Back in the game? Soon

So I told myself that I would post once a week, no matter what. Therefore there will be some posts that are not quite as entertaining as others, but it keeps me on task, so here we go.

This past Saturday, my friend Patrick invited me to come watch his football club play a match in the nearby city of Fuling. I’m not sure who I shared the book River Town by Peter Hessler with, but this is the city he did his teaching and writing in. For any of you looking for an enjoyable read, River Town or his book Oracle Bones have excellent insights into China. Great books.

Back to the lecture at hand. Fuling is about a two hour bus ride from Chongqing, and we set off first thing in the morning. The trip was a lot of fun. The team is comprised of expats from all over: Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Mauritius, Croatia, England, and the States (possibly a few others). I had previously told Patrick I may be interested in joining, and I was fully sold on the idea when I was standing on the sidelines of that match.

The match itself was a bit of a trouncing; they beat a local ‘municipal’ team (there is a theory that it was the police force team) 9-1. After the match we all went to a big buffet, ate loads of food, sucked down a few beers and headed back to the stadium (they played in the local ‘Olympic’ stadium, 22,000 seater, not at capacity for their match, ~30 people) to watch the Chongqing Lifan team. I won’t bad mouth the squad too much, but Chinese second-division football leaves a bit to be desired.

Highlights of the day:

•  Hanging with lads from all over the world
• Watching the formality and rigmarole when the Chinese host an event like this with foreigners
• The fact that there was an at least 1:1 ratio of uniformed security to fans during the Lifan match, probably ~1,000 people. Dead serious
• The rekindling of my desire to run around on a pitch and play soccer

After we returned to Chongqing we went over to Patrick’s friend’s place. It was the closest experience I’ve had to being back home since I’ve been here. There were four of us at his friend’s (guy from Tennessee). Nice couches, fridge full of beer, watching the Premiership matches on the flat screen, and we even ordered pizza. Davanni’s it was not, but after two months sans pizza, that shit hit several spots.

So I had started running before I watched the match, but the training has intensified. Going really well so far; it feels great. I’m getting contacts later this week because I haven’t seen any Rec-Specs in the stores, so I should be able to see the ball, which is nice.

I think that’s it for now. Study some Chinese, read, eat my daily ration of chocolate from home (thank you, Mother) and then off to bed. 

Few pics from the day:

Team relations were much stronger before the 9-1 drubbing. 

Mascot? Cheerleader? Yokel?

Victory toast on the bus.