Deli Sandwich

Went out Christmas shopping last week....stopped at a Deli to get some lunch. Yes, I will have the black pepper ham sandwich. It cost 30 yuan - just less than 5 dollars.

This is what I received.

That is one slice of meat on the sandwich.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from China! Yes, there is plenty of Christams decorations and music here in China. For about a month now, Christams carols - all in English - have been playing the malls. There have been many religious songs included in that collection. The Merry Christams theme is much more prominent here than in the US. There is no "Happy Holidays" sentiment here.

Of course, Christmas for most of the Chinese was a normal day. Our gas went out on Christmas morning - we apparently used up all our hot water and our account was at $0.00 on Dec 25. So our driver went out to the office, recharged our account, and gas was restored later that morning.

We are in the middle of a Monopoly phase here at the house - both boys love to play both the real board game version and the Wii version. They are starting to love the trading aspect and building up the hotels right away. There have been a few games that end in crying when one lands on New York, or Illinois, or even Park Place with a hotel.

It reminds me of years gone by with the Monopoly tournaments in the backyard and - more recently - a cut throat game 15 years ago when I was in Dayton when I held up the game for 10 minutes because I wanted Reading Railroad as part of a 3-way, 12-property trade instead of Short Line, which was being offered.

But I was right!

Learn English!

Found this book at a bookstore in Guangzhou.

Must.....resist......joke.....about......teleprompter.......

Sports Market

Went to the tourist shopping market today, called "Beijing Lu" - Beijing Street. Bought some Elmo's World DVDs for 25 yuan (about $4) each. Not bad.
One section of the market was dedicated to sports apparel/equipment - Nike, adidas, Converse, etc. No sign of Stadia, however.

Anyway, two questions for the group from this trip:


1. I need help from Craig, Mike, or others that have a vested interested in the EPL: Should I shop in this first store, or teach my sons to run away?

(and in the Venetian at Macau, there was the "Manchester United Experience" store in the plaza. Again, avoid or jump in?)




2. I would love to purchase multiple copies of this banner (the second picture) and give to our Univ of Maryland readers.....How profitable could I be if I bought 10,000 of these and marketed to every non-Duke ACC fan in the age range of 30-50? This would make a great background for rifle target practice, to put on a punching bag, in a urinal.....

Lost in translation

This sign appears near the entrance of the grocery/supermarket we visit. This is a European chain - Metro - so it's not a "real native" Chinese market. However, the translation here leaves something to be desired.

What was the real intent of this sign? To point out where the Electronics are? Auto Parts? Road Runners?

Now I understand how disasters occur.....

Some of you may have known that the 16th Asian Games were hosted by Guangzhou in November! The Asian Games are one step down from the Olympics - but it is still a huge production. 2 weeks of activities where the city almost shuts down - we got the Opening Ceremony day as a holiday. Fireworks and skylights galore.

I took the boys - with another father and their sone - to see the Track and Field events one night. I have to say, it was a lot of fun. The women's 10,000 m final was that night - you can see the action shot in the picture here! Can't you feel the excitement? The gun went off, the ladies started running - and then the boys asked how many laps there were.

25, I said.

"Oh....." they were disappointed. But it was clear that one of the ladies - in the final! - was much worse than the others. By lap 3, she was more than 1/2 lap behind. The boys were fascinated by the main runners "lapping" her - once, twice, three times.

The shot put and hammer throw were going on at the same time as well. We were all fascinated by - how do I put this - how amateur the participants were. At least 33% of the throws ended in foot faults. The hammer throw took place on the right of the picture - you can see the poles and the netting set up so hammers aren't thrown int the track. It's a good thing they were there, too - there were more than a few throws into the net, and sometimes we heard a loud "ping" - when the hammer hit the pole.

But I have to say our experience at the entrance of the stadium was the first time I felt in danger of physical harm. At the entrance on each side of the stadium, all spectators had to go through a metal detector and put any bags on a conveyor - exactly like an airport security check.

On our side of the stadium, there were about 25 or so detectors set up. But there were no lines.

We got there - and there were police standing about 30 feet in front of all the detectors. The policemen formed a human chain - and this chain was at least 300-400 feet long to cover all 25 detectors or so. Every once in a while, the police would open the chain at a position in front of the detector - let a few people in - and then close the human chain.

When we got there, there were people 15-20 deep along all 300 feet. So imagine a rectangle, 300 feet wide by about, oh 20-25 feet deep - and that rectangle was jammed full of people.

What happens when the police opens up the chain? Of course - a mass push to the opening. This was kind of fun when you are in the back - but once you are in the middle of the rectangle - holy hell.

This all occured outside, on blacktop - so even though it was not particulary hot out (maybe 70-75 degrees), just the heat coming from the blacktop was very noticeable. And I am about 6 feet tall. Freddie and Warren were really feeling it being 4 feet tall or so.

And we had to create room for them. They weren't getting much space at all. They were half amused and half confused.

As we got closer to the front, a grim thought hit my mind - what if Freddie or Warren - or I - tripped as we advanced to the front?

I ended letting them be ahead of me allowing me (and my larger-than-your-average-Chinese-person body) to try to force-create room by holding people back.

It was scary. We got through it in about 20-25 minutes, although it seemed a lot longer. Now I understand how people get seriously injured - or even killed - in stampedes. This was the qualification rounds of the Asian Games, for God's sake! What if it was something more important?

Coaching Rule #1: Know your players

Here's some more posts to bring everyone down from the high that was Jake Delhomme's first game winning drive this year (and what a drive it was! Veteran quaterback leadership to lead the Browns down the field to win, 13-10, at the gun):

I signed Freddie up for soccer this fall. The soccer is organized as a 7-on-7 matchup on a much smaller field than a regular soccer field. This is a great idea, as there is more action and all players feel like they are taking part.

I didn't sign up to coach initially, but at the first game (there were no practices! We were just thrown into games right away!), there was only one coach who just wanted to be an assistant. No one was thinking about positions, or how subs would work....so I decided to volunteer. I quickly realized that I was in the top 10% of the parents in coaching kids - with my track record back in the US - so I should have volunteered to begin with. (Freddie, by the way, is the only American on our team of 9). By week 2, I was the de facto head coach.

Anyway, it was time to meet all our players. The assistant coach and his son were English; we have two Korean kids that are twins (and I still get their names mixed up), two Taiwanese boys and an Indian boy.

On the side were two other kids on our team, one an Indian girl and another kid that had dark skin with afro-like hair pulled into a pony tail.

I went over and introduced myself to the girls.

"Hello ladies, I'm Coach Eric. What are your names?"

The Indian girl replied: "Hi, I'm Minu".

The other kid was silent. Alarm bells were ringing in my head.

"Um, hi - what is your name?"

"Ethan"

Of course it is. He looks like an 8 year old Yannick Noah. (That's Joakim's dad for all you youngsters out there). His father is Caucasian, his mother is African.

And it turns out Ethan is our best player on the team - a wicked left foot.

Our record is now 5-6-7 (I am not making that up) with 2 more games to go. Freddie is turning into a pretty good goalie.