Then Erin phones me up and suggests that I join in on an Ultimate in Shanghai...of course I haven't seen Shanghai yet, so I reckon its a great way to see the city, party a bit and try to catch a frisbee and not kill my team members in the process - aiming is quite a challenge for me...So, Ultimate is a well-known recognised university sport in (if I remember correctly) Australia, America and East Asian countries including Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the Phillipines. It's basically like soccer-American-football-basketball with a rectangular field with scoring zones on each opposing end...same-same, but different...anywho, I'll leave it to who actually knows what they're talking about to explain the finer details of the sport - I just try to keep up with the team and out of the way of the frisbee...at least I try to keep one opponent pre-occupied and thus...also away from the frisbee!
Visit the following links to get an idea what it's all about:
And so I'm on my way to a new city with a new (hard to get) visa in my passport and had a terrible customs officer welcoming me to China with what felt like a 20 minute delay and checking to see if my 6-year-old-over-used-and-abused-passport was a fake...
Finally made it on a bus to the Ramada - which we were proud to have figured out all on our own (with the (mis)help from a hotel operator at the airport. To our surprize there were no tourist information offices at Shanghai Pudong airport...only flight information desks...
A rainy Shanghai met us at the wrong Ramada - aparently there are about 6 of these famous hotels in Shanghai...we ended up downtown begging taxis to take us to Pudong for about 40minutes...guess 2 female foreigners with backpacks are worth passing by. The friendly footman at the Ramada took pitty on us and hailed a cab after our unsuccessful efforts. The tourguide Erin bought did say something about peaktime traffic and how tough it is to get cabs then...well that placed us smack in the middle of it then... :)
So...Ramada Pudong...lovely hotel with excellent indoor swimmingpool, hot tub and steam room (only hot on request...sat a while in an ice cold pool before asking...miraculously warmed up in a few minutes!), massages on the 4th floor from which you can stagger back to your 'shared' bed on the 8th.
We were about 7 in our room...hehe...it was cozy and more comfortable for the lucky 4 that shared the twin beds. But hey, it's all part of the ultimate experience!
The first day our team (Korea B - KLIT - Korea's Less Inspired Team) managed to stay afloat with 2 wins and 2 losses...and on the second day we got sloshed....we ended up second...from the back!
But alas, being 16th of 18 teams allows you to have sooo much more fun under ssooo much less pressure!
Korea's A Team - KUNT - Korea's Ultimate National Team - kept spitits high and managed to stick it out till the semi-finals...Shanghai just toping out on top of them.
Two days ended with a final that astounded all - so this is what frisbee looks like if people know what's going on...
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