Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Zhongshan International Hotel happens to be housing the atheletes and their families of the World Youth Badminton Championship. Breakfast was a zoo. People hovered over seats and pounced as quickly as possible to take your seat even if the table hadn’t been cleared, yet. I welcomed the American hashbrowns which I hardly eat when I’m back in the States, but the added variety is nice. The girls were expected at an outdoor event at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park. Angela Gao (Contestant #8) was well enough to join in the events today; however, Melody Wu (#12) and Allison Ye (#10) will not be able to make it. When we gathered in the lobby, we noticed there wasn’t a bus. What waited for the girls was a caravan of luxury import cars to take them to the park. After being bounced around from car to car, a couple of us press staff end up in the very last car.
After driving around for more than half an hour, the driver is a bit turned around. We had driven by the park, and he hadn’t realized it. We ended up taking a very roundabout way to catch the girls walking up the steps to the Sun Yat Sen statue. In the half an hour spent outside in Zhongshan today, everyone had already sweat through their clothes. I overheard that most people had sweat so much that the sweat had reached down to their underthings. It was nice waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone to arrive because I had cooled off and almost dried out by then. Everyone gets to rest a bit and then it’s lunch in the hotel. I am starting to like this not having to travel to eat luxury.
Like last night, we are having lunch on the third floor of the hotel in the International Room. The Cantonese dishes come at a leisurely pace and the service is wonderful. Overall, the majority of the pageant contestants and staffers have well-preferred the cuisine of the Guangdong (formerly known as Canton) region to all of the others combined. Today’s lunch, however, is exclusively Zhongshan delicacies. Melody and Allison joined us for lunch, and both seem to be recovering. It’s been a grueling pace of early morning makeups and styling, intense heat and humidity, and frequent changes in temperature, climate, and food. Only the very resilient are dodging sore throats, allergies, and stomach ailments. The girls meet the sponsors and owners of the hotel and restaurants where we are staying and eating. My first impression was, “My! What young dudes are running this hotel!”
The girls at my table did a great job clearing the table of dishes. The girls must rush and unpack evening gowns for the dinner. The girls will have the use of the luxury import cars again, but they are expected to stop at at least five of the corporate sponsors this afternoon before dinner. One of the sponsors is one of the largest LED manufacturers in all of China and probably globally. Melody and Allison are still not quite recovered, so I choose to stay behind in case they need a chaperone. It gives me a chance to relax a bit and do more laundry before the crazy schedule that I won’t be able to opt out for our last few days in China are upon us. I am thankful that we are across the street from a mall with a supermarket. Melody and I end up going to get supplies and treats for some of the staffers. I pick up a tiny room air freshener, some liquid detergent, and a few other things to take back home like mosquito repellent happy face stickers, fancy flavors of potato chips, and cheap packs of super cute tissues – things I always like to pick up from Asia that we can’t really get in America easily.
A grand gala style dinner is scheduled at the event hall next to the hotel – evening gowns, jewelry, and probably a lot of photos with sponsors will be required. There is a rumor that some of us will be going out for some karaoke tonight. This Taiwanese-American girl can’t escape the need to sing to a mismatched video and a midi beat!
Stereotype Rebel 