Monday, August 18, 2008

Beijing Day 2 — Angie's Turn

I was so excited to be going to basketball yesterday. It was the whole reason I got talked into this trip. However, it was a long, long day especially considering we've been waking up at 3:00 am local time and then falling asleep by 8:00 pm. Hopefully, this long day will adjust our schedule.

The son and Mother from Seattle Scott mentioned are actually a young man from Seattle and his parents from Phoenix. He hasn't been to too many Storm games, but his parents are quite the Mercury fans. They are another set of Americans that are just relying on "alternate sources" for their tickets.

The toughest part of yesterday, besides it being such a long day, was that there were no restaurants close enough for us to make it to in-between sessions. So, we were forced to rely upon arena food which is bad enough in the U.S., but is a whole different animal in China. The had plenty of soda, water and beer but for the snacks, they had noodles (that I never saw a single person eating), little loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, youghurt, popcorn (which was a bit like kettle corn), sausage on a stick, crustless sandwiches (very tasteless) and the hot dogs that Scott mentioned from the handball games. They also had some ice cream and snickers bars. It was just an odd mix of stuff. It'd keep you going, but you didn't get too excited about it.

The best part of the day was getting the attention of Coach Donovan and Sue and then getting to speak with Tully. She's such a nice person. Oh, and hanging out with the Aussie fans. They were all very friendly and happy to talk with us.

Now on to today's activities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wondered what you guys were eating all day! My curiosity has been satisfied. Still, the thought of subsisting an entire day on slightly off-putting Chinese arena food is daunting. My respect for your endurance has gone up a few notches.

It's great that you got to talk to some players, and also give Coach D a shout out.