Tarpley’s Thoughts

Today in Chengdu, China we went on a Panda adventure!  We traveled about forty minutes to get to see the pandas.  It was a very rare lifetime experience for me….I have always liked Pandas, but I’ve never seen one.  After today, I can say that I love pandas and they are my favorite wild animal. I learned that in China pandas are extremely valuable and there are less than 1,600 left in the wild.  They can only have babies one week out of the year; thus they are considered a Chinese treasure.  The pandas were broken down into groups based on their age.  There was a nursery which had little baby pandas.  I saw one that was only four weeks old! When a baby panda is born they can weigh 3 ounces and the females grow to be 220 pounds and the males grow to be 250 pounds!  If the mother panda has twins she can only care for one panda at a time.  Therefore, one panda is put into the nursery and the other one stays with the mother.   The next age group was kindergarten.  These pandas were one year and older.  They had a huge “playground” where they lived.  There were tons of trees, ponds, plants, everything they needed to make themselves at home.  They were extremely playful and energetic.  The older pandas were placed together and they were more docile.  Just like the kindergarteners, they had a huge area where they lived.I also learned that pandas consume 20-40 pounds of bamboo every day! They also eat for 10-16 hours a day and spend the rest of the time sleeping, resting and playing.  The best part of my day was being able to actually touch a panda!  The panda was one year old and 5 of my teammates and me were sitting on a bench and the worker put the panda right in the middle of us.  We had plastic gloves on and we all got to pet the panda.  The panda was very content with the bamboo stick it was chewing on and sat just like a person!  It was really neat to be able to actually pet a panda!  I had a day today that I will never forget! I will try to post a few pictures.  Enjoy.Tarp

We are one step closer to our first match against North Korea! Today we traveled from Shanghai which is on the East coast of China to Chengdu which is more western.  Chengdu is known for their pandas and it is even more humid than Shanghai! Today was pouring rain and tomorrow it is supposed to be overcast.

Our flight was delayed two hours today which made it for a long travel day.  We had to sit on the plane during the delay and the flight was 3 hours long.  The good thing is we are now at the site of our first two matches!

When we arrived in Chengdu, we received a very warm welcome.  There were World Cup greeters and people helping us get to our bus to take us to the hotel.  There was a lot of media videotaping us and snapping pictures.  Tonight on the news it showed our arrival and our captain, Kristine Lilly, was interviewed.  She told the media how exciting it is to be here and how much we are looking forward to our first match!

Our hotel is very nice.  I have been very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness we’ve received.  Everyone is very eager to help us and make us feel as comfortable as possible.   It has been a hard adjustment dealing with the time change, culture and food, but we are adjusting and adapting very well. 

We will be training the next few days to prepare for our first World Cup match on Tuesday evening against North Korea. All the games in the 2007 Women’s World Cup will be televised live on ESPN and ESPN 2.  Make sure you watch every game possible!

Today is Bri Scurry’s birthday!  Happy Birthday to her!

All the best from Chengdu.

Lindsay (Tarp)

We made it to China!  We flew out of Los Angeles last Monday morning and arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday night.  We only had one little issue while traveling.  We flew to San Francisco and we had to switch to the International terminal.  As we were trying to get in the elevator to get to our gate the elevator broke.  Fortunately, no one was in it, but we ended up using the cargo elevator to get to our gate! That little dilemma slowed us down a bit, but we still had time for one last American meal before our 12 hour flight!

Right now, we are in Shanghai training.  We are here until Thursday and then we are traveling to the site of our first game.  Shanghai is like the New York City of China!  There is a lot going on, traffic is terrible and there are beautiful buildings.  I just learned today that by 2010 Shanghai is going to have the 2^nd tallest building in the world!  It is currently being built and it is enormous.  I would not like to be the person building it at the top…I’m afraid of heights!

I also learned that there are almost 800 car accidents a day in Shanghai.  We are fortunate to have a police escort to and from training which makes the driving a bit easier.  A lot of people walk and ride bikes around the city. 

Our first day in Shanghai, it was pouring rain.  We had a light training session and it rained the whole time!  On our training field there were tons of little frogs jumping around. We all tried hard not to step on them…. That would have been a disaster! Also, we learned that it is going to rain a lot during the month of September. 

So far, things are going well.  We are continuing to adjust to the time change and that will take a few more days.  But, we are so excited to finally be at the World Cup!  We have worked so hard for two years for this and we can’t wait to show the world what we can do!