Exploring China Competition: Round 3, Qingdao (Nationals!)

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!

 



Exploring China: Round 2, Yanji Again



Here goes part 2 of the "Exploring China" series. We went back to Yanji just three weeks after the first round. The first time we went, we took two teams (and were the only school to do so). True to fashion, the powers-that-be decided to cut the second team, although they had rightfully made it into the second round. We also got a new addition, our star basketball player, Auzz-Rook.

 

 

 

Power to Auzz!

 

 

The boys, minus our Chinese teammate, Jason

 

 

The girls, minus our American teammate, Me

 

 

My roommate, Dashka (Mongolia), and I trying to point to each other's flags

 

 

3-3 Basketball match...a little behind in our first game, but we caught up!

 

 

Dongbei and Liaoning--If only we had been able to play these during the basketball tournament!

 

 

Number 1 team. Look at how smug they are!

 

 

What they forgot to mention above was how much pain they were all in. The top three teams all sustained pretty serious injuries. The American from Yanbian's team even broke his knee.

 

 

 

Meanwhile...

 

 

I went to visit my old school and found my little buddies all grown up!

 

 

They still remembered me! The girl on my left gasped when I came in the room. Jenny probably never thought she'd see Lehyla Teacher again, nor did Lehyla Teacher think she'd ever be happy to see Jenny again haha! *sigh* It's a good thing people grow up, teachers included.

 

 

My old classroom has been turned into the storage room, which made me a little disappointed until I saw...

 

They haven't taken a thing down from the walls since I was there! There's the American map and all of my student contracts!

 

 

These kids are just as big as me!

 

 

 

 

Finally, however, the last day of the competition arrived.

 

 

Zhuan Li and Lena getting ready for the Orienteering. The mood was somber since the night before (and I don't care that I'm sharing this pubicly, China) the top three teams were given the map of the course by their coaches, who got it from the hosts. How would you feel, knowing that without these points you'd probably lose, but that to get the points you needed to cheat? Now let me put it in context. How would you feel after being shown the course without knowing it was for the purpose of cheating until it was too late? That is China.

 

 

Since everyone else was getting all "patri-mental," I decided to do my part, too.

 

 

After it all, it's time for some fun! Suri-Nico, me, and Auzz-Rook. They're so tall!

 

 

Ol' stone Josun and I

 

I should have been born a cartoon

 



So we passed Round 2 as cheaters by world standards, as strategists by China's standards, and as opportunists by all. Three days later we were on to the national competition in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Exploring China Competition: Round 1, Yanji



Rain and pain. Rain and pain. That's all today turned out to be. So in a bid to send off the day on a happier note, I'm going to post some long overdue photos from the recent competition in which I participated. The event is called 留动中国, or Exploring China. Foreign students compete in 3-3 basketball, traditional Chinese sports, individual and group performances, and finally, orienteering. The first round took us to my old city, Yanji, where I got to see my good friends and, in the process, got to show some of my Changchun friends around the city, too!  

 

 

 



 

On the overnight train to Yanji. (Cue Suri-Nico: "My grandmother could walk faster than this train!")

 

 

Chu Laoshi (a.k.a. Mr. "Chew" because, as is depicted, he's always chewing us out for something!)

 

Shady Girls: Ce Ma (Mongolia) and I

 

 

Oh, now he smiles!

 

Suri-Nico giving Jilin University a taste of his b-ball skills

 

 

Lena (Russia) and her mad Tai-chi abilities. She got 4th!

 

 

Look who came to watch me sing! Nice to see you again, Cui!

 

 

"Hey, Mickey! You're so fine!" Our "la la dui" (cheerleading) team for the group performance.