Anyway, the guys met Lief before the game and got all the special treatment their heart's desired! They started off in the locker room with the team, then got to go on the court and actually shoot with the players as they warmed up before the game. Their seats were right on the front row in at center court. And since Lief was the one throwing out all the "goodies" to the crowd during the game, he developed a delivery system that worked to Kevin's advantage. Every time he would throw something up into the stands, he would simply hand one or two to Kevin and Rob as they sat in their seats! Kevin came home with his pockets filled with things that the kids loved--inflatable balloon-type toys, stuffed animals, t-shirts, etc. The highlight of the evening was when Kevin was "chosen" to shoot from center court (rigged by Lief, of course!) for the chance to win either $10,000 or a huge plasma screen tv (still lost in translation as to what the real prize would have been!); he rimmed it, missing the potential for an at-home cinema or mega shopping spree (especially considering China prices!) for his wife by a hair! He's already been invited to two more games this week, so I'm thinking there's a good chance he'll have another shot at that big prize. . .
The rest of the week was COLD! The guys watched the kids on Tuesday for Sarah and I to go with my friend Barbara to the fabric market to try to get material for Sarah to bring back to make curtains (see photo of Karis, Barb, and Sarah at the market). We were unsuccessful in making a purchase though, as the options are pretty overwhelming and the whole process fairly exhausting! Sarah and Rob both decided to take classes for a few days at our language school, and Rob in particular really is enjoying the challenge of learning Mandarin. Sarah has decided that maybe she'll let Rob work on the language and she'll invest more time in learning how to make the food here--particularly jiaozi, similar to dumplings, that she helped our ayi to make later on in the week!
This weekend has been full and fun once again. We had our first China Party last night! We invited our three teachers and their boyfriends over for dinner and a concert with Rob as the headliner. The guys did some research to find out the Chinese people's favorite English songs, and you should see the list they came up with! Chart toppers are apparently "Hotel California", Richard Marx's "Everything I Do", and anything Michael Jackson! So Rob did not disappoint, and at one point, one of our teachers was actually in tears! (I think that was during Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone". Our teachers loved it all and insisted on an encore. The photo is of them all singing along to the songs, as the guys had printed out the lyrics for a sing-along time. After the dinner and music, we played different games (word games, ch
arades, etc.) for several hours--well after this old lady's bed time! Besides our one major social faux pas of not having slippers for everyone to wear in place of their shoes that you leave by the front door, the party was a smashing success. Oh, the kids even participated before bedtime. They displayed their exercise routine of running around the table to Rob playing "She'll be comin' round the mountain"--which our teachers LOVED--and Karis even sang "Lord I Lift Your Na
me on High" while sitting on Kevin's knee. Again--LOVED by our teachers!Today, Saturday, we took off to Beijing. We caught the bullet train into town, then rode the subway to a huge Pearl Market (where they have pearls and everything else you can imagine!). We had fun bargaining and doing some shopping, but have never experienced such aggressive salespeople in my life! The
most frustrating thing was how the salesladies kept putting things in the kids' hands as we walked by (things that they of course liked, such as light-up shoes and toys), making me stop to put them back and then trying to convince both me and the kids that we had to have them and they would give them to us for "cheaper, cheaper!" It was miserable! They saw I was outnumbered, and were taking full advantage! I finally was able to explain to the kids what was going on and convinced them to not take things from sales people without asking me first, allowing us finally to be able to move through the aisles of stuff at a slightly quicker pace. After the Pearl Market we stopped by the Temple of Heaven, a temple that dated back to the 1400's. We saw the grounds and the temple itself, but one of our favorite parts was the courtyard where so many elderly Chinese people gathered. They were doing everything from playing hackey sack to mah jong, and a large number were even dancing. (See photo of Kevin dancing with kids!) We made it home safely, tired, but not too hungry, thanks to the Dairy Queen (with Blizzards!) we found on our way.
