Travel Day

Today was the first travel day of the Women’s World cup for the U.S. team, as they departed their base of Shanghai for Chengdu, boarding a late afternoon flight for the city of 10 million in central China. The first part of the trip was smooth sailing for the team, as they were handed their passports and tickets, led briskly through the airport and then breezed through security and into the gate area. Then they got on the plane. Due to some air traffic issues, the fully packed plane sat on the tarmac for at least an hour, giving the U.S. players an idea of what it must be like for a sardine inside a tin on a hot summer day. Still, as always, the players made the best of it and once the plane got in the air (even though it was quite a bumpy flight), the AC kicked in, making the three hour trip semi-comfortable to what most Chinese call Western China, but it’s really closer to the geographic center of the country. The U.S. players were a bit disappointed when they landed to see rain and grey skies in Chengdu. When they left Shanghai, the sun was out after a week of on-and-off drizzling rain.