Basketball!

Well, about two weeks ago one of the assistants in the English department asked if any of the foreign teachers would be willing to play in a basketball tournament. I was of course game, and so was one of the other teachers, Clark. For a quick intro: Clark's from Montana, has been here a year and helped me out a lot my first week here. So last Tuesday we met up with some of the other members of the team, who are all English teachers. We received jerseys, shorts, and basketball shoes. We even get to keep the shoes! They are all of course yellow and red or white and red, the colors of China or of the Houston Rockets (aka Yao Ming). We then went out for a quick practice. Clark is pretty good, Chen, one of the young teachers, is quite good, and let's just say I have a bit of rust to dust off from TU intramurals last winter. At practice I was able to witness another first: the combined smoke and water break. Yes, when it's usually time to grab some water and catch one's breath in the States, the Chinese add in a quick cigarette or two. I shared the irony with Clark, but didn't try to address it with any of my teammates. Our first game in the inter-faculty tournament was last Friday. We played alright for our first time, and lost by about 10 or 12. I think I played pretty well, probably had 1/3 of our points, lots of rebounds and no turnovers. Chen was great, and the rest of the guys were mostly 'role' players...and considering many look to be well into their forties, they were doing their best. I missed the game on Monday because I had class, and the team won. But, apparently they wanted me back today. We were playing last year's champions and the heavy favorite. We barely lost, 44-38. I played some of my worst basketball ever and although I had a bunch of rebounds, think that all my turnovers clearly neutralized any contribution I made to the team. Chen and Clark had a good give and go play which the other team apparently couldn't recognize and had a worse time defending. So far it has been a great experience, although all my attempts to complain to the refs have been fruitless. More reason to learn Chinese, right? I am looking forward to our next game and hopefully my aversion to making baskets will not spill over to it.