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Published: July 22nd 2008
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Today, I slept much better than yesterday night. I woke up to the sound of my grandfather making breakfast. I didn’t know what he was making, but I got up to see. On the table, I saw to toasts with lots of butter on them. A prosciutto and butter sandwich and some cooked eggs. As I got down to eat, I thanked my grandfather and hugged him. Then, I started eating. The toast was very good and so was everything else. Today, I would go to my first tennis lesson, at Xian Nong Nan club. When my father was little, he joined the Beijing team. Since he was twelve and everybody else was much older than him, he got ill by playing too much tennis and had to stop playing for a while. As usual, I dressed in my “high fashion” tennis clothes and joined my grandfather in the dining room. We went outside and he got on his little motorbike and let me ride on the back. When we got outside, I saw many bicycles. Some had carts on the back loaded with produce others had kids riding on the back like me. In China, few people own cars so everybody uses bikes. I saw a couple of people riding motor scooters. I also saw many seniors out in the park doing their morning exercises. We neared the entrance of the club. The gate to the club is a big red gate with designs carved on it. Two lion statues where guarding it too. My tennis class starts at 8:30. We were very early. My grandfather called the coach to let him know we were here. He arrived moments later and we discussed about my clinics at DuPont Country Club.
As kids arrived, he asked them to sweep the courts and clean it up. I didn’t feel like joining in since I was shy. Soon, about twelve kids came. They all joined in cleaning up. A couple kids had brooms while the rest had to use their hands to pick up the leaves and throw them in the trash. After cleanup, our coach made us jog around four courts three times and then stretch for 30 minutes. Most of the kids live in China, so they teased me about my Chinese speaking skills.
My clinic in Delaware is much different than this class in Beijing. First, warming up for about five minutes they make you warm up for thirty. Second, instead of starting with tosses the coaches start feeding us balls at the service line while everybody else stands behind the base line doing nothing, instead of shuffling. Third, the coaches don’t yell and scream at us unlike my coaches- Rob, Tim, and Lee. Finally, instead of four ball pickup, everybody walks around the court and herds the balls into one corner and pick them up with their rackets. Compared to my clinic in the US I think us our more athletic and faster than everybody there. For example, when our coach was feeding us balls at different angles, I could get all of them back with ease, while, everybody else were slicing at the ball or carelessly hitting. By the end of the drill everybody was on the ground and panting. I think the clinic at the DuPont CC is much harder and vigorous then the one in Beijing. I bet if I didn’t go to Rob’s class or if Derek didn’t teach me, I probably would be like everyone else today.
I went home early since I was getting very sleepy since I am still suffering from jet lag. At home, I took a nice shower. After the shower, I slept on my bed until my grandfather woke me up when he told me we were going to the New World Shopping Mall to have Beijing roast duck. Since I finished my homework, I went on the internet a little bit before we left.
When we left, Bobo and aunt and uncle stayed behind, so they would meet us there. We took a taxi to the mall. Inside, there were so many stores. One store was selling Beijing Olympic merchandise. We went inside for a look. Inside, there were so many things. For example, you could find cards, pillows, sketchbooks, even gold statues of the Olympic mascots. There were also plush toys of the mascots. While we headed for the restaurant, there were many other shops with beautiful clothes, perfume, toys, and whatever else you can name. When we got to the restaurant, the waitresses took us to a table. It was very cold inside, so my grandparents asked for a table closer to the outside. There, we ordered a roast duck, eel in garlic, and a Duran treat. Why grandfather asked that a man be moved since he was smoking and it was a non-smoking area. The man got very angry and left. My grandfather said that he did not like the restaurant. We left back home on a taxi after finishing dinner. I think my jet lag is much better and that tomorrow I will be more energetic.
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Beijing
Good work kid, keep blogging. I'll be following your adventures in Beijing.