Shenzhen National Competition!

This past weekend our staff and competition teams traveled to Shenzhen, China for the CCA National competition. It was a fun weekend that we had been looking forward to for what seems like forever, and our teams did really well!

Shenzhen is about a 2-hour drive from Guangzhou, and we had a decent sized group take the bus on Friday night. The rest of the athletes and their families were either driving themselves that night or on the day of their performance. Once we got to Shenzhen on Friday night, we dropped families off at their hotels. CCA provides a hotel/meal package when you register for competition, so some of our families did that. The catch is that if you book with CCA, you have to get the hotel room for 4 days/3 nights (Friday-Monday). However, it is more convenient to book through CCA even if you are leaving early because it includes all meals on-site and the hotel provides transportation to and from the competition venue (there isn’t parking at the venue so this was much easier!). When booking through CCA, you pick the size of the room and the “quality” – Normal, Business, or Comfortable – all of which were located at different hotels (all the “normal” rooms were at one hotel, all the “business” rooms were at another hotel, etc.). We told all of our families that VCA staff would be staying at the Business hotel, but most of our families chose to stay at the Normal hotel since it is cheapest. We dropped these families off first, and of course, within 5 minutes of the bus pulling away coaches were already flooded with messages from the parents complaining about how cheap and dirty the rooms were. UGH. You picked the cheapest hotel room!! What did you expect? I swear we have the biggest group of complainers.

By the time the rest of us got to our hotel, it was about 10:30pm. I was hoping to get right into bed because the next day was going to be a long and early one. As I’m sure you can guess, that’s not how things went. I didn’t fully understand what was wrong with our rooms because it was all happening in Chinese, and the translations we were getting were general summaries, but here’s the gist. When we book the hotel rooms with the CCA package, we aren’t actually booking through the hotel itself. We just tell CCA what kinds of rooms we want and how many, and then CCA books them for us. So we didn’t even know what hotel we were at until the day before. Turns out that CCA messed up our booking because when we arrived at the hotel they couldn’t find our booking in their system. Izzy, who works at the gym and is about my age, had made the bookings through CCA herself so she was getting frustrated. Then they finally were able to locate our booking, but then the issue was that they didn’t know if those rooms were available. So they had to send employees up to each individual room to knock on the door and see if they were vacant. There was also some big issue about making sure that we all got rooms with a window because apparently that was in our “contract”. At that point, none of us cared ONE BIT if our room had a window. We just wanted a room. We were barely going to be in there anyways, but the hotel staff insisted that we had to have windows because it was in our contract. After 2 hours of waiting in the hotel lobby and arguing with the staff, we finally got into our rooms at 12:30am. I had my own room, and it was really nice.

The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel. It was pretty good, but definitely not your typical American continental breakfast. I was having noodles and salad for breakfast! It was also very crowded with other families that were there for competition. So we were surrounded by lots of little girls with their hair in buns and stage makeup on their faces while we ate. Clint and I were the only white people at the entire competition so we definitely stood out. Li Yen told us that a girl at the table next to ours at breakfast was pointing at us and saying “Foreigner! Foreigner!” We thought that was pretty funny. We then got on the CCA bus with the rest of VCA staff and some of the other teams to head to the venue. It was about a 20-minute drive, and we got dropped off in front of this really cool building that I had seen the night before we when got into town. I was confused though because we had driven PAST it on our way to the venue to drop off our practice mat. And now here we were, at this building, with the CCA girl saying this was the venue… When it definitely wasn’t because we were there the night before, and it wasn’t here… But she insisted, and she’s a CCA employee so we figured she knew where she was going, right? WRONG. We followed her around for about 15 minutes, wandering, clearly lost. We had all been looking up the real venue by this point and decided to ditch this girl and take a taxi instead. It was super unprofessional that a CCA representative didn’t even know where the venue for their own event was. I’m just a random foreign coach, and even I knew right away that that wasn’t the venue.

We finally got to the venue and claimed a spot to practice on the outdoor basketball courts. There were tons of teams there already so it was really crowded. The only one of our teams that was there at this point was Cats, the junior cheer team, so I took on the job of blocking out our area and keeping people from stealing our spot. One of our athletes who is on both a cheer and a dance team was sick and couldn’t compete this weekend. She is one of my favorites. Sweet little Lucy had a fever and a lung infection and had been in the hospital. She said she really wanted to come, but she was definitely not up for it. She was one of the top girls in the stunts, so Cats had to make some changes at their early morning practice.

Then before the competition started, teams were able to sign up for a 1 minute 30 second time slot on the floor to walk through spacing or whatever else they wanted. We were waiting outside for a while until it was our turn to go in. It was still super crowded, and Clint and I were getting lots of stares from all the little Asian children. They were super sweet though. A group of girls (probably ages 9-10) that was standing near me (and had all been staring at me) tapped me on the shoulder and one of them said “You are so beautiful!” I said thank you and said she was too, and I got to talking with these girls. They were asking my nationality and if I knew any Chinese. I then asked them where they were from (since this was CCA’s National Competition, there were teams from all over China in attendance). She said they were from Nanjing and that they drove here, so I asked how long it took to drive here. Her response… “3 years!” Oh my god, I was dying. I’m assuming she obviously meant 3 hours, but it was so cute and funny. They were very sweet, and before they went inside for their minute and a half on the floor they tapped me on the shoulder again and waved goodbye.

I was also getting a lot of compliments from our own kids, which is funny because I see them all the time! Maybe it’s because I had my hair down and I always have it in a ponytail at the gym? I don’t know, but it was sweet. One of the girls on the cheer team is, in general, very complimentary and loooooves talking with the coaches. Her name is Lisa. I was helping set up our practice area and out of nowhere comes Lisa right in my face saying, “You are so beautiful!” Or later, I was talking with parents and here comes Lisa, “Your hair is so beautiful!” Or again, when I was setting up the music there’s Lisa again saying, “Your eyes! They are green! So beautiful!” It was soo sweet. She was mesmerized by my hair. “Your hair! It’s yellow! Why is your hair yellow? It’s beautiful. Why is it yellow? Coach Li Yen’s hair isn’t yellow. Why is your hair yellow?” She just could not understand when I tried to explain to her that my hair just grows that way. It just is “yellow” – which is funny because my hair isn’t even that light, but I guess it’s lighter compared to everyone else’s natural hair color here in China. It was very sweet of her, but also – I see you literally every week, Lisa! Leave me alone! (lol)

After Cats’ short practice time on the floor, we broke for lunch. We had the CCA provided lunch, and it was actually pretty good! We then had a ton of time before our team was meeting up again so we found a spot in the shade by our practice area, snagged some chairs, and just hung out. I actually ended up just laying in the grass and even took a little nap. It was great. It was also a beautiful day. It was 75 and sunny. I even got sunburnt standing out in the sun while the teams were practicing. I can’t complain! It was finally 2:00, and our teams were all at our meeting place. We went into the arena together to find seats and watch the opening ceremony. You can kind of tell in the pictures below, but the seats were actually a level above the stage and they were on the sides. So we had gotten an area in the stands where we could see the performances from the front as best we could. Our parents had gone full out for this competition – they got little blow up VCA sticks that they were banging together and they even got these giant LED signs that said VCA.

After opening ceremony, my mini dance team and the mini cheer team stayed in the stands to watch Cats, the junior cheer team. They did really well and got first place! Then I brought my team back outside to warm up and practice. They got a short dinner break, and then we met up again to check in. We ended up being super rushed. The competition had been running an hour behind, so I had my kids meet a little later because I really didn’t need them to run the dance over and over again for an hour until we were up… But CCA must have skipped a scheduled break or something because suddenly, they were back on schedule and a CCA representative was running over to me telling me that we were on in 5 minutes. So I grabbed my eight little nuggets and we RAN to the check in area and nearly went right on the floor. They ended up competing 5 minutes earlier than they were scheduled. It didn’t even matter that they hadn’t practiced much because, like last time, they were the only ones in their division so they were getting first place no matter what!

After my mini dance team performed, they headed up to the stands to hang out with their parents until awards, and I met up with the mini cheer team to help them out. These kids are so cute. There are a handful of them who speak English very well, despite only being ages 4-6. I was hanging out with them while we were waiting for our turn to perform. Again, I had my hair down and the girls kept jumping up trying to grab my hair and saying “It’s so beautiful! It’s yellow!” I kept saying thank you but asking them not to grab my hair because they were pulling it in all directions and dragging it across my face and neck, which honestly just tickled. It was very cute, and there was a lot of giggling. One of the little ones, Sulin, suddenly exclaimed, “Your hair is so beautiful! It’s like Cinderella!!!” and all of the girls squealed in agreement. So then for the next 10 minutes or so I had a bunch of little girls jumping on me trying to play with my hair and saying, “Cinderella hair!! So beautiful!!” It was adorable, although I think they meant Rapunzel because she’s obviously the Disney princess known for her pretty hair. But I’ll take the compliment either way!

After all of our teams had performed, we hung out in the stands and watched until it was time for awards. The coaches snuck outside to have some cake because it was Clint’s birthday. It was almost time for awards, and I got a text from one of the parents from my junior dance team, which was competing the next day. She told me that she was very sorry, but Nicole would not be able to compete tomorrow… This team was already down from 8 dancers to 5, due to illnesses and other conflicts. And NOW I have a mom telling me her daughter can’t be at competition 12 HOURS before they are supposed to meet?? Oh my god, I was livid. So I had a conversation with this mom, and basically I just think she’s a big fat liar. I told her that it was not allowed – her daughter made a commitment to this team and it is FAR too late to withdraw. She MUST be at competition. The mom is saying that her daughter has a calligraphy lesson, and her dad is on a business trip (what that has to do with anything, I’m not sure…). I continued to tell her that she has to be here, because she made a commitment and if there were conflicts they should have been addressed weeks, if not months, ago. She responds, “I’m pretty sure we can’t go to the competition” with a bunch of face-palm and laughing emojis… IT’S NOT FUNNY. And then she starts saying that Nicole also has a cold and a fever, and that Nicole showed up for class today (there was no class) and that it is my fault. But like… there has never been class this weekend because THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT COMPETITION. Basically, the more she talked about it, the more excuses she conveniently came up with. This mom has always been trouble and this was just the final straw for me.

**Side story: Her daughter’s team practices Saturday 2-4pm, and Nicole alwayssss comes late. Our late policy is 15 minutes. If they aren’t there in the first 15 minutes, they aren’t allowed to join class and have to go home. She once sent her daughter into class 40 MINUTES LATE. So I called a water break, went out with Nicole to send her home and talk to her mom. Her reasoning for being late is that Nicole was sleeping… Her class is at 2 IN THE AFTERNOON. She’s like 8 years old. She doesn’t need a nap. Get her to class on time. This mom has also sent her daughter to dance class in a long-sleeve zip up jean dress before. Seems like good active wear, right? Basically I’m done with this mom. Even Mavis, who works front desk, doesn’t like this mom. As Mavis says, “This mom is… disgusting.” LOL. So I was very frustrated at the end of the night knowing that I’d have to re-work my entire routine the next morning to work for 4 dancers instead of 8.

The next morning I woke up at 5am with really bad stomach pains. I couldn’t figure out what it was from, but I wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I eventually figured out what it was… The night before, I had been craving a little snack so I made a cup of noodles that I got at the convenience store next to the hotel. Now for some background info: China tap water is not safe to drink. We order jugs of drinking water to the apartment and the gym and we have water dispensers available. China water, however, is safe to drink only if you boil it first. I didn’t have much water left in my water bottle at the end of the long day, and there was a kettle in the hotel room. So I decided I would just use tap water for my noodles and boil it (I would need to boil it anyways). Well… I guess it wasn’t boiling well enough because the tap water is DEFINITELY what got me sick… The stomach pain went away, but it was instead replaced with diarrhea 🙂 Lovely! I just had to have my freaking cup of noodles, didn’t I?!

I had been woken up early and we had a later departure time, but I was still not okay by the time we had to leave for the competition, and I was SO STRESSED. I hadn’t used the bathrooms at the venue the day before, but I was hoping and praying that they were nice facilities and that there would be western style toilets. I had let Clint and Li Yen know about my situation, so in case I needed to run to the bathroom they could take over my team for me. Luckily, I only had 4 kids anyways so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I had also snagged a couple rolls of TP from the hotel because, again, public bathrooms in China are not always nice or clean. To give you the short, clean version of the story… I was running to and from the bathroom literally all day. There was ONE western style toilet in the bathroom. It was the handicapped room, so it was a private little room. This would have been super nice, except the door was broken. The handle was broken off, so it didn’t latch closed and there were two holes in the door where the handle was supposed to be. For some reason, there was a chair in the handicapped room so I propped it in front of the door to keep it closed, but you could definitely see in/out through the holes in the door. It definitely wasn’t ideal, but it made do.

I felt bad because I definitely wasn’t the best coach that day, but I was just stressed and pre-occupied with other things. I was mostly worried about how I was going to survive the 2-hour bus ride home later in the afternoon. My kids were great though, and they were surprisingly chill with having to change the dance to work with only the 4 of them. They did really well, and got 5th place, which is great considering they got a lot of deductions for only having 4 dancers. It was a much more relaxed competition day than the day before, which was nice. Shortly after their awards ceremony, we packed up and took the bus back. I made a pit stop in the bathroom right before we left, tried my best to sleep on the bus, and stopped in the bathroom again right when we got back. But I made it!

Getting sick from the tap water wouldn’t have been that bad if I had been at home for the day and had access to a clean, private bathroom all day. I just did not need to deal with that while in public, 2 hours away from GZ, and trying to coach all at the same time. So take it from me – they are not kidding when they tell you not to drink tap water in China, and if you boil it… make sure it’s REALLY boiling. Get that water bubbling real good – TRUST ME.

Overall, it was a successful competition weekend and the kids and parents had a lot of fun! It’s nice to finally have the families on board with what we are doing. We even had a few parents from the mini cheer team say that they want to go to competitions in America now… The enthusiasm is great! But, let’s calm down… haha… They have no idea how hard it was for us to get all of these families 2 hours away to Shenzhen. We are not ready yet to take the entire gym to the U.S. Maybe someday, but not today!

My blog posts are going to be coming in hot for the next few weeks. I leave China two weeks from tomorrow, and I’m squeezing in a bunch of stuff before then. So expect lots more to read in the near future 🙂