About Soccer...

It's a funny thing about soccer.  Alice is on the varsity team (there is no JV team), and Ellie

really wanted to be, but her foot is still in a cast.  More about that later.

The first game was a week ago, in Beijing.  They lost, but it was against a big school.

On Saturday,  her school, the TIS Eagles (Tianjin Int. School), in blue,

played here in TEDA.  Good, I thought.  I'll go watch the game!

Unfortunately, it was about 34 degrees with a stiff wind.

I ended up watching from inside a building, which was also cold, 

but at least I was out of the wind.  (We won, 1-0).

Many of the fields are astro-turf, so cleated shoes aren't necessary.

While we were in the U.S. at Christmas, we bought some cleats for Ellie, but couldn't find any

for Alice (it was before soccer season there, so not much selection).

Therefore, Alice doesn't have cleats.

 The team then played yesterday after school at IST (International School of Tianjin).  

 The forecast was for partly sunny skies, in the mid-40's.

What we actually got was the first almost-measurable snow fall of the year!

It was raining/sleeting/snowing during the game, and the field was real (dead) grass.

Slippery!  And Alice with no cleats.

 Still, she had a good time, and again, the Eagles won, 1-0.

The girls were warm from running, but with freezing parts. 

I was an icicle on the sidelines, with my umbrella.  

At least I had the foresight to bring a thermos of hot chocolate 

that Alice and I drank on the 50-minute drive home.

 This afternoon, as I walked over to the hotel to swim,

I noticed that the wind was not the cutting, brutal thing 

it has been for the past few days (months!).

Instead, it was warmer, and though a bit boisterous, it felt

more teasing than treacherous.  And almost 50 degrees! 

Why couldn't we have had this yesterday for the game?!?