Reliving 1994

When I turned eight years old in 1994, I thought I had the best birthday ever. I spent it at Skate Away, the very lively skating rink in Topeka, where I loved to skate with my little friends. And honor of honors, Skate Away proclaimed this special occasion on their sign overlooking Fairlawn. I remember being so happy that all of Topeka could see this sign saying something like, "Happy 8th birthday, Laura!" And that was probably the last time I wore actual roller skates.

And today I had the opportunity to wear true roller skates again, 14 years later! I went with my students, Wendy and Karen, to the "skating rink" at new campus. This rink was amazing. It was actually just a gigantic room with concrete floors. There was a big set of windows that let in natural light. There weren't any crazy disco balls or flashing lights. It was still a lot of fun though.

I rented black roller skates for 5 kuai. They were black skates- size 42 men's skates. All the girls had brown skates, but there weren't any big enough for my American Midwestern feet. In fact, I barely made it in the men's skates. The biggest size for men was 44. Thank goodness my feet stopped short of that size, otherwise I might have never been able to skate in China!

The place was filled with energy. As the minutes went by, the room filled with more students skating in their China-y clothes, which reminded me of the good old days in 1994. There was some really funky music playing, and everyone had a great time.

There were some of the most amazing roller skaters I've ever seen. They blew the Topeka Skate Away pros out of the water. They went backwards so quickly, the air buzzed around them. Then they just hopped over our feet while we were resting on a bench. They also formed chains, holding on to each other's backs while skating at about 100 mph. It looked like a congo line. Some guys also could spin with their hands on the floor. It all was dizzying.

Wendy, Karen, and I skated hand-in-hand for over an hour. And of course some of the best skaters decided they also wanted to skate with us. It was so crazy, I thought I was going to die. They put me right in the middle of one of those chains. I couldn't move my feet fast enough to keep up with them, so I just tried to cling onto them and survive. It was so fun and scary at the same time.

But, at one point after about the fifth lap of this, my skate caught on the uneven floor and I collided with the floor and the other skaters in horrifying slow motion. Good thing I had so much long underwear on for padding. I fell on my right side going at the sound of speed, and then the several people behind me also careened into the ground. Thankfully, everyone tried very hard not to kill me. They were so courteous as they smashed to the concrete. I covered my head as everyone leaped over me and around me, barely missing me by 2 centimeters. So then our whole cool skating line was in a gigantic heap because I fell. It's pretty funny to think about it now.

Then everyone had to make sure I was okay, although they were more likely to be hurt than I was. I ended up breaking the wheels on one of my skates, so some boys with huge hair and amazing skating skills tried to fix the foreigner's gimpy skate. Alas, they couldn't fix it and I was embarrassed to attract so much attention, like usual.

So it was actually a really fun time. I realized it was great exercise that is acceptable for girls to do in China, unlike weight-lifting, etc. Perhaps I can invest in a pair of rollerblades and skate again with my students and new-found skating rink buddies.

Now it's off to dinner with one of my students. Everything's so busy, I've hardly stopped to think that today is the last day of 2008! What a challenging, but wonderful and blessed year!