Sub20 ice hockey world championship

The championship is being held in Logroño this week. They started on Saturday and end on Thursday. Sub20 stands for Under 20s, rather than the temperature in fahrenheit as I'd first thought. (Photo: With one of the Chinese officials and the Chinese flag- treachery! Treachery!)

Back in December, when I went to the gym one day, the woman at the front desk asked me randomly if I could speak Chinese. I said yes, so she told me I should volunteer to help out at the tournament. She explained that there'd be six countries, including China, competing and I'd be able to help out translating if needed. By my calculations, that was over 100 young, buff male hockey players so I was like, sure (with a big grin on my face).

So on Saturday, they asked me to accompany the Chinese team around while they were training and playing their matches and help them out with anything they needed. I turned up at 9:30 am, after 3.5 hours of sleep, still with alcohol in my system and had to switch between Chinese and Spanish for the next four hours. I haven't had to speak Chinese since about 18 months ago and thought my head would explode. Luckily, Millán was also volunteering, along with his hockey teammates and he'd told them I'd be there so a few of them came up to me and were very friendly and helpful. Afterwards, I went home, had a siesta and got a panicked phone call at 6:30 pm from the woman organising the volunteers, saying 'Your team has arrived! Where are you?' No one had told me I was needed in the afternoon as well.

The Chinese team played their first match against Spain on Saturday night and got slaughtered. Still, I got to sit with the players and trainers right next to the rink, which was really cool. Millán told me it was a bit dangerous because there's no protective glass so there's the potential a puck might come flying and knock out your teeth.

I also went in this afternoon while they were training, but they didn't need anything so I went to the gym. One of the volunteers introduced me to one of the chief members of International Ice Hockey Federation, who was working out on a bike, and told him to ask me if he needed anything, since he couldn't speak Spanish. He was from Slovenia, and we had a nice chat about Ljubljana, Sydney and his leg injury.

It's been quite nice speaking in Chinese with the Chinese officials, although with their Beijing accent, I don't always understand what they're saying. And they told me I had a funny accent, ha! I think every language has a different flow, and Chinese is quite soothing.