Behind the Great Wall: In China with Dana Rettke
May 29, 2018 | Volleyball
Off day for Team USA; Bubble Tea found!
Related Content
• Days 1 & 2 Blog
• Days 1 & 2 Photo Gallery
• Days 3 &4 Blog
• Days 3 & 4 Photo Gallery
• Day 5 Blog
• Day 5 Photo Gallery
• Day 6 Blog
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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 7
Our second day in Nanjing was an off day, which meant sleep-in day! We woke up to a breakfast of French toast, waffles, and chocolate muffins which was VERY exciting for us!
Today was a bit of a history lesson as we went to the Nanjing Massacre museum. I had never heard of this before this trip and there was a lot to learn. Quick back story for everyone, in 1937, the Japanese invaded China in a quest for more land. They traveled all over eastern China creating conflict before hitting Nanjing. Japanese troops engaged in mass rape, murder of up to 300,000 people, theft, arson, and other war crimes.
Absolutely devastating what had happened to these people, and I got that gut-wrenching feeling as we were walking through the museum. The museum itself was beautiful, and did a fantastic job of taking everyone through step by step as to what happened. I hope more people could know and be educated about this tragedy and how it not only impacted the Chinese people but how it impacted the world.
Photo Gallery
For the second half of our day, we had the rest of the afternoon to explore the city. Taryn, Jenna, T'ara, Rachael and I went to a bakery for lunch because we NEEDED some chocolate! That is my weakness, I do have to say. We walked around the mall that was around the corner for some time, but then decided it was a waste of time. We had some time to relax, and all went out to dinner as a whole team to an American restaurant which was very good!
After the restaurant, some of us did some night exploring, which was so much fun! The whole city was lit up, and we were just walking around enjoying the night life. We were also set on finding bubble tea (remember the tea we were trying to find in Shanghai.) We typed it into Google and were on our way. There were a few times we stopped because people were dancing on the streets, so we HAD to join in. There was a Zumba class outside, which went from a lot of people participating to only us participating while everyone else grabbed their phones to take videos of us. We then knew it was time to leave. We also came across some traditional dancing, which was also fun! We grabbed our bubble tea and we were set for the night. We headed back to the hotel after a nice relaxing day.
Until tomorrow!Â
On Wisconsin! Go USA! Â
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
Â
• Days 1 & 2 Blog
• Days 1 & 2 Photo Gallery
• Days 3 &4 Blog
• Days 3 & 4 Photo Gallery
• Day 5 Blog
• Day 5 Photo Gallery
• Day 6 Blog
Â
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 7
Our second day in Nanjing was an off day, which meant sleep-in day! We woke up to a breakfast of French toast, waffles, and chocolate muffins which was VERY exciting for us!
Today was a bit of a history lesson as we went to the Nanjing Massacre museum. I had never heard of this before this trip and there was a lot to learn. Quick back story for everyone, in 1937, the Japanese invaded China in a quest for more land. They traveled all over eastern China creating conflict before hitting Nanjing. Japanese troops engaged in mass rape, murder of up to 300,000 people, theft, arson, and other war crimes.
Absolutely devastating what had happened to these people, and I got that gut-wrenching feeling as we were walking through the museum. The museum itself was beautiful, and did a fantastic job of taking everyone through step by step as to what happened. I hope more people could know and be educated about this tragedy and how it not only impacted the Chinese people but how it impacted the world.
Photo Gallery
For the second half of our day, we had the rest of the afternoon to explore the city. Taryn, Jenna, T'ara, Rachael and I went to a bakery for lunch because we NEEDED some chocolate! That is my weakness, I do have to say. We walked around the mall that was around the corner for some time, but then decided it was a waste of time. We had some time to relax, and all went out to dinner as a whole team to an American restaurant which was very good!
After the restaurant, some of us did some night exploring, which was so much fun! The whole city was lit up, and we were just walking around enjoying the night life. We were also set on finding bubble tea (remember the tea we were trying to find in Shanghai.) We typed it into Google and were on our way. There were a few times we stopped because people were dancing on the streets, so we HAD to join in. There was a Zumba class outside, which went from a lot of people participating to only us participating while everyone else grabbed their phones to take videos of us. We then knew it was time to leave. We also came across some traditional dancing, which was also fun! We grabbed our bubble tea and we were set for the night. We headed back to the hotel after a nice relaxing day.
Until tomorrow!Â
On Wisconsin! Go USA! Â
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
Â
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