Behind the Great Wall: In China with Dana Rettke

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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 5

Today was one of my favorite days thus far! We woke up fairly early, considering we played a late four-set match yesterday night, but I didn't care, there's no time to waste when you're in China for 10 days!

We started the day off with a visit to the ancient city of Xitang in Jiashan, China. This city is 1,000 years old, and was absolutely beautiful. The pictures really don't do it justice but check them out!

Photo Gallery

We were also joined by the Zhejiang pro team (yes, the ones the beat us yesterday) but it didn't matter! We all starting to take pictures with each other and it made me so happy! Not everyone knew how to speak English, and we certainly didn't know Chinese, but I just think it's so awesome that it didn't matter because we all just love volleyball and that's what brought us together.

We started off our visit with a boat ride on the river that went right down the center of the city. It was spectacular. The stone building with people still living above it and all the shops that lined the city had so much history. In our boat was Stephanie, Rebecca, Thayer and I, along with four players from Zhejiang. One of the players spoke pretty good English so we got to make a little small talk as she told us about the city. We were having a great time laughing, talking and trying to pronounce each other's names.

When we got off the boat, we walked the whole city. Venders of all sorts lined the streets with food, jewelry, pottery, and clothes. I tried a Petal cake which was a flaky, croissant-like outside with flower petals in the middle. It was really good, and sweet, which is hard to find here.

After walking around the city for about an hour or two, we headed to lunch with the Zhejiang team. They organized another lunch for us and it was adventurous to say the least. There wasn't enough room at the USA table so Stephanie and I went to sit with some of the Zhejiang players and thank goodness we like to try some new things. They encouraged us to try duck tongue, so we did. Honestly, it didn't taste bad, kind of like a hotdog. I just couldn't get over the fact that it was duck tongue and one bite was good for me. We also got to try cow stomach, which wasn't my favorite, but now I can say I ate cow stomach! There were some normal dishes like fish, shrimp, bok choy, clams, lobster, and rice. Yeah, we were eating good!

After lunch, it was nap time back at the hotel, and time to get ready for the match that night. We traveled to Pinghu City to play the match, which was only about 30 minutes away. The arena was about the same size as the one we played at the day before, but the place was nearly packed. We swept Zhejiang in three which was super exciting! We played as a team very well, and were running like a well-oiled machine after three practices and two matches. Pretty impressive.

Rettke leads U.S. sweep of Zhejang

At the end of the match, Steph and I came out of the locker room and one of the players on the boat with us named Lanshang Lee come up and gave us a big hug and said she was going to miss us, her new friends. My heart melted and I was smiling for the rest of the night. So much love for that team, and so sad we had to leave them. But just like that we were off to our next city.

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, W, 3-0
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

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Behind the Great Wall: In China with Dana Rettke

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