So thanks to my extremely grateful parents, I was able to go to Shanghai for the weekend (Thursday night – Monday afternoon) for the annual Shanghai Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Therefore, a quick shout out: THANK YOU PARENTS!!!
I, too, apologize for the following ‘book’.
After booking my flight down to Shanghai, I was extremely excited. Not only to be going to Shanghai, but also to see the city, play ultimate, and just have fun. Since I was nervous about how long it would take to get to the airport and get through airport security I left myself as much time as possible. I also did not want to check baggage (the cheap/paranoid side of me), so I managed to pack only two backpacks worth of stuff. This included: cleats, jerseys, shorts, socks, boxers, one shirt, camera, laptop, Chinese study material (which I unfortunately did not end up using), and toiletry bag. I bought my second backpack for $2 USD (I love cheap stuff!). I didn’t want to risk going to the cafeteria to eat and not leaving enough time to get to the airport, so I left immediately after I got home. After riding my bike to the subway station, finding an area it wouldn’t get stolen, and hopping on the subway, I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before my flight. I managed to get my ticket, get through security somehow (as I definitely had more than 4 oz. bottles of liquid), and to my gate, in about 30 minutes. Therefore, I had about 2 hours to kill before my flight. I used this time to peruse around the airport for some food (as all I had eaten was a some bread I had bought from the bakery). I luckily stumbled upon a Yoshinoya (cafeteria-style eating place). I filled up on grub, looked around the markets in the airport, headed back my gate, and watched loud Chinese men play poker. The only thing I was worried about was where I would stay that night because no hotels were available (due to the EXPO). As I was thinking to myself, “Where am I going to sleep tonight?” I got a text from an old friend that I took an Asian Studies course with. Apparently, he was in Shanghai for an internship and wanted to know where I was staying, since I had told him I was going to Shanghai. After telling him I was just going to roam around until I found a place, he offered me to stay at his place (INCREDIBLE). It truly is amazing what knowing people can do. I boarded the plane much more relaxed.
In order, to not fall asleep I decided to watch Transformers on my computer…and so did the creepy, obnoxious, rude man next to me. Not only was his arm pushing on me for most of the flight, but his legs were tapping mine, he constantly coughed or sneezed on me, and enjoyed belching in my face. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised that even on this short 2-hour flight in the late night, this Chinese airline provided FOOD! I got a small loaf of ‘European Bread’, apple crisps, and other goodies. After landing and finding my way to the roller-coaster length line to get a taxi, I snagged a cab and headed over to where my friend’s apartment was.
Once I found his place and settled in, we walked around his part of town for a while, before going to sleep. Turns out we ended up walking in the only direction that didn’t have bars/night life…oh well. After waking up my friend decided to give me a grand tour of some of the cooler spots in Shanghai. We went to People’s Square, saw a cool museum (from the outside), went to the Bund (ex-German territory), walked through a bunch of street markets, and ate lunch at a small, shady noodle shop. People’s Square was not what I had expected; it was so green and filled with nature (as opposed to a giant square like Tiananmen). We got a great view of the Bund Strip from the top of this sweet hostel (awesome boat-style bar and balcony on the top floor that overlooks the strip). Street markets were fun, especially since all the store owners kept accosting my friend, but left me alone (possibly due to my Chinese appearance :D). The shady noodle shop was delicious, of course. It was also fairly cheap, for Shanghai. This leads me to the one big downside of Shanghai over Beijing; everything is more expensive and westernized. Seriously, I felt like I was in downtown Chicago sometimes with the architecture, shops, and number of foreigners.
After my big tour, I thanked my friend again and we parted ways as I headed out to the outer ring of Shanghai to find the hotel my team was staying at. Following a long train ride, two hours of mindless wandering, and asking for directions in Chinese to 8 different people, I found the motel. I said hello to everyone, got settled in our super cheap room, and headed out with everyone to dinner. We decided to eat a nice Indian restaurant (pretty good). The bill definitely gave me a wake up call that I was in Shanghai though (80 RMB ~ $12 USD à outrageously expensive given the amount and quality of food and lack of service). We then proceeded to go to the Registration Party, not too far from there. Everyone on the team knew other people there and were meeting and greeting. I sadly moped around pretending to know people and socialize until I heard a shout from the corner of the balcony…”KY!!!”. Turning my head confused, I see who other than Mr. Andrew Copp (for those of you that don’t know, a teammate from the Michigan Frisbee team). I had totally forgotten that he was doing a program here through Michigan. We greeted, caught up, and he introduced me to some of his local friends. He told me that he was going to be playing for one of the teams that I would be playing the next day at the tournament! I was very excited…and ready to pwn him. We talked for a little while longer, then I proceeded to head back to the hotel to get a good nights rest.
I awoke the next day, refreshed and ready to play. Later a roommate told me that I sounded like, “a squirrel preparing for winter that packed each of his nuts individually in plastic bags.” In other words, I was very noisy and for a long time. I apologized, but it turned out to be a good thing later, because I was prepared when people got injured! After luckily catching the NingBo teams’ bus to the fields I found the captain of my team at the fields. Since the Beijing team (Big Brother) had rostered too many people already, I was not able to play with them. However, this did not turn out to be a bad thing, as I was placed on a team with a few previous Big Brother players that now resided in Hong Kong. Since my team was not an city/country team, we were placed in the non-power pool (totally cool, because everyone there was great and we had lots of fun). Our team name was “Tropic Thunder”. Our team jerseys appropriately followed this fantastic movie’s theme by being army related (camo). Although I am normally not a fan of camo for jerseys (I hate Notre Dame Ultimate Frisbee), I was more than willing to sport these and have a good time.
We started off our day against Dark Horse (a pickup team of CHUMPS!). They actually took a 3-0 lead over us in the very beginning, as were still sleeping and a few of our players were still hung over. (Warning: I am going to boast a little and be selfish) As there was no way I was gonna lose to these chumps, I amped myself up ran the next point, and followed it up by a layout D to get the break. With the team now revved up, we finished on universe point 9-8 us. Following the game, I was exposed to probably my favorite part of Asian ultimate tournaments. Each team had spirit games for both teams to play together. Dark Horse ended up giving us imported Swedish chocolate…delicouuuussssss. OUR game involved vodka. Our game was called mouth-to-mouth. The MVP (or chosen player) was picked from each team. One person would have vodka poured into their mouth, and then proceed to pour into into the other player’s mouth, who would by lying on the ground. Gross…I know, but too funny to witness. The next teams we played would be the NingBo (province in Chian) team, Beijing Bang (team in Beijing that is meant to raise interest in ultimate in the actual Chinese community instead of just foreigners; when they practice they only speak Chinese…I will be attending their practices soon and hopefully make some REAL Chinese friends YAY!), and finally Shanghai C (Andrew Copp’s team). We made it through NingBo and Beijing Bang with quick handling, awesome skies, outstanding layouts, and great team spirit. Shanghai went up on us 6-5 in the beginning. Then I told my team that I had a friend on the other team and there was no way I was going to let him beat me in a game. My team rallied behind me and we took control of the game finishing out with a comfortable win. In order to thank Copp for ‘letting’ me win I chose him to be in the mouth-to-mouth waterfall. After losing in rock-paper-scissors he ended up being on the bottom, receiving a mouthful of vodka from another guy on our team. Finishing the first day undefeated, we won the bid to move into the power pools the next day and play the international teams (exactly what I wanted).
With one day of ultimate done everyone went back to the hotels, freshened up, got into their costumes (for the tournament theme party “EXPOse yourself”) and headed back out. At the party, I was surrounded by LARPers (Live Action Role Players - from Big Brother), 30 dancing adults in diapers (Hong Kong team), construction workers from the Village People (Shanghai team), and a bar full of local Chinese people extremely confused. I danced around, played some games, ate some food, danced some more, fell asleep, danced some more, and danced a little more before taking a sleep bus ride home to get 3 hours of sleep before my next day of ultimate.
Waking up Sunday, I was not as refreshed as Saturday (possibly related the position I slept in, too much dancing, a thermal imbalance in the room…who knows). I was able to make my way over to the fields, as well as most of the team, on time. Unfortunately, we didn’t have too much time to warm up and it showed in our first game against Hong Kong. They ran through us pretty quick. After that game, we had woken up and played Tianjin Speed (the recently crowned China National Champions Team). A quick note about this team: all members attend Tianjin Academy of Sports. In other words, all of their majors are SPORTS (like soccer, gymnastics, swimming, etc.). In other other words, they are all in freakishly good shape and wicked fast. Playing defense on them for one point is like doing a set of tabatas. Oh, did I mention they also have awesome throws and 30-40 inch verts! Ugh… One thing though, they are ALL some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They are all so into every point. If someone on either team makes a great play, they all get up and start clapping and shouting. If something bad happens, they console or cheer up regardless of team. I love those guys. It ended up being a very tight game with them winning on universe 9-8. I’m not complaining as it was an outstanding game in both plays and spirit. We had thought this was our last game, but got a treat and was setup to play the Singapore Disc Knights (young group of disciplined Singapore raised youngsters). They played with a lot of heart and 99.999999% with great spirit (one dude, I was not a fan of…maybe because he made some ridiculous bogus calls). They too ended up winning on universe. This occurring after our team put in our ‘inexperienced’ line for 5 points in a row with them getting 4 breaks in a row! Outstanding work! It was awesome to see new-comers to ultimate play so well in a clutch situation.
I normally would have been disappointed to end the day on a loss, but something about the outstanding spirit of all the teams left me feeling accomplished. I had made the plays I wanted to, and played with good spirit myself. Plus, now that we were done, we got to watch the semis and Championship games! At this point, I also got to enjoy one of my favorite things about this tournament: included barbeque meals! We had been provided lunch and dinner both days of the tournament as well as unlimited drinks (smoothies/beers) as part of the tournament fee. So my teammates joined me along the sideline of the Shanghai vs. Sunken Pleasure (Filipino National Team) semi-final game with a plate full of grilled meats and veggies with smoothies and beers. Everyone was rooting for Sunken Pleasure as their team was completely home-grown. This meant that they were all born n’ raised Filipino players that had made and grown this team without the assistance of foreigners or ex-pats (patriots). This was relevant because almost every country or good ultimate team in Asia had some American college or club players come through at some point to boost their team. Some teams just had people come through and leave, while others were almost completely comprised of foreigners/ex-pats (Beijing, Shanghai, Korea). Sunken Pleasure played awesome in their semi-final game to make it to the finals. During the intermission between games (and later on during halftime, timeouts, or other breaks) I was introduced to the fantastic game of ‘Jug’. The jist of the game is as follows:
- Form circle of people around a 10 gallon water jug (empty)
- jug is then thrown into the air
- everyone tries to balance jug on one hand or grab the handle
- no trapping against body, using two hands, or switching of hands
- Jug D’s are highly encouraged (laying out to knock down just when someone almost has it balanced)
You seriously have NO idea how fun this game is until you have played it (I am quite proud of my 3 points!).
Moving on to the finals game (between Sunken Pleasure and Korea). Of course, everyone was cheering for Sunken Pleasure, even though everyone knew Korea was gonna win. The game was intense and filled with some crazy plays. However, the ONE play that sticks out was possibly one of the greatest layouts I’ve ever witnessed (keep in mind I have seen Will Neff). On a marathon game point for Korea, the disc was being swiftly moved towared the Korean endzone to end the game. As the final throw was soaring toward a Korean player in the endzone, everyone had essentially started clapping to acknowledge the end of the game, then…a small flying Filipino man literally came flying out of no where with his body soaring completely horizontal over 4 feet of the ground! (no exaggeration we checked the footage afterwards…oh yeah, there was a camera crew there as they were making a documentary on ultimate in Asia and this tournament was a highlight of that. Maybe I’ll be in it!). The flying man then managed to catch the disc, get up and thrown a full-field huck! Sadly, ultimate is governed by “The Conservation of Greatness”, so his huck was not completed. But his didn’t matter as everyone was still gawking and left stunned at his incredible layout. Korea ended up winning. The tournament was then closed out with an award ceremony for MVP’s, good-looking people, etc. The winners got a little Hai-Bo doll (mascot for the World Expo) and had to chug a beer.
Following the ceremony I wanted to do ONE thing…trade jerseys with an international team. I unfortunately had to part ways with my blue magnUM jersey (loved that one), but I got the captain/MVP’s jersey from Sunken Pleasure (National Filipino Team) !!! I was super-ultra-uber happy, despite parting ways with my first jersey. It smelled like a champion…sweat/dirt. Once I had fulfilled my goal of getting a sweet international jersey, I played some games with random teams, played a weird game with the NingBo team, and then got on the bus with my team to go to dinner. We went to a Hunanese restaurant…now THAT was spicy. Wow, my lips felt like they had fallen off and been dipped in lava. But it was ooohhhhhh so tasty, too. Proceeding dinner, a teammate and I headed over to another teammate (who was gracious enough to allow us to stay at his hotel room, since we had no where to stay that night). We felt very guilty imposing on them, but one thing I have learned is that in the ultimate community people take care of each other (awesome). Since I was so smart to only pack one shirt I had to wash my shirt (while I took my shower) and let it semi air dry over night so I could where it the next day. After a good nights rest, I awoke, thanked my teammate again for letting me crash on his couch and headed out. As I was leaving, his wife told me that there was a little shop around the corner that sold Shao Long Bao (those crazy delicious little dumplings with soup on the inside!!!). I got all excited, thanked her, and busted over there as quickly as I could. Not only was I gonna get to eat Shao Long Bao, but I was gonna get to eat them in Shanghai! I ordered enough to feed four people, looked around to find that all the other people in the restaurant were looking at me strangely for ordering so many, and gorged my face into them. Oh my goodness…they were absolutely AMAZING! When I came up for a breath, I realized people were still staring at me and amazed that I was actually going to finish all of them on my own. Once my meal was finished, I sat there for a few minutes, satisfied and full.
Next, I wanted to use my last couple hours in Shanghai exploring around. I took the train to the Shanghai Science Museum, only to find that it was closed for construction (bummer). I took a couple of cool pictures walked around, then headed to the airport. I had a safe, uneventful flight and arrived home safely.
My next post will retell my trip to Happy Valley Amusement Park (like a Six Flags + Disney Land type of place in China).
Till Then!
- Kevin
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