Adventures in Guangzhou!

Anyway, just as in basketball, I found myself shouting English phrases out to my teamates that was most likely gibberish to them. Regardless, instinct dictated that I yell, "switch fields," "man on," and "settle," etc. throughout the game. A couple of the guys were interested in what I was saying and vice versa so I have started to learn chinese sports terminology and teach the English equivelants. I must say, it comes in even handier than phrases like "I would like to drink some tea." I wasn't quite sure what we were playing to but eventually I started to tire as the sun went down. At one point one of the guys came over to me and said "golden goal," signifying that next goal wins. Not a moment too soon, either, as I was starting to hurt. Both teams had a few solid opportunities, but eventually we had to call the game on account of darkness. I literally could not see the ball anymore unless I was dribbling!

I was getting all ready to head home when one of the guys came up to me and asked if I like to drink beer. Is the Guangzhou air polluted? Of course! Apparently one of the older fellows who showed up mid-game was the old executive principal of the school and he invited everyone out. So without even changing out of our cleats, we all headed out, the guys picking up their wives/girlfriends on the way. We rolled up to a relatively nice restaurant, all disgusting from two hours of football, but they didn't seem to care. We sat down at the table, and luckily one of the girlfriends spoke English well enough to do a little translating. The first question they asked me was, "Can you drink 3 bottles of beer?" Again, they underestimate me. I said sure. They asked if I could drink 6 and I said I didn't know but that I would drink as much as they would. So it began! We started the obligatory toasting and the older fellow treating us emptied his glass faster than I could say, "gam bei." At some point along the way he ordered food and suddenly we were immersed in an all-out feast! No complaints from me, either. The food was quite tasty and was northern chinese cuisine which I had not had very much of yet. It actually resembled American-style Chinese food which was cool. Though I gotta say, the food here puts that stuff to shame.

Anyway, we continued to toast and drain glasses throughout the meal, and once again I am proud to say that I was one of the last men left standing, so to speak. A few guys got good and drunk pretty quickly, but I was eating enough to soak up any amount of alcohol and thus continued to toast our host. Finally he cut us off and we headed out. I can't tell if I'm getting in really good shape from playing basketball and football everyday, or if I'm ruining myself by playing along with these drinkfest banquets. Either way, I'm having a great time! Though the language barrier was once again ever present, I managed to use my 5 phrases of mandarin and they struggled through a little English. We settled on the fact that I should play football with them much more and that a few of us would hang out and play PS-2. I didn't want to tell them that I'm not a big fan of video games so I agreed. It's nice to make a few friends among the faculty. They are great guys and I would never have gotten to know them without sports. And here you all laughed at me when I signed up for soccer skills back in '03...

I've been trying to figure out how to post some pictures and I think I may have figured it out. Try the following link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=902121126576921071/l=59888435/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Again, my html skills are lacking so you have to copy and paste it (Steve, help?). Let me know if it works though. There are a bunch of photos from my first week here. I am also up on skype, at least for now, so please email me with your skype name if you have one! Hope all is well with everyone...