Jamie Doom...

Friday, October 24

And the Winner of the Dunk Competition is...

So this has been a pretty full week for me. On Tuesday, I officiated another basketball game which was fun for me. In China though, they can’t just have an intramural basketball game. No, no. People have to be invited and they have to sit a special table with nametags provided, like judges at the Olympics (Beijing 2008…yeah!). Then they have to play a wide variety of warm up music. After that all the VIPS at said table have to be introduced, then the referees must be introduced (enter another guy I play a lot of ball with and me). Fortunately, this game wasn’t too rough, and I didn’t have to blow my whistle a lot. I like to let them play a little bit ,and the other guy was of the same opinion as me. But the game got heated, and there was definitely a lot of fans out there cheering hard. The team that was the underdog came from eight down in the fourth quarter and took a one point lead with six seconds left. The place went crazy, but right as time was expiring a tall, awkward boy on the other team got fouled. I called the foul, which was obvious to me. One boy who was a better free-throw shooter (actually perhaps the best shooter in the whole school) tried to step to the line for him. I laughed at him and shoved him bodily off the free throw line. He laughed knowingly (can’t blame him for trying). We cleared the lane since no time was left on the clock, and the awkward guys steps up to the line and banks the first free throw in to tie the game. Heh Heh, the place went absolutely nuts. I had to clear the court so he could shoot the second free throw for the win. He missed it, and his team got blown out in overtime, but a good time was had by all. Most of the players came up to me after the game and thanked me.

The intramural basketball program here at the college is really a student-run league. The students are in charge of getting referees, announcers, water bottles, the PA system etc. Having said that, it’s all very well organized including even how the teams walk on the court together. I enjoy watching all the students take charge and plan the tournaments.

I also try to help them whenever I get the chance. So today (Thursday) they came to me and said they wanted me to take part in the closing ceremonies for the tournament. Well, I didn’t know what kind of ceremonies that the “Orientation Basketball Tournament” needed, but I said I would help however. They said they wanted me to be in a special three on three game during the ceremony where the players would “showcase their skills” (an obviously advanced English student translated that line for me). They wanted behind-the-back passes, fancy dribbles, crazy shots etc,--their version of an And 1 mix tape I guess. But this is where it all gets tricky in my mind. They want the fancy stuff, but what about the players on the other team losing face? I turned this question over in my mind a few times. Well we walked out to play, and fortunately I had one of the best student players in the school on my team. On the other team were some freshmen tall freshmen. The one who was guarding me is about 6’8” and a bit awkward. He came up to me before the game and got in my face and said. “Jame, I have been drinking too much beer” (most of the students here called me Jame not Jamie). I smelled his breath and agreed with him. So not only would I be showcasing my fancy skills against a young Chinese freshmen, but against an awkward tall drunk one at that. So, I threw some no-look behind-the-back bounce passes, dribbled between the drunk guys legs once, shaked and baked and threw myself a nice pass off the backboard. The other team managed to score once or twice too. It a short little “showcase” and mercifully it ended almost as quickly as it started. I think, all in all, it was about what the student organizer had hoped for.

After that they had a three point shooting showcase. There were some pretty good shooters. Then after that, much to my surprise they had a “dunk competition.” Now the only problem was that out of six thousand students, nobody can dunk. At least I had never seen it. The first guy up, was a little stocky little guy about 5’5’. I was thinking, there was no way this guy can throw it down. And you know what? I was right. But he did make some nice layups and he could dribble fast. But still, this was a dunk competition. So about three other guys tried to dunk, included the aforementioned inebriated tall guy who got the most oohs and aahs because people were scared he was going to hurt himself…while he was running. He never actually jumped that I can remember. (I wonder if anybody explained to him it was a dunk competition and not a drunk competition) In the end, the guy who was the closest (he pinned himself on the rim a few times) was declared the winner, and he got a prize. Also, much to my surprise, I was also presented by one of the school leaders with a gift (a poster of Chinese NBA Basketball player Yao Ming guarding Shaquille O’Neil). I thanked everybody profusely. The team who won the tournament, which I later learned was for freshmen only, received a nice big plaque which they paraded around the court. The parade was led by none other than…well you guessed it…their tallest player and most avid drinker. I would have to say it was one of the more interesting Chinese basketball tournament closing ceremony I have ever been to, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my first one.

Last night, I tutored Linda (four years old). Somebody asked me today if I tutored her every night. I shivered at the thought. Take a twenty-eight year old bachelor and leave him alone with a beautiful hyper ADDish four-year old little girl for one hour, and then return, and see who is in control. I’ll give you hint, it wasn’t me. I prepared a bag for her with lots of different things in it. I wanted her to take an item out and tell me its English name. Then, after she had taken everything out and lay it nicely on the floor, we would put it back in the bag and do it again and again, each time with more accuracy. It seemed like a good plan. She was interested, kinda, the first time through. After the bag was empty though, she looked at her spoils and decided to play another game. She had some peanuts in a baggy, some Oreo cookies in a baggy, a carton of milk, a bottle of water, a bowl and some chopsticks. Before I knew it, she had the Oreos and peanuts in a bowl and was poring milk and water on top of them. Then she began stirring. Fortunately this helped her learn the words for spill, tissue, wipe, trash as well as the sentence, “What are you doing?” Then she went to my bathroom to wash her hands. There we learned the words for soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and spit. She brushed her teeth, with my spare toothbrush, about twelve times. She had some clean teeth when her father came and picked her up. The scariest part of the evening was when she found my razor for shaving. I turned my back for one second, and when i checked on her she was digging the razor into her cute little four-year old cheek, whistling while she was “shaving.” She then learned words razor, stop, and the phrase “Oh, no! Are you bleeding?” She wasn’t and got upset when I took the razor away from her. I took the blade out and gave it back to her. She loooves shaving. She also used some scissors too cut paper into random shapes. I remembered not to let her run with them fortunately. By the time her father came, I was a tired, nervous wreck. The fact that she is about the cutest little girl on the planet and that she loves talking about how wonderful I am to everybody makes up for everything. She hugged me goodbye, and I said. “See ya next Wednesday.”

Sometimes I think I could stay in China for the rest of my life. Really, I love it that much at times. I would have to spend some time completely devoting myself to learning the language if I were going to stay long term, but it seems like a good idea at times. The past few days I have just found myself so completely happy and thankful and in awe of everything around me. I feel blessed to be here. Some of it is impossible to explain. There is this guy who lives two doors down from me who is an art teacher, and I happen to think he is one of the coolest guys in the world. The reason? He has never said one word to me. We pass each other; I sometimes nod or say hi. He just looks at me. He feels no need to talk to me. He doesn’t speak English and my Chinese is rubbish. But today he was hanging out with the guy who lives on the other side of me, and I was expecting him to say nothing to me… and sure enough, he acted like I wasn’t even there. For some reason, this made me happy. Some people just don’t have anything to say to me…that’s cool after feeling like I have to talk to everybody all day long.

The sunset tonight turned the moon pink. I was walking home from my basketball “showcase” and I had that happy tired feeling. I looked up and saw the moon and started to sing a song I was making up at that precise moment about pink moons, Grace, beautiful Chinese people, and basketball, and it all made sense.

posted by: jmedoom at October 24, 2003 08:33 | link | comments (3) |

Comments:

#1 24 October 2003 - 04:27

the razor part gave me the chills... scary.

skyrunaday

#2 24 October 2003 - 08:02

Oh, sorry to scare you. But, yeah I have to put all the dangerous objects away before she comes over next time. Bad tutor. I went to your website, and I agree about the objectification of Asian women in the US, but its also a problem here too in Asia. But I think...I hope that times are changing.