Bowling for Turkey

When we moved to Shanghai I took a risk in allocating 40 lbs of our allotted 750lbs of air shipment by bringing our bowling gear. After a few months here our bag was still collecting dust in our storage room, and we still hadn’t seen the inside of the bowling alley. At home we got the chance to bowl in a monthly league and I spent the past year having weekly bowl offs for lunch against Patrick with the end result of usually me buying.

Things soon changed when we heard about a weekly Wednesday league that was organized by one of the softball guys, “The Hammer”. Hammer is easily the best bowler in our misfit group and a great host for the league. He supplies a few rounds of Tsingtaos and covers for those of us who sometimes leave without paying him for bowling. He also organizes a skins game for those who like to gamble. We were pretty confused at first about the idea of winning skins in bowling but the concept makes the league a lot more fun for those of us who like to play.

Since our bowling group changes week to week with anywhere from 10 to 30 people, the skins system lets everyone come and go as they please while still establishing an average for the season ending tournament. We usually play 3-4 games each time with the first game being a warm up game. The next two games you can opt in or out of the skins game. You can win skins a few ways. Any split converted, any turkey, and high 10^th frame all are automatic skins that will get you 5rmb per person for each skin. An untied high score each frame also wins a skin so there is plenty of rooting for/against other bowlers depending on the scenario. This skin creates a lot looks from other people bowling as our crowd gets pretty rowdy when only one strike is on the board. There is also a trash skin called the ‘CJ strike’ aptly named for one of the league member whose ability to throw a first ball gutter and still get a spare is legendary. Given that our best bowler has about a 180 average while the field averages around a 125, anyone can win money with this system.

This all culminated with a 16 man tournament to end the fall season. Timely corresponding with Thanksgiving, the big prize was a smoked turkey. The league is not short of big personalities, so the trash talking and wagers on who would win began a couple weeks in advance of the actual tournament. As the lone female in the tournament, I was letting everyone know that I was ‘dark horse’. I know my game is consistently inconsistent, thus I could either be an early exit or make a deep run into the finals. This was single elimination tournament so I was pretty nervous going in. However, my confidence rose quickly as I knocked out the defending champion by 60 pins in the first round. My next round was against the Hammer and I got a little lucky. The lanes were dry and he couldn’t find his mark and my 47 pin advantage was too much for him to overcome. Round three put me against my friend Adam, who had previously duped his girlfriend and I into a sucker bet the week before so I was out for blood. Karma was on my side as Adam bowled a sub par game and I won the match straight up without needing my 14 pin advantage.

I headed to the finals having to face Noah in a two game high total match. Noah was the biggest trash talker and most of the crowd was on my side. Unfortunately, I did not make the first match very interesting. I had a hard time following through and missed my mark just too many times, giving up my 30 pin advantage between two games. Winning straight up the next game was just too big of feat after four games behind me and my turkey dreams were soon crushed. I guess I’ll have to wait until next tourney for redemption.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Running in Shanghai

Before coming to Shanghai I wasn’t a big fan of endurance sports. I was much more likely to be seen burning calories on an ice rink or a soccer field than pounding the pavement. I attribute this partly to the fact that I grew up in the suburbs and was never too far from an ice rink and or park. Since moving to Shanghai though, the opportunity to play team sports diminished quite a bit. I still spend Sunday’s in the spring and fall playing a pretty competitive level of softball, but Monday through Saturday was leaving a pretty big void.

A couple of friends of mine have always encouraged me to start getting into endurance sports. They run 10k’s, half marathons, and triathlons all of the time. One even travels to Asia every other year to compete internationally. I have always dismissed their suggestions as “not for me” because I thought running/biking/swimming was boring. Things changed this summer when I decided to do Shuan T’s “Insanity” workout program. For those of you unfamiliar, it is probably the most intense home training program on the market. It makes P90X seem easy. After completing the 60 day program (in about 70 days because I couldn’t keep up), I was probably in the best shape I had been in a very long time – maybe ever. I wasn’t motivated enough to start over and do 60 more days of insanity, so I decided that I needed a new goal. Enter endurance sports.

I started to set my sights on doing triathlons. The reason being is that I just couldn’t imagine myself running over 5 miles at a time, let alone 13 or 26. Thus, I decided that mixing in three activities might be more exciting. A couple of problems: 1 – I didn’t have a bike, 2 – I didn’t have any swim equipment, 3 – the only triathlons I could find were outside of China. Apparently endurance sports are not the most popular activity in Shanghai. I have solved two of the problems by buying a very nice Specialized bike and all new swimming gear. What I couldn’t fix was the fact that there were not any triathlons in the area. So in the meantime, I focused my attention on running… which is where the interesting part of the blog begins.

My ultimate goal is to compete in a half Ironman. I was hoping to compete with my friend in Singapore in March, although I am not sure a half Ironman is a great idea for my first tri. In the meantime, I have decided to register for two events. The second is the Shanghai half marathon on December 5^th. I am still pretty nervous about running 13.1 miles at one time, but I have been training diligently and think I will be ready. The first event I ran was the Nike Shanghai 10k. This event took place in the Songjiang university district on the west side of Shanghai. Let me just say the runners were an interesting bunch.

I coaxed my Dad’s driver into picking me up at 6 AM and taking me out to Songjiang (about an hour from downtown – Shanghai is a big city). Registration was supposed to be from 6:30 to 7:30, with the event starting shortly there after. “Shortly there after” is a relative term in China. Since I arrived around 7, I was signed in and ready to go in plenty of time. Unlike events organized in the US, the starting area of the race wasn’t divided by the expected pace that the runners plan to run at. Instead, in true Chinese fashion, all the Chinese people decided that they needed to push their way as close to the start-finish line as possible. Also in Chinese tradition, the event organizers had split the groups into two classes. The common people (which I was apart of) was kept about 100 yards from the start finish line. In the “special group” the organizers had arranged for a local fitness trainer to lead people in calisthenics. What was particularly strange is that these individuals were probably the same people that had no business running 10k in the first place. There were out of shape people, people in jeans, and others wearing loafers all sweating to the pretty low impact exercises. Meanwhile, I was crammed like a sardine with the 10,000 Chinese students that were not part of the special group. After fifteen minutes of “yòu biān”-“zuǒ biān”, which means “right side-left side” we thought the event was starting. They dropped the rope and let us jog to the start/finish line. To our surprise, there was another rope at the actual line and now we had just run into the group of Jane Fonda imitators. The event coordinators were not too pleased. The stage was set up back where we had come from and they decided that 25 more minutes of speeches and introductions was necessary. Then, all of the sudden, without much notice the final rope was dropped, the clock started and we were off.

I thought this event was scheduled to be a 10k. Normally, a 10k requires a pretty consistent pace to complete the entire thing without passing out. This strategy was lost on about 70% of the Chinese students that were registered to run. It seemed like we were in a 100M sprint as people with backpacks, jeans, and dress shoes went flying by me in the first few meters. Needless to say I passed about 90% of these people within the first few kilometers as they had already begun walking or barfing on the side of the road. Certainly an interesting site watching 10-20 Chinese students losing their breakfast before the 2 km mark. I have to admit that I was a bit thrown off by the early pace. I had my training software set to tell me my pace every 1 mile. First update: 1 mile in 6 minutes 20 seconds. My response….oh shit! I was not prepared to run over 6 miles at a sub 7 pace. I was planning on about an 8 minute pace. After the first mile I knew I was going to be in trouble.

I ended up scaling down my pace to a more reasonable rate and ended up finishing my first 5km in 22 minutes and 30 seconds and finished the entire 10k in 46:14 (7:26/mile). This was about 3 minutes 30 seconds faster than my goal. I was happy about that, but my legs and body disagreed. It probably didn’t help that after the event I spent the afternoon walking around Sheshan Golf Club watching Tiger and Phil in the HSBC World Golf Championship. The race day proved a couple things to me. 1 – a half marathon is going to be a long run. 2 – I need to do much better at pacing myself. 3 – Chinese college students are terrible judges of their athletic abilities.

My training for the Shanghai half marathon has continued with me running 4 days a week. I typically put in between 5 and 10 km. The best part about training is running through the streets of Shanghai. Each run is full of excitement due to the looks I get from Chinese people wondering who is chasing me and the constant excitement of almost getting hit by cars/trucks/bikes/pedestrians/buses. On yesterday’s run I made the mistake of turning down one of the busier streets in Shanghai. Since the streets were packed with people it was going to be impossible to run on the sidewalk. Traffic was hardly moving so I decided that using the shoulder was a safe bet. Little did I realize that the shoulder was reserved for “bumper bikes.” I was about halfway down the street as an older gentleman on a bike pulled out directly in front of me. I figured that he was on bike and I was on foot he would likely be moving faster than me so I pulled up behind him. I was wrong and this guy was seriously slowing down my pace. So I juked left, split two cars and came back out in front of this guy. Apparently that must have had a negative impact on his “face”, because he was not happy that I passed him. I didn’t realize this until I felt the guys tire ramming the back of my leg. Not once, not twice, but three times in about 10 strides. As I turned over my shoulder to see what the deal was, I saw the same guy I had just passed with a slight grin on his face. Apparently giving me tire burns was hilarious to him. I tried to let it go and picked up the pace a little bit. About two blocks later he had caught back up and tried to bump me again. This time I was prepared. I side stepped his tire, which put him right next to me. An “accidental” nudge of my elbow into his handle bar sent the guy veering off into the guard rail. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him fall rather harmlessly onto the side walk and yell something at me in Chinese. I felt bad for about .5 seconds until I looked down at my left leg and saw the tire burns. I wonder how his “face” is after a “lǎowài” put him on his ass?

Expo Three Ways

World Expo is coming to a close at the end of October. As the end approaches people are scrambling to see it numbers that are truly mind blowing. During the recent holiday the peak days have topped 1 million people. The Expo site itself is huge and this whole lot will soon be torn down with the exception of a few pavilions that will be kept for tourist purposes mostly. Some countries are trying to “rehome” their pavilions to keep with the theme of 'Better City, Better Life' to encourage recycling, but many will likely end up in the trash.

I had the chance to experience Expo three ways in the past two months and each way had its positives and negatives.

Pub Crawl Expo
Jeff and I decided to join one of our friends who organized a small pub crawl through the Expo. She had previously sent out a powerpoint map which included all the bar stops along Expo, so we knew this was going to be serious. I was eager to go since I had yet to experience Expo, but was a little nervous as I was recovering from a bout of Salmonella. I decided to throw caution to the wind and on a Saturday afternoon we decided to head up a little early to hit up a great BBQ place for lunch.
1.5 hours later we were still searching for our lunch spot and 10+ volunteers had still not been able to point us in the right direction. One recommended we get on a bus and take it to the other end and maybe someone there could point us in the right direction. Mind you we had the address of this location in Chinese but no one could tell us where this elusive Expo village was located (apparently not inside Expo). We soon gave up and decided on some fast food African style before meeting up for the crawl.
Lunch was not a disappointment but after the earlier frustration we were ready for a beer. We made our way to the Belgium pavilion for some waffles and ice cream for desert and a Hoegarden to wash it down. Here we met up with our pub crawl group and about 7 of us started at a hidden cafe inside Belgium. Here's the short of it . . .
Belgium: Chimnay beer . . . tasty and a good way to start
Germany:1/2 liters of light and dark beer . . . we were smart enough to split the beer with a partner as this was only stop 2
Netherlands: unscheduled pit stop as our plans to cross the street were foiled by a parade. Cheap Heinekens were a bonus but mine was skunked. I handed it over to Jeff to finish.
Lithuania: Had to talk our way in since the bar was within the pavilion. This was pretty easy since most of us did not carry a Chinese passport, don’t look Chinese and were looking to spend money on beers. They served Svyturys which did not disappoint. Another 1/2 liter, but not smart enough to share this time.
Mexico: Dinner stop and time for some margaritas. This pavilion treated us well, hooking us up with some free guac and churros. Our group of now 11 probably helped our cause.
Cuba: I wanted a mojito and Jeff wanted a cigar, but at 9pm it was already closed. Guess I will still never make it to Cuba.
Malta: Last stop for us, drinking 1/2 liters is a little much. Cisk beer was decent. Good deal on two bottles of wine. We were suckered in and brought them home for later use.
Verdict: Fun time with good people. Avoided most of the crowds as Chinese people prefer standing in line to seeing countries the way they should be….through the bottom of an empty beer stein. Still felt functional the next day. Not a cheap way to see Expo . . . beers ranged from 20rmb-45rmb. Probably spent around 600rmb p/p . . . oh well :)

Visitor Expo
My dad was visiting in the beginning of October so we decided to head over to Expo on a Thursday morning hoping it wouldn't be too crowded. At first things were promising as we walked right into the Australia pavilion. After a strange video we left hoping for something better but most of the day ended up as a disappointment. Most Expo lines were a minimum of 1 hour wait. We went with the strategy of going only where we could walk into and ended up seeing many unimpressive pavilions. Hungary, Czech, Africa . . . I lost count. We didn't make it too long in the day as jet lag and walking around with crowds of people don't mesh well.
Verdict: Much cheaper than bar crawl but definitely not as much fun. 190rmb ticket to get in plus lunch only set us back around 250rmb. We did not have the fake passports that people run around getting stamped because they will never in fact be allowed to travel to those countries. I might have been impressed if I was 8 . . . otherwise I will just travel there myself.

The After Party Expo
Nick was in town visiting and wanted to check out Expo. I got an invite to go the USA pavilion staff party so I thought it might be a good opportunity for us to go. Nick headed up early to walk through with his mom and Pat. I skipped this part as I had enough of walking through Expo. I met up with a friend and we met Nick who was already starting his night drinking with a large beer at the Canada bar. We quickly decided we needed to do a quick mini pub crawl to start our night so we headed to the Czech pavilion to each try a light and dark beer. Next stop was Malta and we were talked into trying their 9% beer. This was in hindsight a mistake, things may have started to get fuzzy due to this stop. We next head over to the party which was originally scheduled to be outside between two pavilions, but due to weather was inside. Since we were definitely not Expo staff we left it to our friends to talk our way in and were soon enjoying 10rmb beers and the dreaded jungle juice for 35rmb. The night is a blur of music, people, drinking, dancing and dance-offs. Around 2:30am the group decides to call it quits as most of them have to work the next day since it was a Tuesday. Nick adamantly wanted to stay and disappeared back into the crowd. After warning him his taxi card probably won't lead him to the right place, I gave up and headed to McDoanlds. Nick calls over an hour later confused how to get into his parents place but thankfully made it to the right apartment complex. Downside is he is dropped off at the first building and had to spend the next 30 minutes going in and out of buildings and elevators until he stumbled his way to his parents (about 1 km away from the first).
Verdict: This night was a blast but not good for our health. I woke up with the spins after 4 hours of sleep and it was a rough ride to the airport to send my dad home. I rallied and still made it to bowling at least. Rumor has it Nick did not move the entire next day! His mom says he can't go out with me anymore :)

Chili Cookoff.... only steers and queers

Jeff and I recently got to put our BBQ judge skills to the test when we were invited to judge Bubba's annual chili cook-off. BBQ . . . chili . . . it's all meat. We showed up with our appetites at 11 am on a Saturday at the secondary location. The first location was called off due to the fact that if fell on the anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China and the Japanese consulate is around the corner from Bubba’s. Organized protests and large groups of people do not mesh well with China, so keeping 1,000 drunk people was deemed essential by the Chinese government.

Upon arrival we were given free entry to the event and lead upstairs so we could not fraternize with the teams. There were 23 chili entries so it was previously decided that the first round judges would be divided into two teams and the top six from each group would advance to a new round of final judges. Since this was a Texas chili cook-off, we relegated to the first round of judging. A pre-requisite for judging the finals is that you had to hail from Texas. I don’t think my quote from Full Metal Jacket of “only steers and queers come from Texas” helped either.

Chili was to be judged on aroma, appearance and taste on a 1-10 scale. This is an officially sanctioned event, so Texas chili rules applied. This meant that no “fillers” are allowed in Texas chili. So beans, fruit and whatever else you can think of were out. The chili had to be comprised of your choice of meat, onions, peppers and whatever seasoning preferred. Beer and crackers were provided to cleanse the palate between tastes. Now we are not connoisseurs of chili, but we can taste the difference between good chili and bad chili. One judge described about 25% of the chilies as something that “he would never order again if it was on a restaurant menu”. I would second that and say there was only about 25% of the chilies that I would order every time I went to the restaurant that served them. The other 50% were average at best. I guess you can’t complain when it is free and includes beer to wash it down.

After we had completed our responsibilities for tasting we were released to enjoy the event with the only other task of rating which teams had the best theme. The pictures here are from the second place “theme” of prison chili. The clear winner was “Heart Attack Chili”, which the team hired some local Chinese women to wear tiny nurses outfits and “inject” you with free booze. Jeff and I spent the next hour tasting all the chili's and deciding which one of us tasted it in our separate groups. It was pretty easy to distinguish the best one from my group and eventual winner of the contest. The Tabasco team made a simple tasty chili that also won the previous year. Jeff was adamant that a green chicken chili from his group might take home the prize, but he seemed to forget that this was a Texas chili competition. Texans don't want chicken in their chili and they don’t want it green. I am sure we will attend and next year and are hopefully invited back to judge. Spending a Saturday in Shanghai listening to live music, drinking and eating chili with a large group of expats is definitely a good way to feel close to home.