China3

Went to a different track to practice today. It was a really cool high school track. I wish I had taken my camera along with me because it was a really g example of a good small stadium and surrounding campus overall. That place was g. The stands were completely tile cladded, basic steps like a mayan temple. There was a covering over the stands that was tarp like. It had a central 'box' for the statisticians and stuff built into the stands, with an entrance for the locker rooms directly under it. The sightlines worked really well for a track and soccer field combo. The main inspiring thing about the place was that the lights were hydraulic. They could be moved up and down for maintainence purposes, insead of having to climb all the way up and change them. I am obsessed with main lighting design in stadiums, and i had neer thought of this. I am usually upset about how stadiums have a  nice design but then they slap on the lights as an after thought. Imagine having lights that define the stadium. Possible thesis subject amongst other things.... ok ill stop with the Architalk. Track pracitce went smoothly. A girl from Pakistan also was practicing at the triple jump place. We got a Mut'ah. Jk jk. It was just cool how she was fully clad and was practicing too. There was also an Iranian girl who ran the 100m fully clohed in 'speed hijab'. Too bad she came last in her race by alot. I was really rooting for her. Of course someone turns to me and says, "how the heck can she expect to race with all those clothes on?". Meh.

Anyway, we went to a basketball game. Korea vs USA. It was a tight game in the 1st quarter. Then the USA ran away with it like 110 to 50 or something. A whole bunch of dunks. At the game there were of course hordes of Asians. So many asians, particularly Chinese, lol, im stupid. And with that came posing for many pictures. I was always happy to take them because they are always super duper excited and polite. Alot of the people traveled from far away to come here, so what are the chances they get to see another black guy? I cant deny them that oppurtunity. They had some super scantily clad cheerleaders there that did really really poor dance numbers. It was like a joke. Like they grabbed random chicks off the street and had them practice one day. It made me wonder how men and womens freedoms and stuff are there. I had deduced that women are free to be 'out there' but there still is alot of taboo about it. And the women are more traditional in general, more than the US at least. Don't get me wrong, all the female volunteers i talked to were in college and all that, but i think there is more defined roles in this country.


Anyway, the stadium was okay. It had the same hexagonal prismoid exterior that lit up and all that. And upsettingly, this stadium too had an interior that had nothing to do with the exterior. I mean, you could swag it out and make them completely different on purpose, but i don't feel like that was the case. And the reason I'm being hard on these stadiums is because they are so modern and crazy, that you know there was not a money problem involved in the ignorance of the interior design. Wow, i sound like an uppity piece of crap. Fine, enough architalk, again.

Walked out of the stadium and alot more people wanted to take group pictures. My teammate with dreadlocks was the main hit because he was the most exotic looking. Ate dinner, slept. Salaams.