Our Journey to China
I left bright and early from Montreal airport with my teammates from McGill and the girls from out east. We flew from Montreal to Vancouver to meet the rest of the girls from across Canada
Once arrived in Vancouver we joined the girls from Ontario and one from British Columbia. We had a two hour layover in Vancouver where we decided to enjoy one last Canadian meal and stuffed our faces with either Subway or Tim Hortons.
As we boarded the flight to Beijing we were all very tired and ready to sleep. I was lucky enough to have a window seat while most of the girls were stuck in the middle of the middle row, next to random strangers many of whom were wearing Sars masks. The girl I sat beside was extremely talkative and taught me how to say hello (nee how) and thank you in Mandarin.
During the flight we were told to stand up and walk around because the blood rushes to our feet. We all walked around, talked with the speed skaters and pushed our way by people to get to the wash rooms. The walk ways were always crowded and very stressful to walk through.
Now , let’s get to the most annoying part of this flight - the TV’s sucked. Most of the girls did not even have the option to choose movies, instead they were streaming on random channels that would repeat the movies and constantly start over again, so you could never watch a full movie. The popular choices for the girls were Finding Nemo and Hancock. I guess I was considered lucky because I was able to choose my movies therefore I had the two they had as well as The Vacation, Cars and The Heartbreak Kid. The girls were so mad that not only were they stuck sitting in the middle of the middle, next to people coughing and wearing Sars masks but they couldn’t even watch TV.
The food while we traveled to Beijing was very good and they definitely fed us enough for the entire ride. We received two big meals as well as sandwiches and beverages. The good news is none of us got sick and we all ate enough to last us for a long time. Our stomachs were too full. The airplane had all the typical elements for a long ride such as the screaming baby, the annoying individuals who get up all the time, the ones who talk far too loud and most importantly the ones who walk through the isles and hit your head as you’re trying to sleep.
We arrived in Beijing and I was excited to see the millions of people who are supposed to be around, however - we got there and the airport was completely empty. As we waited for the train to bring us the other side of the airport, Cathy Chartrand lifted her pants and almost fainted. Her ankles were now considered Kankles (fat ankles). They were huge; we all checked ours ankles and it turned out that other girls were experiencing the awful horror of Kankles as well. The rest of the train ride we spent making fun of Cathy and the other girls. The Beijing airport was very clean and everyone was so friendly. We met the Great Britain men and women’s hockey teams and they joined us on the flight to Harbin. I sat with several girls from Great Britain and we all had a great laugh about the different meaning in words. Turns our when I said she was wearing nice pants, she thought I commented on her underwear so she looked at me very uncomfortably. The girls were hilarious and they made the flight to Harbin very pleasant considering we had no TV’s to watch.
We arrived in Harbin and turns out seven of us lost our sticks somewhere along the way. They were left either in Montreal or Beijing. Our assistant coach, Shelley Coolidge had a very hard time trying to communicate how many sticks we lost and where they were lost, and we all had a good laugh. We had practice the next day and they did not think our sticks would be there in time and well they weren’t. We practiced using other people’s sticks and two girls had to use the wrong side. The funny thing was that Cathy Chartrand shot was still harder then mine even with a wrong sided stick.
Traveling to Harbin has been very interesting but I am sure we will be experiencing many funnier moments in the next two weeks.
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