Ping pong has become a nightly tradition in our dorm, and every night we try to mix up opponents, at least somewhat.  Sometimes new people stop in, so that’s always fun.  Mark and I have played a few times before, but in this particular match up, he went all ad hominem on me… saying, “You are so mean!” every time I maneuvered the ball around his side of the table, hitting lines and corners (sometimes by accident, sometimes not).  Mark is a very animated ping pong player.  But I would come to pay for that ping pong match the next day…

Yes, at Anping, a historic town on the beach, revenge took the better of Mark, who hired two accomplices to snatch me from my natural habitat and dump me in the water.

Here’s how the conversation went:

Tony: “Hey, can I see your camera?”

Allison: “…what are you going to use it for?” *hands over camera, confused*

Mark and Ethan capture me, while Tony hands off my own camera to take pictures of it.

Face palm.

But anyway, Anping was a blast.  We rented bikes and rode them on a scenic boardwalk to the beach.

Once I was in the water, a lot more people got delivered the same fate and we had a great time throwing a ball around, taking pictures, and pushing each other over.

Then the thunderstorm rolled in.  Actually, it sort of just appeared out of nowhere.  Riding my back back with the heavy clouds looming over me and bursts of lighting interspersed, I  couldn’t help but imagine myself in a movie, escaping some natural disaster.  I would say War of the Worlds, but that’s not natural, just disastrous.

Because of the storm, everyone sort of found their own way home.  Tammy and I went to a Chinese fast food restaurant.  I got a combo meal that came with a spicy chicken sandwich, sweet potato fries, corn soup, and milk tea.  Then we sat and talked for a long time.  I really liked that night.  Nothing like sitting in a cozy fast food restaurant with a good friend after a day at the beach.

Very cute restaurant scenery, might I add…