Journal: Ally-oop!

I had played badminton, been thrashed at ping-pong by random students in the underground ping-pong hall, worked hard to improve my jianzi skills, climbed "Baby Cow Hill" in a heavy fog, and turned down invitations to play volleyball with my students. But come the exam period, I still hadn't had any opportunity to play the one sport which really does excite me: basketball. On any given afternoon, you'll find the basketball feiren (stars, literally "flying people") of the school playing a game, the court often lined with spectators. Who knows, perhaps the next Yao Ming is among them?

I haven't played for years, and quite frankly I was never much good, but I spent many lunchtimes at highschool playng in the sun, and now I was keen to get my hands on a basketball again. I waited for the chance to arrive. Finally, while playing jianzi with some students before English Corner, one girl called Rosemary mentioned that she shoots hoops with a friend most evenings at about 10pm, and said I was welcome to join them. I didn't give a definite answer because I wasn't sure how I would feel at 10pm in the evening, but the next night I turned up, much to the surprise of the two girls. At first we didn't recognise each other in the dark, since none of the courts have lighting except for the volleyball courts. When I called out an uncertain "hello?", they ignored me, wondering who was the weirdo watching them!

But once they realised who it was, they welcomed me, and suggested a more sensible time (comparatively speaking) of 8pm the next night. That was about 3 weeks ago, and I've played most days since then. At first we just practised shooting, and chatted at the same time. But soon some other friends joined us, and we started playing friendly games. All of them except Tie Cheng were students from the English Department, and (what is almost the same thing) all were girls, until one person thoughtfully decided I needed some competition and brought her boyfriend along. Lately, we've usually have enough players for a game of 4 against 4.

Last night we had a new player with some experience under her belt who wanted to introduce a handicap where the boys can't shoot twice within three seconds. But that really isn't necessary. It's true that we two boys are the best players (although the other boy is better than I am), but we pass the ball around, and basically everybody gives encouragement to everybody, which is really nice. Rosemary described that male student as a decent chap with fencun (a sense of propriety, literally "divide inch").

The first day he came, he wouldn't stop addressing me as laoshi (teacher), which is a very chinese thing to do. The others, who fancy themselves more au fait with western culture, laughed and tried to convince him to call me by my first name. Last night he suggested a different name instead, Gunr, which can be translated as "beanpole". Hey, I'm not that thin!

We speak some chinese on court, and some english. I've learnt some basketball vocabulary, and the correct thing to say when somebody gets hit in the face with a ball. And sometimes we just sit down in the middle of the court for a rest, and a chat. Of course they help me with my chinese, and I help them with their english, but it's nice that our main aim is not educational, but just to have some fun and get a bit of exercise.