(Sent by email from a friend in Shanghai)

          Super typhoon Saomai has caused great damage in Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces, but we didn’t even get rain in Shanghai.  I had been hoping that rain would cool us off.  It’s still hot with the temperature hovering around 37 degrees (98.6).  There will be many people with sunstroke if this weather continues.

          My friends and I had a happy time in Gongqing Park yesterday.  We used barbecue pits there to prepare meat and some vegetables like mushrooms, potatoes and cabbage. Though it’s probably not good to eat too much roasted food, everything was delicious.

          Our original plan was to go boating after the barbecue, but the sun was shining so brightly that we all felt we’d get too hot and a friend suggested that we ride horses.  He’s a good rider, but all the rest of us were novices. 

          Though it was not my first time on a horse, I was still very nervous.  The horse didn’t obey any of my orders and promptly started to run very quickly.  I felt that I would fall off, and shouted at it to slow down, but it didn’t understand a thing I said.  Apparently it didn’t know Chinese.

          What a relief it was when it finally came to a halt and I was able to get off.  My friend, the expert horseman, told me that my horse hadn’t been excited and had run too slowly.

          “What?”

          “Too slowly?”

         “I would much preferred that it had walked rather than doing all that running.”

My friends heard what I’d said and they all laughed.  Maybe he was right.  By his standards, the horse probably wasn’t running all that fast.

After that experience, we found a shady spot to play cards, and I won almost every time.

It was a nice day, but today I’ve so many aches and pains from riding that horse that the next time my friends suggest that we do it again, I’ll find a good book and wait for them to return.