Flea Market fun!

The plan for this morning was to sleep in since we had no morning skates or meetings. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Around 8 am we heard loud gunshots. Laura and I jumped out of bed because it was literally so loud and close that we thought we were going to die. All I was thinking was oh my god, this is why they have metal detectors everywhere, there are lots of westerners here and this is a terrorist attack. They kept firing and we ran to the window to see what was going on. When we looked down at the street we saw a large crowd of people but still couldn't figure out what was going on. It finally stopped after about 5 minutes. Later on we found out it was cannons being fired for a wedding. Seems like a strange thing to do at a wedding to me but then again I don't always understand Chinese culture.

So after the cannon commotion we just relaxed for a bit but couldn't fall back asleep. Around 10:30 we caught up with a few of the guys who weren't working and decided to go to a flea market we had been told about. Since we had missed breakfast and were all starving we also figured we'd try this western restaurant that another group of guys had been to. Even though the restaurant had a Chinese name you knew it was western from the moment you walked in the door and saw everyone eating with forks. I still haven't mastered the chopsticks so I was thrilled to see that. We ordered a ton of food - french fries, onion rings, steaks, chicken wings, spaghetti...all sorts of good, non asian food. It was fantastic, exactly what I needed. I also got a soda while I was there. Even though they didn't have diet it still tasted absolutely amazing. I felt like I had just died and went to heaven. Between the 7 of us we ordered a ton of food yet in the end, our bill was only 602 yuan - or about $85. Since it was Mikael's (a referee from Sweden) birthday, we all covered his meal. So my lunch ended up costing me about $15, and let me tell you that was the best $15 I have spent so far while in China.

After lunch we headed over to Polo market. Think of the craziest flea market you have ever been to and multiply that by about 10 and you have a flea market in China. There were two separate buildings across the street from each other - the first one was 7 floors and the second one was 3 floors. Each floor seemed to have a general theme; sunglasses, watches, kids toys, handbags, etc. They have a ton of name brand stuff like oakley, ray ban, dior, louie vuitton, omega, rolex...now who knows if it was real or not (some stuff looked real, some looked fake) but everything was pretty cheap, especially if you bargained with the shop owners. I didn't buy anything today but I definitely looked at a ton of stuff. I knew we were going to have to bring the rest of the girls back there so I figured I'd do my buying then. I am trying to figure out good little gifts I can bring home for people so if you have any ideas or want something specific let me know :-).

After the flea market we headed back to the hotel and I went to the rink for the last game of the day, China vs Canada. When we got to the rink Great Britain was getting killed by Finland but Malin (ref from Sweden), who was supposed to be reffing the game was in the locker room. Apparently she got taken out really bad by two players and she had a nice little concussion. I felt bad for her, she was pretty messed up. Luckily, Team Canada was nice enough to have one of their doctors take care of her so she should be alright, but we'll see if she can skate again during this tournament. For the last game of the day, the Chinese fans packed the place again. They were treated to a good game for 2 periods. Unfortunately, in the 3rd China just couldn't keep up anymore and Canada blew the game open.

Tomorrow we have the day off and no icetime. We have a meeting at 10:00 and then the rest of the girls want to go shopping. Then the plan is to go to the ice and snow sculptures in the evening because they are all lit up. I posted a few pictures from today, just some of the girls and some of the flea market. www.picasaweb.google.com/connolly.kate. Goodnight!