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Hey Badger Fans!

Hope all is well in the States! As some of you know, I am in China competing with the USA Collegiate National Team, and what an experience this is going to be! I'm so excited for this amazing opportunity, and fortunate enough to be able to share this with all of you!

Follow along for the next 10 days as I try to bring you along this journey with me! This will be my first time in Asia, and I cannot wait!

Day 3

After a great day and a half in Shanghai, we were off on our next adventure to the "small village" of Hangzhou, which was about a four-hour bus ride. Yeah, Hangzhou has 10 million people, there is nothing small or village about that!

When we got to Hangzhou, we went right to the Zhejiang College of Sports for a two-hour practice. Connections were getting a lot better and reading the game was a huge emphasis for us that practice. It felt great to get moving again and rep things out.  

After our practice, we checked into our hotel, and it might have been the nicest hotel I have stayed out. The room was huge, the bathrooms were all marble, and the WiFi was spectacular, which is always a plus! After a quick shower, we headed down to a traditional dinner in downtown Hangzhou, hosted by the Zhejiang pro team director and coaches. The set up was beautiful, and the food seemed to be never ending. There were some very different dishes on the menu - jellyfish, water snake, and some slimy green leaves were just some of the interesting ones, but we also had fish, pork, dumplings, and much more. It was a great experience

Downtown Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen. The city part of it reminded me of downtown Chicago. Store after store and hundreds of people walking around, it was fun to watch! A little past the city, there is a huge lake that overlooks some mountains, and has the cutest little boats you have ever seen! Check it out in the pictures!

Photo Gallery

After a pretty short travel day, we headed back to the hotel after a quick stop at McDonald's for those who thought the traditional dinner was a little too out of their comfort zone, which is totally ok! Couldn't wait to get back to our nice hotel room!

Day 4

Today was a very laid back day, but was the first time since we got here that we had down time, which was nice. We left Hangzhou to Jiashang which was about 1.5 hours away.  This was definitely a smaller (not quiet village) type of city.  Upon arrival, I got some laundry done and had about two hours of downtime before serve and pass. We headed to the arena and it was much larger than I expected. The place could probably hold about 2,000 people. The night before, the Chinese National Men's Volleyball Team played on the same court, which was pretty neat.  

After an hour of serve and pass, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the game vs. Zhejiang pro team. They were a good team with some good defense. There were quite a few people there, but nothing like the Field House, that's for sure. We ended up taking the first set and dropping the next three. We all knew we could have played a little bit better and a little more together as a group. The great thing about it was we have a match against them again tomorrow. We just have to make a few adjustments.

After the game, we came back and had some pizza and man was it nice to have some American food (No, I didn't eat McDonald's yesterday!) Don't get me wrong, the food in China is good, it's just you can only eat so much fried rice! I never really realized how much diversity we have when it comes to food in the U.S. You can eat Mexican, Italian, Chinese, American, etc. whenever wherever. Here there is just one option, and that's Chinese food.

Well, that's all I have for today, and sorry it wasn't as action packed of the past couple of days. We got much more time left though so don't worry!  I'll leave you with some things that have been standing out to me throughout the trip.

1.     There are so many mopeds. They drive in the bike lane and these mopeds are silent. They will sneak up on you if you're not paying attention and they are fearless; they are not afraid to hit you.
2.     Smoking is very popular here, and smoking in buildings is allowed, which always throws me slightly off guard.

Until tomorrow!

On Wisconsin! Go USA!  

Dana

Collegiate National Team-China Schedule
May 21: Arrive Shanghai
May 22: Match vs Shanghai, W, 3-2
May 23: Bus to Hangzhou, afternoon training
May 24: Match vs. Zhejiang in Jiashan, L, 1-3
May 25: Match vs. Zhejiang in Pinghu City
May 26: Bus to Nanjing
May 27: Open Training; Kid's clinic at Nanjing Elementary School.
May 28: Train to Beijing
May 29: Match vs Beijing BAIC in the morning. Great Wall and Olympic Site in the afternoon
May 30: Morning sightseeing at Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City. Match vs Hebei in the afternoon (in Beijing)
May 31: Fly home from Beijing and get home the same day