A Two Banquet Day: Part II

After returning from our first banquet, we had about an hour before practice. I had set up a Red vs. White scrimmage for the afternoon, our usual Wednesday activity. Tim and I coached teams while coach Ji officiated. Was a good game at 3-1 and we are slowly improving.

After practice the girls all ran for the showers as we were headed out tonight for the Team celebration of the New Year. We all hopped on two busses at about 5:45 to head out. At that time it took us about 30 minutes to get to the first corner as traffic was crazy. After about an hour, we got out the suburbs somewhere and a hotel banquet facility and were directed to our private, banquet/karaoke room.

Everyone connected with the team was there, including the kitchen staff, Mr. Fan from China Hockey and a couple of the Harbin hockey guys. We began with some food and a couple more toasts, since Tim and I clearly had not had enough toasting yet that day.

There was way more food than any 200 people could eat piled onto each of the five tables in the room.


After the dinner, the girls all left to get changed for the “fun” part of the evening. This began, with what can only be described as a fashion show. They came out various times in different outfits, some dressed as men, some as women, walked down the “catwalk” and turned and left. Some pictures are below:



After the fashion show, the singing, dancing, and skits portion of the evening was next. Everyone did something and we were all handed out a stick with a card on the end. One side of the card had a smiley face, the other a sad face. We were supposed to hold up the one that represented what we thought of each act. For me they were all funny or talented, all smiles. Some of the girls gave coach Ji a frown face just to joke with him a little. Some more pictures below.



Tim and I got into the act with a little guitar, harmonica and singing of Bob Dylan. It was only OK, but they all seemed to like it. Mostly, I think they were happy that we joined in. Below you can see the “boys” singing some Karaoke.

After the Karaoke, they gave out stuffed dogs to all who were born in the “Year of the Dog” as this New Year begins the Year of the Dog on Sunday. Interestingly, both Tim and I were born in Dog years.

The night ended with a group Karaoke to a Chinese song everyone seemed to know well. We hopped onto the bus for a much shorter drive home and arrived back at the training center at 11:30 p.m. for nearly a 17 hour day. But all in all, another set of new experiences.



Looking forward to a few days off during the upcoming Holiday…