China June 13th, 14th, & 15th

I haven't blogged again in a couple days and like i said last time everything is blurring together so I'll do my best to get my info accurate! not that anyone will no the difference ha ha. so i woke up that morning late. the beds are either getting better or I'm more tired at nights but I've been sleeping a bit better. i woke to the alarm this morning which hasn't happened much since i got here. i can most likely thank my little man cooper for training me to wake up on a dime! love you little man! so we hustled through our morning routine of packing, eating, and getting our stuff on the bus. we another long travel day ahead of us. a 2 hour bus ride, a 6 hour train ride, and then another 2 hour bus ride. I've experiences crazy 24 hour bus rides in Mexico but they usually aren't on consecutive days. I'd have to say this has been one of the taxing experiences I've ever had. it's a good thing we've been able to do some sight seeing otherwise it would be easy to get frustrated. the bus ride wasn't too bad in the morning. the roads are really bumpy so it's hard to get quality rest. when we got to the train station we were informed that we had 2 minutes to on to the train. this was no easy task because you have to go through a security check point and then a maze to get to your train. I'm not sure how we did it but everyone got on the train. i was the second to the last to get on and the door shut Andres (our back up 4). with the humidity everybody had gotten their workout out in for the day. personally I'm not sure i sweat ed as much in the game the night before as i did getting to the train! good thing they had wash station and i was able to dry off. in the previous trains there was barely enough space for our luggage and usually only standing room. we must have gotten lucky or reserved the car we were on because everyone got their own seat and there were a couple to spare the whole way. a little while into the trip one lady sitting behind us must have been listening in on our conversation because said jumped into our conversation. we were kind of took back not because she jumped in but because she spoke English. come to find out she was heading to Beijing which was only another 2 hours on the train from where we were getting off. early in the day we were told that we would be staying in this city for a couple days and that we'd have a day off. we all decided to try to find a way to Beijing on our day off (the 15Th). we all knew that we'd be in Beijing for the last 2 days but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to do everything. so we talked to our translator and he looked into it for us. the train was out of the question because the next day the dragon boat festival starts. it's a 3 day holiday and i guess everyone was flooding to the major cities to celebrate and there was only 5 stand up tickets left. the translator was being kind of weird. i think he didn't want to go, but we didn't really care if he did. we put a little more pressure on him and he found a bus we could rent to get there. it'd be a 4 hour drive but at this point that wasn't too bad considering how much we've been traveling. plus it was for something we wanted to do. anyways, we finished our train ride and got on the bus to the hotel. i don't remember the hotel very well but it was defiantly a downgrade. when we got there we walked around for a while at a strip mall down the street. there wasn't anything at all for any of us to buy. mostly clothes that were way to small. on our way back rob wanted to stop at the ATM to get some money so Ty and i waited outside. we noticed there was a tiny table that had a deck of cards with a couple tiny stools around it. we decided to sit down and play a game of war while we waited. within minutes we had a 10+ around us observing our game. we were playing fast and kept going to war so I'm sure these people were wondering what we were playing. i ended up winning pretty quickly which doesn't happen to often in one on one match. after that we headed back, ate some dinner and headed off to bed. we fell asleep watching the world cup which is what we will probably do from here on out. the next morning (14Th) we got up and ate breakfast. we spent today relaxing since we had a game tonight. before the game we go down and have our snack the Lithuanian team is just getting in. come to find out they had a game the night before against a Chinese team which they won easily but sucked for them because it was their 5Th game in 6 days and had to play another one against us in a couple hours. we get to the gym which was really nice but it ended up being the most unenthusiastic crown we'd play in front of. the 1st half was close but we took over in the second half and ended up winning by and an easy 20. i led my team with 18 points and 8 rebounds. again ofter the game they presented us with a team trophy but to our surprise there was a cash prize of 10,000 yuan (roughly $1500). they gave it to the owner who was nice enough to split it with the team. we each got about $100. not a bad little bonus, especially since we weren't expecting it. after the game we headed back to shower and eat. the game took forever most because the opening part takes forever. all these people had speeches prepared and they have to translate them all. so we got back late and the restaurant was closed so we had to go to the corner store and get some cup o noodles. they weren't bad but not something you want to eat right after a game. oh well, we were all focused on getting ready to our trip to Beijing the next day. we had to leave at 6am so we could miss traffic and so when we got there we didn't have to rush. i ended up falling asleep at 1am so i was planning on sleeping on the bus the next morning. the morning (15Th) came too quick but i was able to sleep about an hour and half on the bus. we stopped right outside of Beijing to make a plan because i guess buses are restricted in some areas. most people wanted to do shopping and see one site. we decided to go shopping first at this famous place called the silk market and then head to the forbidden city which is also right in front of Tienanmen square. shopping there is more of an experience than something to do. it's basically a 6 floor flea market. they sell high quality knock offs of famous brands. every stand you walk but your being yelled at and grabbed. they usually say to us "you so tall", "special price for you", "you come look for free", or just a "hey!!". once they get you in they usually try flirting tactics with guys "your handsome i give you special price". it's kinds of funny the first couple times but it gets old really quick! they want to barder with you so they usually start really high and you can usually get what ever you want for 5-10% of their original offer. if you start to walk away they usually drop the price in half and keep dropping it ever step you get further away. some get mad and others just say you are tough. ha ha. at about 2:30 we headed off to the forbidden city. we found a subway right in front of the market and took that about 4 stops to get to the east Tienanmen square station. as soon as you hit the top of the steps coming out of the subway station you see the walls of the forbidden city. you turn around and Tienanmen square is right there. it's a pretty cool sight. we headed directly into the forbidden city and it opens up to his huge courtyard. not all like expected. from the entrance you can walk straight for it seems like a mile or so walking through these huge courtyards. they have basketball hoops, gift stands, and snack shacks. after walking through 3 courtyards rob and i were a little behind because we stopped and bought some Chinese hats because the sun was blazing. we also got stopped quite a few times to take pictures. by the time we got to the fourth courtyard they were kicking everyone out. we didn't know what was going on until someone informed that they were closing this part of the city for the rest of the day. this ended up being a good thing because the city was enormous. i guess all the buildings were closed for the day so rob and walked around the gardens for a minute and then decided to go back to the market where everyone was meeting a 6pm to go back home. we got back to the silk market at about 5 and went up to the tailor to ask some question. one of out teammates got a suit made for $140 that he was picking up when we returned on the 19Th. rob had some other stuff he wanted so we didn't have to get measured but we found out that they can make them in 24 hours so we could go back when we returned. plus it also game me time to think if i really wanted one. before we left we stopped a pizza parlor that we saw earlier and ordered a pizza for the road. it was sooo good! i can't wait to get back to the states to eat some good home cooked food! the day turned out to be really successful. i got a lot of things people asked for and couple other random things. the bus ride back was miserable because they were doing construction on the road so that tacked on another hour and half. i got a couple short naps in but didn't want to sleep that much because i wanted to be able to sleep when we got back. again we got back late and ate a cup o noodles with some tomato flavored pringles. dinner of champions! ha ha.