Thanksgiving

So going into it I really did not know what to expect out of a Thanksgiving in China. The few Americans that I know were all kind of split, and it looked like a few of us were planning on going to the Hyatt for a Thanksgiving dinner. It was ridiculously expensive, but we figured we'd all splurge just for the sake of us being in China and not wanting to eat rice and noodles on one of my favorite days of the year. Well at the last minute, a friend decided to have a dinner at his house, everyone threw in a nominal fee, and he prepared a feast, including a deep fried turkey that took forever to finally be served. After running around the city for hours looking for a pot big enough to deep fry a turkey, we nearly had a propane related disaster that seriously looked like it got out of hand. I've got to say it was the most unique Thanksgiving that I have ever had. There were about 10 different countries represented, a lot of people were excited and very pleased with their first Thanksgiving experiences. There were people from Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, China, basically every continent, as well as a former and a future first round NBA draft pick. Rodney White, #9 overall pick out of UNC Asheville in the 2001 NBA draft, at 6'9 inches tall, and his friend JP, from Puerto Rico, who is 7'4 inches tall. Easily the two tallest people I've ever seen.

Got to say it was interesting, and a Thanksgiving that I will not forget, and this is the PG version of the whole story, so there's that

Breaking News

So we've finally had a couple nice days after a miserable stretch in terms of weather. It's definitely nice change from freezing rain and 30 degrees. Just got back from playing basketball, had some decent competition actually which was nice. I will say that I am in the absolute worst shape of my life. I didn't think I could get much worse than my last year at Miami, but it's really a shame how hard it is for me to run and how quickly I am out of breath.

The other day I picked up a copy of Hangzhou Weekly, the English newspaper in the city and on the second page I found an article that made me laugh out loud. The headline being "Caught on camera: naked love rival flees furious husband." The story is about a 25 year old man who has been given "the cold shoulder" by his community after fleeing from the apartment of the women he was sleeping with, when her husband came home and found them. There is literally a picture in this newspaper that is taken from the street outside of the apartment of this guy standing, COMPLETELY NAKED, on an air conditioning unit, covering his junk, and from the window is a man yelling and flailing his arms wildly. The article goes on and explains how the guy feels bad about it but has been getting harassed by people in his neighborhood. He's very embarrassed about the whole thing, and there is even a quote from him saying, "People are even laughing at how I look naked - but I have to point out it was a very cold day." I am completely serious about this whole thing, and I'm saving this article to bring home because I think it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I talked to my family the other day, heard from the younger sister who is home from school for Thanksgiving. It was nice to catch up, I'm definitely jealous for that though, I think I'm going to be celebrating my Thanksgiving at the Hyatt, I guess they have a really good holiday buffet. Something that stood out in the conversation with my sister though was when she asked me "If I have been to or seen any sweatshops," as if it was a common occurrence, like heading to the grocery store. Are you kidding me Glenna?

Playing basketball with Chinese people

So I've found the best way for me to make sure my heart still works is to play basketball. The Chinese love basketball, there are courts everywhere and pretty consistently there are games going on. Having a basketball court 200 yards from our apartment is great so I try to go out as often as I can. I also bought a very nice basketball from the athletic store across the street from my apartment for like $10. Immediately upon walking onto the court every person notices, and I really just have to stand there until there's a break in the game and they'll ask me to play with them. They'll tell me the teams by pointing and usually the next tallest person on the court will always guard me. What I've come to realize by growing up in the United States is that basketball is ingrained in our lives from the time we are young children. There is nothing like house league basketball, or even school teams at any age really. I've never considered myself very good at basketball, but it really does feel great to be the tallest person on the court and also be able to dribble with my left hand. Honestly for most of them it might as well be a club. Anyways, it's always a good time and the Chinese always love to let me join in with them.

So that's nice, but what isn't is that we've finally gotten some real fall weather and it's started raining a bit. It's actually pretty cold, and I definitely didn't pack well. There was a pretty incredible storm this past monday, in the middle of a bright day it suddenly turned pitch black and started pouring, then in the middle of that the sky turned bright yellow and it stopped for about 5 minutes. It then immediately blacked out again and rained for another hour, then it cleared up and was a bright day again. Very weird, and unfortunately I was viewing this from my bed as I became terribly sick that morning, my first time since being in Hangzhou. It was only for about half a day, and I'm doing just fine now, but it definitely was a very weird day, and I won't forget it for a while.