I love having fun traditions. I love having something fun to look forward to, and I love having people to enjoy those traditions with. Last year, a few friends and I went to the water park in my city, and this year, a couple of us decided to go again.

My teenage friend, Felix suggested it a week or two ago, and we found a date that he and Kendra and I were free and bought tickets. The water park encourages women to go by offering discounted tickets. Apparently, guys are more than willing to go, and perhaps the lower price for women is to try to convince their girlfriends that it will be worth it. Felix found the tickets online and the female tickets that he found even included a drink or an ice cream for free! I love free things.

On the day of our water park adventure, I met another friend downtown for lunch, and then we were going to meet at the water park at around 2 p.m. As I had lunch with my friend at our favorite American restaurant, the sky grew dark and then it started pouring rain.

I took a picture and sent it to Felix and Kendra. Are we still on for the water park?

Yeah, sure. Hopefully it will stop soon. Felix replied with a picture of him and Kendra getting on the subway.

As Abby and I talked, I kept glancing out the window as the rain continued to come down in buckets. I was thankful to be inside when it started, but I was wondering how long the downpour would continue. I watched as a delivery guy put waterproof pants and jacket on over his clothes. Another lady who had just finished lunch stood at the door.

“Don’t leave now, you will get soaked!” One of the friendly restaurant workers advised.

“I don’t have a choice. I have to go to work.” The lady answered.

“You could stay for some tea, but if you have to go to work, then you have to go to work.”

The lady gazed out at the rain. “Yep, I have to go to work.”

The time came for my friend and I to leave. I took out my umbrella. I hadn’t brought my big one, and I hoped I wouldn’t get soaked on the way to the metro.

“Are you sure you have to leave now? You could stay for a bit longer.” The kind restaurant worker asked.

“Sorry, we have to leave. And look!” I pointed outside. “I think the rain is getting a bit lighter.” There was a bit of hope.

I said goodbye to my friend and headed to the metro. Yellow leaves covered the sidewalk. I always think it’s interesting that the leaves tend to fall from the trees a bit more in the spring than they do in the fall here in my city.

Once we got to the water park, it was still drizzling a bit, but thankfully it wasn’t raining very heavily. And we figured that we were gonna get wet anyway, so it didn’t really matter. I just hoped that none of the rides were closed.

After we changed into our swimming suits, we headed into the park. Since Kendra and Felix had been several times last year, they were more familiar with the park and where all the rides were.

“What should we do first?” Kendra asked.

“How about one of the new rides!” Felix pointed to a ride that looked like a roller coaster with a funnel halfway through.

“I just had a big burrito for lunch. Maybe we can do a calmer one to start out with.” I suggested as someone in the funnel screamed. It was surely a joyful scream.

“Ok, how about that one?” Felix pointed to another new ride that also looked like a roller coaster with giant inner tubes.

“Alright, sure.” I knew that I would have to face the fast rides eventually, but I always had a hard time working up the courage to do so. I never like roller coasters growing up, and now, although I enjoy them in general, the wait to get on the ride is always a bit agonizing.

We climbed the stairs to get on the ride and chatted while we waited. Once we got to the top, the workers added a female worker to our group. We stood on a large scale together to make sure that we weren’t too light or too heavy to go on the ride. We got a green light, and when the last group got out of their tube, we climbed in. There were four of us and six seats, so we distributed our weight as evenly as possible.

Our tube that was on a conveyor belt rolled to a stop on top of the ride and a guy in a glass box spoke into a microphone.

“Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Are you ready?” I only caught the ending question of his speech.

“Did you catch that?” I asked, looking at Felix. But before Felix could answer, the conveyor belt started moving and our tube was propelled into the water slide.

The ride was incredible. I expected the uphill sections to be a bit slow, but bursts of water pushed our tube forward almost as fast as the downhill sections, and we screamed in surprise. The worker smiled serenely as she watched our enjoyment and surprise. We got completely soaked as our tube spun around and went up and down and around the ride.

“Did you have fun?” The worker asked as we entered the last section of the ride which was a pool that carried us back onto the conveyor belt and the beginning of the ride.

“Oh yeah! That was great!” We all agreed.

We decided to do the ride again and headed down the stairs and then back up to the end of the line. It was a bit longer, but as we stood in line on the stairs, we heard a trumpet. It sounded live, but I couldn’t imagine a live trumpet at a ride at a water park, so I assumed it must be a recording. However, when we got closer to the top of the stairs, we looked up, and sure enough, a foreigner was standing in a little section next to the ride with a speaker in one hand so he could hear the accompaniment and a trumpet in the other hand. He belted out tunes, some of which we recognized and some of which we didn’t. Wow, a trumpet at a water park.

Lots of foreigners worked at the water park. Near the entrance, we had seen a lady and a guy dressed up as clowns doing some kind of mime performances with members of the crowd and a hula hoop. Later in the evening, we saw a marching band with a tuba, snare drum, symbols, trumpet, and sax. In the center of the park, there was a wave pool with a stage in the center and foreigners singing and playing in the band. I wondered what their stories were. Most of the foreigners looked to be at least in their 30s or 40s, and I wondered if they were there as a full-time job. What were their salaries? Did they get visas? Their routines looked exhausting and I wondered what prompted them to come and live in China to work at a water park. Hopefully sometime I will get the chance to talk to some of them.

Throughout the day, we went on many rides. There were slides that we could go down on our stomachs or our backs. There were other rides with tubes. There was one ride that was a collection of slides that turned around while we were inside. The time we went wasn’t very exciting, but we screamed excessively to scare the people behind us. The part about that ride that really freaked me out is that you couldn’t see where you were going, but you could hear other people screaming, and it sounded like they were just behind you. I was a little bit afraid that another tube would come crashing into ours from around a bend in the tunnel. Thankfully, that never happened.

One slide went through a tunnel that shrouded me in complete darkness for several seconds. That was a little bit weird.

At another slide, we carried the tube up the stairs to the top of the ride. There were two places to sit, and I sat in front and Kendra sat behind with her feet tucked under my armpits. The worker instructed me to cross my ankles and keep my feet pointed up in the air. I barely had time to adjust before we were off. I kept feeling my backside scraping the bottom of the slide as the water pushed us forward, and I was afraid that my feet would hit the turns as we rushed around the turns, or the bottom of the slide when we plunged down and then up. Thankfully we emerged from the slide unscathed and both of my feet also managed to survive.

Around 6 p.m., we decided to start looking for food. Last year, we had enjoyed bratwursts and fries, and Kendra and I had our hearts set on that meal again. Unfortunately, that shop had disappeared. So we went back to a rice/curry place that we had seen. I found a set meal that looked good in the app, but I didn’t want the drink. I asked the workers if I could get it without the drink.

“Sure, sure!” The guy assured me. “Just that one that you have on your phone?” He pointed at the rice and curry with beef that I had pulled up on my phone.

“Yep, thanks! It has rice and vegetables, right?”

“Oh yeah, it comes with everything,” he said as he scared my QR code for the payment. Then he gave me a ticket and sent me over to the food collection area.

I handed over my ticket, and they looked at it, puzzled. “What is this? They asked each other.” I didn’t know what the problem was, but when they put a coke on my tray, I protested.

“No, it’s not supposed to have a drink.”

“But it does.” They insisted.

“Yeah, actually I think it does have a drink.” Kendra said as she came up behind me with her ticket. She had told the guy that she wanted the same thing I got, and she showed me a ticket with the Chinese word for “coke” at the end of the meal name.

“Ah, ok.”

Kendra and I chatted while we waited for them to cook our food. I wasn’t really paying attention, but when the chef put some green noodles into a serving tray, I watched the worker struggle to separate a clump of noodles. He tried shaking them and grabbing different sizes, but nothing worked. I could relate. I had struggled to separate noodles many times. Ordering a shared plate of noodles at a restaurant almost certainly meant awkward times trying to get more than one noodle but less than the entire plate. Finally, his coworker helped him out.

They put the noodles on a plate, added a couple of grilled pork cuts of meat, some red tomato sauce and a few pieces of broccoli.

As I watched him put the plate together, I started to wish that I had ordered the noodles and pork spaghetti instead. It really did look good. Then, just as he finished putting the plate of food together, he put the plate on my tray.

“Wait, this isn’t my food.” I insisted.

“Yes, it is.” The worker countered.

Confused, I took it and walked away, and a moment later, Kendra followed with a similar plate.

“Well, it’s not what I thought we were gonna get, but as he was making it, I kind of wished I had ordered it,” Kendra said as we joined Felix at the table.

“That’s so funny!” I laughed. “I had the exact same thought as he was making it!”

After dinner, we found our free drinks and then walked around for a bit before going back to our favorite ride—the one that we had done first. There weren’t many people on the ride, so when we wanted to do it again, the guy just let us go back to the line instead of walking down and back up. The ride was also beautiful at night since the slide was lit up with a rainbow of colors.

For our last activity of the day, we headed to a river full of waves. We grabbed our individual tubes and slipped into them. Then we paddled around that circular river for an hour or so. Waves pushed us around and sometimes we got caught in the middle of several waves. We took turns pushing each other into waterfalls and swimming back to the ideal spot for catching big waves. Finally, the waves stopped coming, and a worker came along to herd us out of the river.

Another day at the water park was over. We had laughed a lot and had some deep conversations. My elbows and back were a bit scraped, but it was worth it for all the fun we had had. I’m thankful for friends, and I’m thankful for fun traditions with those friends. Looking forward to next year!