Just two days after the close of the regular season, Magic Dancers Deanna and Lisa along with Stuff the Magic Mascot departed for China to perform in the 18th Annual China Sports Convention. Stuff and the Magic Dancers were selected to perform their high flying dunk show along with the Golden State Warriors Dunk Team during the convention which lasts through May 1. Deanna and Stuff have checked in to share their overseas experiences with you!

Submitted by Stuff, Friday, May 5, 2006

Greetings from “The Land Of the Dragon”

Ni hao, everybody! That means hello in Mandarin Chinese. I just flew in from a two-week visit to mainland China, and boy, are my wings tired! I was invited to take part in a basketball exhibition featuring yours truly, as well as other NBA entertainers, such as Clutch the Bear from the Houston Rockets, four of the Rockets Power Dancers, and an acro-dunk team from the Golden State Warriors, called Team Thunder. Oh yeah, I also brought along two of our very own beautiful Dunking Dancers, Lisa and Deanna, because hey…I needed someone to carry my luggage.

Needless to say, China is a very strange place to most Americans, but a place that I have come to love. It is directly on the other side of the world from Orlando, exactly twelve hours apart. If you used a spoon and started digging in your backyard, I think you would end up right smack in the center of Shanghai. Let me know if I am wrong. If I am wrong, try digging from your friend’s backyard with a fork instead.

China is an incredible place to visit with a myriad of things to enjoy. So much tradition, so many landmarks, so much history, and oh…so many people! In fact, approximately one-third of the world’s population lives in China alone. China is also sometimes referred to as “The Land Of the Dragon,” so I found it to be a very comfortable fit for me. However, I did make a lot of strange observations along the way. Here are a few for you to enjoy:

1. Girls should never complain about guys leaving the toilet seat up. In China, you are lucky to find a toilet rather than a literal hole in the ground. Enough said.

2. You should never buy food from a street vendor in China…Lisa can attest to this one! She had to find several of the items just mentioned in Number One.

3. Karaoke can be just as fun with three cool people as it is in front of a whole crowd. Lucky for those people though that I don’t have a voice with which to sing.

4. I am willing to bet I am the first mascot to ever do a handstand on the side rails of The Great Wall of China.

5. When traveling halfway around the world, sitting in upgraded seats makes all the difference in the world. But seven-hour layovers can kill those happy feelings in an instant.

6. It is true: all dragons do look the same to Chinese people.

7. I will never complain about traffic in Orlando again. In China, there are no traffic laws, no stop lights, no blinkers, or at least it seems—and way too much honking!

8. Bartering while shopping should be a new Olympic sport. The thrill of the hunt is half the fun, but landing one hundred DVDs for less than $1 each is even better.

9. Never say you won’t try weird foods. When you haven’t eaten real food for two weeks, even fish head soup and duck innards look yummy.

10. Ice in your drink is a luxury, not a certainty.

11. Chinese people love the NBA! Several times, I thought I was traveling with the Beatles, but then I realized that much of that hype was simply for fuzzy ol’me.

12. I will be less judgmental about working with poor equipment from now on. When you land on a crash mat that was used during World War II and dust clouds burst into the air, you know you have very little to gripe about.

13. Traveling with two beautiful women in short skirts can be exhausting, especially when people in China rarely even wear shorts.

14. I never want to be separated again from my hot dogs with brown mustard and relish and a cold glass of Mountain Dew.

Xi xia to Adele, Simon, Julia, Vickie, Ron, Madame Chen, Timmy, Alex, and all the other people who made this trip happen. Thank you to Clutch for putting me in touch with these people. Thank you to Lisa and Deanna for making it special. And I’m really sorry to Jenny and Vanessa that things did not work out for you to join us. However, I have a good feeling that we have many more adventures coming our way in “The Land Of the Dragon,” and I can hardly wait to scream, “Wa Ainey China,” once again.

Moshu dwei jaio! (Go Magic)

Stuff

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Magic Dancers Lisa and Deanna in China

Submitted by Deanna

Monday, April 24
Today we flew to Xining. When we arrived we received another gracious welcome gift and were presented with a special white silk scarf. We arrived at our hotel and also received the most beautiful flowers! Culturally the Chinese are so kind and welcoming. We then had dinner with the Mayor and the President of the Marketing Company that actually invited us to participate in the Sports Convention. They each said a few words welcoming us and to let us know they were looking forward to our last show. We also took the opportunity to thank everyone for having us and for everyone’s hospitality. Towards the end of the dinner we learned a traditional Tibetan dance. Lisa, Stuff and I performed with Madam Chen and had such a great time! China is such a wonderful humble place. We just love it here!

Sunday, April 23
Today we visited the National Panda Park. It was absolutely incredible! Chengdu is actually where the pandas originate. Stuff and I got our picture taken with a real panda and even got to pet it…how many times in life are we going to see and touch a real panda! We were in awe…they were so adorable and the panda experience was just amazing! Lisa and I also got our picture taken with a red panda which was very small and looks a lot like a raccoon. I am so glad we had the opportunity to see the pandas!

Dunking Dancers pictured in Chinese newspaper

We had our second performance today as well and the town welcomed us with hot air balloons and a hang-glider. We also received beautiful flowers as a welcome gift. Wow! We did our second show and I’m proud to say that Lisa and I nailed our dunks. The entire show went really well and it was another great success!

To finish the day off, the group wanted to go to McDonalds for dinner and I must say it actually tasted just like McDonalds at home! We had to stop at least once on our trip. We then headed back to the hotel and jumped into the hot tub to help sooth our muscles from our dunk shows.

Saturday, April 22
We had our first big show today. There were tons of cameras everywhere from local newspapers and t.v. stations. We performed with the Houston Rockets Dancers, Team Thunder, Clutch (the Rockets mascot), and Stuff. The crowd loved us and we totally felt like Rock Stars! When we were done, everyone wanted our pictures and autographs.

That evening, they took us out to a special dinner and it was delicious! I love Chinese food so I am really enjoying the food here!

Lisa smiles for the camera

Friday, April 21
Our day started at 7:15am, which with the 12 hour time difference was really like starting at 7:15pm in Florida. We had our first appearance, dunked a couple of times with Stuff and Team Thunder, and signed autographs. Everyone is so kind and treats us like we are superstars! I learned how to say 'Dance' in Chinese today - it is 'tiao wou'! We are learning a lot of new words!

We were treated to a traditional Chinese lunch today which was a wide spread of different types of food. The most interesting thing we tried was duck intestines, which was actually very good! A lot of the food is very spicy, which I love and hear that it helps to burn fat (don't know if it's true, but I'll keep you posted). Lunch was then followed by an interview with a local television station asking us about our stay here in China. By the way, have I mentioned that we have appeared in several local newspapers! At least three different ones! We had another appearance at 3:30pm that afternoon with former Rockets player, Clyde Drexler. He was so nice!

I got a Chinese massage (sooooo relaxing), went into the hot tub, and that's how I ended our very long day! We are having an awesome time!!!

Wednesday, April 19 and Thursday, April 20
After arriving to the airport at 6am for our 8am flight to Chicago, we were on our way. When we got to Chicago, what was scheduled to be a 2 hour layover turned in to a seven hour layover when our flight was delayed by 5 hours - yikes! Finally we left Chicago for Beijing. We then had another flight to Chengdu. We must have watched about 6 movies and had about 6 meals on all of the flights! Lisa and I worked on our homework for school and had a lot of bonding time together. When we arrived, we met up with Team Thunder, the dunk team Golden State. Our hotel is extremely nice and the ceilings are very low. We are still in awe that we finally made it to China!