Dragon Dance Anyone? Anyone?

Last Friday the PE teacher, Ken, who is a local and a very good friend of mine, asked me and a few others to attend a local event that included a tug of war. So I figured, "hey why not, I know I got a few pounds on most people around here?" So he asked us to come to a practice after school, here's where things go array from the initial plan. He gets about 10 or so of us there and he's got some locals with him, a couple of them carrying cameras. We figured, oh, white folk to take photos of something mighty white....Ah, nope.

We looked a little more around the corner and we saw one of the 20 foot dragons on seven sticks on the ground. We just got hired to do one of the dragon dances that you see at major events! Being the math teacher I profess to be, I put one and one together and figured, the tug of war was just one piece, we were "shanghai'd" into doing a dragon dance for how many people, we didn't know yet.

We had two ladies smaller than Kirst pushing us around like boot-camp and yelling at those that were slow or off beat. I was smart (this time). I took the head of the dragon. Once Kirst remarked that it was just like paddling over my head, that worked. The "drill sergeants" liked what I was doing and started yelling at the others. Just as soon as we started, we were done. The ladies said via Ken, we'll meet you at 8 a.m. tomorrow.....Ok,

So the next morning, we woke to a small issue in our apt.: no eggs, bread, cereal, nothing but enough milk for coffee. So yours truly had to run out for the delicacies only found on the streets of Beilun. If that stuff doesn't fuel the engine...well, there may be another option or two. I got 10 of these little items called “Boawdza”. They are kind of like dumplings but quite tasty, just not very filling. Anyhow, we worried that the rough start may transpire into a poor performance.

We jumped on the E-Bike and headed over following Ken. Not too far away, we start hearing fireworks. Not too uncommon anywhere here, but we suspected it may be the event. We arrived with a crowd of about 400 people watching us, luckily we were used to the staring. We sat in the audience and waited for the festivities to begin...let us at'em. We watched a drum performance that was really cool. About 30 Women in cadence, very powerful.

Next, they had a bunch of girls do the cheerleading/aerobic routine. That wasn't the highlight: we are up next! So we get our friendly dragon puppet and out of nowhere they start playing this music that included a big gong being rung repetitively. I thought we were being boo'd off the stage before we got on? Ken reassured us that we better get going. We went out and did about two minutes of running and waving around. The crowd went wild to see us out there trying some of their traditions. They were so supportive.

But just when we were thinking we were hot stuff, 12 older ladies dressed in pink Chea-Poas jump out on stage and completely showed us up! We watched, and appreciated, the dance so much more, it really was beautiful. They would run around each other, balance on each other, crazy. When they left the stage opposite us, three or four of us ran to the side and just bowed as if to say we weren't worthy to be on the same stage (the crowd loved it!).

On to the next event: the tug of war. We may not waive that dragon so well, but we got moose meat! I recalled a moment that since we were on their turf, and you want to show some class in order to get invited again. So, we fought like hell in the first three rounds of the tug o war, but once we were locked in for at least third place, we put in our subs....the students. The other teams that got first and second were so pumped it was a riot! Everyone was shaking hands with the foreigners! It was an honor to be invited and I think Ken was proud of us.

We headed for home at 11. we needed a bit of a breather and stretches. i watched a little NBA (west conference) and we took a small nap. I went to the gym and did a lower body work that proved to discover muscles that somehow I never knew I used in order to get from A to B. More importantly, lunch followed, grilled cheese and soup! Kirst got a virus on her computer so it took the better part of the afternoon diagnosing and fixing the problem, but alas, we are back online Houston, no more problems.

She decided that she would go for a run, to work off the anxiety that technology seems to transmit. I thought, I got a little gas left in the tank? I ought to go play basketball over at the courts. About a quarter mile away, there are approximately 20 full courts with usually 40 games going in the half-courts. I'd been over once but didn't get the nod. I worked the area a little harder and finally someone wanted to see what the tall lanky white guy can do. I soon discovered after, "you mean me?" that they wanted me for an actual purpose. I started walking over and to my left under the hoop was a pool of players sitting.

Everyone started snickering a little, I wondered if my shorts were on backwards? Nope. I didn't get dressed in the dark. However, they seem to take quite a bit of interest in the 6 foot 5 person rising to his feet and leaving footprints in the dry pavement. He was probably a tad under 300 pounds, needless to say, they wanted me to play him. Ok, I thought, what would I tell one of my players that came up against such a difference in size and mass? RUN! i just took it to a different level and didn't run in the other direction. I stuck to him like glue, which he didn't like, so he'd move all around. That may not have been the smartest thing to do?

It was a ton of fun and I had a great couple of teammates that shall remain nameless because I have no clue what they were. They welcomed me and didn't cast me away when I missed any of several shots. I tried to make up for in Defense and assists, just not the scorer I once never was!

When they, and I, had had enough I started on my way home on the E-bike, and picked up the bride as she concluded her run. We soon got a call from a friend that we went to Xian with, Jackie an ESL teacher from Australia, and her son Felix who is an 8th grader. We went to the Pizza Hut, which is actually close to fine dining in China...not even being sarcastic.