Party, Sunday of Nationals and some more

Doc, Lincoln, Aaron and I got on the bus headed for the tournament hotel Saturday afternoon. We got there, spent a while arguing with a hei che driver and found another one to take us to these public showers. We showered and rolled over to the tournament dinner; two restaurants next to each other. One was a classic Chinese place, the other was a Xinjiang place. After sitting down at the empty Chinese place, we realized the action was over at the Xinjiang place, where, naturally, Air Kazak and our Beijing friends had already started the festivities. Xinjiang food is great anyways.

Tao and Joe were trying to out-chug each other, the waitress was filling our beer steins with 90% foam, Tao and Joe were singing loudly, and the roasted lamb was good and spicy. Doc ate the one vegetable dish and left. Lincoln and I were putting down decent amounts of beer. We ate our fill and wandered outside to the large area in front of the two restaurants. Everyone was energetically socializing both outside and in the Chinese restaurant, which had filled up. 

I don't remember the order of events but they contained: me talking with tipsy Chinese girls from the various Chinese teams, I was surprised at their enthusiasm for drinking, Joe jokingly breaking a bottle of Yanjing on a table and threatening a Shanghai player, who was quite intimidated, lots of people playing lots of flip cup, and one Chinese girl who had already drank too much and spilled her guts, back for more and acting extremely wasted but belligerently waving her arms everywhere trying to acquire more alcohol while her friends held her down. It was one of the more ridiculous drunken acts I've seen, honestly. (On Sunday she was sitting on the sideline with a wet towel over the back of her head). Anyways, I think we maxed our tab and Jason paid in straight cash. Jim told me not to wait around for him, he would take care of himself that night ;). It appeared that Joe was quite drunk so I got him in a cab with Zahlen and some other folks headed to bars and got us dropped off at Jim's place. Joe was unintelligible and Zahlen kept slapping him to get him to tell us where he lived. Thats why I decided to take him to Jim's.

Joe and I passed out on Jim's couches (assuming Jim would sleep in his bed that night). I woke up and started getting ready and woke Joe up to some classic Outkast from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Joe was feeling good so we rolled out. After the tournament we all bussed to Krowe's Nest Pizza at Gongti. The pizza came out intermittently, but when it did there was a feeding frenzy to get slices, and it was some good pizza. I talked with Nut from Bangkok for a bit and listened to Chip tell some story. 

Myongfa, a Korean girl from Japan who played with Big Brother, came home with Jim and I because she needed a place to stay. Since she doesn't speak Chinese, I was her tour guide the next day.  We went to Temple of Heaven Park and walked around. That place was nice. The temples were basically like all the others I'd seen, but the park was real quiet until the Korean high schoolers on a field trip showed up, and I honestly think the air was better because of all the trees in there. So we had a peaceful walk and talk. We ventured to Wangfujing in search of some food. I was hoping to find some better noodle soup, but oh well. Myongfa met with Jim and I departed, off to the coffee shop to meet Laura and Wang Ran.

We ate at a Xinjiang restaurant (it never gets old). Laura is actually from Xinjiang (she's Han Chinese though). And this night would be goodbye for us, she had to head home the next day for her cousin's wedding. She is going to do a master's program at a university in Sweden for two years. We talked about that and I tried to help her with her visa paperwork. I hung out for a while, but was at a loss for words. It was kind of sad because all three of us acknowledged that we didn't know when we would see each other again given our plans/obligations for the next few years. I like the both of them, and have especially liked Laura but nothing romantic ever came about. (I needed a wingman). I told them that I was able to see them again twice after saying goodbye so far, so I'm sure we will meet again. Maybe Laura will come visit from Sweden? Anyways, I gave Laura and Wang Ran a kiss on the cheek and rode a cab home.