We ate breakfast in the hotel again, and were treated to a Saturday morning team building exercise happening in the open space to the left of the dining area. There was a large group assembled, with a dais of judges in front of a small stage. On the stage were a group of employees of some organization...an assumption on my part, singing karaoke. This went on for several rounds. Some groups were solos, others were groups. Some songs seemed like popular music, other sounded like rousing political rally songs. I wanted to pull the draperies away and be able to watch unhindered, but didn't have the nerve to do so. Some of the hotel guests were singing along which indicated to me some were popular songs or folk songs.
Alvina texted us that she would like us to bring her some orange juice and noshes. Bill and I wandered around looking for a pharmacy to buy the "miracle" pills. We went left on Minjiang and then didn't find anything so opted to go to Carrefour and hope that the pharmacy there carried them. We got something from Carrefour, not the pills I was looking for to give Alvina, but something. So we went up stairs and got the oj and noshes and booked it for the hotel, because, we were running late to make the 1 arrival at the arena for the games. As we were finishing the loop we came across a pharmacy, just to the right of our alley, and they had the magic pills. Bought 2 boxes and gave one to Alvina.
Potential disaster loomed, as Bill couldn't get his phone to pull up the address and name of the arena. We fell back to non-technically advanced things, a map! We arrived at the stadium and were ushered to the playing floor like royalty!
Our job was the same, usher the players on to the field, helmet on right hip, go through gate walk to 20 yard line and head to the far boards.
The only twist was that we had to avoid walking on the "floor" around the field for TV reasons. So we had to wander through the bowels of the arena to get to the proper door.
The first game was Shanghai vs. Shenzen. The first player on the Shanghai side was the same guy I had talked to in Beijing. We chatted again, and then sent them off with "follow the leader".
The title of this entry is a nod to Bob Holmes, who in a comment on a previous post asked for More Football, Please!
The second game was Guangzhou vs. Dalian. Both teams had never won a game. Someone would log a W at this game.
We had the same job, and I had the pleasure of talking with Dwayne Brooks at the head of the Guangzhou line. He sees China as a huge untapped market for Arena Football, and all things equal, would love to stay in China to continue to play and help organize the league. He has played for Portland and Spokane, but did not play this last year. He was a dynamo on the field this game as a wide receiver. Great moves and able to slip by blockers with ease.
The half time show was a group of little girls in a cheering club. It was so cute, they were so adorable. Here is a shot of the end of the game where the players and the little girls are on the field.
One last pic for Bob!
The strangest and funniest event happened as we were entering our hotel. On each side of the walk way to the entrance door are shallow "ponds". Meaning they are water pools that are about 6-8 inches deep and have water lilies growing in pots in them. It was raining, that is an important fact. We are walking up the walk way and hear a group of men laughing and joking quite loudly, then all of a sudden we hear a huge splash. Because of the rain, they were unable to see that the ponds were not solid because they looked like a rain soaked sidewalk. Now they are laughing and yelling. They have managed to stand up and we notice that they are carrying another man who appears to be dead drunk. The hotel staff quickly went into action and got them out of the pool. We went to our room, got umbrellas, and left to get dinner. On our way out, we saw staff carrying the drunken man, actually more dragging him to the elevator. In the lobby, the other men that had fallen into the pond were standing in a puddle from their dripping clothes. Smoking and discussing the incident. I did see one of the men making sure to hold his drunken friend's head above water, so I was never afraid that someone would drown, however, alcohol poisoning may occur.
We had dinner at a 24 hr place right near our hotel. I had clams, Bill had skewered meat and we shared both as well as stir fried pea pods
Good Night, and Sweet dreams. Tomorrow is another game!
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