.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Updated Denise Van De Walle Blog
July 12, 2007 | Volleyball
July 12, 2007
CHINA -
July 9
We all met in Chicago and boarded the 747 to Shanghai. It was a
pretty good flight lasting roughly 14 hours. We watched four movies and ate three times. We hardly got any sleep at all. So when we got off the flight and through customs we were picked up by the Shanghai disabled sports federation and taken to the hotel. We were all so tired. We left on Monday at noon and when we got off the plane it was Tuesday at 2pm.
It was strange to lose the whole day. We didn't want to lay down because we knew we needed to get on the local time right away. So we stayed up. We had a team meeting that night and a couple of the new players had to go see the medical classifier to see what their classification was. It ended up being a late night.
July 10
We are staying in a really nice hotel. The toughest thing we're all dealing with is that everyone around here smokes. They smoke everywhere...the lobby, the restaurants, everywhere. We got up and had
breakfast then were bussed to the Shanghai Sports Center for the
Disabled. That's where this tournament is being held.
We had a scrimmage with the Chinese National team and they crushed us. They are playing at a different level than we are. We played 5 games and lost all five. We looked good in the first set but went downhill after that. They are smaller than we are but their individual skills are very good. They attack the ball hard and with great pace. They are all really good. Their flexibility is really amazing as well. We came back to the hotel and cleaned up and went on our first shopping spree.
That was an experience. Our translator is a 20 year old Chinese girl who has volunteered to be our hostess for the entire trip. Her name is Lisa. She is with us everywhere we go. She went with us to an area called The Temple where there were thousands of people walking around shopping. The best comparison I have is the Apple Butter Festival on it's busiest day.
It was unbelievable how many people there were. It was a shopper's paradise!! If you like to barter and bargain this is the place to be. We all had a great time and bought a lot of different Chinese things, from silk to pearls. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and a team meeting and lights out.
July 12
Started the day out earlier because of opening ceremonies There
are seven countries represented in the AOCVD Tournament. China, USA,
Malaysia, Iran, Australia, Japan, and Mongolia. The ceremonies were
quite small with all the teams sitting and listening to the chosen
speakers. The most interesting teams are Iran and Malaysia. Because they are Muslim countries, they must play fully covered..from head to toe. It's pretty amazing that they can move at all in their coverings. After the ceremonies we practiced for an hour and then played China again. We played three sets and lost again. China is REALLY good. It's hard for me to explain just how good they really are.
We played MUCH better against them today and had really great rallies. We ate lunch at the sports school which was an experience. They served real Chinese food...not what we're used to at home. So the team was leary to try it. Today was a lot of different seafood mixtures. I personally love the food here. I have had lots of fried rice,tofu, broccoli, the best potato salad ever,tons of watermelon. They always offer lots of desserts as well. Today they offered us a chocolate fountain to dip our fruit in. It was awesome! Then it was back to the gym to train again for an hour. It was ok. The Dutch coaches are here to watch the tournament so they train with us.
Since we spent a week with them in Oklahoma they feel like good friends now. We headed back to the Hotel and had dinner then back to the gym for a coaches seminar on Sitting Volleyball with the Iranian men's sitting volleyball coach.It was really interesting to listen to him...through an interpreter of course. Back to the hotel and lights out at 11pm. Tomorrow will be a repeat of today. We have the exact same schedule.
The team is doing really well adapting to the 12 hour time change and a completely different culture. I mentioned that everyone smokes here and that is tough to be around. Also, the traffic here is unreal. People drive really crazy. The weather is really hot and humid and there really isn't much air conditioning as we travel in the bus or the gym. We are certainly spoiled at home.
Good night.
