Hello Friends,
I recently had the unique privilege of representing the Red, White, and Blue for the third time in the vast nation of China. If you'll read on I'd love to give you a taste of what this trip was like. Speaking of taste, I luckily knew from my former competitions in China that I needed to bring plenty of my own food with me to ensure peak nutrition! Let's see if I can sum up the food at my hotel in Beijing..... mystery meat, overcooked vegetables, vegetable salads apparently had not been invented, and 80% of the food selections were identical from meal to meal. I kid you not! By the final day I was thinking "just shoot me now :-)" On the upside, I became well versed in eating with chopsticks.
Athletes who travel internationally are never quite sure what variables they'll have to deal with. A prime example is I did not expect to be caked in smog for seven days in Beijing. All the lights in the arena and on top of buildings were hazy. My mouth felt constantly dry and dusty while skating. I hear the Chinese government is spending millions to clean up the air before the 2008 Summer Olympics which will be held in Beijing. I sure hope they accomplish their goal in time.
A highlight from the trip was that both of my performances made the ESPN broadcasts back here in the States. I skated great all week with the exception of the first minute of my long program. I really wanted to skate my best TOO much which produced excess tension in my body. I missed two elements before I got back on track. At least that was a great experience for me to apply to future competitions.
My favorite pastime in China was to take a cab to the Pearl Market and go shopping. Now it's not just pearls... Imagine five floors of booths, thousands of people, and wall to wall shopping mayhem. Plus, you have to barter for everything! The negotiating and "making the deal" became so addictive. It is nothing like shopping in the U.S. where the price tag is what you pay. In Chinese markets there usually is no price tag and if there is, it's at least three times more than you should pay for the item. A few of the lines that would inevitably be said by the sales ladies during the haggling session were, "I give you friend price" or "You handsome, I give you good price" or "You joking...I lose money" (yeah right). One person even tried to convince me that I should pay more for a particular item because it was for my wife and not for "some other girl." How funny.... After ten minutes of negotiating the best tactic is usually to walk away because they'll always come after you :-) By the end it usually works out to be a good deal for everyone and plenty of fun was had in the process.
It was such a pleasure to attend the sunday service of the Beijing International Christian Fellowship while I was in Beijing. Since China is a communist country its people are not allowed to worship God freely like we are in the United States. Luckily, citizens of other nations who are living or visiting China can meet together at certain locations. After the passport check at the door (to keep Chinese nationals from entering), this church was more like heaven than any I've seen. The bible says that people from every tribe and nation will worship together in heaven. There were people from Africa, India, Asia, North America, Australia, etc. all being a church together. What a great sight that was!
My final notable experience from this trip to China was the closing banquet for the Cup of China competition that I was participating in. One of the choices on the menu read, "Broccoli with Curb Meat." Curb Meat?!? The U.S. Team was thinking road kill, household animal and whatever else our imaginations could conjure. Luckily, the dish that came out was broccoli with cheese. It was an obvious misspelling because cheese is Curd Meat. (Not that we would ever say that in English:-) The entertainment after dinner was chinese acrobats. I never would have imagined all the things that can be done with an umbrella or the multiple ways one can bend a human body! They defy what I thought was humanly possible.
Thank you for this opportunity to share my experiences with all of you! I hope to continue to have good news to share :-)
Sincerely,
Ryan Jahnke
