Shanghai on Life

Last weekend our basketball team played our first games of the season. The Shanghai American School was having a small tournament and after a team dropped out at the last minute we were invited.  As far as I have been able to tell we are the only women’s club team in Shanghai, highlighting the lack of popularity of women’s basketball here..19 million people in this city and one women’s team :) Anyway, that limits us to playing against international high school teams, university teams and apparently the Shanghai farm team for the WCBA (Women’s Chinese Basketball Association) :S.  We played three games last weekend – lost the first on Friday night and won both on Saturday. Yesterday (Saturday) we had another game which we won and an hour from now we have practice. As much as I enjoy my relaxed Shanghai lifestyle of little academic stress and firm time commitments, I have to say that there’s something nice and familiar in having to roll out of bed (and not being happy about it) on a Saturday morning to go run around with a team. It feels so great to play basketball again, I didn’t realize how much I’d been missing it. I don’t care what anybody says, it’s the king of all sports – aerobically, mentally, socially, basketball is just so awesome!

It’s a strange thing being on an all-Chinese team (sitting proudly on your integration high-horse) and then entering these gymnasiums and being warped back to Canadian high school.. all the girls at these schools are 17 and Caucasian, the parents look and act the same as our parents did in the bleachers, everything is happening in English, and the gym looks like you could be at Mt. Doug…but you’re in China, and it’s so weird!

The girls on my team are really great; they are inclusive, friendly and very curious about me and Canadian life. There are a couple of the girls who speak English fluently, but otherwise the communication with the other girls is through basic English, broken Chinese,  non-verbal communication, or (very commonly) with the aid of a trusty translator. They are very interested how basketball is at home (when did I play? How long did I play for? Do I know anyone who plays at university? Have I seen a WMBA game?) and what I think of China (Was it scary to come here? Are people shorter here? Is it a tropical paradise compared to Canada?). After the games last weekend we all went out for Chinese hot pot which was yummy. A big pot of boiling broth is put on a burner in the middle of the table and then you order all kinds of meat, vegetables and even bread that you cook in this soup. I impressed with my chop sticking skills (which are not that impressive, but the fact that I had any at all seemed to be good enough) and ability to eat all mysterious contents of the soup without questioning it.

Since joining the team, my personal feelings of pressure to learn more Chinese have ramped up ten fold. Because so many of my friends are other exchange students, the majority of my life here happens in English and even with Chinese friends I’m almost always speaking English (the conversation would be painfully short if it happened in Chinese :D). But with the team, everything is happening in Chinese, the game plan, the recap, the cheering, the joking around and it just makes you want to be able to participate. That said, I am again reminded how great sports can be linguistically. I don’t know exactly what it is about sports, but I really found the same thing when playing basketball in Sweden. I think it’s just that everything happens in context so it’s easier to fill in blanks of sentences where you only understood a few words…plus, communication is often quite simplistic, you can congratulate, console or encourage a teammate with only a few words .  I’ve started picking up on some of the Chinese basketball lingo. My teammates find it endlessly entertaining to hear me chanting “fang shou! fang shou!” from the bench with them rather than the usual “De – fence!”

Yesterday (Saturday) we had another game which we won and an hour from now we have practice. As much as I enjoy my relaxed Shanghai lifestyle of little academic stress and firm time commitments, I have to say that there’s something nice and familiar in having to roll out of bed on a Saturday morning to go run around with a team.

In other news, I am going to Hong Kong this week! Heading out on Wednesday and returning Saturday with Sandra, Simon and Christian.  We realized when booking our flights that our travel time lines were determined based on our party schedule (have to make it to Hong Kong for ladies night on Wednesday, have to get back to Shanghai for Saturday to see Armin Van Buuren apparently the best DJ in the world) – such busy, busy schedules! Hong Kong, hopefully with a side trip to Macao, should be a few days filled with shopping, eating, visiting a few friends, and maybe some gambling for good measure. Conor informs me that James bond also gambled in Macao, I always knew I had a lot in common with James. Special thanks to my parents for the generous birthday gift, some funds to cover the cost of this particular trip. We’re all agreed that it’s  Hopefully I don’t blow it all at the poker table ;) Just kidding, I’m such a card shark (yet another likeness to Bond) that would never happen.

Until next time!

amy