Thursday Press Conference

We were invited by Fiona to go to the press conference for the launch of the CAFL.  It was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Doubletree Hotel.

We arrived early, and were able to help Fiona make press packets.  Who knew that the collating skills of teachers would come in handy.  She was amazed that we put them together so quickly.!  On the dais was Marty Judge, Chinese Minister for Sport, Ron Jawarsky, Clint Dolezel, David Niu, Eddie Wong, and Gary Morris.  Moderating the event was Lou Tilly and Mr.Wu.

Each person on the dais got up to speak, except for Gary Morris.  The picture above is Clint Dolezel. To his right is Lou Tilly and Mr. Wu.  The most dynamic speaker was Jaws.  He got the crowd thumping.  Afterwards we met Alvina Alston, who is a publisist and is doing double duty on game day.  Here she is with Fiona.

 Another thing they did was to have the players model the uniforms for each team.  This is JJ Ratarink wearing Shenzhen's uniform.  This caused a bit of confusion for Bill and I because we knew that he didn't play for Shenzhen.  He joked with Lou Tilly that he had been traded already.

The most spectacular faux pas of the day goes to Lou Tilly, when he said over the live mike, "Come on girls shake your Pom-poms and I'm not talking about those things in your hands".  Bill and I were stunned that he said that.  No one else in the room seemed to think that anything was off about the comment.  We've been PC'd!!

After going to the press conference, we wandered over to a mall, they are everywhere, and found a Dairy Queen.  

After our Blizzards, we got on the #5 bus and ended up going to a local restaurant and Bill tried a local delicacy donkey.  He ordered donkey meat platter, and it was a cold sliced meat plate.