my very first friend in China, by a fortunate turn of events, I met Emily when I first moved there in June of 2012, and even though she left two days after, it helped so much to know that I would know someone, and hopefully have a friend the first day of school. And we continued to be best friends through the next two years, she was always there for me when I needed her.
Ben, he moved in summer between Jr. and Sr. year. He and his family are also Mormon, which was such a blessing to my family and me! We quickly became best friends. He is also a theatre kid, and somehow more dramatic than me, although I'm probably still sassier. He was a great support to me as well.
And last but certainly not least, Meghan! This girl is fantastic. She moved in around January of 12th grade, and once I realized she existed, she became one of my closest confidants (I really didn't think she existed at first, Emily would talk about her, but I never saw her, and I just thought she had made Meghan up). She ended up being exactly the kind of friend I needed in my life.
So now that you kind of know these people...vaguely, let me explain what "Adventure Friday" is! Short answer, we go on an adventure on Friday. Feel free to roll your eyes. But let me get into the technicalities, you have to do something that at least one person in the group has never done before, and the crazier the better. It's usually better if you don't have it planned before hand. The spontaneity makes it more exciting! Awesome stuff always happens on adventure friday! Oh and you're probably thinking, "that sounds fantastic, but I have to work Friday nights, can I do it another day of the week?" Yes, my friend, you can. Friday is typically just a good day for adventures, but we had a few weeks where Friday didn't work, so we had an adventure Tuesday, or Thursday.
It all started when Ben Meghan and I hung out on Friday after school, and we just did some crazy stuff, and the next friday we decided that we needed to adventure again, and somehow Adventure Friday came into existence!
I don't remember exactly everything we did, or the order we did it in, but let me just give you some examples of adventures we had:
- Climbing down a waterfall thing and trekking through bamboo: in our compound (neighborhood) There's this pond with a big old waterfall, only it's never actually going... But somehow Ben and Meghan figured out how to climb up to it, so we did, and then we found a bamboo forest behind it, and adventured through there, I felt like Tarzan
- driving my scooter through the drive through at McDonalds: I'd never done it before, so Meghan and I decided to try... We wanted ice cream, but they were all out so we got sprite instead. Then I met who I call "My Strawberry Lady". She's basically the cutest little old Chinese lady ever
- We went to the movies: one of our less adventurous feats, but Meghan had never been to the movies in China before.
- Ben, Meghan, and I ate octopus: I had no trouble, Ben struggled a little, and Meghan, oh poor Meghan....
There are others too, but that's just a few. I also realize they don't sound nearly as crazy as they actually were. But the grand finale of Adventure Fridays was Legendary.
Sadly Ben couldn't be there, he was in Shanghai. BUT, it was Emily's first real adventure friday, somehow she always ended up missing it. I think she had been to an adventure Tuesday, but I'm getting sidetracked... We started it out by going to mini Suguo (Suguo is like the Chinese version of Wal Mart [mind you I said Chinese version, it's very very Chinese], and mini Suguo is well, mini). We loaded up on snacks for the night. Then as we left, we decided to ride the little kid rides that they have sitting outside (just like some in America, only they sing Chinese songs) That was funny especially since I couldn't really fit in mine. Then we noticed this new massage place, so we decided why not, let's go up and check it out. It was super fancy and expensive, but they did give us a tour around the place, and gave free tea to Emily and Meghan, and lemon water to me. We then had to buy pepsi for Emily's mom, and we took it back home to her, where Meghan and I found Toaster Strudels in Emily's fridge. Unless you live in China, and know what toaster strudels are, you're probably thinking what's the big deal? Well let me tell you, I have never seen a toaster strudel in China. Ever. Those used to be my life. Then we had to run over to my house, and Emily's little brother plays the guitar, so he serenaded us as we walked! Then we decided that we wanted to shotgun soda, so we headed over to Suguo to buy some Coke, and on our way over, we decided to buy some flowers and hand them out to random people! I tried giving a flower to a guy to give his girlfriend, but he wouldn't take it. But then I gave one to a little girl, and a man nearby saw, and asked how much they costed, and we told him they were free, and he was just astounded that we were giving away flowers, and asked why, and we told him we just wanted to make people happy. He indeed seemed happy with his flower as we walked away. We also gave two to two street performers. We got the soda, and went back to our compound to shotgun it, it was a mess, but totally worth it. We also went walking through part of the river in our compound, which was super sketch because water is just sketch in China.
So yes, that is how I would spend my Fridays. I haven't really had an Adventure Friday since I've been back in Utah, it's all kind of been one big adventure. It is definitely something I want to start back up when I move down to SUU.
I just love the idea of Adventure Friday, taking risks, loving life, enjoying the small and simple things. I think it's a great outlook to have on life in general.
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