SHANGHAI, China (June 10, 2011) – Today was a pretty long day. We had a light morning practice, a match, followed by a river boat tour of Shanghai.

Our match was another good battle with the Chinese. However, today we lost that battle (3-1). We had Photo: Courtesy of Katie Holloway The U.S. Women's Sitting Team plays Shanghai at the Shanghai Disabled Persons’ Sport Center. our work cut out for us in each set, but always felt like we were struggling for consistently good play.
The first set we battled back from 19-22, to 24-24, to finally 25-27, losing the first on a service error.  The next game we started out pretty slow and battled back once again, but were edged out (23-25).  Third set we came out looking like the team we are hoping to be all the time and won (25-17).  We used consistent passing, tough serving, and better defense to play our game. The fourth was similar to the first two; sometimes making errors causing us to halt our own momentum.

The match ended on my hitting error into the block, not something you like to sit with for the rest of the day. The game ended again at a close 24-26. I feel we have had consistently good performances out of our libero, Kari Miller. She has passed well and played great defense every day, every set.  To add to that, we have had consistently good setting from Nichole (Millage), Kaleo (Kanahele), and Allie (Aldrich).  Our new players have been asked a lot and really been answering to what Coach (Bill Hamiter) asks of them.  Overall, our team play has been well against the adversity of our lineups and numbers.

Last night, we went on a huge river boat along the Huangpu River and saw the city skyline of Shanghai (part of which is below sea level). The boat itself had a big golden dragon and was by far the biggest one on the water. To get there, we all hopped in a van with our guides Christopher and our new guide Miss Shi, aka Linda. Linda was a wonderful lady who was “humorous” and very knowledgeable about the city. When we got to the dock to board the ship, we waited for about 20 minutes and finally Linda came to whisk us off to our boat. We hurried past another group as Linda got into a heated and rather aggressive squabble with another group guide. Linda clearly won that battle as she slapped and yelled at the other guy from behind me while we boarded before the other group. The wait was worth it because the boat was amazing. Once aboard, we all enjoyed the bright neon lights of the city from the 4th and top deck. The buildings all light up with pictures and some of the skyline seemed to remind us of the Venetian in Vegas. Dr. Ryan got some great pictures of us “holding the world in our hands.” The main sight is, I believe, a TV communications tower with a couple round spheres that light up. Very futuristic and seemed to be the signature of the skyline of Shanghai.

Photo: Courtesy of Katie Holloway A building in Shanghai makes for a fun photo opportunity. Once we got off the boat we were berated by vendors. I got a couple of them convinced Brian really wanted their souvenirs. So as Brian (Choate) and I walked back to the bus, he was politely telling the vendors “no thank you” as I encouraged them with, “Oh yea” and “Doesn’t that look nice Brian?” and “Yes, very cheap Brian.” Finally we did a little bartering and each got ourselves something. The ride back to the Center ended with many delirious thoughts of McDonalds, Dairy Queen, and something along the lines of Brian in skinny jeans.

I have to mention that our guide Christopher has been pleasantly surprising us every day with reminders of home. The second day it was pizza, yesterday was two trays of the most amazing fresh sushi I’ve ever had. They also got me a birthday cake and have been giving us Haagen-Daaz ice cream, which in China is kept on lock and key because it is so expensive and valued. He also brought us all umbrellas last night in case it rained. To say he and the Chinese have been accommodating is quite an understatement. We are very thankful to them- shi shi (thank you in Mandarin).

One unique thing about China is that the babies here do not have diapers. In China, the street or sidewalk is used as one big diaper and the clothing facilitates that. The pants typically have a drop seat, or like we saw this morning an opening which conveniently cracks open and allows the baby to squat wherever they see fit to do their “business.” This morning, there were about five of us observing the intersection outside the Center from Dr. Ryan and Brian’s room for about 45 minutes straight. We saw two little ones use the street as a bathroom, a kid spit on two vehicles and a man on a scooter, and about 38 close-calls between scooter/motorist, scooter/person, or person/motorist. Such organized chaos, very intriguing. So far the trip has been fun and quite entertaining. Although, I believe we can be put anywhere in the States or in the World and we could make each other laugh just by the staff and players we have here. Kudos especially to Brian… stay tuned for the tale of Brian and the skinny jeans.

Fun facts of the day:
One small section of the city of Shanghai is roughly populated by one million people
Bill likes shrimp and he is really good at peeling them
Most all the meat in the cafeteria is “polk”