An early breakfast and we were on the road. About an hour to drive to Zhangjiagang this morning. The bus ride was nice and quick due to our escort. As we left the hotel today in Jiangyin today we were hit with the heat and humidity as well as some people taking pictures and watching us get on the bus (last night we signed autographs and took pictures after the game so that was kind of cool). We had a police escort all the way to our new city. All the intersections were stopped and a car that tried to cut in front of our bus was directed to pull over immediately. We never waited for a red light anywhere along the way. Nice when you can just drive straight through.
Zhangjiagang is a very nice city and the people are incredible. We pulled into our hotel and there were a number of people there to take care of our bags and welcome us. This hotel is PHENOMENAL. Top shelf all the way. The people here are so helpful and kind.
After a quick meeting we went to our first meal here. I was kind of wondering how the change of food would be. It was different. Very flavorful but different. Some of the things on the menu at lunch were duck and goose with particular pieces still attached, squid and fish with some heads in the dish. Like I said, it was interesting but still very good. We ate with the refs from last night's game as they are reffing the whole tour I understand. They helped us with some of the descriptions of the food however their English wasn't so good. One of the refs does a very good "1,2,3..CANADA" rendition.
After our meal we ventured out into the streets to explore the city. We discovered a typical Chinese marketplace. Very cool, very interesting and very hot. Many vendors selling just about everything. I was with our manager who speaks some Chinese but we weren't the best at bartering. One of our girls was tremendous and came away with some great "deals". We haggled a bit and it was fun to get the reaction of some of the shopkeepers. Even without the language, a vendor would write something down and we would write something else down and haggle away. The people were intrigued to see us and a number of them followed us around and kept looking us up and down. All very friendly just very interested. This market was definitely a highlight of the trip so far.
Practice was next on the agenda after the market. Very impressive sports complex in this city however the arena looks a little dated. When we entered the building, they hadn't had the air conditioning on. Our team doctor had an instrument with him for measuring temperature and humidity. It was 29 degrees inside with 63% humidity. Talking made you sweat. Our practice plan was modified but the girls did work hard to try and get ready for tomorrow. Hopefully they picked up enough to play a little better.
After practice we came back for supper. Another interesting culinary adventure. They had many items of western type food but many different things. When I saw the sign "Bird of Peace" I was wondering if it was what I thought it was. Yes it was and surprisingly Dove does not taste so bad. Kind of like duck.
So tonight it is back to more video breakdown to get ready for a video session tomorrow. Today the coaches watched some video and Hemen , our team doctor, joined us to see what we see when we watch it. He learned some things and perhaps a few new swear words.
Tomorrow is an early breakfast followed by shootaround. A meal then video then the game. It should be another interesting day. Home looms closer every day.
The journey continues
Coach
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