We're talkin soooftbaallll

This weekend I enjoyed my first games of softball in Shanghai. I was introduced to a couple guys by a friend at work who needed people for their team. I must say it was quite a nice time. Our team is made up of about half American and half Canadians. While softball is important to them, it would seem drinking is priority one. I met them at Oscar's Pub, which is sponsoring our team, at about 9 15 Sunday morning. In addition to having a small bus that got us to the game, they had a large cooler of beer ready to go.

The field was a little ways away but was quite nice. It's a well-organized league, and we got in two games on Sunday. There were few highlights apart from us losing both games (one close, on embarrassing). I actually hadn't played softball since senior year of college, so I was pretty happy that the rust wasn't too intense. They have me playing shortstop but I have no idea why. Anyways, it was a good mix up softball, bullshitting, and drinking. Also, one guy one our team dislocated his shoulder diving for a ball. Good times all around.

The people on my team are almost all older. I'm the youngest person and most people seem to be in their mid late 30s. While that kind of put me off at first, I soon realized most of these people are quite, shall we say, young at heart. One guy, in particular, is called Canada. He's 42 and acts like he's a 16 year-old on meth. Everyone is just fun, nice, and doesn't tend to throw up too much bullshit.

The interesting thing about this league is that there is quite the mix of teams. Some teams are mostly westerners but other teams are groups of expats from all over the place. The second team we played on Sunday was entirely from Japan. The expat population here is interesting. It's relatively tightly knit, as there just arent that many foreigners in the city. I must say though, everyone is extremely nice and happy to meet new people. I guess living here makes meeting people that you tend to already have things in common with a special occasion. It makes for a fun atmosphere. In the US, I tended to stay within basic social circles. Making attempts to meet people and broaden horizons almost seemed taboo. Here, it's pretty much a social free-for-all.