China June 7Th & 8Th

I wish I could say I slept good that night after our full day in Nanjing but I woke up at about 6:20 in a full sweat but not hot at all. i dried off and tried to sleep but I was up. I decided to get up and work on my blog and mess around on the Internet. our wake up call came at about 8:30 that woke fab up and we went an ate. this breakfast was by far the best we've has since we've been here. it had some American cereal, french toast, different varieties of fruit (normally it's been watermelon and honeydew melon), good breakfast breads to make toast, and really good apricot juice. we hustled back and got packed because we had to get to the airport which about 1-2 hour drive. we made it there in about an hour and a half, got all checked in and were pleasantly surprised to see they were playing the finals game on the bog screen and it was the 4Th quarter. we all huddled around it like it was story time at the library in elementary school. after the Celtics took care of business we headed to the gate. we flew china southern airlines and it was defiantly built for the stereo-typical china man. it was only a 2 hour flight but they still served food. you had the option of chicken in noodles or rice and fish. it came with a box that had utensils, a piece of bread, and this little vacuum sealed packed that had foul smelling vegetables in it. I'm not sure anybody gave that a try. i couldn't figure out their electronics rules though. Marcos, out starting 2 were playing games on my iPhone and they kept telling us to turn it off, but i could listen to music on it. also, i have 2 teammates watching movies on laptops and a couple others listen to music on other devices. we landed at Changsha airport which I'm not sure if that was the name of the city, province, or just the airport. last time i was able to use the translator as much I'd like because i was representing the team but ours is so busy dealing with our rep. that it's hard to ask questions. after landing we got on our bags and made our way to the bus to start the last leg of the days journey which we told was going to take 4 hours. it lasted every bit if that if not more. it was a beautiful drive though. the last 3 hours we were winding through these tropical mountains. there was probably 9 tunnels close to a mile long and a little river around every corner. there was also lots of old little huts that were who knows how old surrounded by rice paddies stair stepping up the ravines. i was curious what the wild life population consisted of but never saw a wild animal other than birds. just when we thought we were never going to get there there was a gap in mountains and city came out of nowhere. it was hard to see anything cause we were high in mountains and there was a low fog. the hotel was up a hill that looked out over part of the city and what much of been the cities central square. they were playing music but we couldn't tell until we got up to our rooms but there was an enormous paved circle and there was a couple hundred people doing Chinese line dancing (I'm sure they call it something else but that's the best way i can explain it). were told to take a quick shower and head downstairs to eat and be dressed to go to our presentation. the food was good. they had pasta, shrimp, and some fruit and that was good for me. we jumped on the bus after dinner and headed to our "presentation" which was a high school, college, or city league basketball game in the gym we'd be playing in the next day. it was surprisingly packed. when we walked in the whole place shut down. they stopped the game so they could give us court side seats that consisted of plastic stools that sat about 18 inches off the ground. i felt bad because even though I'm sure a lot of the people came to see us there was still a game that was going on. the game started back up and military guys lined the back of us so people wouldn't bug us. during one of the timeouts a couple of the players ran over to our side of the court and bummed cigarettes off this guy and they sat there and smoked! unbelievable!! at half time the brought us out on the court and introduced us. we took some pictures and they wanted us to shoot around. nobody really wanted too so i stepped up and air balled my first three! ha ha. then made 2 in a row and passed the ball to someone else on my team. a couple more guys shot and then we were escorted out of the gym to the bus. the bus dropped us off at the bottom of the little hill where our hotel was at and we walked around this open air market/ street food vendor area. i felt like i was on that show bizarre foods on the travel channel. there was roasted duck heads and lots of other stuff. after that we headed to this Fred Meyer type store that had a grocery store down stairs and clothes, sports, etc. upstairs. this was pretty funny because i think we ended up scaring quite a few people. they would just stare at a distance where a lot of people approach us. after walking the while store me and other 2 American went a different route home which ended up taking longer than expected. it must have been on a short cut route from the gym we just came from be we got mobbed by a bunch of younger kids wanting autographs and pics. we got to everyone and tried to hustle out of there before another wave came. it was about 9:30 pm and i was ready to fall asleep so i headed back to the room but Tyler and rob went to see of the spa was open. it ended up being open and they raved about the hour and half message they got for 88 Juan (about $13) at breakfast the next morning. from breakfast we headed off to shoot around. it was good to shoot around and get to know the court. they also pushed back the 3 point line about 18 inches which was fine with me. my shot felt good and i was ready to play. we head back to the hotel eat and rest before the game. i was still sweating a lot every time i fell asleep and i would never wake up hot or cold. it was concerning me but i was feeling OK other than the lack of sleep. after napping and working more on the blog we head off to the game. it seems that the start time for the games is more of a time to shoot for. we've haven't started a game on time yet. this game i was tired of being passive so i tried to be more aggressive. i ended up with close to 30 but they didn't keep stats so that's off what i can remember. being aggressive worked for the most part but a couple mistakes one the young guys made down the stretch killed us. we ended up going in to overtime and losing by a couple. pretty devastating. I'm pretty laid back off the court but it eats me up when we lose. especially since we came so far. i did learn a lot about the team that night though. 3 of starters have contracts for next year with this team and are here because it's in the contract. 2 of those guys are 37 and don't end up playing much after starting. 3 others are 19 and haven't played much at all in the top league in Argentina (good talents but not much experience). to top it off our best big guy got hurt after the second game. these teams that we are playing against are all-start teams from their countries. were competing but it seems like we might not have put the best team together to come over here and represent Argentina. oh well, as frustrated as i might be I'm still representing myself and it's an experience that is priceless! after the game everyone was pretty bummed but we had a 2 more games in the next days and we needed to think about them. after we left the gym the only thing that was on my mind was hoping the spa was still open so i could get that message. i ate quickly and Tyler and i headed upstairs. it was open to my surprise and we started our message at 11pm. we walked into a room with 3 stations. rob showed up about 5 minutes after we started. they started off with putting your feet in blazing hot water. while they soak they come around work on your head, face, and neck. my lady even messaged my pupils with my eyes shut of course. some of the techniques are weird though. they do a lot slap punching that makes this weird sound. after about 15 minutes they dry off your feet and go to work for about 20-25 minutes on each foot. anybody who knows me well knows that my feel are ticklish! so i was squirming around until i got used to it. during this part we also used the time to get a free Chinese lesson. Rob's fiance is Asian and her mom speaks the language well and has taught rob a few works here and there. after the feet they put this hot towel that smelled like ginger over your shins. after a couple minutes they took that off and started on the front side of your legs and then flipped us over to work the back side of legs up to the top of your back. by far the best $13 dollars I've ever spent. after words they wanted to take pictures along with the people at the front desk. after that we paid and tried to tip but tipping is not part of the culture here evidently so they declined. i had another rough night and but woke up refreshed. we did our morning ritual of eating and packing and jumped on the bus to the next city. they told us 2 hours but it was a solid 3. the hotel was right on the river and a big banner welcoming the us and the other team as well as letting everyone know that they have a 80 inch TV that everyone was welcome to come watch the world cup on. this hotel was defiantly prepped for arrival. it took only a minute or 2 to get out card and when we got out floor they had people open our doors for us and turn on the lights for us. again we did our daily ritual of eating lunch (which was average chicken wings, rice, and fruit), napping, and working on my blog. we head off to the game and our dressing room in right by the front door with windows and no blinds. good thing everyone comes dressed ready to the games with the exception of their shoes. i get me shoes on and head out to the court. there was a city league game finishing up so me and our back up point sat there and watched. after the game we shot around a little to used to the rims. this was hard because they only had one ball for each team. this game had the same out come as the 2 previous. this time we played well but the referees were so bad that we almost walked off the court. even the guy who put on this whole thing was complaining. the other team knew they were getting away with stuff so they did pushed even more. a couple fights almost broke out but in the end we had one ejection and they had none. i told our coach that we are playing this team again 2 more times in the next 3 days and this will get really ugly if the refs for take care of it. he agreed and said that we weren't going to play again if it was as bad as it was the next day. i had a OK game 16 points but got tired in the end. after the game all i wanted to do was sleep. if eating wasn't a team thing i probably would have skipped it but i ate and went to bed.