Let The Blogging Begin….

I remember in the spring of my first year at Maple Leaf School I started hearing the murmurs of a hockey tournament known simply as: “Dong Bei” (meaning North East - since that is where we are in China). I quickly became aware of the culture, dedication, determination, competition and passion that went into this tournament at our school. This competition takes over not only our school, but our community for a good half the year with talks of players and teams beginning sometime in October, if not earlier… and progressively builds in fervor until May when the tournament officially begins. Its originator is none other than Commission E himself, Craig Engleson… he has been the man behind the wheel of this endeavor and it has grown to include student and women’s teams as well.

Loving all things active and competitive, I knew that I had to be a part of it… in my first year here and year’s since, including the present one, two female teams battle it out for the bragging rights of champion. It is great being able to get out there and release some energy, rough it up a bit and just have some fun. It is definitely one of those things that I will miss when my time in Dalian comes to an end… (still have one more year in me here for those of you wondering).

Here are some pics of years previous… can’t wait to post up some new ones from this year’s showing…

Year One:

Year Two:

Susan practicing her positioning on the court… haha…