Flexibility and volleyball!

Playing sports in China can be a geographically challenging thing for kids in international schools.  If they are in large cities like Beijing, they can compete with other international schools.  However, if they go to school in a smaller (8 million) city like ours that has one international school, there is no one to compete against.  

The parent company for our international school handles it this way- Volleyball is in Shenyang, Basketball is in Wuhan and Soccer is in Qingdao.  So this weekend, students and coaches from QingDao, WuXi, Wuhan, Tianjin and ChengDu came by train and plane to ShenYang.  Every year, the tournament is held at a local sports college.  This year, the school got last minute (as in on Friday when the tournament started) that they couldn't use the college because of student protests.  Student protests?  In China?  Apparently so.  No one seems to know what they were protesting or why but it was a fairly unusual occurance to say the least.

Fortunately, the number one lesson of overseas living is flexibility.  So the school got ready to have the tournament actually at the school and it went off well.  We were blessed with great weather and wonderful parent and teacher support.  It was  a good day all around.

It was a little chilly in the early morning.

Some of the high school kids are going on a service trip to the Philippines.  Baked goods were sold to make money for the trip.

Philippine decor and food.

One of our Philippina moms and a mom from Yap sold at this table.

The Korean moms came out in full force and sold amazing Korean snacks. These ladies are super fun to work with.

The tournament is a big family event and these girls had a blast.  They are a United Nations unto themselves.  China/US,  Philippines, Yap/Fiji

There was some volleyball.

And more volleyball.

Even more volleyball.

We saw our friend Jennifer- we met her in Inner Mongolia last summer and we may even forgive her since the team she helps coach won all their games!

Suitcases stayed close by as most teams had to catch trains or planes back home in the afternoon or evening.

Lunch was provided by a Korean restaurant.  

Tournament t-shirts were given out by the tiger (with bear ears), a teacher and a parent volunteer.