I bring you: Scenic Water Drinking

There seems to be a cultural love of scenery here; or so it seems to me, the outsider. Whatever the truth of it, I thought I would try to build more scenic experiences into my life. (My students, when asked why they might want to travel, almost always reply “to look at the beautiful scenery” or “to meet beautiful girls”.)

I made it my goal to drink fluids today. I feel a cold coming on, and they say a person should drink a lot. I’m unable to measure exactly, but I estimate that I’ve drank roughly 2 liters. I think that works out to 8 cups, does it not?

I looked out for particularly scenic places to drink some water or tea, and took some photos. Here are some of the places where I imbibed today:

...by the Dairy Queen on the right. Just kidding. I didn't drink any water here. I'm a liar

...by the souvenir shop, overlooking the lotus lake

...in the bamboo walk

...in the temple garden

...beside the knobby tree

...among the meihua flowers

...at the ballet

Sara

My Small Bladder

Being pregnant has its advantages and disadvantages, let me tell you. One of these advantages is that everyone seems to thing I’m in a heightened fragile state and cannot do things like carry my purse, or walk up some stairs, or do any type of cleaning. This has been helpful and funny at the same time. It’s interesting what people think you can’t do.

One disadvantage is all of my internal organs are being pushed and squished not leaving much room for, say, water. The wee baby loves to kick my bladder when it’s cramping her style, forcing me to get up, literally crawl over Jer (the loft where our “bed” is is only three feet high) and climb down a ladder usually at 4 am. Then, she proceeds to stretch out once more room is made, keeping me up for a few short minutes, before sleep meets me once again.

I have recently discovered that as a pregnant woman I need to drink more water than usual, which is A LOT more than I usually drink. Three litres a day, people. Can this be done? Not going to lie, I totally tried to do this. And failed. And I peed a lot. Which isn’t fun because my office is two flights of stairs up from the nearest bathroom. (See first paragraph). I, like my friend Jennifer, have opted to drink and eat things other than bottles of water (although I’m LOVING the sparkling mineral water they have here in Germany, great invention. I recommend the extra bubbly ones. It’s like drinking sparkles!!) I just need to figure out how much water is found in apple juice and mandarin oranges, since those are my most recent favourites. Mmmmm fruity.

Stephanie

H 2 Oh!

Water is a good thing.

About 70% of my body is water.

Roughly the same amount of the earth’s surface is covered with water.

By the time I feel thirsty though, my body’s already lost over 1% of that 70%.

To make up for it, I, apparently, could drink approximately 48 cups of water in a day.

But water intoxication IS possible.

And so is gagging just because I don’t really like drinking it.  (And so is gagging just thinking about drinking 48 cups worth of the good stuff).

Despite that, on Saturday, I drank 5 cups of straight-up water, and on Sunday, the whole mythical 8 cups.  And yes, I did pour and measure each of those imperial fluid cups.

But get this: while 8 cups a day is recommended, I can get it in many different ways.  Take that, horrid tasting disgustingness!  I’m mixing my plain water with juice, fruit and other delicious treats henceforth!

(Thank you All About Water for all the watery facts)

Jennifer

Welcome to The List II

6 women (see “Participants”)

3 continents (see the locations in “Participants”)

27 challenges (see “Items of The List II”)

1.5 months (December 1, 2009 – January 15, 2010)

many reasons (see “What Is The List II?”)

1 blog (bravo! you’ve found it!)

hopefully regular updates and reflections on how we’re all faring with this undertaking…