Ping Pong

We were invited by our Chinese counterparts to play a game of tennis. Having never really played the game, I figured I could take the losing position. But with the exception of the one all-star player from the Chinese lab, no one really seemed to possess any tennis skills. After two hours of hitting tennis balls outside of the court walls, we called it a night. The following day we were again asked to play a game with our fellow Chinese students, but this time it would be table tennis. This built up some excitement for me. All I could think of was Forrest Gump. Considering most of my ping pong experience occurs at bars, I knew I wasn’t great but figured I could hold my own. And at first, I thought I was doing a pretty good job since I kept winning. I was defeated by Terry, one of the Chinese students, who then took on one of his friends. I then realized all the Chinese students were throwing the game for me. All of a sudden the game became much more intense, fast, and skilled. The Chinese students were putting English spin on their serves and whaling forehand shots at each other. I hated when the rotation got back to me as the game quickly loss a lot energy. Although, they did say I was improving.