Farewell to China

There is actually a park in Shanghai.  All right, there a few.  We went to one of the more famous ones Friday morning: the Yuyuan Gardens-- about 4 acres of temples and goldfish-filled ponds.  Of course, hundreds of fellow tourists joined us, but the place had trees and some green.

Every city has difficulty preserving the green against encroaching concrete. London, Munich, New York, and others are examples that thought through this well ahead of time and offer expansive parks for their citizens and visitors.  Beijing and now Shanghai are trying to green areas after a population explosion.  Both cities are planting trees wherever possible, but space for frisbee-throwing parks here is at a premium.

We then hit the Juangpu River for a one-hour ferry ride.  (I'm unfortunately sounding increasingly like a tour guide in this second-to-last blog entry.)  Skyscrapers inhabit each river bank.  We'll visit one Saturday: China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower.  The Hyatt Hotel has its lobby on the building's 54th floor.  An even taller building is nearly finished next door.

Old friend, John Lin, hosted us for our final dinner, a multi-course western feast.  Jon has been friends with the last three Nebraska governors as well as a long-time former Secretary of State, Alan Beerman.  He has hosted more than a few Nebraska business delagations to Hong Kong and is a true friend of Nebraska Volleyball, having attended our match versus the Shanghai Pro Team Thursday.

The players and coaches are meeting this morning. We depart from China tonight, arriving Saturday night at Eppley on United from Chicago.

Dani Busboom grew up attending Nebraska Volleyball games, dreaming she'd wear the uniform.  Alison Weston was her favorite; she wears Alison's #18. She's a farm girl who attended her parents' high school, now called Freeman.  She could have played softball in college and perhaps other sports, but verbally committed to Husker Volleyball her sophomore year.  Though she and Jordan Larson were not quite ready to commit to NU in their maternity wards, they were ready by sixth-grade graduation.  Now she's all grown up with just one more year.

Dad Gene is a farmer while Mom Bonnie is the co-manager of the Lincoln office of Ritchie Brothers auctioneering.  Younger brother Ryan is an athlete, captain of varsity football his freshman year and making the prestigious Nebraska Sluggers traveling baseball team this summer.  Ryan can sling it.

Boomer shared setter her freshman and junior years and handled the position alone her sophomore year.  Now she's switched to Libero.  She has taken the change like the leader she is, welcoming it without complaint.  In fact, she says she prefers Libero, an Italian word with multiple pronunciations.

"This trip has been good. It's gone faster than we thought.  Two highlights were the Great Wall and the win over JT, a game when I felt we were all together-- fully talking, giving.  Everyone was playing well or if not, it felt so because noone let it affect them."

"We three seniors this year will set a tone of no regrets.  We're great friends.  We want total open communication.  Everyone is close on this team."

Boomer's smile will radiate the Coliseum one more fall.

Shanghai has ten times more people than the state of Nebraska.  The horns below help set the rules for the chaotic streets.  I tell many of my Baylor Test Prep students interested in business: after you get your college degree, consider Shanghai.  You can be well compensated teaching English part-time.  Then study Mandarin the rest of the day.  After a year, get a job with one of the countless American Multinationals with subsidiaries in Shanghai.  Then spend your twenties in Asia.  Former Lincoln High and Husker Gymnast Jason Christie followed this path and now is a consultant in Denver to American businesses seeking to expand in China. 

There are nine American cities with a million or more people; China has 100 to 136 cities with a million or more people.  Our travel party of nearly twenty leaves this one Saturday night.