Chongqing – Day 3

After a frustrating day 2 in Chongqing I woke up determined to have a better third day in the city with a population bigger than Canada; and so, instead of heading to the fourth floor for a breakfast of rice slop and soy milk and decided instead to opt for Starbucks, and it didn’t disappoint; a blueberry muffin and cafe misto later I headed out the door back into the populated mess that is Chongqing.

Although I had been told the night before to meet at the rink at 9:20, I somehow doubted that would happen, but I still headed over in that general direction and after a refreshing morning walk decided to double check with a phone call to John; change of plans, meeting was to be at the hotel and so I headed back in the rain.

After arriving back at the hotel, the group of us soon left and headed to the Metropolitan Mall where we would ascend to the sixth floor to play some hockey; hockey which would hopefully consist of throwing everyone’s sticks in the middle and randomly dividing the teams with some hope that I may get more than 6 shots today.  After changing into my gear and heading to the ice for a warm up; slowly but surely the rest of the players made their way to the ice where we reminded them that today we would be mixing teams.  Meng Dong was not impressed, but after a day like yesterday, we didn’t care and split the teams…which was an epically better decision as I actually got to do something for the first time in three games. By the end of the game I’m hoping that everyone felt good about the decision made to mix up the teams.

Oh. and before I headed on the ice, Angela came over to apologize for the events of the night before; we hugged it out and I was happy something was said.  Later that day after my THIRD trip to Starbucks Yutao and I had a good conversation.  He told me that after we had left the rest of the team had a long conversation about what had happened that day; and it sounded as if Yutao and Xiao Tian had our backs, but the rest of the team was perturbed at how I let my mood cross over into my vegetable dumping abilities…you know when it’s obvious that your pissed off and you don’t really have to say anything because actions speak louder than words?  That was one of those situations.  I really like Yutao, he’s pretty cool; he sees things from both sides and will say something to both parties; he told me that I can learn something from last night, and he was right; I knew that I could have handled the situation better and was embarrassed at my mood, but at the same time I could see that some members of the team were inconsiderate to us as well.  Anyways, I’m glad me and Yutao had a talk and some things I thought about some members of our team before were re-affirmed with this trip.

At the end of the day; after eating a 500rmb meal I decided that this was indeed a waste of money.  Had I travelled here on my own, I would’ve saved a lot of money; my lonely planet pointed could’ve pointed me in the direction of much cheaper hotels, I would have undoubtedly eaten much. much. much cheaper and would not have been so angry about spending my whole month’s scholarship allowance on travelling to Chongqing just to stand around. 

So although it was a let down; there still were some positive notes; I got to hang out with John and Paul and realized they’re two solid characters, met a fellow Saskatchewan-ite (Saskatchewanian…someone from Saskatchewan) and his family, drank more Starbucks in three days than I do in months back home, had my first sandwich in three months (and it was delicious)…