China is 13 hours ahead of Bowling Green so you can imagine what it's like trying to answer the perverbial "coach, what time is it back home?" question whilst battling sleep deprviatation and an internal clock that says it's time to wake up when it's time to go to sleep and vice versa...needless to say we all struggled to get a few good hours of rest after the big flight. Morning brought our first experience with the much dreaded "Chinese food" breakfast buffet: fried rice, rice porridge, "baked beans", grilled tomatoes with cheese, bok choy (Chinese cabbage)and bread dumplins along with many other items you won't find on the Denny's Grand Slam page. A few recognizable items however including room temperature milk and yogurt, cereal and fruit. The girls (and most coaches) didn't stray too far from the norm while Coach Derek and Sheila (our resident "Mikey" cause she'll eat anything) tried a little bit of everything.
After breakfast we went to an outdoor reception hosted by the local community...the turnout was impressive...literally hundreds of people from the community including many local officials. There were speeches, dancers, children performers, balloons, and mascots all surrounded by U.S flag-waving Chinese. The event culiminated with all the athletes, volunteers and many of the crowd dancing in a huge circle with confetti flying about the waterfront.
After lunch we visited the Bejing Planetarium for a very cool exhibition and several 3-D films. The girls were especially thrilled with the water cannons and bursts of air coming from our movie seats.
That night we were invited to a banquet in our honor at a local hotel. Performances by Chinese athletes and events involving many of the basketball athletes made for a fun evening. The evening meal was a little challenging as it included many tradtional items including eel. The quote of the day came from Kay Gregory who said "that looks like fishing worms!" much to the disgust of the chef but delight of her teammates who howled with laughter.
Today's photos include the morning reception, afternoon trip the planetarium and evening banquet.
