June 21, 2012 / Day 3 (Part 3): To Jiaxing We Will Go!
3:00PM: We hurried back to the hotel as our transportation from Jiaxing had arrived in Shanghai to pick us up. On the way back, we took a moment while waiting for traffic lights to change to catch some shade in the shadow of a lamp pole. Melissa met up with us at our hotel just in time to catch the bus with us too!
Here's the inside of our bus to Jiaxing. It was quite spacious for just the 12 of us. With the bus arrived Alan, the volunteer assigned to assist our team for the Jiaxing Festival. Alan is originally from Jiaxing and is currently a rising sophmore at the University of Iowa. He's home for the summer and signed up to help with the dragon boat festival. You'll see a photo of him later. For now, check out our cool bus and.....................
MEET THE COMPETITION!
The trip to Jiaxing took a while mainly because of this:
Some school we passed on the road.
6:30PM: We arrived in Jiaxing, at the luxurious FuYue Grand Hotel. Unfortunately, we were running late, and there was an inaugural meeting for team coaches at 7:00PM, so we checked in, settled into our rooms, and Lily, Vince, and I grabbed a quick bite of dinner and took off for the meeting, which was at another hotel where all the race organizers were staying. I guess they didn't want to stay with us athletes? As usual, I have since realized that in the span of the 4 days that we stayed at the FuYue Hotel, I did not manage to take a single photo of the exterior. So here is a photo of the hotel that I found online. Believe me when I say that the real thing was much better looking.
The rooms in the FuYue Hotel also had the infamous window into the bathroom. Thank God there was a blind in the bathroom you could pull down though. Another interesting feature of the bathroom was that there was a glass housing for the shower (expected) and a glass housing the toilet (oh, interesting), BUT the shower and the toilet shared a common glass wall, which wasn't frosted at all or anything (ok, say what?). Yeah, basically, when you used the toilet, you looked straight into the shower, and when you showered, there was the toilet right there staring back at you. I don't know who designed that, but seriously, what is the point of THAT? Aside from those issues, what amazing rooms we had!
The view was also... oh. Well, I hear it was much better on the other side of the hotel.
Jiaxing, like many other rural cities in China, is growing at an incredible pace. There were tons of new buildings in the city and so many areas were undergoing large-scale construction. No doubt in just a few years, the city will be a booming metropolis. More history on Jiaxing later. This city is known for something HUGE, so stay tuned. Here's a hint: It's got something to do with a bunch of guys on a boat (not dragon boat racing).
Organizers & Team Coaches Meeting: Lily, Vince, and I went to the coaches meeting, where the organizers of the Jiaxing Dragon Boat Festival welcomed us and laid down the rules for the races (photo to come later). After a solid hour of pretty empty, feel-good speeches from every single race organizer, all the teams taking part were introduced, and then we finally got down to learning about how the races would be conducted.
The biggest change for our team was that all race starts would be dry starts. This means that just before the gun to go, no paddles may be prematurely submerged in the water. Our team race start has always been a wet start, so this was something we would have to adjust to quickly. After lining up, the start call would be: "ATTENTION! GET SET! *BANG*!" in Mandarin. The finish would be called when the nose of the dragon boat crosses the finish line. False starts would be punished (not really, as we found out), and teams must drum at all times, or they would be warned and face possible disqualification. During the meeting, a representative came around to each team and asked us to name a team delegate and flag bearer for the opening ceremony the following morning. After much flip-flopping, we determined that Pat would be our flag bearer--mostly because he's Canadian--and I would be the representative for the team. This meant that we would both sit out for the ceremonial 500m race the next day, during which the dragon heads on the boats would have their eyes painted in, thus officially sanctifying them for the festival.
Halfway through the meeting, it occurred to one of the race organizers that some of the foreign teams might be having difficulty following along because everything they were saying was in MANDARIN. After shuffling some translators around the room to assist helpless looking team leaders, the meeting continued with a more conscious effort by the race organizers to speak English. Unfortunately, their English was still not very clear. And when they got too close to the microphone and spoke directly into it, it sounded like this: "PFFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!" We consulted with the California University reps at one point to ask if they got everything? Short answer: No. Because this is what they were doing during the meeting:
Halfway through the meeting, it occurred to one of the race organizers that some of the foreign teams might be having difficulty following along because everything they were saying was in MANDARIN. After shuffling some translators around the room to assist helpless looking team leaders, the meeting continued with a more conscious effort by the race organizers to speak English. Unfortunately, their English was still not very clear. And when they got too close to the microphone and spoke directly into it, it sounded like this: "PFFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFFFFFF PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!" We consulted with the California University reps at one point to ask if they got everything? Short answer: No. Because this is what they were doing during the meeting:
We were entered for the Mixed Division 500m, 200m, and 2000m races. Finally, we drew poker cards to determine team placements for the heats in the 500m and 200m races. Each race distance consisted of two heats, from which the better time would be taken. The 6 teams with the best time in the 500m and 200m heats would advance to the finals. Winner takes all. The times from the heats for the 500m would be used to determine the order of boats launched for the 2000m race on the last day of the festival. The slowest boat starts first, followed 30 seconds later by the next boat, until finally the fastest boat launches. Vince drew for the 500m, and I drew for the 200m. We both pulled Heat Category #1, Lane #4 for the two races.
The meeting lasted until almost 11:00PM. By the time we got back to the FuYue Hotel, everyone else was already asleep and it was definitely time for bed. It'd been a long day for everyone. Wake-up call the following morning would be at 5:30AM. Breakfast at 6:00AM. Load up the buses to head to the race site by 7:00AM. 10,000 different things to do and places to be at the race site to prepare for the opening ceremony. Ceremony begins at 8:30AM. Got it? Don't be late. Goodnight!
A very grateful thank you must be given here to Xuefeng, who accompanied a driver and drove ALLLLLLLLLLLL THE WAY back to Pudong Airport in the middle of the night to pick up Pat, given the rotten luck with Pat's flight being delayed. THANK YOU XUEFENG!!!
Today's Final Numbers:
Number of Harvard paddlers afraid of the sun: 11
Hours spent on the bus from Shanghai to Jiaxing: ~3
Amount of time to check in to our rooms: 10 minutes
Amount of time to eat: 5 minutes
Amount of time the organizers & coaches meeting took: 3+ hours
Amount of time the organisers & coaches meeting could have taken: <1 hour
The hour at which Xuefeng returned from picking up Pat: 3:00AM
Hours of sleep left: 2.5
Harvard Dudley teammates now united: 13 out of 13!
Number of Harvard paddlers afraid of the sun: 11
Hours spent on the bus from Shanghai to Jiaxing: ~3
Amount of time to check in to our rooms: 10 minutes
Amount of time to eat: 5 minutes
Amount of time the organizers & coaches meeting took: 3+ hours
Amount of time the organisers & coaches meeting could have taken: <1 hour
The hour at which Xuefeng returned from picking up Pat: 3:00AM
Hours of sleep left: 2.5
Harvard Dudley teammates now united: 13 out of 13!