Tianjin - day 9

Well, I sure slept a whole lot better last night. I was so tired I fell asleep during the movie I started to watch. Today was another wonderful day of talks that were even more interesting than yesterday. This afternoon however we started to burn out so Tim and I decided to knock off after the afternoon coffee break and we walked across the street to the driving range that was there. When I was a teenager in Cardston I did play golf every once in a while but I was never good. Lester and I would grab Dads clubs and go play a round on the nine hole course with sand greens. We even played a round or two on the Waterton course which is absolutely beautiful. Any joy I've ever received from golf however was usually just my love of outdoors and walking around in nature. For that reason I've never been ever to really justify paying all that money when I can go for a walk in my beautiful canyon for free and receive the same satisfaction. Since high school I never swung a club again until one of my first trips to China. On one of those trips I was with a guy who loved golf so we went golfing on this absolutely beautiful course. I had my personal caddy and my own cart. The cart was loaded with all the booze I could want and my caddy was a very cute little Chinese girl. Unfortunately most of my balls sliced to the right and my poor caddy spent most of her time in the rough looking for my ball. I felt sorry for her. She also wanted to drive my cart for me but I insisted on driving it myself. She also cheated for me. If I had to drop a ball she wouldn't count it. So that's my golf history. Today was a very interesting experience. I really had fun. I never expected it. The fun part is that if I slice the ball it's no big deal. They gave me thirty balls and most of the first ten went wild. Finally I hit a ball straight down the fairway. I went past the 200 meter sign. By the end of the thirty balls most of them were going straight down the fairway and past the 200 meter sign. It was a blast. I have to tell you about my most exciting hit. I swung at the ball and it went straight up. When it came down I actually caught the ball in my hand. It was totally embarrassing but very funny. I'm thinking that with a bit of practice I might be able to actually get good at hitting that dumb little white ball. Since the driving range was on the way to our hotel we just walked home from there and I promptly dressed in my shorts and headed for the fitness room and ran my three miles. I thought I was going to die. I still felt full from lunch and I was still not used to running yet so I about died. I had cramps in my left leg and I was barely able to get through but I made it. We had a good dinner tonight and now I'm back in the hotel.