In My Words - Tara Watts
8/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Aug. 11, 2008
Vancouver, British Columbia - Tara Watts, a junior on the Rice women's basketball team, recently played three games against Chinese National Team leading up to the Olympics. Below are her words reflecting on her trip.
Heading to China, I had no idea what to expect. The coaches tried to prepare us for the worst. All I really had to go on were stereotypes of what our Canadian Senior Team told me during training camp.
They competed in China for three weeks last summer and couldn't wait to tell us their stories. There was one restaurant that served them cooked pigeon heads, including the beak, eyeballs, and brains. Another place served chicken claws, while at some places the girls had no idea what they were eating. They told us about the culture shock. It was only recently that smoking was prohibited in gyms, so some fans smoked during the games ... inside the gym. The stands contained spit buckets for the fans, because in China it's healthy to clear out the body's toxins three times a day. The toilets were another story we heard time and time again. They were flat on the ground, meaning that for women, squatting was required. Also, there were separate bins for used toilet paper.
I was told good stories too, of course, like how the fans always cheer for a good play and how the shopping is super inexpensive. But the ones that stuck were the strange and worrisome ones. By departure time, I expected it to be an awful trip.
The flight to China from Toronto lasted 14-and-a-half hours. In that time, I watched four movies, two television shows, and slept for one hour, with time left over. We finally arrived in Shanghai and drove 3 hours to the first of three locations, Jiyuan. We traveled to three cities total (the other two being Jiangyin and Zhangjiangang) because China was trying to include the whole country leading up to the Olympics. Sadly, I still don't know how to pronounce any of the city names.
Now, I thought living in Houston for the last two years would have prepared me for the heat and humidity of China, but I was wrong. Granted, I have yet to experience a Houston summer, but I imagine it would be comparable to China's, in other words, nearly unbearable. Luckily, the Chinese organization who planned our trip hooked us up. Every hotel we stayed in (a total of three) was 5-star, with air conditioning and beautiful accommodations.
I won't speak for my teammates, but in the end, I was even impressed by the food and enjoyed most of it. The strangest thing I ate on purpose was duck ... although I almost accidentally ate a duck thorax that was hidden in a bowl of soup. Luckily it caught my attention on the spoon before it got into my mouth.
Other than playing basketball, my favorite experience was probably bartering in the market. You go into these little shops containing fake name-brand purses and ask for the price. I bought a purse for 70 yuan (10 dollars) even though the asking price was 180 yuan, and I still think I overpaid because the lady looked like a cat after warm milk, way too content.
As for basketball, we lost all three games against the Chinese National team, although the last one we were within six points. Their team may not have been super athletes, but they played smarter, faster, rougher, and more consistently, all aspects that make up the best teams in the world. And trust me, the international game is WAY rougher than the NCAA game. I got away with fouls I would never think to try in a college game, and got enough elbows to know that's the way the game works at the highest levels.
With the Olympics starting last weekend, I'm excited to follow China and see how they finish. It was a wonderful trip and the Chinese people treated us so well. Hopefully I'll return one day as a tourist to experience more of the beautiful scenery and attractions.
PS - I should mention that the spit buckets were gone, but the fans still smoked at halftime. And some of the toilets were flat holes in the ground! Crazy.
I look forward to returning to Rice later this week and the opportunity to get ready for our upcoming season in the new Tudor Fieldhouse. Go Owls!
