So Much for Resolve

Eleven hours into New Years and two resolutions blown already. Be more organized and be more time efficient. The team had a video session at 10 am New Years Day. Must have been the loud music and dancing the night before that made my head so fuzzy. Tom is so thoughtful. He stopped by and pounded on my room door on the way to the video session. Some people are just so giving and filled with compassion. As I popped the door open, I heard a growl down the hall, “Stoneman I’ll see you about eleven after the film session.” If my hearing had been clear, I might have heard stifled laughter. But at that moment, I could have cared less.

When I rolled out an hour later, I remembered that I forgot to get DaJuan’s camera to load his New Years Eve photos for the blog. There would be no post in the morning. So much for organized and efficient.

Good to his word, Tom stopped by after the film session and we headed out in search of a new laptop power cord, to replace the one he left on the roadtrip. This has become our holy grail quest.

Did I mention it’s cold in Changchun? Actually the last few days the high temperature has been near freezing or possibly slightly above. Which is nice for exploring the city, but really bad when the melted snow on the roads meets the bitter cold at night. Sheet ice on the roads everywhere. There was a spectacular crash in front of our hotel. A brand new Audi had it’s right front passenger tire on the sidewalk. It looked like the rim had bent and the tire blew out. The other party in the accident, a cab has some minor front end damage, but was facing the wrong way. Here’s a passing shot of the second accident from our cab. The road outside the hotel has a minor downhill grade, which of course contributes to mayhem. Our cabbie dodged two more accident scenes on the way to the OHYA (or something like that) shopping center. I think Tom just enjoys the exercise of going up and down floors in this place. That and shaking hands with everyone in sight. I swear, he’s already met half of them. Like I said, the man knows how to work a crowd.

They’ve moved the time of practice up (short notice changes regarding team schedule are quite common, I’ve come to realize, in the short time I’ve been here) so we’re on a pretty tight schedule getting the cord and getting back to the hotel. And then he sees it……. Tom saw THE laptop, and the negotiations started. They finally seal the deal with a deposit, and Tom tells them he’ll be back to pick it up after practice. I got a photo of Tom standing at the counter of the computer place. You can see all the store cubicles there, now imagine 8 floors of this. And each floor is huge, the photo is of just a really small section of it.

I grabbed a little video of the traffic on the street the store was on, complete with honking and traffic jam. We score a cab within seconds and the pronunciation is flawless (3 for 4 and climbing) we’ll make it back in time. Some interesting sights along the way, apparently there is some sort of winter festival going on and they made this huge wall out of ice that circles the event. An unbelievably cool looking wall. Tom thinks we might be able to swing by Wednesday, but the schedule’s getting tight already.

We get back to the hotel, head up to the rooms, change and head down for the bus. DT and Babacar are in the lobby already and the bus is a few minutes away. The accident is still on the street in front of the hotel and now there’s a mild skirmish right at the hotel door between people in two cars. One of the cars near the door looks like a cab and the driver’s hand is bleeding. He’s showing it to the guys from the other car, which is white, and they keep trying to press two or three, hundred RMB (yuan chinese money about 7 to the us dollar)bills into his hand as an appeasement of some sort. He keeps refusing the money and keeps showing them his hand. There are about three guys from the other car trying to hand him the money, very loudly. He’s refusing, very loudly, and then suddenly another guys bursts out of the back seat of the white car screaming. He opens the door so hard he hits the cab and the guy with the bleeding hand goes nuts. The loud guy from the white car gets restrained by the other guys and eventually gets body slammed backwards to the ground. Tom, DT, BB and I are just watching this in amazement. And then the bus pulls up. We glide past the encounter and head for the bus. DT stops to have me take his photo by a four passenger, three wheel car. Different looking vehicle.

We pile on the team but and head to practice. Practice is at the game arena. The owner of the team, Mr Qu, a dapper local businessman is on hand to greet the team. Pancake explains that, because it’s the new year, the owner is there to show the team he wants to get the year started on the right foot. Mr Qu’s nine year old son is there and is in awe of the players. It’s fun to watch the interaction.

Tom is running back cut drills to start this practice. Here’s a video of it. It’s interesting to listen to Tom describe it, then have Pancake translate it simultaneously. Overall the practice is very spirited, a stunning contrast to the last session. A lot of the on court decision making by the players hasn’t changed, but it is highly spirited. Tom points out that the players are rested, practicing only once today instead of the usual two workouts. One two hour session in the morning and another in the afternoon is the norm.

On the way back to the hotel, DT and I get off the bus to do a little shopping on some side streets. Now this is the kinda exploring I like. Narrower side streets, locals, a new adventure around every corner, plus a real flavor of the city. After about an hour of shopping we head for the hotel, but the sun has gone down and it’s getting really cold. DT suggests stopping in a store for a heat break. It’s a marvelous idea and we keep repeating the process. At one point walking down the street, I swear the hairs in my nose were freezing. Finally we make it to the main road and hail a cab. The phrase is nailed again. We grab some food, and head to the rooms for an early night. Shoot around Wednesday morning is at nine for the game at 7:30 with the Beijing Ducks.

The phone went off at 7 this morning. Tom was calling to make sure I remembered we were having breakfast with the team owner, Mr. Qu. We meet him in the hotel lobby and head upstairs for breakfast. The man is a sharp dresser and has a presence about him. Pancake the translator joins us. Before we start breakfast I’m presented with a couple of token gifts from his entertainment company which owns the basketball team and hotels. We covered a number of topics at breakfast. The Tigers have not had a very successful season. He was explaining how all his friends in government respected him as a business leader before he got into basketball and (to paraphrase here) he’s just another carpetbagger owner who wants something from the government for a franchise no one really cares about or does anything for the community. He’s planning a new arena for his club. I swear, I’m not making this up and we could have been sitting in Seattle or any other US city listening to a club owner there describing how the politicians wanted him to take over the team and then turn their backs on him after a losing season. I really like this guy, he’s very down to earth. Our breakfast is running long and the team bus is on the way, he tells Pancake that he’ll drive Tom and I to the arena for practice.

As we are winding down breakfast, Mr. Qu tells us there is an old chinese saying, “Another friend, another way.” He says he has two new friends and two new ways. And we each have a new friend and a new way.

We finish breakfast and head to the lobby, Babacar is there and we get a photo with him, Tom, Mr. Qu and me.

The ride to the arena is translatorless, but the three of us end up singing Karaoke to a cd he has playing. The song turns out to be an old Chinese standard that rough translates to one heart or same heart. Short but entertaining drive.

The shoot around starts at nine. The Tigers quickly run through a few sets then shoot and just before ten the coaches for the Beijing Ducks arrive. We are out promptly at ten. Game time tonight is 7:30.

4PM Wednesday. DAY on the town. We get back to the hotel after the shoot around and the five ex-pats head to an ice park at South Lake. They have a castle wall around the park made entirely out of ice. We buy tickets to go inside and it turns out to be a Disney theme exhibit. Rahrah is in heaven. The theme is the duck, with heavy promotion of Donald Duck, who just happens to be Rah’s favorite Disney character. Turns out growing up she had an uncle who was perfect at speaking like Donald Duck. Walking through this park, we come around a corner to two guys guarding a gate and they see DT and BB and shout, “Hey, CBA!!!” Then they both run over and bear hug DT and Babacar. I almost fell over watching those two try and extricate themselves from their adoring fans. A little further on Tom and Babacar get cold feet, literally and decide they’ve seen enough. They head back to the hotel. We press on taking photo of the ice and now snow sculptures. There was also a penguin exhibit. What that had to do with Disney, I haven’t a clue.

We finally finished the tour and got a cab. We stopped in the back street shopping district again. Spent another hour there then went back to the hotel so DT could get a little rest before the game tonight. I’ve already started packing, I fly out of Changchun at 8 tomorrow morning, back to Beijing. The team is heading out at the same time on its last road trip of the year.