Always expect the unexpected…

So.

 

Today was the day I was leaving for Chongqing to go play some hockey, so after skipping my first two hours of class to pack I stood on the side of dong feng xi road for just over half an hour waiting for a cab…then decided it was never going to happen and walked to a new road, all the while wondering why on earth my backpack was so heavy.  500 meters down the road the taxi situation didn’t seem much better, so I grabbed a red bean bun and a carton of milk that doesn’t expire for three years and continued to wait..and wait..and wait.  then finally caught sight of a cabbie who wasn’t occupied hopped in, ate my red bean bun, drank my melamine milk and arrived at the airport exactly on time.

Turns out no one else arrived on time, but Neng Jiu was bringing my goalie gear for me, and so since I was equipment-Iess, I took some time to browse some Yunnan products and ended up buying an Obama speech book…not Yunnan-ish at all…but. it is in Chinese and English.

After a bit of a wait Huang Hao turned up, followed by the rest of the team, minus Bobo who became deathly ill over night, and the policeman who was called on riot control at the second hand market that’s being shut down in town..and so eight of us got in line, dropped our bags and went to go check in…but wait, our flight was delayed, two hours; so instead we wandered off the airport and found a place to eat.  Ate.  Returned to the airport, went through security…only to learn that our flight was delayed, again.  So instead of leaving at 1:00pm, we were leaving at 4:00, by which time, I could have almost attended all of the six classes I missed, but instead spent my afternoon hopelessly trying to get on the internet while wishing I had earplugs to drown out the sound of the loud speak, who how she still has a voice after incessantly speaking for hours and hours I have no idea, and wondering why I was wearing a down vest and a thick sweater in a sweltering waiting area where it seemed every flight was somehow delayed. 

After a three hour delay we boarded the plane, I got the window seat and had some good conversation with Paul from Newfoundland until we landed in Chongqing about an hour later, at which point we grabbed our bags with no issues, loaded our stuff onto a bus again with no hassle and took our seats; of course after layering up our clothes seeing as though Chongqing is quite a few degrees colder than Kunming, minutes later as the bus took off, this decision was immediately regretted as the driver seemed to be missing the sweltering summers of Chongqing and jacked the heat; not to worry we were only on the bus for over an hour, and after we got off and discovered that trying to hail a cab for eight people, all of whom have giant hockey bags, was not going to work; we instead hopped, and by hopped I mean slowly dragged, all ourselves and our gear onto…a public bus.  it’s true.  half an hour later we arrived in the centre of town where we continued to haul our gear through the streets, and I continued to wonder what on earth I had put in my extremely heavy backpack why trying to maintain feeling in my right arm as circulation was being cut off from my other heavy bag, and wishing that I had a wheelie bag like all the other guys on my team.  After 15ish minutes of walking Huang hao took pity on me and offered to carry my bag, which I would usually decline, but seeing as though my entire arm was numb, I gladly traded my giant goalie bag, for his stick bag and continued wandering about until we finally found our hotel.

Turns out the hockey rink is in the middle of the city, which apparently resembles New York, actually there’s a building called New York New York, and if I ever thought Kunming was a big city, Chongqing blows KM out of the water.  This city has approximately 40 million people…FOURTY MILLION people, that’s more people in one city, than my entire country has.  WOW-ZA.  drink that fact in.

Checking in turned out to be another waiting game, but after changing out of my acid-rain soaked clothes I headed to the 22nd floor to meet the rest of the team to go and eat some much needed dinner; and seeing as though Chongqing is known for its ‘hot pot’, we went and ate at a hot pot restaurant..no pig brains this time, though I did see a plate of them sitting at Angela and Meng Dongs table…after stuffing my gut past the point of full we left and after spotting a Starbucks decided we should actually stop there..I ordered a misto tea, even though it wasn’t on the menu, held it in my hands and almost forgot I was standing in the middle of a city of 40 million people, thousands of miles away from home..and then cars started beeping, people started talking..and I was back.  But it was good while it lasted.

And now.  Now I’m sitting in my hotel room, without internet, watching Chinese cheerleaders on TV after searching for the HBO, CNN, and FOX news channels John was telling me about at dinner…that liar.  That is a mean MEAN trick to play, I got my hopes up for some hockey highlights and now, now all I have is Chinese Cheerleading.  Thanks John.

Tomorrow we play two games, 10:30 and 5:00, we’re playing in a shopping mall that has a half sized rink and no lines, we lost two of our better players, but yet I still feel it’s going to be epic.  And if not, I just may be able to find a warm winter jacket for my Russia adventure here…and if not..there’s always wifi at Starbucks. :)