Our weekend began the way most trips do in the Bourdon family. PJ headed to the airport on the bus with the team. Dave headed to the airport early as he had to take a meeting at the airport. The girls and I headed out in a taxi to take the MTR to the airport. On the way Meg says, "I forgot my Octopus card." No big deal, even though I had reminded her twice, I'll just buy a ticket at the station. Two minutes later Dave calls, "The board says our flight is leaving at 10:40, not 11:40." Me to the taxi driver, "Please take us straight to the airport instead." Two minutes later Dave calls back. "I was looking at the wrong board. It arrives from Wuxi at 10:40, we leave at 11:40." Thank you for the blood pressure check dear!
The girls and I get to the airport, see the boys checking in, get checked in ourselves and proceed to the gate. The boys stop on the way to the gate to load up on Popeye's chicken. Yes, that was Popeye's chicken!
Short flights like this are very interesting in China. We (the team, coaches and parents) were the only non-Chinese on the flight and it was booked. The seating was very cramped. In the Chinese culture no attempt is made to keep kids quiet or from kicking the seat in front of them during the flight. I believe I have a couple of bruises on my back to prove this point! We arrive in Wuxi and are greeted by immigration who is thrilled to see this mostly American baseball team and began taking pictures. The boys take this and run with it, striking poses and making funny faces. As you go through immigration there is a little console where you can push a button indicating your degree of satisfaction with their service. Many Chinese do indeed push these buttons. Many high school boys do as well.
We have landed about an hour later than expected, so the few parents who have come along for the games join the team on the team bus to head straight to the field. The field is located at a boarding school. Upon arrival the boys go into the boys dorm to get changed. I need to use the restroom, so a friend comes with me. We figure we will find a public restroom in the girls dorm. Instead we are guided into a dorm room to use the restroom. After I showed my girls the picture of the restroom they decided they would wait until we got to the hotel to go to the bathroom. They actually both looked at me and said, "Our hotel will have real toilets, right?"
Now we were told on the way to the field that the field had lights, so it was no problem that our plane was late and that it was overcast. The MLB team was quite good. In fact, I would say they were the best team PJ has ever faced. Their pitcher was hittable, but unfortunately everything the boys hit was right at a fielder. Their fielding was impeccable as was their hitting. After three innings the game had to be called because it was too dark. There were no lights. PJ's team was down 5-0 at that point.
The MLB training center was kind enough to provide (for a small fee) a driver and van for us and one other set of parents because we were not staying at the same hotel as the team. The team headed back to their hotel, The Happiness Hotel, and we headed to ours, The Hotel Nikko. Both hotels were very nice, but ours did have quite a bit more around it.
The area surrounding our hotel reminded me of a European village. I was quite surprised. I have to say, I was surprised by Wuxi in general. For a city in the middle of China that no one has heard of, it was quite impressive and very modern. On the way from the airport we passed a couple of new mall areas, one with a big Nike symbol. Many more stand alone homes or duplex looking homes than I expected. Our hotel was set on a river and behind it was a walkway with bridges and lots of restaurants, not too different from the San Antonio river walk. Across the street was another new area with restaurants and shops, including three coffee shops (although only one of those coffee shops, Starbucks, opened before 10am on Saturday morning!). Friday night we ate at an Italian restaurant. Here are a few pictures of the area around our hotel:
Saturday morning we woke-up to rain. Here I will quote the rhyme Meg sent to Grandpa Jay:
So much rain,
Such a pain,
This is lame,
No more game.
We were supposed to be picked-up by the van at 8:30. At 8:28 they called to say the game was delayed and we would be picked-up at 9:00. At 9:00 they called to say it was delayed again and we would be picked-up 10:00 and driven to the boys hotel to wait. When we got to the hotel the coaches were at the field to see if the game could be played. The field was under water and the MLB coaches had no desire to try to get the games in. We came to Wuxi for three innings of play...and a trip to the mall for the boys and a foot massage for Meg:) Dave, the girls and I went with a couple (the Lambs who were staying at the staying at the same hotel as us) to a restaurant across the street from the boys' hotel. There were about four Japanese restaurants. We chose one. The Lambs had lived in Kobe, Japan for three years back in the late 80s/early 90s before coming to Hong Kong. They are fluent in Japanese so they took care of ordering our lunch. It was great!
We then went back to our hotel and Meg and Mary Lamb went for foot massages! That night we were still pretty full from lunch so we went for a few appetizers and beers, just small beers:)
We headed back to Hong Kong early Sunday morning. This time Grace, Meg and I all have bruises from our flight!
Tomorrow the kids and I head to Macau.
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