Together we can…我们的团队齐心协力

The students were able to attend two classes Monday morning; Logistics Management and Chinese Language. In the afternoon, our group visited Grand Skylight International, a 5-star hotel, located in downtown Nanchang. After the tour of this amazing hotel, the ECIT Ancient Folk Music Club hosted a music interflow concert for us on campus. There were nine different student performers that played for us. The music was beautiful and I really enjoyed hearing the more traditional Chinese instruments. Freshman Emily DesJardins volunteered to try playing the violin with the student performer. Senior Vashia Gordon was taught how to play a “gu zheng”, a 25-string plucked instrument. Both did a great job and got big laughs and applause from the entire crowd.

Latest photo galleries from the trip

Later that night we had the chance to make our own dinner in the cafeteria at ECIT. We made our own dumplings with the ECIT kitchen staff. A small group worked on making the dough and the rest of the group gathered around a large table to assemble the dumplings-rolling out the dough, cutting, filling and pinching shut.

Immediately following dinner, four of our student-athletes; Rachael Millner, Kayla Clark, Teaira Miller and Aimee Thrune, were selected to participate in a volunteer activity at Liansong Middle School. This is a boarding school for underprivileged kids, located within walking distance of campus. We were amazed that at 7 o’clock at night the kids were still in the classroom studying and focused on schoolwork. About a half a dozen ECIT students that are regular volunteers at Liansong escorted us to the classroom.

After a brief introduction, we joined in to play games with the Chinese students. We played charades to help teach them some new English words. We acted out a word or phrase; such as jump roping, and the students had to answer in English. We also taught them the banana cheer song, which they enjoyed dancing and acting crazy with the Muskies. The last game we taught them was Heads-Up 7-Up. This entire experience was eye-opening and I am so grateful for our ECIT hosts to set up this awesome opportunity to give back to the local community. 

Tuesday morning the girls were back in the classroom, with another Chinese language class and a business management class. In the afternoon, we all attended a discussion with business majors. We had a few hours to get to know them and ask questions. Lexie gave calligraphy a try with one of the ECIT students and Teaira amazed the group with her dance moves she displayed with the host Andy.  The girls and I also attempted to sing our trip theme song, “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.

Tuesday evening, we played our last game here in China vs ECIT. There was a ton of support from the student body and staff of ECIT, which made it an incredible experience for our team. This was probably the most evenly matched game we played in China and I really enjoyed watching our girls compete.

We will be wrapping up our trip here soon and heading back home. I will blog again to tell you all about our last few days here in Nanchang and Fuzhou. Thanks again for following us!
Coach Vande

We walked to the end of this fun road, we turn and there’s another one! 這條好玩的路跑完了，一轉身也有另外一條!

It’s hard to believe that we have spent about one week in China already. We have seen so much here in Shanghai and learned a lot about its culture and people. It makes me very sad to leave our new friends from SFU, but I am very excited to continue on with our journey.
   

Our last day in Shanghai was spent partly on campus and partly downtown. While at SFU, the students finished their last class with Ms. Guojiao learning a few more words to use while here. They learned words for food, drinks, and things to buy, which will hopefully help us while we are out and about. For example, Rachael was able to save me when I was trying to order a bottle of water at lunch.  She said “wo he shui”, which I learned later translates to, “I’ll drink water”.

The Lakeland students had closing ceremonies immediately following lunch where they were recognized with certificates of completion. Linda presented the certificates with Dr. Zheng, Dean at SFU. After we spent some time taking pictures and saying our “goodbyes”, we headed downtown to do more shopping at People’s Square and sightseeing at the Bund. The Bund is located in central Shanghai and is one of the most famous tourist destinations here. The area is on Zhongshan Road and runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong district. After dark, the buildings along the river light up and the skyline is breathtaking.

The Muskies woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to head to Nanchang, a much smaller city than Shanghai in the center of the country. There are only about 11 million people in Nanchang compared to the 23 million people living in Shanghai. We boarded the train at Hongqiao Railway Station at 7:40 a.m. and arrived in Nanchang about 6 hours later.

Once we arrived in Nanchang, we were greeted by several people from our sister school in the lobby.  They were holding a sign that read “Welcome to ECIT”.  ECIT stands for East China Institute of Technology.  Lakeland College and ECIT signed an initial sister school agreement back in 2006.

After checking into the hotel, they invited us all to a welcome dinner. At dinner, many of us started to recognize some of our favorite dishes. Something that shocked me was the dessert dish, sticky rice balls. At our first dinner, I wasn’t a fan, but now I was asking for seconds and even third helpings of it. It appears that many of us are acquiring a taste for the food and most are really enjoying it! It is amazing to me when I think back to our first welcome dinner with SFU, and David was teaching us how to use the chopsticks. Now, most of us have no difficulty using them.  Practice does make perfect I guess!

We had fun spending the rest of the evening back at the hotel. Almost everyone gathered in Coach Amber’s and my room, since we have a Mahjong table in our room. Mahjong is a very popular traditional Chinese game and the students had a lot of fun learning to play with the ECIT students.

Our first full day in Nanchang was spent with an orientation at campus. We were given a brief background and history of ECIT. We also found out that ECIT and Lakeland have a very strong connection. Since the summer of 2007, ECIT has sent between seven and 22 faculty and staff members to Lakeland’s Summer Professional Development Program. A total of 58 ECIT members have participated in the program. Several ECIT students have participated in Lakeland’s Summer English Language Institute, and there have been many visits by ECIT administrators and scholars. We are the first group of students/staff from a sister school to visit ECIT. At the end of our orientation we were introduced to the twelve ECIT student ambassadors, most noted that they were excited to have new international friends from LC. One of the ambassadors was Jia Cheng Yang, who studied at LC last year, and many of our girls know him very well. 

Our student assistant, Yao, led us on a campus tour. ECIT has around 30,000 undergraduate students and an additional 10,000 graduate students. We were able to eat in the canteen before heading downtown.  Coach Amber and I visited the August 1 Nanchang Uprising Memorial Museum where we learned about the day the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolted. This was the location where the leaders of the CCP arranged for the uprising against the alliance Aug. 1, 1927. This event was significant for the communist party and eventually led to the Long March, the civil war, and of course victory for the CCP.  

We wrapped up that day at the Music Fountain in Qiushui Square. This large series of fountains lines the west bank of the Gan River and there is a water, light, and music show twice a night. There were thousands gathered in the plaza, making the area a bit crowded, but it was beautiful to see and hear the show. The highlight of the show was when the giant spout shot water nearly 200 feet in the air.

I will plan to post a new blog on Tuesday after our game. In the meantime, check out our new photos on our gallery link on the Muskie women's basketball home page. Thank you for following us!

Coach Vande

A little bit of everything 什麼事都有一點

Hello again! We’ve been very busy here in Shanghai and I’m sorry I have not been able to update our friends back home sooner. The internet here has been very inconsistent the past couple days, but plan to make it up to you by giving you a much longer blog to cover the past couple days.

On Tuesday, we traveled to the business district in downtown Shanghai, where Ningbo Commerce Bank is located. Here at Ningbo’s corporate headquarters we were able to hear Linda translate a presentation by Ningbo’s branch manager. We learned about the bank’s history and corporation in general.  Also covered was information about China’s economic and financial makeup. We toured the building and also made a currency exchange before we headed back to campus.

We then attended our second basic Chinese class that afternoon. Here the students went more in depth to the Chinese language; for example conversational phrases and more writing. It seems some of the students are learning a lot in such a short amount of time.

Tuesday evening, we were invited to attend the school’s musical, I Love You, in celebration of SFU’s 60th anniversary. This musical was a comedy with only four actors, two male and two female SFU students. All were unbelievable actors and singers and had a great performance that evening. The musical was primarily in Chinese, except a few English subtitles during the songs. I have to admit, the majority of the time I wasn’t sure where the plot was headed or what was going on, but I still was able to understand the humor.

On Wednesday, the students woke up early and had a microeconomics class consisting of all international students from a variety of countries. Aimee Thrune, a senior LC math major, had an opportunity to solve a problem in front of class versus another student. The rest of the time, the students listened to a lecture-based class covering business. The students had short break between class and the game to walk to a local market. Here is where they were able to see another side of Shanghai. Many local families were purchasing their produce or meat for the day. Coach Matt tried a whole duck, which was cooked at one of the stands. All week, Matt has been one of the bravest members of our group in relation to trying local food. He is willing to try just about anything!

There were many interesting things at this market, but one of the most eye-opening experiences was the variety of living and dead animals for sale. Assistant coach Amber Peterson, witnessed for the first time, a fish killed, head chopped off and gutted. “I saw them chop its head off. I’m scarred for life.”

The team was able to play its second game at the SFU gymnasium versus the varsity squad. After a slow start, we were able to get back on pace and play Muskie basketball. There was, once again, a really good crowd and fun atmosphere for the team to play in front of. We had a lot of contribution from different players and had a good time in a friendly competition against our sister school. Freshman Kayla Clark has become a local fan favorite. Numerous fans have come up to her to ask for a picture after both games. She even had a young man buy her a Coca-Cola for after the game and asked for her email.

Immediately following the game, David Lynch helped translate while I spoke with one of the SFU players. Come to find out, she is very interested in coming to Lakeland to study and play basketball. It would be amazing to have one of these talented student-athletes join our Muskie family back in America.

Our team had a celebration dinner after the win at a local (ma and pop-type) restaurant. David believes they may have never seen foreigners as patrons, but were certainly excited to welcome us to eat there this evening. As you walked up to the front entrance, you saw the cook under a pop-up tent managing all the orders from inside. You could also see the live shrimp that quite a few tried later on. While wearing plastic gloves, we had to pull the tails off and peel the shell ourselves to eat the shrimp. The food here was a little bit more spicy, but very delicious. The entire group mentioned at the end of the night; that this was their favorite meal so far. This made our trip organizer, David, extremely pleased to hear.

After nearly six days of being in China, we had the opportunity to visit the Pudong Government today. It was very informative and the speaker did a great job keeping the audience engaged. He had excellent English and a great personality. He spoke a lot about where China was and how far it has come in the past 20 years.

After we concluded the Q&A session, the students headed back to campus for a finance class. Once again, they were in a class with the SFU exchange students.

Cynthia and Bill decided to meet up with the team after class to head to downtown Shanghai for some fun. We took the Metro Line subway to People’s Square. The Square is very similar to N.Y.C. Times Square expect Nanchang Road is much longer and essentially is a pedestrian walkway. We stopped to sing some karaoke at KTV where we had our own private party room. Most of us were able to find a favorite song to sing, but Bill was the group’s best karaoke singer by far. After our attempt at singing, we headed to dinner and shopping for the remainder of the night.

Sadly, tomorrow is our last day in Shanghai. I have grown very fond of this city and feel a little more adapted to China now after being here for about one week. We plan to spend our last night at the famous Bund downtown before heading on a 6-hour train ride to Nanchang.

I look forward to posting my next blog entry after we get settled in at Nanchang.  Please stay tuned and thank you for following the Muskies!

Best to ya,

Coach Vande

Now that’s a student-athlete experience. 當學生運動員就是這樣做得

Just when you think it can’t get any better for the Muskies here in China…it does. Our students were able to experience being a student-athlete at SFU today. Our morning was filled with attending a Basic Chinese class, instructed by Guo Guojiao at SFU’s International Exchange Building. Many of the girls were able to pick up some basic speaking and writing skills fairly quickly. Ms. Guojiao spent majority of the time on teaching the different sounds and tones of the Chinese language.

There are 38 different finals (vowels) 23 different initials (consonants) and four different tones. To become more acquainted with the language, the students did exercises like speaking in front of the class, role playing, and also a game of Chinese charades.

More photos available here

It was after about 2 ½ hours of class when the team was ready to test their new skills outside of the classroom. Sophomore, Rachael Millner caught on well and even impressed Professor David Lynch when he quizzed the players on the bus on the way to the hotel. I really have enjoyed hearing the team become more confident trying to use new phrases they have learned in class with others outside of our group. I am anxious to see how much more they learn after two more classes with Ms. Guojiao this week.

The team walked to the campus cafeteria for a quick lunch before heading to the gym to prepare for our first game. Our host, Linda Huang Yi, was able to arrange our game versus Shanghai Jiao Tong University. SJTU is most known for being Yao Ming’s alma mater and having very competitive and respected basketball programs.

Prior to the game, while the team gathered in a nearby multi-purpose room, I was introduced to SJTU’s head coach. Linda helped translate while we discussed the rules and the pregame program. I was also able to meet the rest of their coaching staff and team while the Muskies were getting ready for the game.

Immediately following our meeting, our team joined SJTU’s team at mid-court. We exchanged gifts and took a group picture before the start of the game. A few handshakes were exchanged and good luck wishes; then it was time for tip-off. Our team was prepared to play a much different style of game then what we encounter in the States, and it took some getting used to. However, I was impressed overall with how well we adjusted to the FIBA rules and the way the referees called the game. SJTU plays very physical and we proved to have a new level of toughness during the game.

Many of the SFU students were able to attend the game while between classes and helped add another level of excitement to the atmosphere. It sounded like we were the new hometown favorites with the cheers from our new Muskie fans in the stands. They would get particularly excited when our undersized guards, like Sophomore Gaby Cappaert, attacked the paint or when any of our players shot a three-point field goal.

This entire experience was more than what I expected and I am so grateful for Linda putting in the time and energy to set up the game with SJTU. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these young ladies will be remembered for the rest of their lives.

It’s ALL good! 什麼都是好吃的

This was a pub we rested our tired legs at after long day of walking about shopping and sightseeing.

Today was an awesome day for the Muskies, our first full day here in China. It was clear to see that everyone has surpassed the jet lag after a full night’s rest and was ready for today’s new adventure in Shanghai.

We were able to get a quick bite to eat at a variety of street vendors to fuel up for our big day of sightseeing. I have to admit, I am pleasantly surprised to see so many of us stepping outside of our comfort zone and trying new things. It’s ALL good, most of the time. Some of the unfamiliar foods we were brave enough to taste test outside the hotel included pot stickers, steam bun fillings and sweet sesame dumplings.
  

It was a short 40-minute bus ride to downtown where we visited Shanghai Old City, with the Yu Yuang Garden, Yu Garden Bazaar and Shanghai Old City God’s Temple as the center. Shanghai Old City is a very "genuine" Shanghai, where a more traditional architectural style is seen. It was quite the experience to see some of the beautiful history of China, shop with the locals and of course eat more authentic Chinese food.  Still no luck on finding my favorite Chinese appetizer; crab rangoon. I have a hunch I will only find those in America.

The Yu Yang Garden translates to “Happy Garden” and is located in the center of Shanghai’s Old City. This garden was built more than 400 years ago and is nearly 5 acres wide. Outside the beautiful Yu Garden is the Yu Garden Bazaar, or what I can describe best as a large street market. Yu Garden Bazaar, about 75,000 square meters total in size, is famous for its narrow and “lively” streets. The various shops and stores offer a little bit for everyone: trinkets, souvenirs, antiques and arts and crafts. Some of us used our newly found bargaining skills here with the local vendors, or at least attempted to. In my case, I failed miserably with my first two attempts. But, it’s ALL good.  I got better by the end of the day!

Many of us took full advantage of the food vendors. It reminded me much of the Wisconsin State Fair, where you keep walking around all day just so you can keep eating all day. “Coming in to it, I didn’t expect to enjoy the food as much as I am. I actually thought I was going to lose like 20 lbs. here. But, I love the food so much; I think I might gain 20!” sophomore Lexie Greenheck joked earlier today on the streets of Yu Garden Bazaar.

  

I was able to witness first hand Lexie trying some sushi she picked out at a restaurant near Yu Yuang Garden. She offered to share with me, but I had to decline. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

One of my favorite parts of the Shanghai Old City was the “nine-zig-zag bridge”. It is said to bring good luck to anyone who crosses. The only member of our group that did not cross the bridge was our student-assistant coach, Matt Armstrong. So we all know who to blame if we lose tomorrow.  It’s ALL good. (I walked through twice-hopefully that will make up for him!)

Team standing outside of Yu Yuang Garden by the building
that says "Lakeland" in Chinese.

After leaving Shanghai Old City, we had a walking tour on the narrow alley streets of Tianzifang. This neighborhood is known for small craft stores, trendy art studios, coffee shops and restaurants.  A little less crowded than the last market, yet still very crowded.   Here, at Tianzifang, is where I had my first successful bargain for a bronze replica of an ancient Buddha head. I was so very proud of myself since our SFU student-assistant host, Cynthia, was even impressed by how much I got the salesman down in price. It’s ALL good.

Here is what’s next for the Muskies…class bright and early tomorrow morning at SFU and the basketball game in the afternoon. (Unfortunately, we were unable to get the game live-streamed, but hopefully we can upload film later so you can still watch us compete from home).

Thank you all for following our China tour blog, we hope you all are enjoying hearing what we are up to.  We will continue to update all of our friends and family back home every day or at least every other day.

Best to you,
Coach Vande

We Arrived! 我們到了！

Team arriving @ Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport- Saturday, May 10 

36 hours later, the LC women’s basketball group has officially arrived in Shanghai, China. Despite some of the struggles with the beginning part of our journey, the team has been enjoying every step along the way.
    

During the seven hour delay at the Hainan Airline gate in Chicago O’Hare, I loved watching my team gather to play their favorite game of Catch Phrase. There was a ton of energy and excitement with the group, realizing they all just wanted to get this journey started and experience China, including me.

Photo Gallery from first day

All of our inexperienced flyers did very well on our long flight and handled it like pros. We were able to catch a few Z’s, watch a couple movies and enjoy our first taste of real Chinese.
  

We had another delay in Beijing when we missed our connecting flight to Shanghai, but once again, we enjoyed our time together in the airport hotel lobby. I was able to teach the team to play Skip Bo, one of my favorite card games when I was in college. After we all settled down for a couple hours of sleep, we were back to the airport to board our final flight to Shanghai Saturday morning. A few of us practiced some of our first words in Chinese-hello & thank you-while enjoying some comforts of home-KFC and Starbucks at the Shanghai airport.

After settling in to the hotel Saturday afternoon, the group was able to visit Shanghai Finance University (SFU). Lakeland and SFU initially signed a sister school agreement in 2006. We were greeted with a warm welcome and met Linda Huang Yi for brief orientation. We were also introduced to two of SFU’s current students, Cynthia and Bill. They are both assigned to our group as student assistants this week. Cynthia led the group on a campus tour of SFU, where the team was also able to see where they will play on Monday night. SFU student assistant Bill announced that he will be coming to LC next fall in the foreign exchange program to study accounting with two other current SFU students.

Following our campus tour, we headed to an on-campus restaurant where the group had a quick tutorial of chop sticks from David Lynch, our Lakeland professor leading the tour. Some picked it up very well and others went a little more hungry this evening from technical difficulties with the eating utensils and strange new food. This authentic Chinese dinner included some very interesting dishes like squid, fresh fish and blackened chicken broth.

Stay tuned for some of the insight to the sights tomorrow while we explore Shanghai.
Coach Vande

HELLO EVERYONE! 大家好! : CHINA TOUR 2014

In less than 24 hours, the Lakeland College women’s basketball team will be boarding a thirteen hour flight to Beijing, China from Chicago O’Hare International Airport.  The team is a part of a group that will be touring and studying in China for 17 days.  The group’s initial destination is Shanghai, the largest populated city in the world, 6,933 miles from home. We’re scheduled to land in Shanghai on Friday, and we’ll be there for eight nights to play some basketball, take classes and experience one of the world’s oldest cultures.  The remaining six nights will be spent in Nanchang, located in southeastern China.

The Muskies are scheduled to play two games, and attend classes at Lakeland’s sister schools; Shanghai Finance University and East Chinese Institute of Technology while in China. The remaining time will be spent seeing the sites including the Yuyuan (a famous garden downtown Shanghai, Dragon Tiger Mountain (a famous Taoism mountain in Jiangxi Province) and Fuzhou (the capital city of Fujian Province) to name just a few.

The group making the trip has all 14 of the current women’s basketball players; including ten underclassman and four seniors, four members of the coaching staff, two Lakeland professors, four Lakeland students and four family members round out the group of 28.

The trip is being organized and guided by David Lynch, instructor of General Studies and Chinese here at Lakeland. David (a Lakeland Alum) studied and lived in China for 10 years. 

Lakeland College Athletics Hall of Fame Coach April Arvan took the Muskies to London, England in 2003 and Florence, Italy in 2007, and it gives me great pride to carry on the tradition started by Coach A when she took her teams on foreign trips. Seven years later, we’re glad to continue that tradition and we’re excited for future Muskie teams to have this opportunity as well.

Five of the Lakeland’s players have been out of the country before but four have never flown or traveled outside of the Midwest. This is going to be an unforgettable cultural experience for this team and being able to do it with each other is going to make it that much more wonderful.  We can’t wait to get there.

This will be the first of many updates I plan to give while on this amazing trip. I will post again Friday night after we have arrived and settled in to the hotel. (Reminder; China is 13 hours ahead of CST)

Thanks for following us and we’re looking forward to sharing with you all the fun foreign adventures we will have!

Best to you,

Coach Vande