New Years Eve Morning

MONDAY, December 31, 2007

New Years Eve Morning. Hooked up with Tom at ten yesterday morning and headed off to Shangri-La. The Shangri-La Hotel in Changchun, that is. Nice five star hotel with a great brunch buffet. We had a two hour sit down and catch-up session while repeatedly grazing the buffet, especially the dessert pastry section. On the way out the door, Tom made reservations for a group of us to return there for dinner tonight and the new years eve party in their club. We walked off brunch across the street at about a 12 floor shopping center. I was surprised at how expensive things were in the stores. Electronics were unbelievably expensive. The chinese currency is the RMB, it’s about 7 to the us dollar. The prices were twenty to thirty per cent higher than what you’d find back in the US. The clothing stores were on a par or a little more expensive than what you’d find back home as well. Tom bought a couple of Hugo Boss shirts, one of which he ended up wearing at the game.

We finished shopping and had to get back to the hotel, Tom had a coaches meeting at four. Traffic was incredibly gridlocked coming out of the Shangri-La, so we headed across the street to catch a cab already on the road. Here’s a photo of the way you cross the street in Changchun. Tom hailed us a cab, next photo and we were off. We drove right past the arena where the Jilin Tigers play their home games, it’s only about a five to ten minute cab ride from our hotel. The street lights in Changchun have a clock next to the signal lights. It counts down how long you have til they turn red and then how long til they turn green. I got a short video of that. Not that lights really mean anything. It’s very much like that line in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean about the Pirate Code. “They’re not really rules, they’re more guidelines”. When we jumped in the cab, we had to show the cabbie our room key so he could read the name of the hotel. I figured it might be a good idea to learn how to say the name of the hotel in Chinese, so I took a little video of the driver teaching us how to pronounce the name of the hotel. We’re still working on it. 

A little geography lesson might be appropriate. I never did fill in the exact location of Changchun. It’s 90 minutes northeast of Beijing by plane, in the Jilin Province. It’s located just west of the North Korean border. A google maps search of Changchun, China will bring up the city.

Tom took off for his meeting and I headed up to the room to read the Seattle papers on the internet and rest before the game. At 5:45 we met in the lobby. In the photo is Tom, Babacar Camara, Dajuan Tate and DT’s wife Rasheeda, who goes by Rah-Rah. The team bus arrived moments later. We piled in and I sat in the second row across from Babacar. Tom rode in the stairwell, up front next to the driver. The bus trip was a whirlwind of introductions and welcomes. Things didn’t settle down much when we arrived at the arena. After shaking hands for ten minutes, the names and faces were a blur. It’s either an old brain or jet lag. I’ll take jetlag for a 200, Alex…. Reading Tom’s blog, familiarized me with many members of the team, but meeting them in person all at once was daunting. One person I was looking forward to meeting was his interpreter, Pancake. He was everything billed. Many of the players and personnel who deal with the foreigners have english nicknames. Pancake, Spider, Cash, Hip Hop, Frog……

The arena was a quaint (and cold) venue that holds about six thousand. An hour before game time, music was blaring, a small band was warming up and the cheerleaders were arriving. Some things are universal.

It’s been a long season for Jilin and tonight’s opponent, theShanxi Zhongyu Dragons. Each CBA team is allowed two foreign players. The Tigers have Babacar who played at Cal State Fullerton and Dajuan Tate who hails from Columbus, Ohio and played at Mountain State in West Virginia. The Dragons feature Major Wingate, who played college ball at Tennessee and Damon King. The foreign players are only allowed to play a combined total of five quarters each game. That puts an emphasis on substitution strategy.

The arena fills in about half full by game time, but it’s still cold. All the fans watch the game with their hats and coats on.

Tom has raved about DT in his blog. If I had a nickel for everytime a coach called his player a world beater but forgot to mention said player’s inability to play defense, pass, set a screen or just plain hustle, I could buy most of the tea in China. But Tom was right. He’s the real deal and he’s a great guy. In one game this season Tate scored 68 a points. One game. Tom had told me that at some point in the game DT would make a move and you’d shake your head and go, “Did I just see that.” Again he was right.

Here's a photo of Tom with the team for the pregame huddle.

The Tigers started an all chinese lineup while the Dragons started Major Wingate. The Dragons led 22-16 at the end of one, but the Tigers still have five quarters of foreign time left on the books. DT led a huge scoring run in the second quarter and Jilin led 53-44 in the half. The Tigers could use both Babacar in the middle and DT for the whole second half. The Dragons had burned two foreign quarters in the first half. At the end of three Jilin led 85-64. They built the lead to 23 with a few minutes to go in the game and cleared the bench. When the subs came in, the game deteriorated and jet lag really set in. Fortunately, I managed to stay awake. The final was 110-94, DT scored 27 in less than three quarters of play. He really is the type of player you pay money to see. I felt lucky to have a front row seat for it.

After the game, Tom looked at me and said, “You’re good luck, we haven’t won a home game in almost a month.” Some of the fans must have thought that too, because for some unknown reason I was asked for autographs. One guy actually signed a $5 RMB note (about 80 cents) and gave it to me, I’m going to have Pancake translate it.

Team bus dropped us at the hotel and Tom and I had a couple of great Tuna fish sandwiches to cap the day. Finally got to bed about midnight. I was out before my head hit the pillow.

Practice at 4 on Monday then off to dinner at 8 and the new years party. I’ll be spending the new year at Shangri-La. Apparently there is a problem with the videos uploading. The links are there, but they won't play. Sorry about that.

Landed in Beijing on to Changchun

Saturday, December 29, 2007 4pm Landed in Beijing. I’m a lot more scatterbrained than usual on this trip. Most trips I go days with the feeling that I forgot something and it usually turns out to be some minor thing. This trip, I left home without the Mandarin Chinese book and cd I bought. I have a gift for picking up survival language skills quickly with the aide of a translation book. After a week I can usually pick up enough of a language to get into trouble, but not enough to get out of trouble. As the saying goes in French, “Je parle a assez francaise pour creer des l’ennuis, je ne parle pas a assez francaise pour sortir de l’ennui”. I realized the Mandarin Chinese books were at home as my wife and I were sitting at the gate in Seattle, getting ready to fly out. Then when I landed in Vancouver, I left my coat on the plane, the flight attendant chased me down with the jacket. Then after I wrote the first blog, which I spent a little too long doing and had to hurry to the gate, I left my laptop at the bar. Helen brought it to the gate just before I boarded. So when I landed in Beijing, I took several minutes double checking all the contents of my bags.

Clear, cold day in Beijing. Here's a view of the approach into Beijing. Flat, brown and a huge layer of smog. I've added a video of the landing in Beijing on this post. Just under freezing on landing. Met a girl getting off the plane who is a mathematics student at Umass and was heading to central china for a month. She had an unusual name, Macrena or something like that, didn’t get the spelling. We teamed up to successfully navigate immigration and customs and search the concourse for flights. I had to head to another terminal for the China Southern connection to Changchun. I had two hours til departure. As I was walking the concourse, an ‘official’ looking fellow asked me for my ticket, “Ticket, sir”. It was pretty random. Turns out his name was Kong and he would take me to the right counter. Funny thing was everytime a uniformed offical was near, he would blend into the woodwork. Usually I navigate on my own, but I was enjoying his company, even though his English was only slightly better than my Chinese. After about 20 minutes of strolling together, hitting a cash machine, buying a water bottle and trying to converse, he got me to the counter. It was five dollars well spent.

At the China Southern counter things took an unexpected turn. Turns out my ticket didn’t have the $10 Beijing Airport departure tax. The China Southern ticket counter and check in counters are in two different areas. When I got to the ticket counter I got my first take of Beijing culture. If you stand in line waiting to be helped, you’re going to grow old before you are helped. After the fourth person slid to the counter in front of me, I pulled my ticket out with the Chinese writing on it that said I needed the departure tax, stepped up to the counter and held it out to the ticket agent. I was the next person helped. When I got back to the check in counter, the line had exploded. I now had 40 minutes til departure and it would take all of that to get through the line. I saw the guy who first sent me for the tax, I slid sideways to his line through another line and showed him the tax. He nodded and pointed to the end of his line. Through a stroke of good luck, the next guy in line spoke fluent english and asked what the problem was. When I explained it in detail, he motioned for me to go ahead of him and I got checked in just before the 30 minute before departure cutoff. I thanked him profusely.

Turns out it didn’t matter. The flight was delayed two hours. But I did meet a guy from Kitchener, Ontario, Nick, who was on the same flight to Changchun. He was returning from Christmas in Canada. He’s lived in Changchun three years and teaches. I learned a lot during the layover. He taught in Korea before he moved to China. He had some interesting insights into the order or lack thereof in the Chinese society. He was pretty dead on in explaining how things would go on the flight. It was amazing how many people were coughing and sneezing on the flight and not one person covered their mouth. It was just bombs away. He said that’s really common. Waiting for the flight, I walked around the terminal a bit. I had read that the Chinese were converting a lot of their signs to English in preparation for the Olympic rush in 08. I also read they were having some interesting translations. I got a kick out of this one, hope you can read it in the photo. The bottom line says to "use this emergency medicine kit when only you incur the trauma".

Landed in Changchun just after ten pm. Lots of snow on the ground. Cold, really cold. Minnesota midwest cold. Nick said ten below freezing, but I think that was celcius. Didn’t ask, was too cold. The name of the hotel is the Redbuds in Changchun, but it’s a different name in Chinese. Nick helped with the translation with the cabbie, a round of thanks and farewells and off to the hotel.

The roads have lane striping, but that really is of no consequence to the drivers. Horn honking is constant, but it’s used more of an alert to drivers in front of you that you’re passing and also to warn pedestrians and even bicyclists in the snow that their demise is imminent. There is no malice in the honking, it generates awareness sot of a form of being socially responsible.

The Jilin Tigers are returning from a road trip. I’m sitting in the hotel bar just after midnight writing and Tom expected to be here a couple of hours after I arrived, which should be just about any minute. They have a home game Sunday, which I’m really looking forward to seeing and catching up with Tom.

SUNDAY, MORNING 9 AM. Cooooollld Changchun. I'm having a little trouble getting onto the blog, hopefully the posts are going through, I can't confirm it by viewing it. So we'll fly by blind faith. Got an e-mail from Tom, the Jilin Tigers basketball team got back to the hotel at three this morning. Tom and I are going to hook up in an hour and hit a brunch. I took a photo out my hotel window just after sunrise this morning. Lots of snow on the ground. The Tigers have a game tonight, at home, starts with a team meeting at four this afternoon. Really looking forward to that.

Halfway to Beijing from Vancouver

Flying on an Air Canada flight 029, a 767. Interactive entertainment AND a plug-in on the seats for the laptop. That means five and a half more hours to write. 

Lot of movies to choose from, The Bourne Ultimatum was the first pick. Other than the title and the name of the main character, the movies have little in common with the Ludlum books. But they are really fast paced and good entertainment. The second movie was Ratatouille. For some reason, I skipped the theatre showings. What a huge mistake. What a great message movie. A mouse chef in Paris.

Five years ago, my daughter and I spent a week in Paris as part of a round-the-world jaunt. We stayed in a thrifty hotel on the Rue de Rivoli the first night, then moved to a Best Western by the Pont Neuf bridge and Les Halles for the rest of our stay. Paris has a very special place in our hearts. The food, the history, the people.

The food is…..well heck it’s Paris. I can’t really think of an adequate adjective. We were there at the end of June, so we would dine in the afternoon at the sidewalk café’s on the Rue de Rivoli and savor the sights, sounds and smells of the city. And of course, we would watch the people.

The history….when we were there we did a Hemmingway self-tour. We visited the apartment he lived in during the 1920’s and the bars he wrote about.

In Ratatouille there’s a great line, “That was rude, but we’re French, it’s ok.” As for the people, well I’m still waiting to experience the ‘rude’ factor. Everytime we went anywhere, I would speak French to them and they would give a knowing smile, nod and answer me in English. My daughter would pat my arm and say, “That’s ok dad.” My French is brutal at best, but making the effort to speak the native language endeared me more than once. I guess that’s the way to get over being the ugly american when you’re travelling. Respect the other culture and make an effort. I remember watching an episode of Rick Steeve’s travel show and how he was talking about service in a restaurant and how some cultures view slow service as good service, as opposed to the standard on the north american continent. After last year’s trip to St Vincent, my wife and I ended up in St Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles and found a restaurant, Kontiki, on Orient Beach on the French side that we always dine at when we’re on the island. After several trips there, we got to know the wait staff and the customs. We would always have a bottle of wine and relax before we ordered our meal. The pace was relaxed and slow. Not something you would ever find stateside. Frankly, many americans, with their fast food mentalities would be upset with the pace. It’s different, but it’s not wrong.

Watching Raratouille brought me back to Paris, maybe I’ll head home that way.

China Bound

Destination: Changchun, China. Why Changchun, you ask? One of the really good guys in the world of basketball, (former NBA coach, executive and WNBA coach) Tom Newell is coaching the Jilin Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. The Chinese version of the NBA. Tom left the US in September to take the coaching reigns and invited me to join him. This isn't the first time we've done this. Twenty one months ago, Tom was sent by FIBA (the Federal International Basketball Association) to St Vincent and the Grenadines, to run a clinic to teach coaches how to coach youth basketball. We were chatting one day and Tom says, "Hey you've coached youth basketball, why don't y0u come down and help me run some clinics". Huh, a week in the Caribbean, hanging out on basketball courts..... there are worse things in life. It took me about a microsecond to say, "sure". As Rick said to Louie at the end of Casablanca, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." But I digress.......

Since he arrived in Changchun, to coach the Tigers, Tom has posted regularly on a blog, linked here: http://familysportslifetoday.com/blogs/tigers/default.aspx It's been fascinating to read over the fall and winter. Once again he asked me to come visit. As usual he didn't have to ask twice. I'll be there for two Tigers home games.

My travel itinerary is Seattle to Vancouver BC to Beijing to Changchun. Changchun is located just over the North Korean border in the NE section of China. I left Seattle this morning on a Horizon flight to Vancouver. Right now I'm sitting in the Milestones Grill and Bar at Vancouver International Airport blogging, surfing the net and killing the two hour layover. Great flight out of Seattle on Horizon on one of those twin turbo props. Photo above left. I love flying those planes, you just get a great view of everything on the way. Seattle was socked in clouds, but Alki point in West Seattle was visible with a Bremerton Ferry heading into the city, you can see the ferry in the lower left of the photo. The Vancouver Airport has free wireless internet, like Phoenix and Charlotte. Two of the other airports I pass through frequently. Amazingly, Seattle, with it's huge computer based industries doesn't have the free internet in the airport. Boggles the mind. Then again, maybe not.....

Helen, the bartender in Vancouver crawled under an ice bin and hooked up me extension cord so I could have power for two hours and save my laptop batteries for the flight. She was really bored. Did I mention I got a new digital camera? So this blog will have lots of photos. If I can figure it out, I might even have a few movies. Next entry should be from Beijing.