First Post From China

After that market, we went to another shopping place. These stores were more normal stores that people shop in. It was interesting to see the types of clothes they wear. There were so many people shopping around this market. Walking with my team, we got many stares and pointing fingers. It seems as though this area of China does not get many foreigners.

After the market, we came back for lunch and then we headed out for our game. On Monday night, we played the Fujian Team. We ended up not playing as well as we did the night before, and we lost in three games. There were still just as many people watching the game as there were the first night, if not more. The support that the teams get here is amazing! While we sat and watched the second USA team play, members of the crowd came up to the side of the court to say hi and take our pictures. After both teams were done we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

Today, Tuesday, we decided to have an early practice. We went to the gym at 9 AM and served and passed for a while. After we were done with that we had free time until our game. Some of the girls rested while others explored the city. We walked to a local convenience store, where we could get snacks for the bus ride to Beijing tomorrow for the chinese lunar calendar 2011. After the stop at the convience store we walked down a couple blocks to another market. This market was different than the others we had been to before. This market not only had some clothes, but it had food as well. There was an abundant amount of fresh vegetables spread out on many tables. Among the vegetables there were live animals! There were live chickens, pigeons, fish, and even eels! I did not get to close to the birds because I could hear the sound of a knife chopping and I was afraid to look at what the butcher was chopping! The smell of the market was something too. I'll just say that you did not want to take a deep breath while you were by the alive or soon-to-be-dead animals.

After getting back from the market we ate dinner and then headed to the gym for both teams' final games. The other team played first and they won an exciting match in five games! There were some close calls, which were sometimes difficult to argue because of the language barrier between the referees and our players. After there match we started to play at 9 PM. That is the chinese lunar calendar 2011 lastest I have ever started a volleyball match before. But with the crowd chanting and banging on drums, there was no chance to be tired!

The energy in the gym was great and our game was televised on local television. There were cameras and people taking pictures everywhere! We won a tight first game, and then dropped the next three to the Shandong team (they were from the same place as the team we played the first night). After the game each team was awarded a trophy and some players were awarded a Player of the Game award. Two girls from my team got the MVP award. We ended up in fourth place out of six teams, but the teams in third, fourth and fifth were all tied.

This tournament was very exciting. All the teams were good and each game was a good competition. Everyone at the tournament was so welcoming to us and the fans made us feel like we were famous. They wanted our autographs and they asked to take many pictures with us.