May Holiday & the Changchun Cricket Club

The national May Holiday has come and gone (01-05 May 2006).  I really wanted to do a semi-final trip somewhere close for five days or so, but decided against it (I had Seoul, Korea, or Qingdao, China, in mind).  I know that I'll need all the money that I can save for incidentals when settling into a new place when I get back.  I've kind of toned down my going out, not that it was out of control in the first place, but certainly less now.  See... it's nice to come and visit with American dollars because they go a long way, but having a salary in RMB and going back to America is different because every eight RMB only equals one dollar... ouch.  So, I've been puting a bit of a cork in my bank flow.  It should be easy enough to come back with a comfortable amount, maybe enough to cover a rental security deposit and some intial odds and ends that come up.

 

While I did stay in Changchun over the holiday, it wasn't completely event-less.  The first official match of the Changchun Cricket Club (CCC) met and was a great success.  (I previously blogged about a pick-up match in August of last year with some friends and one of the CCC co-founders, Richard Roman.)  There were two games, first of which was for novices and the second for more apt players.  Most of the players were students from India, about fifty in total, and the other twenty were from Australia, Europe, and North America.  (The Indians are SERIOUS cricket players.)  I bowled (pitched) better than I batted.  It was a jolly good time that took up the entire late morning and early to mid afternoon. 

 

Afterward, a number of us went to the IndianKitchen, a fabulous new ethnic restaurant, for dinner.  I've learned from my British friends that besides tea, fish & chips, Yorkshire pudding, and meat pies being a staple in the UK, curry dishes rank pretty high as well.  Apparently many a post-match cricket and rugby game in the UK end up at a curry restuarant.