Laurel Iversen So, first things first for those of you wondering how we did against Brazil. USA 3 – Brazil 2. 15-13 in the 5th set. It was a strange game. A bit slow with lots of side outs and not many rallies. But there were some terrific plays and we really hung in there to win it. It is a great victory for this team. Brazil is the Olympic Champion with just one new player replacing the former setter. They are also playing without one of their stars, Mari who hurt her knee yesterday. We had a let-down in the fourth game but showed a lot of patience and poise in the fifth. You can read about the match at the USA Volleyball Website.

As we drive to the arena every day, we pass along wide boulevards with center planted strips. All the sidewalks are landscaped on the inside away from the street and so you can’t really see what is behind the foliage. There are also some parks and green space but from the street you can’t see it. We can see over from the bus.

Laurel Iversen If you look carefully in places you can see very basic houses in poor conditions (Old China). I would love to wander down those streets and see their life. If you scan the horizon in any direction you will see what has been called for decades, the national bird of China…the Crane. They are building 20-story apartment buildings everywhere. Each is a complex of five or six buildings and the worker trailers (housing for multiple workers) is right on the site. You can see their laundry hanging in the windows. Around the building site are huge wooden fences covered with advertising for the new development. Many of them have westerners in the photos. As many of you know they use bamboo scaffolding and it is amazing to see these huge buildings covered with a spider web network of bamboo.

On the street level of each apartment are small shops maybe 20’ x 50’. In some neighborhoods they are nice shops, very neat and clean but right near our hotel they are quite simple, and piled high with boxes. It is difficult to discern what they are selling or what service they provide and who knows how they are making any money doing it. Out front of the shops in this part there is garbage and it’s pretty dirty. Some of the shops have small cots just inside and children running around. Between the hotel and the arena there are lots of beauty shops! Maybe I’ll count them.

One of the things you see a lot are toddlers with split britches. I think that’s the best name for them. Pants with no crotch. No diapers here for low income families. I was pondering this and I’d like to know how the mom’s know when these little ones have to go or if there are lots of “accidents.” But you see the parents carrying these cute little kids on their arm with their little bottoms sticking out.

Laurel Iversen There are lots of situations here that make me think of the TV show Dirty Jobs. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It is hilarious. I was trying to explain it to our interpreter today. They could do 10 more years of the show in China.

My food choices are slowly being reduced to “West” lettuce (leaf lettuce) and some veggies and watermelon. Sometimes a fish that I can recognize like “Corruption Fish” or piece of steak like “Australian Tiger Eye." So many of the dishes are fried. Always a surprise or two at the buffet! But I won a bet with Jim Stone on the Italy-Japan match. I picked Japan and they won in five so he has to buy the Hagen Daz tonight!

Aloha from China,

Laurel