GIRLZ vs. FUDZ

We went to Casa Zoe's for dinner tonight. No big surprise there, it's a pretty good Tex-Mex restaurant with good cheeseburgers. The manager (Lena) came over to us tonight and was telling us about upcoming things of note ~ they will be ordering and selling turkeys for Thanksgiving, yea! and homemade apple pie. We both got very excited at the concept of having Thanksgiving dinner in China. All we need is a fryer and we will be all set!

We order drinks and our dinner, Warren is the first to get his. He ordered penne pasta with Bolognese sauce. As the waitress was putting it in front of him, Scott made the comment, "how much you want to bet he finishes the whole thing?" Now there is a pile of pasta on the plate and those of you who know the appetite of a growing 13 year old boy can pretty much guess who won't win that bet. Well right after he gets that out of his mouth I say to him, "what is more important to a 13 year old? Girls or food?" Does the phrase "can't talk... eating" ring a bell. Ding, ding, ding, you are the winner! Food wins! Some girls come into the restaurant and see Warren and say "hi Warren". Warren, being the normal 13 yr old, is still eating. Now he claims that he saw the girls walk in, yea right, and responds to them and then starts to blush (he will deny this!). It was a pretty cute exchange of words.

This brings us back to our great neighbors in Georgia. Warren and Jacob were (and still are) great friends with the neighbors on both sides of our home. So we always felt that special thing for Michael and Lorenzo with such beautiful young daughters. However, living here in Suzhou where neighbors come and go, you never really know what the parents believe (can you see where I am going with this???). We have found that there are some parents (not to name names but they mostly come from the area of EUROPE) that are very free in their thinking and how they raise their kids. We are far from being classified as liberal parents and can see where we might have to do that fight that battle before we depart. But we will fight it when and if it comes.

CISSA

China International School Soccer Association, was the tournament that Jacob and the 5th grade at SSIS participated in today in Shanghai. We left school at 8:30am for our first game at 10am. Much to my surprise, it only took 1 hour to get to the Shanghai American School where the tournament was being held. It was, however, on this side of Shanghai and not the Pudong side (which takes upwards of 3 hours to get to if the traffic is 'normal'). When we arrived I was amazed at how the facility was spread out. SAS is much larger than SSIS when it comes to land from what I could tell. The soccer/baseball/track area was huge! The soccer tournament was held on 9 fields (1/4 of regulation size field) so there was 2+ full size fields plus two baseball fields and a full track. It was interesting that while we were there playing soccer, it didn't feel like we were in China. All I heard was English and there were more people than not that looked like us. It was nice to talk to other moms and hear that they were from the Midwest or other parts of the US where soccer (not football) is played.

Jacob and his class split into two teams, each team played a half (9 1/2 mins). They played 4 games with two bye games. They won 3 games, lost one, and tied one ~ even though he will tell you that they won 3 and lost 1. I took about 500 pics (love the new camera!) most of which were on the continuous mode. I was very happy when during the first game Jacob scored a goal. He was happy also! When the game finished, I texted Scott and told him. I even caught it in pictures (you have to look hard, but it's there).

Jacob's class picture, as you can tell he did not tell us he had to wear red!

As I was taking pictures, I had a flashback to many Saturday mornings on Jodeco Road and our time serving on the Board at Community Youth Soccer. I can't say that it brought a tear to my eye, but I did have a short moment where I missed our "family" at CYS ~ we love you guys!!! It was good to get to participate in a soccer event where I could just be a parent. The event was well put together and I made sure that I told the lead director that I appreciated his hard work.

I will try to post pics to the picassa site later. We have a lot of pictures to upload from the past month or so.

Tàitai Terror

If I ever wondered about Tammy becoming acclimated to living in China, the question was answered this weekend by two “incidents”.

First, we spent Friday on Walking Street just for awhile to look around and see what was happening there. We needed to go to UTown to find a spare battery for the camera and a few other small errands on this trip to the shopping area. It was very crowded since this is a big holiday period in China, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. It was extremely crowded on Walking Street but we made it through okay as long as we weren’t in a hurry and took our time. We found the “sugared fruit” kebob that we had seen before on TV (during the Olympics), Jacob had said he wanted to try but when it came to stepping up to the challenge….he backed down. The sugared fruit kebob contained a cherry tomato, a slice of melon, a purple grape, a slice of kiwi, a green grape, a section of orange and one other fruit that we had no idea what it was. All of this was on a wooden skewer coated in a thick glaze of sugar (see the photos). It was okay, perhaps just a little too much of the sugar coating but we ate it anyhow for the quick burst of energy. We went to UTown and found the battery we were looking for but it was too expensive and we settled for a knock off version of the battery for about 20% of the price of the original battery. What was most interesting was that the first Nikon place we stopped at actually opened the camera box and was going to sell us the battery that was supposed to go with the camera in the box. Interesting, anything for a sale I guess. Anyhow this isn’t the story; I’m trying to set the mood. After UTown, we stopped in a TGI Fridays for a mid-day snack. We came out and then headed to the corner to find a taxi. It’s a bad spot and usually takes a little more time to get a cab in this area but we weren’t in a hurry. After about 15 minutes, we see one coming and Tammy signals to the driver. The driver turns on his blinker and slows down to pick us up. All of a sudden, from our left comes a young Chinese couple. The young guy waves his hand and cuts us off as he heads for the taxi pickup point. This is when Tammy shows that she understands how things work here. She dodges to his right, out on to the street and hits the jets as she goes by the guy and gives him a little, light bump as she moves past him (just to let him know that it’s OUR taxi). Keep in mind that I was behind this action so I got to watch it in real time. I saw the guy and was thinking, “are they trying to steal our cab?” when she made the move (obviously, she picked it up a lot faster than I did). The guy just stepped back and didn’t say a word; he just accepted that he had been beaten at his own game. I was surprised but she just did what had to be done. They were going to take our taxi because they would get to it first, not because they flagged it down. At least that’s what they thought, but we flagged it and we were going to get it. Now they understand that although we will be polite and friendly, it doesn’t mean that you can walk over us, not when we have Tammy on our side.

Today (Sunday), we went to a small, shopping street just off Bar Street to look at jackets. Warren can wear the North Face jacket I picked up earlier this year but Tammy and Jacob both needed a good rain combo winter jacket before the cold rainy weather arrives. We stopped at several places to look and left without buying anything. In the final store, Tammy found a jacket but she could not come to agreement over the price. The store owner wanted 450, she offered 150. They haggled a little bit with Tammy not moving off the 150 price, which surprised him since he figured she would come off her price and be closer to his price (isn’t that how it supposed to work?). She walked out of the store without the jacket with the owner still trying to find a good price, he even offered the 150 RMB before I walked out with the kids to catch up to Tammy. He seemed a little dazed by the exchange and I gave him the look (I feel bad for you pal but you’ve got it easy….I’ve got to live with her. Of course I say this with love and because I know that she reads the blog and I don’t want to get my butt kicked.). We walked perhaps 100 yards down the street and around the corner when the shop owner ran up to us and offered the jacket at 140 RMB. So we turned around and went back to the shop to purchase the jacket, a very good knock-off jacket with a fleece zip-out liner (the best part is that she pulls out 200 RMB to pay for the jacket, I know this has got to drive them crazy). She asked if they (the shop was run by a husband and wife) had a jacket in Jacob’s size but they indicated they didn’t (I think they weren’t going to sell us another jacket at that price so they just said no, they had been beaten and they were cutting their losses. They made money on the jacket, no doubt since no one sells anything if they don’t make any money no matter how much they might fuss about it.).

After lunch at the Drunken Clam (yes I know, another bar….but the kids wanted to go! We had seen ads in the local magazines and decided to stop in and check out their sandwich menu. The sandwiches were really good and the place was empty so the kids could play pool while I watched NFL Network [Wo-hoo!!! NFL Network!!] on the big screen), we went back to Bar Street and found a jacket for Jacob for only 5 RMB different than her price but it took a lot more haggling with this shop owner. Still, she got two jackets for less than the price I paid for the jacket in April (d’oh!); I was schooled today in the art of negotiation (and so were the locals). The Chinese are just beginning to learn how my wife has adapted to living here. I can say this because I know first hand, watch out China for the Tàitai Terror (to quote Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, First Blood….I’m your worst nightmare). You can already figure out that I will work this to my advantage when I turn it over to “the closer” for all future negotiations.

Outward Bound

Jacob has posted his first experience at a birthday party here in Suzhou and now we turn the blog over to Warren to describe his experience at the Outward Bound Camp he went to as part of the school curriculum. The editor’s of the blog will lend a little bit of commentary to the blog within the “( )” otherwise, the story is Warren’s (and like any Hollywood movie, it is based upon a true story and actual events…with little “adjustments” to add a little bit of excitement and flavor).

The Outward Bound Camp is something the school added to bring kids from all over the globe together to learn to work as a team (and to indoctrinate them into the global culture….it takes a village, next week they sing the Obama song but they can’t post it on YouTube since that’s still blocked here). Each grade has a camp theme and activities. The Camp was held in Anjie and here’s the blurb about the camp from the SSIS website. “Focus of Grade 8 Camp Theme: The focus of the grade 8 camp/homeroom theme, Developing a ‘Sense of Self’, is for students to better understand what influences the way they view themselves and to develop strategies that will help them develop a positive and healthy self image. (sounds like a lot of psycho-babble doesn’t it…touchy-feely crapola!)

Packing: Mom contacted some other people from the PVO (Parent Volunteers Organization) to get some information on the camp. The one thing she found out is that the one night where we sleep in tents that we sleep in “rental” sleeping bags that may or may not be well used (in English, koodie alert!). So we went to Decathalon to look at sleeping bags or liners for sleeping bags (just to be sure he didn’t come home with some “uninvited guests”). Since the liner was 49 RMB and the actual sleeping bag was 69 RMB, we went ahead with the sleeping bag. It was larger but I thought it would still fit in my bag. I used the rolling duffel bag to carry my stuff since I needed several days of clothes and other stuff (including snacks since he wasn’t sure of the dining options….squid chunkies anyone?). It took several different attempts but everything was finally able to fit in the bag.

Day 1: Went to school as normal and then everyone gathered to load up for the 3 hour ride to Anjie. We used 3 of the school tour buses for everyone to ride. It was loud on the buses; it seems that some cultures speak very loudly regardless of the circumstances. You would think that these kids were yelling at each other but they are just talking. I tried to ignore them but it was tough. We got a bag lunch before we boarded so we ate while we traveled since it wasn’t clear if we were stopping for lunch (makes you wonder, are there rest areas like on the highways in the US and Europe?). We arrived in Anjie at a hotel to eat lunch, or our second lunch if we ate the bag lunch. There was deep fried chicken, ribs, green beans, rolls, and watermelon for lunch. Once we ate, we went out for a hike up the mountain. The minimum time for the hike was 2 hours, it took us about 4 hours to get up the trail. I slipped several times getting my shoes and pants muddy. There was a lot of bamboo on the trail. After the mountain, we walked through a village with the local wildlife running through the streets; dogs, chickens, etc. We got back on to the buses and rode for another 30 minutes to the campsite. The weather was bad, it had rained during the day and was supposed to rain through the night so there was a discussion about if we would sleep outside. Due to the weather, the decision was made to sleep inside a room that would fit 10 people; bunk beds were available so we didn’t sleep on the floor. There were only 7 kids in my room so it wasn’t crowded.

Day 2: Our day started with a 7:00 am wakeup call. I was up earlier than 7 due to the local chickens making plenty of noise starting early in the morning. At 6:30, I went outside and saw some locals walking bears (yes, bears). They appeared to be training the bears to walk on their hind feet and not all fours. They had the bears muzzled and a lease attached to the muzzle. If the bear got down and started to walk on all fours, the “trainer” would give them a crack of the whip and back up they would go. The bears were small (about 5’ high), black with white on their stomach. I got one photo of this (which you can find in the photo links). Anyhow, we packed our things and headed out to the hotel (where they would stay for the next night) by golf carts. When we got to the hotel, we dropped our bags off in the rooms and headed to breakfast. We had french fries, celery, green beans, noodles, roll type things (yes, that’s his very astute description, really narrows it down) along with hot juice and hot milk to drink on the menu for breakfast. After we ate, about 9:00, we met in the lobby to get on the golf carts to be taken to bamboo forest maze. It was supposed to be confusing but we (me and two other kids) found it to be simple and finished it in record time. We actually went through it again just because we had the time. We then went to raft building where we were given 8 inner tubes, 4 short pieces and 6 long pieces of bamboo and some rope to make our raft. It took us about 30 minutes to build the raft so it could float and hold 5 people. It had to float across the lake and back (about 25 meters across) with the 5 people. After that, we went back to the hotel, ate lunch. Lunch was fries, orange chicken, kung pao chicken, noodles, celery and bread. In the afternoon we walked to Roman catapult. We had 8 pieces of bamboo, 4 small pots and string to make our catapult. It took 15 minutes to build to try and shoot water balloons at the other team. After all the water balloons were gone, we went to rope walking. We had to rope walk across a small ravine. Once completed, we grouped together and went to the scenic spots. Each team had a tour guide and we had to take photos of our group around the entire park. Once that was finished, we went back to the beginning and then searched for food (this would be interesting, when I see what they eat I wonder what they would not consider eating). After this, we went back to the hotel at 5:00, dinner was scheduled for 7:00. Dinner consisted of chicken, fish, pork, corn, rice, vegetables, noodles and rolls. Then we prepared for the Talent Show. People had signed up for the talent show months back and so they got up and performed their stuff; dancing, singing, poetry, etc. After the talent show, it was time for bed.

Day 3: Again, the 7:00 am wakeup call for the day. We had to be eating by 8:00am and then be packed and ready to leave by 9:00 am. After the loaded the buses, we had to do our homeroom team work which was camp reflections, design a homeroom t-shirt, come up with a chant (and sing koom-by-ya). Our homeroom chant was “2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate, 8A”. (That’s right folks, I’m a very proud parent. What inventiveness! What creativity!) After this was finished, we got back on the buses for the return trip home. First we had to eat at a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese place. They had live ducks & chickens in cages just outside the restaurant door (now that’s fresh!), so we were a little nervous about this place. We had chicken, tofu, rice, corn on the cob, rolls and vegetables for lunch options. After that we got on the bus and headed back to SSIS. I slept a little on the way back since it wasn’t as loud on the return trip as it was on the way there. It rained on the way home and there was a leak on the top of the bus. When the buses stopped at a rest stop to help one child that wasn’t feeling well, the bus driver tried to close the “trapdoor” that was leaking and he could not get it done. It was funny to watch him use all his might but he couldn’t get it to budge. It remained open a little and the leaking continued but it wasn’t leaking on anyone so it wasn’t that big a deal.

That’s my trip to camp. It was fun.

Odds and Ends

So as you have read, we’re in the market to find a new place to live. We’ve decided to find a place that has more kids around so the boys can get out with someone their own age a little more (and get out some of their energy that they use bugging the crap out of each other, and of course Tammy and I). Tammy has been doing most of the legwork regarding the apartment hunt and I’ve kind of been on the outside of the hunt (let’s call it delegation). Up until recently I only saw two places, both at the Chateau Regency Towers. It’s still part of the Chateau property (where we are now) but the buildings are 26+ stories high and the apartments are owned by individuals who rent them out. It seems that real estate ownership is an investment opportunity that is common to both the US and China. During the expansion of Suzhou, the government “purchased” farmland to create the Suzhou Industrial Park. Depending on the amount of land that the farmer “owned”, they would be compensated in the form of property (specifically apartments) in one of the new apartment complexes being built in the area. So they could get multiple apartments, one to live in and others to rent out as a new income source. Of course this was mutually beneficial since the government could build the new manufacturing facilities for the business’ that wanted to come into the area (expanding the tax base) and the farmer’s went from a hard life to a more “comfortable” life that wasn’t as dependent on things like the weather. Anyhow, back to the story. This weekend, Warren, Tammy and I had a look at a few more places. Where was Jacob (you are wondering right)? Jacob was at another birthday party so he was able to escape the apartment search (why can’t I get invited to a birthday party?).

So we looked at several places, including a “villa” which was very reminiscent of the Virginia Highlands area in Atlanta with the exception of the traffic. It was a nice townhome area with a backyard that actually included a pomegranate tree (seriously, there were fruits ready to be picked). I know, a backyard…..I could actually cook on a grill (hambabas and hot dogs; and yes, it is spelled correctly. Hambaba is the Chinese term for hamburger. Jacob told me this, I told him he was crazy but after I looked it up it turned out he was right [darnit!].). The problem was that the complex was kind of out of the way and there wasn’t a good way to get around to anything (and I didn’t see any indications of kids no matter what the realtor said). It looked like there was an abundance of the places being renovated which also indicated to me that perhaps the long term viability wasn’t all it should be (but it is China and it seems things aren’t always built for the long term). The place was actually very large and was bigger than our home in Stockbridge but it just didn’t feel right (you know the seventh sense). The electric blue cabinets in the kitchen and the blue toilet, tub and sink in the one bathroom also was enough to make you wonder about the place (they were freaking B-L-U-E, even the realtor got a good laugh, who chose these colors….Poppa Smurf?). It appeared they turned the place over to 7 different people and each was given a room to decorate because it certainly didn’t flow at all from room to room (seriously, one room had dark colored furniture, the next was just plain varnished wood, then light colors, of course the blue rooms and the other bathroom with the black and white checkerboard [don’t come around here no more]). So we gave this one the thumbs down and continued our search.

We walked through an apartment with a full, wrap around deck. It was on the second floor and the deck was very nice but this place also had a major drawback. The furniture and décor was HIDEOUS. I’m not certain of the specific terms used to describe the decor, perhaps modern renaissance or something like that (I’ll coin the term Amadeus nightmare). All I know is that it was awful. I felt like I needed to wear a powdered wig and a puffy shirt to fit in (but I don’t want to be a pirate). It was like something from the movie Amadeus or another film of that era. I told the realtor that it was awful but I’m not sure she understood how bad it really was. The couch, chair and loveseat were all overstuffed dollhouse furnishings (I think I saw them in Modern Decorator magazine under the story title, Mistakes that Decorators Make. Who told these people that we like that kind of furniture?). So we laughed and moved on to the next place.

All-in-all, we found 2 possibilities out of the 5 places we looked at, and this is on top of the other places Tammy has seen. One of the places had no furniture and was just completed being renovated so we really need to see it cleaned up and with the furnishings to make a final decision on that place. We talk to the realtor to indicate our interest only to find out that the owner isn’t willing to put the furniture in the place because it has been loaned out to furnish another apartment for rent. WHAT?!?!? So you want us to rent the place but you have no furnishings? Something about this story doesn’t make much sense but we’re stonewalled here meaning we keep looking. It was an okay place and would’ve probably worked out okay for us and I guess you could say we’re lucky to find out that the landlord is a little nuts before we went ahead with the rental.

It’s pretty overwhelming because there are so many places available (they say the global crisis is over here in China but the number of expats here has really dropped off from last year and hasn’t rebounded which means there are a lot of empty apartments and with all of the new apartment units being built, it’s a renters market) and many look very similar. Then there’s the negotiations coming to ensure it meets our $$$ criteria. I look forward to this being over, it’s pretty stressful. The Chateau has its share of issues but there are no guarantees that the grass is greener at any other place. Let the buyer beware is still a good motto that could be used for this situation. The most important thing is to find a good realtor and good landlord since those are the people that will be taking care of your issues when you run into problems. If you can’t get anything fixed or repaired, you are in deep trouble (you can’t just run down to the Management office since in many cases there isn’t one and they don’t speak English…or so they say). It’s tough to remember that no matter how bad things may be (from a Western viewpoint), compared to the locals, we’re still living “high on the hog” (I’ll bet that doesn’t make much sense in Chinese) where we are. We’ll keep up the search and you’ll hear more about it upcoming posts.

Other things happening, China National Day (the 60th anniversary of the rise to power of the Communists Party so this year is a HUGE celebration) and Warren’s school trip to his Outward Bound Camp and our endeavor to learn the Chinese language, there’s a lot going on. We’ll try and stay on top of these posts since it seems we’re always a little behind. Keep checking in, take care.

National Day

National Day is a huge holiday and celebration in China. Today is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. I am watching the parade being telecast live from Beijing on CCTV. It is real interesting to see how controlled the activities are. The beginning of the parade showed President Hu riding in a car observing the soldiers and the military vehicles along the parade route. He would say something then the soldiers would sound back a response. Don't ask me what they said... the interpreter on CCTV did not repeat. When Hu got back to Tiananmen Square he did a speech celebrating the victories and the future of the country. The military parade began shortly after that. It began with the different branches of the military presenting to the government officials. It was interesting that the women's branch of the military presented after and looked "different" then the men's. You also notice that there are no "fat" or non-fit soldiers. Very interesting. After that completed, that is when the real excitement began... the heavy military machines! Tanks, airplanes overhead, more tanks, anti-aircraft artillery... I believe all of this military presence is to show the country that they are a strong and powerful force.

When Scott and I began trying to figure out what to do over this holiday (he has 5 days off, the kids have 12), we thought that wouldn't it be cool to go to Beijing and see the parade ~ then we realized that "what are we crazy?". The only people that are "allowed" on the streets and in the Square are the 30,000 people who have special invitations to witness the parade. The news channels (coming from advice from the gov't) has been telling people to stay home and watch it on tv. The gov't told people along the parade route to stay inside and close their window blinds. And the people obliged, but wouldn't you too?

We are going to go out later and walk up and around Jinji Lake to see what the street (lake) vendors are selling today. We figure that it should be interesting to see the Mao hats, posters, flags, t-shirts, etc that will be sold. Tonight there is going to be a huge fireworks display celebrating the day at the lake. We will take pics and post later (with our new camera).

The Rebuttal

So this morning (Sunday morning) I take a look at my wife’s post and realize that she’s hung me out there as a waffler (not to be confused with Alton Brown’s superhero, The Waffler [see Food Network]) on the apartment move. This necessitated my rebuttal post to ensure that the truth comes out (since we all know that the truth will set you free). Yes, we looked at the Chateau Towers and found a nice apartment but in my defense, she did nothing but talk about the Horizon apartments since she returned from being over there for an afternoon raiding a woman’s pantry so she was on a shopping high (just to clarify, the family in the apartment is heading back to the US at the end of the week so they needed to clean up and Tammy “helped them out”). So I simply asked the question, “Should we consider Horizon since there are more kids there and it seems you like the apartments there?” (Your honor, I’d like to admit that statement into evidence as Exhibit A) It’s a tough call since we both would probably stay here where we know people but we need to consider the kids and determine if they would rather be around other kids or surrounded by adults all the time. I have to note that she took my quote out of context, totally twisting my words (just like the “main stream media” back home) and therefore I had to post to set the record straight (if you find other posts of questionable content; you should forward those on to me so I can “set the record straight”). This is all in jest of course so don’t be concerned about our relationship; we’re just as “stable” as we have always been. So now the truth is out there, you can choose to believe who you want to believe.

So we’re into Football season now and it’s weird. I was able to watch some NFL Preseason games online and although the video feed was questionable, I could listen to the games and at least feel a little like I was “ready for some football”. However, we’re into week #2 and I realize it’s no use. I can’t see any game live since the game times don’t really fit into my schedule. Getting up at 1:00 am or 4:00 am to watch a game on a Monday morning doesn’t really make working go over well. Tammy is kind of used to being an NFL widow (and she does watch the games with me, unless it’s a Cowboys game because she knows I get too worked up) so she knows I love to watch my football. My lovely spouse actually accused me of getting up at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning to watch one of the Cowboy’s preseason games (a Saturday night game). I had to plead insanity because I actually woke up thinking it was Monday. So I got up, showered and after stepping out of the shower, realized it was Sunday morning. Of course, just to add to the idiocy of the move, I plugged my beard trimmer into the wall outlet and stepped out of the shower just in time to watch the plug-in transformer blow since the trimmer isn’t rated for the correct power. So she went from thinking I’m an idiot to get up to watch a football game to just thinking I’m an idiot (I don’t know which was more offensive). Anyhow, NFL games look to be pretty much out of the question unless I’m willing to adjust my schedule quite a bit. I keep up with the happenings as much as I can online but it’s not the same. When I get the scores, the games are over. You can’t get a feel for what’s really happening but I still love my football. I’d wear my Cowboy’s jersey to bed but Tammy might feel that I need a psychiatric evaluation to determine if this move has caused some kind of breakdown (you try and figure out what differentiates a breakdown and the “normal” me….now that’s a pretty fine line).

We have been able to get the NCAA games online and I have watched the last two Georgia games since those have been night games. Today we found out that ESPN will show some of the college football games. They showed the Tulsa v. Oklahoma and Oregon v. Utah game replays today. These weren’t the greatest games to watch but at least it was college football. This is the more local ESPN so it concentrates a lot on soccer, which is okay but I’d like to see American football. I was surprised to see NCAA football and I hope it continues.