And his arrival in the Chinese capital – home to somewhere around 20 million people who speak a language entirely foreign to his own – was the first time the Crozet, Va., native had been to a big city.

“That as a really big eye-opener for me,” Martin says. “I really had no clue what to expect.”

He certainly wasn’t alone. Trip leader Myrrl Byler estimates that about one-third of the last 91����Ƶ group he led to China was flying for the first time, and the experience often represents students’ first time outside the United States. Byler, director of the program (a partnership between several church mission boards and , a relief and development non-profit), has led three-week cross-cultural study trips to China every May since 2004. In 2012, math professor was the faculty co-leader of the trip.

The curriculum includes an introduction to written and conversational Chinese, lectures on Chinese culture, tai chi classes, a several-day homestay with a Chinese family, and plenty of interaction with Chinese university students.

After some sightseeing in Beijing, Byler takes the group to a “smaller” Chinese city where they spend the majority of their time. In May 2012, the group went west to Nanchong, a Chinese city populated by around 1 million in Sichuan province. (Nanchong also rates “small” by another metric useful for assessing Chinese cities: it has just one McDonald’s).

With the enormous language and culture barriers, the unfamiliar food and the sometimes overwhelming attention that the group can attract from curious Chinese people with little exposure to foreigners, Byler says the trip forces students far out of their comfort zones. The homestay in particular, he says, can cause particular anxiety, although many of the students end up looking back on the experience as one of the highlights of the trip.

“You had to build patience,” says Valerie Burton ’10 Moore, who went on the China cross-cultural in the summer of 2010. “You just had to relax.”

New food experiences were among the things that placed demands on Moore’s patience and, ultimately, widened her horizons. These included all kinds of seafood, noodles for breakfast, unusual (from her American perspective) preparations of chicken, pork, duck and lamb, unfamiliar vegetables and dishes so spicy her nose broke out in a sweat. While she likely wouldn’t have tried these foods if the decision had been up to her, Moore eventually came around, and after returning home, resisted eating American “Chinese” food for more than a year – not wanting to tarnish the memory of the actual, real Chinese food she’d come to enjoy.

Moore, a four-year member of the 91����Ƶ soccer team, also says the attention she and the other students received from Chinese people took some getting used to.

“They almost treated us like celebrities,” she says. “They were gawking all the time.”

The American students’ height was often an object of great interest, as were those with blonde or red hair. 91����Ƶ senior Jennifer Blankenship, who went on the 2012 China cross-cultural, recalls Chinese people often crowding around members of her group, asking for autographs, or even pushing babies into the students’ arms for photo ops.

“Everybody wanted pictures with us wherever we went,” says Blankenship, a four-year member of the 91����Ƶ basketball team.

At least one basketball or volleyball game is usually on the agenda during the group’s visits to Chinese high schools and universities – often the Chinese school’s varsity team versus an ad-hoc team of cross-cultural students – as when Blankenship and a few other students played basketball against a Chinese team in Nanchong. Blankenship says the court was surrounded by hundreds of fans – more than typically attend her games at 91����Ƶ – and the atmosphere was electric.

“When I made a good pass or basket, everyone went crazy,” she says.

The attention wasn’t all positive, however. Dirty looks from men sometimes made female students feel uncomfortable, and Blankenship says some vendors tried to take advantage of the students’ naïveté by ripping them off. Blankenship, who is white, says the experience gave her insight into how minorities in the United States might feel when they are subject to discrimination based on skin color or unfamiliarity with American culture.

Blankenship, Moore and Martin all say one reason they chose the China cross-cultural was because it happens during the summer, when it didn’t interfere with their sports schedules. (Numerous athletes have been on Byler’s five summer cross-culturals to China, although he is now planning a semester-long trip for the fall of 2013, to be co-led with math professor .)

In almost all cases, Byler says, his students have arrived back home with new appreciation for travel and interaction with unfamiliar people and places, after being stretched out of their comfort zones by the trip.

Though he discovered he has a strong anxiety about flying, Martin said he “definitely wants to travel abroad again.”

Martin graduated from 91����Ƶ after the cross-cultural, and is now working in Harrisonburg. He will start a baseball-coaching job next spring at his alma mater, Western Albemarle High School outside Charlottesville, Va.

Blankenship returned home equally enthusiastic about the experience.

“I want to go back,” she says. “I have to take my future spouse. I want to share that. I can’t imagine only going that one time.”

By Heather Bowser, Daily News-Record

Perched in the third row of the 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium, Sue Blauch watched as sweat dripped down the faces of 2,008 fierce-looking Chinese drummers.

For nearly 10 minutes, the legion pounded red, glow-in-the-dark sticks into huge drums with perfect synchronicity. It was intimidating, she said. It was perfect. It was beautiful.

"To watch those drummers that close, that was amazing," Blauch said. "And they kneeled for 20 minutes before they ever started. They stayed perfectly still. It’s hard for me to imagine anything like it."

Sue Blauch, 43, of Harrisonburg, returned home this week from Beijing, where she refereed seven Olympic women’s basketball games, including the bronze medal game. (Photo by Michael Reilly)

Two hours later, after Blauch watched 13,000 more Chinese men and women perform in the artistic segment of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, nearly 10,500 athletes marched into the stadium, only yards from her seat. The president of the United States and the first lady, she later learned, were sitting 10 rows behind her.

Blauch was no ordinary spectator. She was on the job.

The 43-year-old Harrisonburg woman was one of about 30 referees chosen from around the globe to officiate men’s and women’s basketball at the Olympics. She was one of only two American refs and the only woman in the crew.

After the games wrapped up more than two weeks of competition on Sunday, Blauch returned to the Friendly City toting all the memories of the sports, her job and that first night in Beijing.

"Sometimes, I have to pinch myself," Blauch told the Daily News-Record in an interview in her home on Chestnut Drive. "Did I just do that? Did I just go to the Olympics? I’m a very ordinary person and I’ve gotten to do some extraordinary things. It doesn’t quite seem real; it’s amazing."

The daughter of Harrisonburg residents Dale and Miriam Blauch, the "ordinary" girl grew up in Short Gap, W.Va., and later transferred to Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg. A few years later, in 1986, she graduated from Eastern Mennonite College, now University.

She had a basketball in her hands the whole time.

Eventually, her love of the sport pushed her toward officiating and, from there, she took off. For the last 18 years, Blauch has worked her way up as a referee for women’s amateur, college, professional and international basketball. She regularly works games all across the United States and has traveled abroad several times for major competitions.

Blauch’s journey to the Olympics began in February, when a committee of higher-ups from USA Basketball nominated her for the honor. She was selected from about two dozen American referees the committee had to choose from.

Although Olympic refs don’t get paid for working the games, her travel, accommodations and food were paid for by USA Basketball and the international Basketball Federation.

The honor of being a ref in the Olympics is generally given to officiators only once.

Work And Play

On Aug. 1, after 18 hours of flying, Blauch landed in China and hit the ground running. (Her luggage, unfortunately, wouldn’t arrive from Canada, where she departed, for a few more days.)

91����Ƶ a day after touching down, Blauch left to officiate three games in the Diamond Ball tournament in Haining, China. The event was a preliminary tournament for the Olympics.

On Aug. 9, the day after the opening ceremonies, the real work began.

"The Olympics have a different feel because when the players are competing for their country, there’s a different level of intensity," she said. "But there’s still a certain level of respect for the refs."

91����Ƶ 10 minutes before each game, the announcers introduce each player and then both national anthems are played. Next, the teams and referees exchange gifts.

Referees in international basketball often exchange gifts at all big meets, typically giving each other pins. In the U.S., Blauch works for the WNBA, so she brought novelty items and socks stitched with the league’s logo to give.

Over the next two weeks, Blauch officiated seven games, culminating with the bronze medal game between Russia and the host Chinese team.

In the evenings and on her six days off, Blauch and her ref friends soaked up China and its culture, touring Beijing and surrounding areas. They saw the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Silk Street and various temples and attractions in between.

"I became very, very good at charades," she said. "And I ate a lot of kung pow chicken."

She did not, however, taste any of the exotic snacks, such as the famous scorpion-on-a-stick.

"I wasn’t that adventurous," she said.

The Road Home

Blauch’s adventures came to a close on Sunday as she left China and returned home. She arrived in Harrisonburg early Monday morning and has spent the last few days adjusting to life after the Olympics.

On Tuesday, she will jump back into the saddle and ref a WNBA game in Washington, D.C. She’ll work five more games over the next two weeks.

"As long as it’s fun and I’m healthy, I’ll keep going," she said.

For now, though Blauch will spend the weekend enjoying the companionship of her close family, two labs and friends.

"This was the chance of a lifetime," she said.

Part of the 91����Ƶ group had arrived in Beijing May 12 just before the earthquake struck. The city of Chengdu, located in southwest province of Sichuan and epicenter of the 7.8 earthquake, was to have been the center of the 91����Ƶ group’s three-week experience.

“We received word in bits and piece from our program leaders that all were safe,” reports Beth Aracena, associate dean for curriculum and 91����Ƶ’s cross-cultural program. “We communicated the group’s safety immediately to parents of the students. Since then we have since turned our thoughts and prayers to the many people of China who are enduring great suffering.”

The cross-cultural study plans included three days of visits to historic and religious sites in Beijing, followed by two weeks in the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Chengdu University of Technology. Students were to stay on campus with Chinese peers.

Leah Boyer, assistant professor of physics, is the faculty member leading the group and a Chinese-born American.

“I am so proud of this group of students. They are really handling the situation really well,” Dr. Boyer said. “Our prayers go out to the thousands of people here in the aftermath of the destruction.”

Also accompanying the students is Jonathan A. (Jon) Kratz, director of international student services for 91����Ƶ.

The group is scheduled to return to the United States on June 5.

Sue Blauch is living a once-in-a-lifetime hoops dream.

For 15 years, the Harrisonburg resident has been a referee for women’s amateur, college and professional basketball.

This year, the stage will get even bigger for Blauch. She will be one of about a dozen women’s basketball referees for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, said B.J. Johnson, USA Basketball’s manager of competitive programs.

And Blauch, 43, will be the only American referee for the women’s games.

Sue Blauch, 43, of Harrisonburg, was selected to be the only women’s basketball referee from the United States to work the Beijing Olympics. Blauch brings the competitive drive of a player to her officiating duties. Photo by Nikki Fox

A committee of “higher-ups” from USA Basketball nominated Blauch in February from a pool of about two dozen qualifying American referees, Johnson said.

“She’s one of our best,” he said. “This is our highest honor.”

Once Upon A Basketball

Blauch’s story begins in a small town in West Virginia.

Growing up in Short Gap, W.Va., she’s had a basketball in her hands since she was in third grade.

“I would just play for hours,” said Blauch, the daughter of Harrisonburg residents Dale and Miriam Blauch.

She played on teams, went to camps and shot hoops with the neighbors and her father. In 1980, after her sophomore year at Frankford High School, Blauch transferred to Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, where she lived as a boarding student and played for the Flames.

In 1986, Blauch graduated from Eastern Mennonite College (which became 91����Ƶ in 1994), where she and her team clinched the school’s first women’s Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship. Read more about women’s basketball at 91����Ƶ…

“I’d have been dangerous had I been 6 feet tall,” said Blauch, who, at 5 feet 7 inches, played forward. “I loved banging around at the post position.”

After graduation, her playing career came to a close.

But Blauch managed to keep her foot on the court by coaching at Eastern Mennonite while working part time in various capacities at the school. All the while, she said, “officiating had never entered my mind.”

That mindset changed in 1988, when Blauch took a full-time job as a recruiter for 91����Ƶ. Suddenly, she was spending her evenings during basketball season traveling to college fairs around the state, rather than coaching.

She had run out of time for fun.

“It was the first time I didn’t have a basketball season,” she said. “I missed it so much.”

Donning Stripes

That’s when she decided to put on stripes.

At the request of some friends, Blauch began volunteering as a referee for a church league in Harrisonburg. Although she had never officiated before, the thought of being back on the court struck a chord.

“I was really nervous,” she said.

Nervous or not, she quickly developed a knack for refereeing.

“I found that I could take my competitiveness that I had as player, and transfer it,” she said.

With that, the hobby grew.

From the church league, Blauch expanded her officiating to local high schools, mostly in Augusta County. From there she moved on to college leagues, international basketball and then the pros.

The job became full-time in 2001, requiring her to spend weekends, nights and vacations traveling the world, lugging her whistle and striped shirts.

During her downtime, which was limited, Blauch managed to find time to earn a master’s in education from James Madison University. In the slower seasons, she worked part time in sales and marketing for her cousin’s plumbing business, Blauch Brothers, a job she continues today.

But it was the officiating, she said, that strummed at her heartstrings.

Since 1992, Blauch has officiated four armed forces national championships. She’s reffed semifinal, quarterfinal and regional final rounds of the NCAA tournament and the playoffs for the WNBA.

Outside the U.S., she officiated at the World Youth Games in Russia, the Junior World Championship in Argentina and again in the Czech Republic. In 2005, she was a referee for the World University Games in Turkey and, the next year, the World Championships in Brazil.

Olympics

On July 31, Blauch will leave for China.

First, she’ll ref at the Diamond Ball tournament in Hangzhou, China, and then for the Olympic Games, starting Aug. 8. Although she doesn’t know how many games she’ll officiate, she estimates it will be between seven and 10.

This will be her one and only Olympics, however, because the honor is given only once.

For now, Blauch plans to officiate at the college, professional and international level at least seven years, when she will turn 50. After that, she wants more time to work in her yard and enjoy the companionship of her close family, two labs and friends.

“Officiating gets into your blood,” Blauch said. “I feel like I’m an athlete in stripes.

“There are a lot of people who spend a lifetime just doing a job,” she continued. “I get to do something I love.”