Shenzhen is just on the mainland side of HongKong. A nice, rich, clean city (from my perception), with beautiful weather (70s when we were there day and night). When I got out my lonely planet to check out what there was to do in the city, this is quoted from the first paragraph, “ Though commercially successful, Shenzhen isn’t a pleasant city and the extreme imbalance of wealth and poverty lends an air of desperation. The crime rate is high and visitors should be wary of walking alone after dark…” and goes on to say that it’s useful for shopping and for getting to hongkong, and that’s about it.
We were down for the weekend, to play some Gaelic football (I liken it to a combo of soccer, volleyball and basketball), put on by the Gaelic Athletic Assocation of Shenzhen, it was a pretty big deal, with lots of really happy athletic Irish and other foreigners, like me!
The games were on Saturday, with Sunday free, so I had originally intended to spend Sunday exploring, but after reading my lonely planet decided against it. I don’t like shopping anyway. Friday night we got in late, our plane was delayed an hour or so, and head to the local Irish pub for a beer and to say hello to everyone already there. Didn’t stay too long, because of an early start for the games on Saturday, so returned to my 5 star hotel room (package deal with the team!!!!) took a shower and relaxed and went to bed.
Saturday morning, get up, enjoy breakfast in the hotel, and off to the games. Wow, the local team really put a lot of effort into planning everything. Sponsors, tents, gift bags, water stations, everything was set up quite professionally. Really impressive. There were… 12 or so men’s teams and 6 ladies teams playing in the games, so each game was comprised of 2 7 minute halves, with a 2 minute break for halftime. The guys were divided up into 3 brackets, and us ladies played everyone, that meant 5 games plus any finals.
There were 2 guys teams from Dalian, and although they played well and looked great (did I mention the many athletic/attractive Irishmen at this thing?), the competition was just too fierce(teams from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Shenzhen…). they’re still number 1 in my heart!
Most of the girls on our team are newbies to the game just like me, so we were all pretty set on just having a good time, knowing we wouldn’t win. And it's hard to describe the group of gals we were, but all really amazing people. From all over, China, US, Ireland, Canada, and aside from our nationalities a really swell group of women. We were a few short, and Shanghai had a few extra gals, so they played with us, and it worked out great. Got along and played well together. We even won our first game!!!! The next 4 we weren’t as lucky, but hey, we played well as it was and didn’t give any of the games away, so that in itself is a big accomplishment. I played midfield, and even scored a point! The way they had the tournament set up, in the finals team 1 would play team 2, 3 4, and 5 6, well by then we were ranked 5th, having only won the one game. But 1st place gets a cup, 3nd place a plate, and 5th place a bowl. So if we won our finals game we could still walk away with some hardware. By our 6th and final game however, we were all just wasted tired. We had also learned lots from playing all day. So had the other team, it was a really close game, and we ended up winning!! So while it was 5th place, it was a hard earned and satisfying 5th place. I immediately proceeded to buying a hamburger and a beer, which is what the guys (who were already finished) had already started on. I was so tired I worried I’d drop my beer, thankfully that didn’t happen. Remember, this was an Irish event, so drinking and partying were an integral part of the weekend.
After all the finals were played we went back to the hotel to clean up and then out to dinner at a Sichuan restaurant (yumyumyum). Each team was given a theme, though I didn’t take it too seriously, ours was Angels. There were cops, robbers, Indians, cowboys, demons, angels, etc. and most of the other teams went all out. Luckily a teammate Tom let me wear his black angel wings all night, don’t know what I would’ve done without him!
A lot of fun. Our team was the last one to leave that bar, and then we went on to a club to dance. More fun and dancing, so much so that I set my bag down and it was taken. Camera, Wallet, phone, all gone. Most importantly and what made me the most upset were the pictures on the camera and the non-money sentimental crap in my wallet. I've since taken care of my cards and got a new phone, for whatever reason I had my driver's license in there too, yay for dealing with that whenever I get back to the states.
Sunday, basically spent the whole day at the Irish pub, recovering. I had a lox sandwich on ciabatta, yummy. Can’t get foreign food like that in Dalian. Even though I was miserable, sore, and upset at myself all day, it was still nice to be around everyone, there are a lot of really awesome people here.
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I am an idiot. let's face it. If you know me at all you know I'm quite a responsible (even borderline anxious worrier). no not quite, like, this stuff should never have happened. Am I getting too comfortable? There's no excuse for a stupid thing like setting my bag down, and I suppose it's another one on the list of lessons learned while in China. But in spite of that it really was a good weekend. Go football!!!
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