let the games begin...

Olympics by the Numbers:
$20,000,000,000 on Opening Ceremony (still need credible source)
7,000,000 tickets sold
91,000 seats in the Bird's Nest
80,000 square meters = size of the Water Cube
21,600 journalists
17,000 seats in the Water Cube
10,694 athletes
2,924 judges and referees
2001 the year the Beijing was awarded the Olympics
906 medals awarded
302 medal events
37 venues
18 days of competition
12 new venues
6 co-host cities

Ok, I'm not going to sit here and pretend I found all this information. INFO 2008, the program we use to get biographies on the athletes, provided me with these fun facts. Each day they are going to have information like this, I will provide you with the numbers each day.

These were the daily fun facts:
- 12,738 medals have been awarded in the Olympics
- no individual has won more than 9 Gold medals
- YAO Ming (CHN) is tallest athlete at the Beijing Olympics

Daily Olympic News:

• the first medal given at the Beijing 2008 Olympics was given to Katerina Emmons, who broke a World Record in shooting.
• Michael Phelps beat the Olympic Record during his qualifying race today...without his lzr suit
• the USA Women's Fencing Team swept the medals
• because of the above fact the USA is leading in medals
• the USA Women's Soccer Team beat Japan
• as of right now the Women's Basketball Team is winning their opening match

As I mentioned this morning I had today off so Andrea and I did one last run to the Silk Market. It actually wasn't that bad; I feel as though I mastered the system. I still don't want to come home to set prices and price tags. Blah.

I already told most of you in an email, I was not the tourist killed today in Beijing. I want to qualify that with the fact that it is INCREDIBLY safe here. Regardless what you might hear back at home, I have never once felt threatened nor have I taken any of the precautions to guard my money or objects like I did in Europe. If you read the articles you will see that any attacks on a foreigner carry a far worse penalty than if on a Chinese person. DO NOT WORRY. Things are very safe here, especially when we are at the Velodrome. This was an isolated incident that is very out of character for most of the Asian population.

Right now we are trying to find one CCTV channel that is playing the swimming qualifying races from today. I already know all the results because I sat here with live update. Apparently rewatching the tiny Chinese girl win the Gold for the 48kg weight lift is far more important than watching Michael Phelps achieve an Olympic Record in the 400m Individual Medley.

I hope I have redeemed myself for the error in judgement to not post photos. I also encourage you all to watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XbIZqg4v7w It is my new favorite song and I am feverishly learning all the words so I can sing it at all holidays, birthdays, football games, basically anytime more than one person is in attendance.

I have some videos to show you, however it takes over an hour to upload so I will work on that tomorrow. Swimming finally came on so I am going to watch that. BYE!