China Summer 2009

Written by Allison Cianci

May 31, 2009. Today was our first day as students and not just tourists at Beijing Sport University.  The day started off with a meeting with the BSU Vice President and a tour around campus.  We got to see some of the state of the art facilities that this campus has to offer.  We looked around buildings that had rooms with the capability to simulate environments of different altitudes, perform fitness and strength testing on athletes with top of the line equipment, and an anatomy lab with very well preserved body parts of cadavers.  We also were able to look around the gigantic national training facility on campus, which contained an indoor track and the rhythmic gymnastics training room.

The first part of our stay here in Beijing was largely learning about the culture and historical sites that this city has to offer, but today we headed back into the classroom.  Our first lecture was on Chinese massage.  We learned many different techniques such as rubbing, kneading, kneading and pinching, and patting.  We then had the opportunity to practice them on each other.  After our massage lecture our professor, Nick Querraier gave a lecture on rehabilitation and prevention of injuries to musicians.  The room filled with many BSU students all eager to here Nick speak.  This was not the first time we had heard this lecture, he also gave it to the students at the Changzhi Medical College, but it was very cool to see the students react to what he was saying.  This group of students knew much more English and very little translation was needed.  We spread ourselves through out the room as well, to help with any questions they may have had. 

After Nick had finished we got to hang around talk to the BSU students.  We asked them questions and they asked us some too.  It is interesting how much the already know about America.  They know a ton of our movies as well as our music.  One of the kids said he loved to listen to Eminemen, 50 cent and Dr. Dre.  He then proceeded to Beat Box for us and did very very well.  It was a lot of fun just to hang out with and learn about them.  We exchanged email addresses and everyone cleared out. 

Melanie and I went to the on campus grocery store where Hongwei found us and asked mel and I to come play tennis.  We said sure and after changing we all went to the outdoor tennis courts.  Mel and Hongwei ended up playing a doubles match against the coach of the National Table Tennis team and the coach of the National Judo team, both of which were very good at tennis.  Hongwei and Mel didn’t end up winning the match but it was a good time.  The tennis match lasted till around 7 so we had missed dinner.  Hongwei told us to shower and he would take us to dinner.  After we had gotten ready, we got picked up but the National Rhythmic Gymnastic team’s coach.  Her team had just one the silver medal in the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.  Her and Hongwei had both attended BSU only one year apart and it was an opportunity for them to catch up.  Mel and I got to ask her a bunch of questions about the team and their training schedule.  The team practices 8 hours a day and they are currently preparing for the National Games that are coming up in 132 days.  The girls are between 19 and 25 and they are a very close-knit team.  It was a very fun dinner and the food was delicious.  We were very fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to sit down with her and it was a great experience. 

As with everyday here in China it was a packed day filled with once in a lifetime experiences.  I can’t believe our stay here is almost done!