Spring Festival, Arsenal, & Drew Brees

Spring festival is upon us, and Beijing's businesses are slowly shutting down. Beijing is a migrant city, so a huge percentage of the population is heading back to their native provinces for the week, to be with family. All of our campus dining halls are closed, so we Americans are scrambling off-campus to find meals.

Sunday night, Morgan and Elizabeth accompanied me as I made my second attempt to find the Arsenal Club of Beijing. We took a cab to the same bar where I was so humiliated two weeks ago, but happily found a large throng of Arsenal supporters, and even a few fans of our opponent and rival, Chelsea. After walking in and trying to take seats in the back, a group of the Chinese supporters came rushing towards me, some speaking Chinese, some English. "We request that you come sit with us!" they said, looking at my jersey, pointing and gesturing at their own. I agreed, but only after I did a TV interview and was forced to pose for a series of pictures standing in front of a Chinese advertisement. Apparently, I was their first American. I went up into the middle of the crowd and was thoroughly entertained by the passionate fans around me. They seem to care as much as we do! It was odd to think that my normal Boston Arsenal crew was sitting in a bar, just like I was, watching the exact same moving pictures, on the other side of the world, and at 11am instead of midnight. Not many of the guys spoke English, but during the course of the game I could always tell what they were grumbling about... I knew that when Theo Walcott had another bad pass reception they were all murmuring about how he lost his touch while injured, and I knew that when they showed Chelsea's John Terry they were all laughing about the recent news of his affairs with teammates' girlfriends. The fans of Arsenal Beijing get it, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience despite the 2-0 thrashing.

During halftime, they gathered around and asked me a series of questions through a translator. They couldn't believe that I've been to London a few times, and that I've been in the Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal. "Is it a really magical place?" they asked. "It is a lifelong dream to witness a game." The 10000 or so miles between London and Beijing don't seem to put a damper on their passion for the team.

Monday morning (after 3.5 hours of sleep) we went to Pyros for a Super Bowl party. Literally the first TV images we'd seen from the west in a month, it was a very weird experience, somewhat sad. Behind the 4th of July, Super Sunday might be the most purely American day of the year, and we, well, weren't close. We drank coffee, ate bad breakfast burritos and enjoyed watching some New Orleans ex-pats yell and dance as the Saints won their first Super Bowl. We went back to Shaoyuan and slept.