PERSONAL SERVICE PERSONIFIED

Since this is everyone's first trip to China, it's difficult to say if customer service is always taken so seriously here. But the treatment the delegation has received at the hotel has been overwhelming. And it's not just the food, the beautiful rooms, and all the little extra touches.

Some examples:

The ratio of employees to guest is a good 3 to 1. It's almost too many. Sometimes you feel like you have to ask for something, just so they will be have something to do. You almost feel bad if you try and do something yourself, like refill your own coffee. As Sacha mentioned in his blog earlier, the noodle guy is a huge hit. And this morning he transformed into omelette guy. Two-for-two ...

One of the staffers (ok, it was your current blogger) had to quickly change for training yesterday because the team gear arrived late to the hotel. Said blogger may have left his clothes on the floor when leaving the hotel, only to return and find everything neatly folded at the foot of the bed and with a chocolate sitting on top of them.

There are six people assigned to the team-only floor and there is veritable army of bellmen to load and unload the equipment onto the bus every day. If this was an Olympic sport, the Chinese would be the gold medal favorites.

All of this is to say that the team is very grateful for the treatment given by our hosts so far. After such a long journey, it's really nice to be taken care of so well. Makes it a lot easier for the team to be focused on getting prepared to play on Thursday.