Happy Chinese New Year! Now that the first semester has ended, basketball season has finally concluded, tennis season has been long past, and Christmas only lives on in our hearts (and maybe also in our apartment, #ourtreemightstillbeup, #don’tjudge), we figure it’s about time to send out another update on our lives. Chinese New Year is when we get our break from school, so we’re considering this blog to be the equivalent of our Christmas Card to you this year. Sorry it’s a little late…
Since I’ve never actually not been in school, the beginning of the school year feels like the real beginning of the year, and since we’ve only blogged twice since this one, that seems like a good place to start.
It turned out to be a pretty fantastic season, and right now when I think about how warm it was it seems like paradise…
Fun story: while we were at the pro match, a guy came up to Steve and Ryan asking for their autograph! He thought they were a professional doubles team since they were still wearing their jerseys from the end of season tournament. This may have been a life highlight for these guys...
Here is a memento of our time together, and of the rampant inside jokes that were continually present in our conversation for those few days:
- Our work with the youth group is on going and going well. It’s actually the main reason we feel that God has us in China!!
- We are both enjoying our teaching! Steve has been getting a lot of praise for developing a new Chinese curriculum, and his boss even gave us a weekend at a nice hotel as a reward! Next semester I will be observed by the principals and the Chinese PE teachers as an example of how to teach PE well! yikes!
- I tried acupuncture for the first time due to an ITB injury...it's really depressing to be injured, but I'm working on getting back in the game, and at least I got to try out some ancient Chinese healing...;)
- We are currently reading Harry Potter. It's our first time reading the series and it's amazing.
Happy Chinese New Year! We are now beginning the year of the snake.....
Lady Shark News
We lost the first game 30-9. Our shots didn’t fall, and honestly, they were just plain better than us. The second game started 5 minutes later in the same dark small gym! The Dragons were fouling us like crazy and luckily the refs were making some good calls. We had a great first quarter but then only scored 1 point in the second, so the other team caught up to us. With 1 minute left in the 4th quarter, we were ahead by two points, and my team and I basically had a heart attack with how crazy it got. The minute slowly ticked by, and we won!! It was so close and exciting, and it was fun because it meant that we were going to play for 5th place rather than for 7th, which is always more fun.
The third game came and we got to play in the bigger gym, which was really nice. My team was completely dead by the third game; they were SO tired!! I had a really fun strategy: I basically subbed in entire teams of 5 every two minutes. The Elders (what I call the 10th and 11th graders on the team) would go in, make some solid scores, and play straight up zone defense. Then I would put the Youngerlings (my name for the 9th and 8th graders) in, who are scrappier and faster, and they would give me a type of half-court press for 2 minutes, before switching them out. It worked so well!
We were tied at halftime, but right away in the 3rd quarter the other team scored 6 points! Aaaah! We worked our way 3 points back by making our free throws, and at 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter, we were behind by 3. I changed our strategy a bit, put in my top scorer with my two scrappiest players, and had Jex and Yuhui full court press and then fall back into a zone.
It was perfect and sooooooooooo exciting! Annie came down and grabbed a solid two points, leaving us 1 point behind with 1 minute to go! At this point my team on the sideline was on fire, standing and screaming, it was awesome. The ref actually had to tell them to sit down, haha. Anyway, Yuhui gets a steal, loses control, Annie picks it up, drives it to the left, and makes another basket. My bench completely loses control and jumps up all in unison. I’m screaming to my team not to foul. We steal the ball again, and now I’m screaming to tell them to hold on to the ball and go slow. The seconds tick down and my team erupts with excitement! It was AWESOME! We ended up getting 5th place and ending our season on an extremely high note!!