China Summer 2009

Written by Kerry Willard

May 31^st, 2009. This morning we woke up for breakfast to which Natalie and I brought a special treat for all: peanut butter.  After breakfast we went to meet the Vice President of Beijing Sports University (BSU) who gave Ithaca College a very nice framed picture, and each of us a nice BSU pin.  As is custom, we returned the favors with New York maple syrup among other goodies. 

On a tour through campus we saw the martial arts, tennis, ping pong and basketball facilities.  We also saw the buildings in which exercise and sport research and training takes place.  Inside they had many machines for testing and studying an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses so they can help them enhance their performance.  We were introduced to a new machine called a Power Plate which vibrates and will enhance your core workout.  Another floor had rooms that can be controlled for training with varied amounts of oxygen for athletes who need to compete in higher elevations.  This was equipped with hotel-like rooms so athletes can be adapted while sleeping and still be comfortable.

One of the most special areas of campus was called Champion Road on which student athletes of BSU who won medals in the Olympics or Paralympics have their footprints and signatures in cement.  It was really neat to see how many students had been successful in the Olympics and how they were being honored by their school.  The last thing we saw was the facilities made specifically for the elite athletes, complete with a banked track and a rhythmic gymnastic gym.  It was amazing.

After lunch we had a massage class with Professor Wang.  We learned about ten different techniques of giving massages and where to use each method.  It was really interesting for all of us to learn new techniques, but also names to go with the techniques we were already using.  It proved to be an entertaining class during which many of us requested that the teacher demonstrate again just to receive the professional massage, even if just for a minute.

Following that class Nick was welcomed to the podium once again with a new audience.  Since most of the students understood English, we were able to have the lecture without translation.  Everyone met a lot of Chinese students who were all excited to speak to us and learn about our school.  At the end of the class we were talking to the students and one guy ended up beat-boxing for us.  Alex even sang! It was a great time.

The Director of International Programs joined us for dinner and offered each of us a scholarship to study at the school if we are ever interested. It was so above and beyond what anyone could expect.  A few girls have now been thinking about the possibility of coming back to Beijing for school.

We had a free night so a group of us met up with Alise’s friend, Annie, who she went to high school with and headed out to the mall. We stopped at a pharmacy to pick up cups for cupping on the way. The pharmacy was closed but let us in to buy the cups and they turned out to be much cheaper than we thought they would be.  We were also on a mission to go to a spa recommended by past year’s students but this attempt didn’t work out.  The story with the spa was that when we went to check prices we were told they needed to see our passports but we weren’t clear on the reasoning (Annie and Alise were doing their best to translate, but it is not easy to translate on the spot).  When we had Annie figure out why, it boiled down to their worry that we had the H1N1 flu.  Though we all knew that we were healthy, they wanted to see our passports to prove we had been in China for at least 4 days. We ended up just leaving without being pampered and continuing on to shop. 

At the mall we finished our gift shopping and made an attempt to spend the money we hadn’t yet so we didn’t need to exchange it back.  It was a successful shopping trip though we all still have money to spend. We treated ourselves to drinks at a knock-off of Starbucks where Shona had her first BubbleTea (if you haven’t heard of it, talk to an Ithaca College student, its delicious!) We walked back to campus and returned to the International Students building where we packed our new souvenirs and went to bed.