Since we've been training constantly the past couple of days, I can get to one of the topics that I've been meaning to blog about for a while. The fashion in China is not at all what I expected, for both men and women. This is the stereotypical American talking, but I didn't think that a country that has such control over its populace wold have the diverse amount of fashion options that China does.
Now, I've heard that Tokyo is the center for fashion in Asia, and I did hear that in a bad movie so that could be very wrong, but Beijing can't be far behind in that department. Outside of the Silk Market stalls and such, the actual malls are no joke in Beijing. They have designer clothes from all over the world, including some from Europe that I've never heard of, and they actually have car dealerships in these malls.
Most women will dress to impress just to go get some groceries, or at least that what it appears like when I see women on the subway wearing fashion that I would expect to see at a club on a Saturday night. It is summer here, and with the heat the guys wear mostly the same things we do in the U.S., shorts and T-shirts. Women of all ages wear loose fitting shirts with shorts or dresses, with the idea being, I'm assuming, to draw off some of the heat during the day.
Some of the craziest fashions we see are from the track and soccer fields next to where we play basketball. America must have invented the term "athletic gear," because the Chinese work out in the same clothes they go to work or school in. Having always had work out clothes for sports and going to the gym, I just find it odd that you see men and women jogging around the track in dress pants and shoes. Another habit the Chinese have when working out is their odd way of warming up. Before beginning their jog, many Chinese will slap themselves all over their body, working their way from their arms down to their legs. Then they'll sway back and forth for several minutes at a time, then take off on their jogs. They'll stay out there until it's deep into the night. I'm not talking about it's getting dark but still a little light out, I mean it's pitch black and they're still out there running. The kids we play in basketball keep playing until there was no way that they can see the basket.
Speaking about basketball, the four of us who originally started playing against the locals have recently gotten a chance to get back on the court after the training halted our plans for a while. The last time we played before this, probably a week ago, we lost four games for the first time since we've started playing, which ate at all of us. This time, we came out and only lost two out of 12, against probably the best competition we've played all summer. For the first time they actually had a big man for me to cover, which meant I didn't have to run around after a small guy all day, which made me happy. We're going to try and find more time to play, but this may have been the last time if the workload during the Olympics is as much as we think it will be.
Oh, and I finally got a picture of our uniforms, so it's at the top. The grey pants aren't there because the people who take care of these things are trying to find a pair that fit me, which I'm not too hopeful for. I don't think a lot of clothes in all of China fit me anyway.
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