By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.

Today started with a good breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn Riverside hotel that we are staying. Kind of nice getting a little bit of home mixed in with the Chinese culture. The food was good, with a nice mixture of Chinese food and American food. Again, it was good to have some Frosted Flakes and get a little taste of home.

After breakfast we returned to Central China Normal University for practice. Today, instead of practicing in the basement facility we used yesterday, we got to work out in their 5000-seat, air-conditioned arena. It was a cool atmosphere that none of us had ever really practiced in, and some of the students and more influential people at the University were there to watch us practice. After we were done with our practice, some of the guys had the opportunity to scrimmage against the University’s players.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the University hotel and restaurant with their players and some faculty. It was interesting to learn that one of their professors, Ms. Fu, was getting ready to head to Rock Island to teach advanced Chinese this school year at Augustana. The relationship between our college and the University has helped make our stay in Wuhan as accommodating as we could imagine. It was cool being able to talk with their guys, and learn how their college life compares and contrasts with ours. One of their guys told us that Kobe Bryant was his favorite player, and that Michael Jordan was the best player ever. We can definitely relate to that sentiment. A lot of their guys were P.E. majors, and a couple of them even admitted to skipping class every once and awhile. They said that we were all much more experienced at basketball, but that they would dominate us playing ping pong.

Lunch was another buffet style, made up of many different Chinese dishes. A couple of them really stood out, the first being a cup of half-dried noodles. These noodles are especially famous here in Wuhan, where they were first made- it was kind of like a peanut-butter tasting spaghetti. Another dish that we tried was Chinese pizza, which tasted nothing like the kind of pizza we have in the States. Basically, it tasted like an egg-and-rice omelet. It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting when we heard we were having pizza, but it was good nonetheless.

Our last stop today was at an agricultural village in rural Wuhan. On this stop we got to see rice and cotton fields, tea-leaf fields, and a specialty village where they manufactured cranes. We were able to meet the governor of the village and he gave us a tour of his village, ripe with insight into the daily grind of the agricultural workers. The process that these workers go through on a day-to-day basis sounds unbelievably difficult and taxing. One of the more interesting tidbits they were able to give us was that China is able to feed its population (20% of the total world population) on only 7% of the world’s land.

Tomorrow we play our second game on the trip, and we are looking forward to putting our team to the test against some of the better competition in China. Right now though, we’re going to try to go find a KFC or Pizza Hut and get more tastes of home.

By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.

Last night was our final night in Guangzhou, so we wanted to make sure we had a good time. After dinner, we all hung out in the room for awhile, and actually had the opportunity to hang out with one of the local citizens, Kevin Haotian Lai. Matt Pelton was Kevin’s counselor at a summer military camp in Indiana this past summer, so it was cool for us to meet him and hear what he had to say about his hometown. Afterwards, we decided to see what the Guangzhou night life had to offer. We found a night club called “Honey” and had probably the most fun night we’ve had on our trip. The environment was not unlike what you would see in the states, with a bar, tables throughout and a dance floor. What was a little different was the treatment we received, because we were given VIP seating and lots of attention.

Today we flew from Guangzhou to Wuhan, a city located in central China. There are some striking similarities between Wuhan and the Quad Cities that we had a chance to learn about today. For one, Wuhan is technically made up of three cities that are separated by a river. The Yangtze River is, like the Mississippi, the biggest river in the country. Furthermore, both the Quad Cities and Wuhan were the first places in their countries to connect the different sides of the river by dual bridges, the bottom for trains and the top for cars. There are also a few differences between the two cities as well. First of all, the Yangtze River is 70 feet deep versus the 9 foot depth of the Mississippi and it is one mile across, which is four times the length of the Mississippi from side to side.

We ate lunch at a place that serves 3,000 people and is the largest “cafeteria” we’ve been at so far on our trip. At all of our stops but one, we have been eating authentic Chinese cuisine and it’s safe to say that it’s been a little different for all of us. We’ve all been forced to try new exotic foods none of us have ever thought about eating. Things like lotus roots, moon cakes, and stir fried bullfrog are just a sample of the different kinds of food we have been offered. The style here is also interesting, as we eat in a “family-style” environment with a “lazy-Susan.” In this style, none of us have our own entrée, but they bring out many courses for us and put them on a circular plate that spins in the middle of the table. We then get to pick and choose what we want and don’t want to try.

We also practiced today at Central China Normal (Huazhong) University in Wuhan, a place that has a strong connection with Augustana. Soon, six Augie graduates will come to Wuhan to begin teaching English at the University for one year. The practice court was an interesting environment, sort of another open-air court where one rim was high and one was low. It was cool though, not a place where you would normally get to practice. Also today, we found out that our schedule has changed again, and we will be playing a professional team on Friday with a few players added from the National Team that will be playing in the Olympics next summer. This should be an interesting experience and a chance for us to really compete. More on that later.

By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.

We spent today in Guangzhou, China sight-seeing, going through the markets, and trying to get some Chinese money.

Today was kind of a down day, with no game or practice to talk about. We got to lie around, hang out and just took it easy. It was a nice change of pace from the last few days that were a little bit more upbeat.

The day started with a buffet-style breakfast on the top floor of our hotel; the view was phenomenal and we were able to see a lot of Guangzhou. After breakfast we took a tour of the city, stopping at three places. Our first stop was at a monument/museum made for the “father of China.” It was a cool stop, and the building was one of the first that reminded me of Chinese architecture in its construction. Our second stop was at a Confusion temple that was right in the middle of the city. The temple was converted to a memorial for Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Revolution that began in 1911. This was another place that reminded me of Chinese architecture, so that was an interesting break from the more modern architecture we have been seeing a lot of at our stops. It was also interesting to learn that part of Mao Zedong’s mission in the revolution was to elevate the status of the peasant farmer in China, hoping to bring these people to his cause.

Our last stop today was at a traditional Chinese market. Walking down these streets we saw many different things for sale. One stretch of the market was mostly devoted to selling animals — everything from dogs and cats, to turtles, chickens, and even scorpions were available at these shops. Shortly thereafter we went through a stretch of hand-made crafts that were extremely impressive. After crossing a bridge into another part of town we saw a variety of more Western-style shops mixed in with traditional shops. One shop would be selling designer clothing and golf clubs, and next door you would find Chinese scrolls, jewelry and even swords and daggers. It was eye-opening to see the shift from shop to shop, and really showed the dynamic between the modernization of China and traditional Chinese culture.

Tomorrow we will be taking our third flight of the trip, as we head to Wuhan, China. We will be there for at least three days, practicing twice with a game towards the end of the week, and helping out at a clinic as well. The clinic will be a cool experience, giving us the opportunity to show a group of coaches how we operate and how hard we work. That’s all from here, talk to you soon.

By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China.

After 17 hours of flying, and four hours of sitting at the airport, we finally made our way into Hong Kong, which is the first stop on the wonderful tour that we are on as the Augustana basketball team. As we came into Hong Kong at about 1:00 a.m. we saw some sights that none of us could have ever imagined.

One of the first things we learned as we left the airport was that Hong Kong was home to the world’s largest combination (both rail and automobile transportation) bridge. Something small, but an interesting point that Dr. Norm Moline, an Augustana professor of geography who is acting as our de facto tour guide, was able to share with us. Hitting a little closer to home, we also learned that Hong Kong had the most 30-story plus buildings, with something above 500 in the city, than anywhere in the world. Compared to Chicago’s 90 (give or take), that’s quite a few.

We spent today in Hong Kong touring the city, practicing for our games, and having a great time. Not only were we able to see some of the main tourist attractions Hong Kong has to offer, we also got to witness the more subtle places in the city. These are the types of places that many people will never even know about. For instance, we ate lunch at a local restaurant that we would probably never come across regularly. While we all were a bit tentative at the beginning, the food was great, the service was better, and we all came away with a good taste in our mouths.

We had our first practice since getting into China today and it was great. We were able to use the facilities at Hong Kong Baptist University and it’s hard to imagine a more accommodating place. The gym was air-conditioned, we had Nike balls, and it was not that far off from a practice we could expect back in the states. All in all, the reception by the people here in Hong Kong has been phenomenal and our stay here has been the same.

We leave tomorrow for inland China, and will play our first game tomorrow night. It should be a great test for our team as we hope to see where we’re at and how far we’ve come since the end of last year. We all know that we have to compete and work hard. Hopefully we can push through any adversary that may come our way, and learn from the experiences from our upper classmen, especially seniors Dan Rukavina, Dain Swetalla, Oliver Rorer and myself.

Hope all is well in the QCA, and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.

By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China.

Greetings from Tokyo, Japan. Or should I say, “konichiwa.”

We just stepped off the first leg of our journey, a 13-hour, 6,200-mile flight from Chicago to Tokyo. It was definitely an experience, from the movies (lots of movies) to the food, and definitely the people we met. My junior teammate Alex Washington and I did our part early in the trip by switching seats with parents of two young children in our row so that the family could sit together. Little did we know that we would be switching with an employee at the American Embassy in Tokyo, whose mother just happened to graduate from Augustana College years ago. I guess it is a small world after all.

You know you’re pretty far away from home when you exit the plane and the stewardesses say “sayonara” as you pass them by. However, never on the flight did we feel neglected or unwanted, as the service was top notch and even the passengers were friendly. The trip could not have been more accommodating, with American movies like Spiderman 3, Next and Fracture, and meals that included chicken and chocolate pudding.

We took an interesting route out of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago by heading North on a route called the “great arc” that lead us into Canada, west through Alaska and then across the Pacific Ocean. There was much to see out of the airplane windows on the trip with great picture opportunities for all of us. Two of the more interesting sights on this first leg were the mountains as we passed through Alaska, and the “Ring of Fire” (a series of volcanic islands) over the Pacific Ocean.

The first stop as we got into the airport as a team was the Avion Cafe and Bar, a place where, surprisingly and thankfully, they took American dollars. We treated ourselves to our first tastes of East Asian culture and a good start to our trip. We all remain light-hearted and eager to experience all this trip has to offer, even as we get ready for another four hour flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

Take care in the QCA and sayonara!