Dear Bnu Alumni,

On Aug 10, 2002, Saturday at 12:00PM, 26 alumni (including children) met at American River rafting.  The day was incredibly hot, and perfect for rafting.  We rented 5 boats with one of them claimed as a peace boat, which ended up not so peaceful. 

At the beginning, some people tried to stay dry which was quickly proved unsuccessful. It did not take too long for us to learn that the modern war depends heavily on the modern weapons instead of the strength of the soldiers.  All the rafts we passed were armed with water cannons while we had nothing but buckets and water guns.  Next time, we will be sure to balance out our arsenal for more successful confrontations.

The river was so beautiful, and clear, such that you could see the bottom. The two sides of the waters were lined with fresh trees.  As we began, the peace boat quickly raised their white flag and sped off, only to come back later off with a water bucket and high fighting spirits.  Around the first turn, we were pummeled with water from land enemies, and the three-person ship took their first swim as their raft flipped - too concentrate on fighting CIVIL war.  They couldn’t quite keep themselves steady and ended up flipping their raft two more times before the trip ended – what a record breaker!  We then drifted in the river for an hour occasionally ducking it out with FOREIGN boats.  Overall, we were fighting more against our selves instead of foreign enemies.   Near the end of the trip, we rested on an island in the river and had a delicious snack.  Many got out and took refreshing swims across the river while others lay in the warm sand and enjoyed the sun.

At the end of the four-hour ride, we relaxed at the picnic tables.  We ate leftover food from lunch, which tasted extremely delicious to our hungry stomachs.  For the next two hours, the kids played Frisbee and video games while the adults chatted.  We did not even notice that was after 8 ’o clock when we left the park.  The day ended wonderfully with plans already hatching for the next trip!

Many thanks to all the participants that brought such delicious foods and whose contributions helped make the trip so wonderful.

P.S.

Special thanks to our photo master, Zhang Huipin, who made VCDs of our July Hiking trip and gave a copy to each participant’s family.

Best regards,

Lillian