A Day To Remember

Wow. To start off I must say today was the highlight of the trip for me. Russ Chinn here, by the way. Yesterday was our first day in Zhengzhou after spending a few days in Beijing. We picked up a university student that morning who is spending a few days with us and helping Diana with the announcing during our performances. He started off by introducing himself with his English name, King. He hit it off with our group right away by telling us his hobbies of playing basketball and counterstrike(video game). Then I was fortunate enough that he sat down next to me for the bus ride. We spent the day talking about hobbies and interesting cultural differences and then exchanged email addresses. Some interesting things: Driving school consists of mainly driving backwards in a course the size of a couple driveways-and driving out here would be impossible for most of us Americans as people don't signal and freely change lanes while bicycles and motorbikes dart across the road. Many people love basketball and of course, Yao Ming. While discussing hobbies I told him that I spend my time skateboarding. He didn't quite understand this until I showed him a picture of me skating that I had on my camera. So I taught him the English word skateboard. Anyway, back to today. We spent today performing at a university in Kaifeng and while packing up afterwards, King took us over to a basketball court and we played a pickup game of basketball with some Chinese students. Of course, my team was victorious. Then we ate at a dining hall with some university students. King told me he'd introduce me to some pretty girls which was quite a success. The students were so friendly and one of the girls told me I was very handsome. Another girl followed us from the basketball court to the dining hall and talked with us. Following dinner, King went out and bought me and my friends some Chinese ice cream. He is quite an awesome guy. We walked back to the basketball courts and Brian Benhart and I played some 4 on 4 with some Chinese students. Not after long, students started gathering around and surrounded the basketball court taking pictures and watching intensely. Of course I thrived off the attention and after draining 3 pointers and stuffing shots the crowd would ooh and applaud. Brian and I ended up winning(we had a bit of a height advantage) and had the highlight of our trip. Well, I must be off now, as I kinda played basketball in by performance polo shirt and dress slacks and they could use some washing. I also told King I'd take an English exam for him tomorrow and I could use some sleep. So long from China!
RUSS CHINN