Starbury in Hangzhou, Super Bowl Monday, and the Chinese New Year

So last Friday a friend told me to head to the basketball stadium after I got off work to see the game. The last basketball game I went to was honestly, one of the most exciting basketball games I've ever seen, with a last second dunk from my boy Rodney White to win it. This one though, was big for a different reason. As some may know, Stephon Marbury just signed with a team in a northern province named Shanxi. Ned, my friend with the tickets, had first row directly under the basket for about 7 of us. The game ended up being pretty good, with the hometown team taking it by 4. I think we got into Marbury's head, or maybe it was the Chinese screaming "MAH BOO ARY!" relentlessly that did it.

For the Super Bowl, a friend decided he would have people over to watch the game. He has a working SlingBox (read: Brother Matt, you owe me a Christmas gift), so we caught the Washington DC broadcast of the game, kicking off at 7:30 in the morning here. Getting up for it was a drag, but it ended up being a pretty good game. We did get some looks, rightfully so this time, for buying beers and McDonald's breakfast at 6:45 in the morning on a Monday, but it was a rightful reprieve, kicking off our Chinese New Year celebration.

We have off work until the 20th, and just about everything here is shut down. What I don't understand is where all of these people are supposed to get food during this time. Seriously just about every single store and shop is closed, I've been eating pasta for the last 3 days. I don't know what I'm gonna do. One thing that isn't closed though are firework stands. Pat just came back with a nice stack of explosives, and we're gonna go blow them up later. Some of these things are pretty intimidating, like 7 foot long black cat rolls that last for several minutes, or large half disks with cartoons of young Chinese kids running around playing with said fireworks. Not too worried about it, there are directions, all in Chinese, to avoid any danger. We'll figure them out