Slave labor

When we first got here a few weeks ago, all three of us UNC interns were asked to join in on a friendly swimming competition--"Just for fun," they said. A young woman in the office came over and asked for my birthdate, the swimming stroke I wanted to use, and whether I wanted to swim 50 or 100 meters.

I told her I didn't really want to compete. She began to look nervous, and I asked her if it was okay that I didn't do it. She looked around and said she would have to ask. Of course, that made me feel like I had no choice, so I was pressured into the swimming competition. I signed up to do 50 meter freestyle. Later that day, she said there was no 50 meter event in my age group, and that I would have to do the 100 meter.

Then I realized that the only bathing suit I brought with me would probably be too revealing for the conservative Chinese swimmers, and since Debbie was headed back to the States and I brought too many clothes, I asked her to take some back with her--including my bathing suit. Of course, this gave me a convenient excuse to opt out of the swimming competition. I went over to Mike, the guy who has been coordinating the "friendly competition," and told him I had no suit. Of course, his first response was, "Oh, I can show you where to buy one." I told him I didn't want to buy a swimsuit, and he said that was fine, and I was out.

The next day, Dan and Brian started their swimming practice. (For the record, "friendly" competitions don't have practices or required strokes) Mike asked the boys why I didn't want to just go buy a new swimsuit, and in trying to cover for me, Brian said, "Oh, you know. She just graduated college and she doesn't have a lot of money." He tried, but it actually backfired.

The next day, Mike came back to me and said, "We really need you to participate because you are on a team and without you that team can't compete. The company will buy you everything you need--swimsuit, goggles, and swim cap."

It should be noted that I was not told about the team portion of the "friendly competition" until this moment. They expect us to swim 100 meters alone, and then 50 meters on a team relay. So have they not only been pressuring us to do this, but also keeping us in the dark about what he actually have to do.

At this point, I was sick of it. I said, "That's nice, but I don't want to do it." I know I repeated versions of that statement at least 8 times during our conversation. He asked why I didn't want to, and I didn't have a good reason to offer. Part of it is just that it doesn't interest me. I don't swim very fast and I'm not in shape. The other part, which I was afraid to say for fear of offending someone, was the water.

We are told not to drink the tap water in China because it's not clean. The pool has some chemicals, but it isn't chlorinated, so I have no idea how clean the pool water is and I didn't want to swim in water that wasn't clean. Apart from swallowing water in my desperate attempt at swimming more than one pool's length, there's something about knowing that the possibly gross pool water is all over me.

So after I told Mike several times that I didn't want to, he walked away. About 5 minutes later, he came back with the boys behind him and said, "Come on, let's go shopping." I wasn't being given a choice anymore, and it made me angry, but what could I do?

Of course, the Chinese women's bathing suits almost all looked like they were suits for 6-year-old girls, complete with tiered skirts, bows, and other frills. I found one relatively normal-looking one-piece suit, but they laughed at me when I asked to try it on. I was afraid that I would get it home and it would be too short on me because I'm tall, so I decided I would be better off with a two-piece that covered my torso.

As it turned out, the suit I selected is very cute (ke ai, in Chinese, as Fiona said later). But I still don't like being forced to do something I don't want to do.

At the pool after work, I made it one length of the pool (25 meters) with no problem. About halfway down the second time my leg started aching. I hopped over to the side of the pool (because fortunately the water is not over my head for most of the length), and stretched a bit expecting it to pass. Then I tried again after about 10 minutes of rest. The same thing happened--halfway down, my leg started hurting again. It wasn't a cramp, and it wasn't sharp pain, just a deep ache. I got out of the pool to stretch, and I realize it was my left knee, on which I had ACL reconstruction in 2003.

It's been a long time since I've been swimming, so I resolved to see how it feels the next time I swim. I swam the length of the pool once more, and then I sat out of the pool the rest of the time we were there. The competition was supposed to be tomorrow morning, so I was at least able to tell myself that it will be over soon. But just before I started this post, Mike came over to tell me that it has been moved to Wednesday of next week, so we now have more practice time. He's so thoughtful.

If they're going to force us to practice every night for a week and then particpate, they should at least be paying us overtime.

At any rate, I get out of swim practice tonight because I have been assigned a story. I will be covering the kickoff India Film Festival in Beijing (not to be confused with the well-known Indian Film Festival). I tried to research the event, but I can't find any information about it, except on the website of the theatre that's hosting it. I'll bring photos home with me, as well as a more accurate description.