As you may be catching on, we are a bit behind on this blog… Back in April we traveled to Shanghai for the All China Gaelic Football Games so that Tanya could have her semi-professional debut with the Dalian Wolfhounds and earn her new nickname, Tanya "Two Goals" Buchholtz
What is Gaelic Football you might ask? Well its basically like soccer mixed with rugby, with a kind of basketball like dribbling mixed in. Basically I have come to the conclusion that the Irish were drinking and reading the rules from a number of games and came up with this as a result.
Here are some links that might explain better than I do:
Anyway, now that we have the game somewhat explained, I’ll give you some background on how Tanya became a Gaelic football semi-professional; basically playing Gaelic football is one of 7 things you can do in Dalian and the local Irish community invites everyone they can to come play. Now from there you actually have to be good to be on the team, but Tanya was able to prove her worth in a few practices and group cross training outings. I went to training as well, but they quickly explained that if I were to play they would be disqualified for bringing in a ringer due to my outstanding athletic prowess. (Nothing to do with almost puking at circuit training).
Each year the club travels to play against other teams in the "All China Games" in the spring and the "All Asia Games" in the fall. The All China Games took place on Saturday and about 20 teams participated in all. They had 4 fields and both mens and womens teams played in a standard bracket single elimination format with 7 minute halves. Tanya's lady Wolfhounds got off to a rough start losing their first game, but got stronger by the moment and were completely dominating by the time their 6th and final game came around. At the end of a harrowing day they found them selves the winners of the the plate for the 2011 All China Gaelic Football Games. (I will abide by local Dalian Gaelic football tradition here and not explain that the Plate is a 3rd place prize).
It was a great time and both players and spectators had an excellent Day.
It was also a great opportunity to get out of Dalian and get a little taste of Western life. It is amazing how we can go to Shanghai, China and and it feels so noticeably more western than we are used to that you can feel your body relax into normalcy. Tanya had never experienced this before, but very soon came to agree with my assessment.
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| Here we have Tanya enjoying her first glass of Sangria in Cantina Agave, the 1st real Mexican food we have had in months (excluding what I had back in AZ) |
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| I found a place that brewed their own beer |
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| The Chinese have chosen to celebrate May Day or Laborers Day (International Workers Day etc.), one of the historic holidays of socialism where "all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace." by having a giant sale at the mall along with outdoor pavilions hawking the latest electronics. |
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| Now to the football... here is the Ladies Team |
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| Tanya moving around an opponent and about to pass |
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| The ladies play "no contact" |
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| The men play contact |
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| It looks like ball is going to go in because it did... Buchholtz domination. |
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| Team Celebration |
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| Tanya with "The Plate" which they took home for their epic victory |
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| I was obviously a very integral part of their victory. |
A few other random photos from the weekend:
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