Figure skates and shin pads.

*sigh*

it’s been one long day.  a long long day.  boy was I bitter today, perturbed, annoyed, angry; hungry, headache-y and just generally not happy.

Today was Day 2 in Chongqing, and day one of our three game stint here in the city that has more people than my entire country. 

After a restless sleep; filled with construction noise, and temperature variances I woke up to quickly change and head down to breakfast where all I wanted was an apple, or even a banana.  I wasn’t expecting toast or coffee, all I wanted was a piece of fruit…think that happened? no.  But had I wanted to eat three different kinds of meat filled stuffed buns, dumplings, a variety of stir-fried meat dishes, various kinds of rice porridge, etc, etc, I would’ve been set…but I didn’t.  so I wasn’t.

But after filling my belly with tofu milk we set out for the rink in the middle of the foreign brands, uber expensive, mall; it was apparently close, but far enough that by the time we arrived I thought that my arm would most definitely fall off because of lack of circulation.  Anyways, we arrived and the first thing I saw was two tall foreigners and for a moment was worried that we actually may lose; I didn’t use my whole scholarship allowance to lose…but then my mind went elsewhere when I noticed that the one foreigner was wearing…a Saskatchewan roughriders T-shirt!..what?!  I simply said, riders.?  we’re going to be best friends…and then discovered he was from Saskatoon, but is now living in Chongqing with his family working at the Canadian consulate; not a bad contact to have :)

After scoping out the half-sized, no lines rink, which is what it was rumoured to be, we sat down and changed into our gear, stepped out on the ice; which was surprisingly good…although a bit warm (but that just reminded me of the Oval back home…) warmed up and waited for the other team to show.  After sometime a few of their players began to stumble of the ice, literally.  It was probably because they were wearing FIGURE SKATES.  yes.  I am serious.  I fly to a city thousands of miles away, spend my whole allowance on playing against a team wearing figure skates.  And they sucked. really really bad.  The one Canadian guy, Ryan was decent, but other than him…well, it was a gong-show to say the least…needless to say we killed them the first game, after a collision w/ the Canadian I was out of play for a few minutes before my jarred knee cap felt back up to standing ther e…doing nothing…during lunch, me the other foreigners and a few of the Chinese guys decided that  next game we NEEDED to switch up the teams, or at least let me play for the other team; so that I would get some shots and they wouldn’t score on every. single. shot.  But a few of the guys disagreed; they thought we came here to play and so we should embarrass them to the utmost extent. 

After winning game two by just as wide of a margin as game one I was more than a bit perturbed that I wasted my time and money to stand in a net and do almost absolutely nothing, not to mention that my head was pounding because I didn’t eat enough at lunch and was starving and most likely dehydrated.  After winning a pitiful game we headed off to eat…and after an hour of wandering about looking for a suitable we arrived at a restaurant; another hotpot restaurant.  Now I like hotpot just as much as anyone, but after eating it yesterday I was ready for a good ol wholesome Chinese meal, and instead was served plates upon plates of cow stomach; literally six different varieties, chicken tendons, fish intestines, seaweed, brains and other oddities…after a day of frustrations I just wanted something reliable to eat.  My mood was gradually worsening.  After adding a plate of things to the hotpot and being reprimanded like a child would be I just about had had enough.  My head was pounding, my belly was aching and I almost started crying at the table.  Then just after being reprimanded for adding things to the hotpot, another player asked me to add vegetables to the hotpot; so I did, but you could tell by the way I put them in I was pissed off. And I didn’t eat it; basically I sat their like a small angry child and watched the team eat, but I just couldn’t handle the unfamiliar food after a day of frustrations.  

So we left; John, Paul and I left and went to Subway to eat, it was delicious, just what I needed, we sat in subway and talked just like we were back home and I felt better; until I returned to my hotel room and discovered that construction NEVER stops in China.  And tried to sleep through the noise.

*sigh* not a good day for Brenna in China.