After a three day break, Northeast Normal University's Exploring China team was off to their next destination: Qingdao--Nationals. Qingdao is in Shandong province, a few provinces south of Jilin, which meant we got to fly! After some delay, and a long bus ride from the airport, we arrived in our hotel only to find our rivals, Yanbian University, had arrived at the same time. They, however, had started out one day before us and had taken a boat from Dalian to Qingdao!
Practicing for our entrance at the following morning's Opening Ceremony
Let the games (and the tanning) begin! Qingdao's weather gets us off to a great start. Our basketball team persevered through to the top eight.
The victory wasn't without some side effects, however. These boys are beat!
I'm just here for the soft floor
Tavj and Kate also came to play!
But the next day....
After being led to the wrong courts by our "guide," Day 2 of the basketball tournament was off to a bad start. By the end of this particular game, both Liaoning (who we had met back in Yanji the week before) and us decided to virtually stop the game and just do trick shots. We saw some good slam dunks and perfectly aligned 3-pointers, but in the end, Liaoning stayed one point ahead, leaving us in last place.
Stopping traffic with their Loser Faces. We still love you guys!
Our "guide," who Chew Laoshi ( wearing visor) made cry for taking us to the wrong place for basketball.
Part encouragement and part condolence dinner in a Qing-style banquet hall hosted by our university's leaders who had come to watch us compete.
Finally, the ocean!
Auzz-Rook, me, and Dashka (her first time seeing the sea)
Speedboat ride in the bay
I saw the Samoans from another university jump in and I just couldn't resist!
My first Chinese celebrity sighting! Ji Xiaojun, from CCTV English
The whole CCTV crew!
We finished in Qingdao 20th place or so out of 28 teams. For my own part, I got 6th place in the individual performances. I considered it a personal victory, and it encouraged me even more that the two girls from the top four also stopped to chat with me. Unfortunately, the points from the performances did not amount to much compared to the basketball and orienteering scores. All in all, though, it was great meeting other foreign students (fellow countrymen and others alike) studying in other parts of China. It was also great fun getting to know my own teammates!
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