:: While You Were Sleeping ::

beginning of the end...

2008-08-24T13:49:00.002+08:00

It has been seven weeks, some felt longer than others, but our time here is down to two days. It's hard to wrap myself around the idea that I just spent seven weeks in China; it's even harder to fathom that I worked at the Olympics. Nine months ago, when I first applied for this opportunity it seemed like such an impossibility. There were 6,000 students qualified to apply for this position; I didn't think I stood a chance. Now I sit here wondering how I am ever going to watch the Olympics again without wishing I was standing there. As cliche as it sounds, it was dream come true. I have heard that word uttered over and over again during the last two weeks, but I can't think of any other way to put it. Ever since I was a little kid my Mom and I watched the Olympics together. I thought one day I would participate as an athlete, maybe in ice skating or soccer. I was never good enough for that, but deep down I always resolved that simply attending the Olympics would be perfect. Over the years I grew out of my naivety and realized a trip to the Olympics was no easy fete. With each passing Olympics I slowly squashed any ideas of me ever attending the Games. It's sad what adulthood can do to our imagination.

Then last September came. The opportunity of a life time weaseled its way into my life. Of course none of us can predict the future, but had I followed the plan I started with when I left for college four years ago this never would have happened. It's just amazing how a few choice decisions paved the way for this. My departure is bittersweet. There are countless reasons I want to leave, none of which I will get into here, but just as I convince myself that I am ready to leave I start to think about what I will miss. I know this feeling all too well; it was the exact same thing that happened when I was in Italy. More than anything I want to go home to my bed, my family and friends, American food, and a car. But I know that after 48 hours I will be longing for the people, the sites, cycling, and maybe even a box lunch.

My expectation was that we would come here, work together, and then go home to our separate lives again. I again under estimated the power of study abroad, limited entertainment, and living in a confined space together. Study abroad has this amazing power. I don't know what it is....being together 24-7, funny cultural differences, food cravings or insanity, but it has this ability to pull people together. I can't explain it. The things that went on here, Peking Opera make-up, Donatas nights, taxi rides, Silk Market, Chris Hoy, "blah, blah, blah," spidey sense, etc are some of the funniest moments of my life. Once again I find myself wondering how I lived without these people. With Italy it was hard because everyone was across the country, Connecticut, Kansas, Texas, but this time it is the world. Yes, all the Purdue people live in Chicago or Indiana, but Krystyna, Ernst, Amy, and Andy live all over the world...England, Holland, Australia, and Spain. I guess I'll just have to visit. (I really need to get a job that pays well!!)

Once again I have been lucky enough to have an incredible experience. I have learned so much over the last few weeks. No only about other people and the Chinese culture, but about myself. I am so fortunate that I had studied abroad before this because I was able to do things differently this time. Many people have asked me which was better, Italy or China. They are too different to compare. Italy was that first leap, proving to myself that I could live away from home for 3.5 months, and learning the ins and outs of traveling abroad. China was about fulfilling a dream. I live and breathe sports so seeing and working at the ultimate sporting event mind-boggling. At times, I don't even feel like it has actually happened; it has almost been an out of body experience, like I am watching myself in a movie. If I do nothing else of importance in my life (God I hope that is not true) I can always cling to my weeks working in the Velodrome.

Today is the last day with all of us here, Lauren leaves tomorrow, a bunch of us leave Tuesday, and then the last group goes Wednesday. Today is chalk full of free meals, good-byes, and last hurrahs. CUC is giving us a free lunch downstairs in the restaurant. Tan, a Purdue alumna, is making us dinner at her mansion somewhere in Beijing (apparently it is a subway and bus ride away...BOOOOOOOO) and then we are going to try and meet up with the managers that are left. Maybe I don't really want to leave after all.

we are the champions...

2008-08-22T01:26:00.002+08:00

Oh. My. GOD.

I don't even have the words to express the excitement and torture that was tonight. I am too hyped up to even write anything. This was the single greatest night of my life. I watched them Women's Soccer team win Gold and I just cannot explain it. I had a blog idea while I was walking to the subway and I already forgot it. My mind is a million miles a second; I don't think my fingers will ever catch up. I feel like I am being flash quoted and all I keep saying is "I'm so happy. I'm so happy." But I am. I felt like I was part of that team tonight. I felt every frustration, every bad touch, every misplaced kick. When Hope Solo would dive through the air to block a kick I felt the thud of her landing. For all the shots that were mere centimeters off I let out the same sigh of relief the players did. With 30 seconds left and a Brazil corner kick pending I closed my eyes, thankful, like the girls on the bench, that I was not out there.

There is nothing like the Olympics. It has such a power to move people. I have never had that feeling at the Bears game. I felt like my entire life had been working to this moment, yet I was simply sitting in the stands watching. I always wished I would compete in the Olympics, first it was ice skating then soccer. The reality is, I never came close. Heck, I couldn't even make starter on varsity soccer, let alone attempt to be a sub on the USA Women's team. As I sat in the stands I knew this is the closest I would ever get to that dream. Those last 30 or 40 seconds ticked away slowly, dreadfully slowly. The only comparable experience is that of the minutes before taking a final, where you can no longer cram because you are too busy panning out all the possible situations. The what ifs. What if they get a break away? What if we foul in the box? What if they score? It's amazing how many thoughts can race through our minds in such a short period of time.

I will never be able to put into words what I felt tonight. The relief I felt when the game was finally over. The compassion and sympathy I felt for the Brazilian woman who just played 120 minutes of spectacular soccer, yet have to stand up on the podium as second best. Or the pride I felt for my country as I watched our flag being raised with the Star Spangled Banner playing the background. I am not a good enough writer to recount the evening in such a way that it makes you trade places with me, makes you feel like you were there standing next to me. All I can say is, I will never forget this night. AHHHHHHH!

and the gates are down...

2008-08-19T07:27:00.004+08:00

Since my blog marathon last Sunday I have been on auto-pilot, going non-stop for the last three days. Sunday night there was only one cycling final, so generally it was a fairly easy night. Stupid Great Britain didn't show up, AGAIN for the press conference. Personally, I think it is completely inappropriate that a medalist does not show up for the press conference following the race, not to mention it makes our job difficult. Despite the seemingly easy night I had zero time to do anything else other than lay in my bed and fall asleep. Both Monday and Tuesday we had a lot of medal events so those were crazy nights. I worked a full day Monday. BMX training started Monday so they needed some of us there to talk to the athletes. The BMX riders are so laid back; they are more than willing to talk to anyone and really want to get the sport out there. Unlike with the track people, we were able to wander anywhere, even back by their little rooms. I "ate" what I hope to be my last Chinese box lunch. And by that I mean, rice and chili sauce. I cannot wait to never EVER see a Chinese box lunch again.

Monday night I was copy taker, which meant I sat by the computer and typed in all the quotes after people got them. Tuesday was just utter chaos because in the Men's Madison (similar to the points race, but you have partners and you fling them as a boost to go faster...weird junk) Argentina upset everyone, the Spanish got Silver and the Russians got Bronze. Essentially meaning we were relying on the reporters to translate for us. They were all actually really nice, I used my charming smile and cute red hair to get the Russian journalists to translate. They wouldn't do it for Jason so I sent him away and asked in my sweetest voice if they would translate for me. I think that is the first time I played the girl card. It's quite powerful.

We heard the British anthem a few more times. It is actually very nauseating. We heard a stat the other day from a British reporter, "If the British cycling team was a nation they would be third in the medal count." That's crazy! If I never hear about the British cycling team again, other than if they lost, I will die a happy person. The US proved to be a horrible track cycling team. The girls should have been medal contenders but they both fell short of even making it into the medal races. In Sarah Hammer's defense she was taken out really early in the Points Race and broke her collar bone, but still...come on ladies! I have been so exhausted the last few nights. Tuesday night we didn't get home until 11 and then had to be up today at 6:00am. I know that isn't the end of the world, but when you have been chasing people all day trying to get quotes and dealing with Witchy and Pinky (who, by the way, was wearing a radioactive green shirt on Tuesday, still NOT attractive) you are beat.

Today started BMX competition. To be honest it was kind of lame. The first two hours was watch time-trials all to be seeded for the different heats. It is actually kind of stupid because the time-trial is so different from the actual race that it really does nothing to predict who will win the heats. The reason for it is to place the riders in their gate numbers. The US is looking pretty good. There is only one woman, but the men all made it through quarterfinals and on to semi-finals. I would love more than anything to have a sweep, but I'll take a Mike Day Gold medal if that is all I can get. One the time-trials were over it got much better. The announcer was the most annoying man on the planet. I am fairly convinced that he is from California and best friends with John Madden. One of my favorite lines of the day was "And this is Billy Bob and boy does he love BMX." Honestly man?! What person PARTICIPATING in BMX at the Olympics doesn't LOVE BMX. Thank you Madden. Each and every race he said, "and the gates are down..." Seriously, it gets old after about two times. I got close to taking the mic away and announcing the event myself. Anyway, listen for him tonight. ANNNOYING!

Today I was back in the broadcast area getting translations from everyone under the sun. Two French girls, a french guy, two Latvians, a Colombian. Of course none of us know any of these languages so we are at the mercy of the TV people to give us an accurate translations. The French camera man was the best! Not only did he translate, but he listened back to get the real translation. Him and I are best friends. I don't even have to ask anymore and he gives me the translation. I like that.

We went to the now infamous Annie's again. I had the creamy spinach ravioli again, I never know when I might ever eat this again so I had to soak up all it's goodness. I think the sauce is an Alfredo sauce, and as long as I learn how to make spinach ravioli I am golden. Traci said she would make it for me. I told her I could make her tacos...I am such a chef. Maybe I'll make her my special rice stuffed tomatoes. YUMMMY!

Tomorrow is probably the single greatest day of my entire life. I know, how can I choose one given all I have been through, but this might take the cake. Per some advice from a very wise woman (Mom) I bought at ticket to go see the Women's Bronze and Gold Medal soccer games tomorrow!!! For as long as I can remember I have wanted to play soccer for the USA team. Seeing as I turned down my place on the team, I was just too good, I thought this can take the place of that dream. Val and I are so incredibly excited. The USA is playing in the Gold medal match against Brazil (who could ask for anything better?!) and I will be there! In group 15, section 115 row 7. I have zero clue where that is, and I don't care. I already have my USA shirt and I might go pick up some more Olympic gear tomorrow (that might actually means I will).

Well I have BMX really early, then a day of shopping (I am currently participating in the shopping marathon event, right now I am in 2nd but I feel with the USA Olympic store trip I will easy jump to Gold), and the soccer game. Long, but super exciting day. Hope for some medals! We have to stay on top! I can't hear the Chinese national anthem one more time. I will hurt myself.

world record blogging...

2008-08-17T09:22:00.003+08:00

World Records are being broken all over the place at these Olympics. I decided to get in on the action and go for the record of most blogs written in a 3 hour time span. As long as I finish in the next half hour I think I might achieve this fete.

Yesterday was a big day. I have already told you of the velodrome excitement, but it gets better. We had tickets to see the Athletics (Track and Field) events at the Bird's Nest. Seeing as they couldn't spare any of us, we brought clothes with us and a few of us rushed to the nest following the last "press conference." Chad and I were in one cab and arrived just as they were calling out the names for the Men's 100m Sprint. Instead of trying to find our actual seats I decided to push down as far as I could on the bottom tier. Sometimes I love that China doesn't really have any rules. No one stopped me, and I wasn't in my volunteer uniform. I was able to get almost all the way to the bottom and could easily see the race. The Usian Bolt from Jamaica claimed the title as "Fastest Man Ever," taking it away from Johnson. The best part of the race was that he won it while pounding his chest, boasting and bragging. Any other time I would have been disgusted by the arrogance, but it was just too funny to watch him not even finished yet and pounding his chest in victory. There was no medal ceremony for that last night, it is tonight. Boo.

I went camera CRAZY last night. I took over 100 photos and a few videos. Nothing could put me in a bad mood. I don't care that I saw only one event, I at least got to walk in the Nest. We had many photo shoots that night. Chad and I had moved down closer to take pictures of us in the stadium with the torch in the back and some big Asian man wanted to take a picture with Chad because they were similar size. Then his wife wanted to take a picture with me, followed by another man wanting a picture with Chad, then one with me, then one with both of us. (Thoughts of Christmas photos are starting to come flooding back.)

The next photo shoot was pure hilarity. Jane wanted one of all the Purdue people that had made it to the Nest, all of us decked out in USA gear. She asked Leo, the Aussie prof to take the photo. He took the first one with minimal difficulty. When he went for the second camera he had it upside down. So he turned it around, but it was still upside down. Then he didn't hold it down long enough to take the shot. While he was having troubles, a few Asian on lookers decided they wanted to take a photo of the Americans in front of the Water Cube. One man went as far as putting his camera around Leo's neck to have him take a photo of the Asian man and us. This was the best part. Leo could not work the thing to save his life. The Asian man walked over there five times to show him how to do it. During all this we were almost run over by a tram carrying the athletes family members. The entire thing could have easily been a Three Stooges skit.

While people were taking photos Alysha performed her beam routine for us. Complete with a kart wheel, leap, and dismount. I don't know how she didn't make the team. Had she made it, we definitely would have brought home the Gold.

Val, Jason and I knew that this might be our last chance in this area so we hung back to take as many pictures as possible. I have about 3,000 of me and the Water Cube, because I LOVE IT! AHH! I can't even describe how excited I was. There were many points I was seen jumping up and down or skipping. I could careless if I looked retarded. Thankfully the subway stayed open until 1:30. We arrived home a little too late for the gates to be open, so Val and I decided to scale the fence. It has been a long time since I climbed the fence in the backyard and I was a little rusty on my skills, but after a little right leg cramping I made it over unharmed.

I don't know if I will make it back to the Olympic Green, but I am so glad I got there last night. Apparently today is a big day in sports. There is the obvious Phelps quest, but also Dana Torres is attempting to prove age makes so difference in sports. A total of 37 medals will be given out today, the most on any day. Our gymnasts will attempt to prove they really deserved the Gold by starting the Individual events. If everything stays the same as the other day, Liukin and Johnson could share a Gold medal.

Megan's day in Olympic world will probably be another late one. Because the day is a long one we have two shifts, I was given the afternoon one, which means that I will have to ride the subway there. I HATE THE SUBWAY! Hopefully I will be lucky enough to again miss the box lunch experience. There is only one medal event at Laoshan today and that is the Women's Pursuit finals which will go to some British woman. Vomit.

I have uploaded all the photos from the last few days on to my Picasa. There are about five hundred duplicates but I needed to make sure I got a good shot. In my desperation to make to finish this blog in World Record time I do not have time to add photos right now. (Plus I need to shower so I don't scare the athletes away with my stank.) I will add photos to the blog tonight when I get home. I know I keep promising, time does not allow me to do everything I intend to. Along with that, for those who have sent me e-mails recently (Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Messer, Mandy, Patti, Ash, Court) I am sorry I have yet to respond. I have it on my list of things to do. I don't want you to think I am neglecting you. I did not realize how busy I would be once the events started. A few of you asked where you could see the article I wrote. It is not available for the general public. I will try to find print out a copy today and put it up here. They changed it a lot, but it still has my initials on it. That's it for now!

(Note to Mom: I found the Today Show booth, however, I was too late to make it on the broadcast. According to Val it was the weekend crew so it really wasn't that exciting. I took a photo for you!)

tea with pinky and witchy...

2008-08-17T08:23:00.003+08:00

I arrive at the velodrome yesterday delightfully surprised that I have once again been placed in the broadcast mixed zone. Regardless of the evil Pinky and her entourage, I really enjoy the broadcast zone. There really wasn't much for us to change, except to get closer when we are trying to hear what the athletes are saying to the sportscaster. I really need to take a picture of this for you all. Let me try to describe it. When you see any athlete interviewed on tv, it looks like it is the athlete, anchor, and the camera man. In actuality, it is those three, one or two people like me standing DIRECTLY behind the sportscaster and crouching below the camera, and to each side there are about 10 or 12 more cameras fighting for the next interview. It is pure madness. That doesn't even give it justice. I'll try to take a picture today, hopefully I won't get caught.

Yesterdays events were Men's Pursuit, Women's Pursuit, Points Race, and Keirin. I'll describe the new ones to you.

Keirin: Riders race two and half laps sprint after riding for five behind a motorized pacer (derny). Similar to riding behind a pace car in racing. The derny starts at 30km and gradually increases speed to 50 km/hour, before dropping off. (Many of us have a life goal of riding the derny some day.)

Points Race: Riders race 160 laps (men) and 100 laps (women). Every 10 laps a sprint race is held, those finishing in first, second, third and fourth receive 5, 3, 2, 1 points respectively. If a rider laps the crowd 20 points are awarded, if a rider is lapped by the crowd 20 points are taken away. The winner is the person who has the most points.

So women's qualifying once again proved that Great Britain is the team to beat here. The Gold/Silver race is between two British women, so no matter what they will take one-two. By the way, the final racers are determined by their times in the semi-finals. The fastest two riders will race for Gold and Silver, while the other two race for Bronze. The bronze medal racers have no chance of receiving anything other than the Bronze, even if both their times are faster than the riders in the other race. So the British will be taking home at least two more medals today.

The day starts with more Men's Pursuit qualifications. Poor Taylor Phinney rode four seconds slower today, playing him 8th at the end of the day. Not horrible for your first Olympics. All the favorites and expected winners moved on as they were supposed to, there were no big upsets. When the women raced Hammer (USA) started out in front but gradually through out the race fell back and ended up almost 2 seconds behind the winner of her race. It wasn't America's day.

The Keirin heats began immediately after the Pursuit qualifications. It was decided that we make a 5 yuan wager to see who would make the medal podium. None of us did well because one of the favorites, Theo Bos was involved in a crash during the end of one of his runs. We all had him on the podium, essentially we each only had one person up there. Other than the crash things went pretty much according to plan. In each heat there were 6 riders out there and the top two move on. Then there are repechages; the best way I can describe these is that they are ride in races. Four cyclists go out and the top person from each heat works his way back into the race. There is probably more behind it, but that is the way I understood it yesterday. The Keirin went on and off all afternoon, ending with Great Britain sending two people to the medal podium.

I really enjoyed watching the points race. It is a long race, about 40 minutes and the leader changes constantly for the first half and then it starts to level off. The USA rider, Bobby Lea started off strong but then left the race and ended up not finishing. I have no clue what happened to him but he was one of two to not finish. Again we had made our guesses on who would win, NONE of mine were in the top three, however, I did get two of the top five. The medalists were Spain, Germany, and G. Britain. (BARF!) All three were very emotional after the race. In the press conference the Spanish and British men discussed how cycling training really takes a toll on family life, the Spanish man even went as far as saying that after the 19th he would no longer participate in competitive cycling. I really liked the Spanish guy. He didn't speak much, if any, English, but what was translated to us was much deeper than most of the cyclists give you. Even the British guy was pretty insightful.

Yesterday's press conferences were nothing short of a disaster. They were all running late, not to the fault of anyone in charge of the P.C. but because the events were running late. One of them started out casual and turned into the p.c. and then had athletes walking in and out. Even athletes from different events up on the stand at the same time. The Gold medalist from one of the races never showed. Pure Chaos.

An update on Pinky, today she adorned lace and see through white pants. I am starting to think she needs a stylist, and quickly. Pinky however, was nothing compared to her new friend Witchy. Witchy is a Canadian woman that looks like a witch. She is skin and bones, almost to the point where she looks sickly. She has long black hair with grey highlights (she is not at the age where her hair should be LONGER than mine.) The back of her legs are apparently unshaven and she thinks she is the new moderator of the broadcast zone. Amy and I walk up behind Pinky in an attempt to double team the athlete that might be coming down and Witchy butts in saying "Only one of you should scribe." THANK YOU! I didn't knooow you were just promoted to Broadcast Manager. Where did (insert name here because I forgot it) go? Oh speaking of what's his face, he had the most retarded analogy EVER today. The Eurosport guys, my favorite, were gravitating over into two EMPTY slots because well, they were empty. Terd butt comes over and asks them to move because and I quote "This is televised live and the people who have these spots know where their spot is. If they see you in their spot it is kind of like you walking into your hotel room and finding another person in your bed." I kid you not my friends. I swear I am going to write a book about the ridiculous things that happened here and everyone is going to think I made it up because they are so out there. But from now on, watch out for those people who come into your hotel room and try to steal your bed. (HUGE EYE ROLL!!!)

Anyway, we now have Pinky and Witchy to deal with. As either Traci or Andrea or Lauren put it, Witchy is the kid on the playground who just got invited to play by the cool kids and now has to act like them in order to fit in. So true. She was fine yesterday, but apparently she banded together with Pinky in an attempt to destroy all hopes of us FQRs.

At the end of the day, the Brits send five people to the podium, Spain one, New Zealand one, Germany one, and I cannot remember the other person who won. America did nothing at all, the only real disappointment was Sarah Hammer. She should have been in the Bronze medal race tomorrow. We have a few more chances for track cycling medals, but the only one expected to actually achieve a medal is Jenny Reed. Hopefully she will avenge the Americans for at least one race.

pinky part II...

2008-08-17T07:42:00.002+08:00

I wish I had had more time yesterday. I was in the blogging groove and now I seem to have lost my rhythm of yesterday's blog.

Once the medal ceremony ended yesterday the athletes traveled through the broadcast mixed zone. Bringing me within reaching distance of the medals, as I previously mentioned. I can't tell you how hard it is to be listening to a Frenchman ramble off some answer in French and all the while not just stick your hand out there for one little touch. There were times where I almost had to physically restrain myself. Anyway, while in the broadcast zone Pinky and her friends all asked similar questions, and most of the athletes give the typical canned, cliche answers. Heck, if I had just won an Olympic medal I would not have the cognitive ability to flesh out something new and profound. I would most definitely default to the boring "I am very happy. I have worked very hard for this." But when you are trying to get something fresh and genuine, while fighting feverishly to defend yourself against Pinky's pointy elbows there is a different mind set. The worst part of this whole thing is that the Germans and French are only speaking in German and French, which means us language challenged people have not written anything down about the Bronze or Silver medals. AWESOME.

We rush downstairs to meet the 10 min deadline. (i.e. we have ten minutes from the time the medal ceremony ends to get in all the flash quotes. It's really not as bad as it seems, especially because nothing EVER seems to be running on time.) Soon after the Press Conference starts so we jump on over there, but not before we have a run in with the local volunteers trying to deny us access. (Friday was consumed by BOCOC and domestic volunteers telling us "no.") Krystyna got on that and all was good in flash quoting world again.

The press conference was no different than the rest of the day, chaotic. Although, I do have to say, it was much better than the test runs. During the test runs they had domestic volunteers doing the translations and we were concerned that would be the "professional translations" they kept speaking of. They did in fact have qualified translators, so that part went quite well. The room was full of British journalists trying to have a one-on-one with the three Brits who had just won the Gold. Nothing we being asked of the Silver and Bronze medalists. Traci had to step in and ask a question to her best friends, the Germans. I felt really bad because when the Brits decided to leave most of the journalists left, some in the middle of a response from the Germans. I realize this happens all the time, but their answers and moment were just as important as the stupid Brits who think they own the cycling world. (I'm not really a fan of the British team or their press agent who anxiously hovers over every interview just waiting for some one to say something that she needs to fix or retract. ANNOYING.)

The Women's and Men's Pursuit qualifications were nothing too riveting. Both USA cyclists, Taylor Phinney and Sarah Hammer qualified, but by no means were they exceptional. Those races became more exciting the second day when there was more competition.

Since nothing was running on time we didn't get out of there until almost 9:30. It had been decided a few days ago we would go out with our managers after work that day to the Holland House. During the Olympics each country sets up it's own house to host the athletes and visitors. Being media we are allowed to go to any of the houses and apparently Holland House is the best one. By the time we ate and met up with Amy it was decently late, it was still a blast. Maybe we'll go back when we have more time. Who knows.

The first day was generally how any first day of an event goes. Things were being changed on the fly, new rules were being made, and nothing seemed to go according to plan. We had significant trouble with BOCOG trying to keep people out of the mixed zone. They "hired" us to do this job and Friday they were trying to prevent us from doing it. They wanted only two people in there to interview anywhere from 3 to 9 athletes. That's not going to work. But, as we have done this entire trip, we rolled with the punches and did what we could. I have to say, if there is one thing I have really learned while in China it's adaptability and flexibility. If I wrote about all the times we had to just go with the flow I would be writing until the next Olympics.

Gold medals within reach...

2008-08-16T10:40:00.004+08:00

Olympic News:

Liukin was spectacular in the Women's All-Around Yesterday, taking Gold. Johnson, who did nothing less than her normal was hurt by her bar routine and took Silver.
Phelps is 6/6 (and as I am writing this 7/7 with his closest win yet .01 seconds!!) I am starting to get bored of him.
We surpassed China yesterday in medal count and we are currently a comfortable 7 medals up. We still have a lot of ground to make up in the Gold medal count.
Right now I am watching Men's speed walking; it is the funniest thing I have ever seen. This is a sad excuse for an Olympic Event.

Let's talk about how I was less than an arm's reach away from three Olympic Gold medals yesterday AND three Olympic Silver medals. All I wanted to do was reach out my little hand for a touch. Just a touch. I wouldn't take it. I would even put hand sanitizer on before touching it! But given the fact that I have to act professional, I begrudgenly restrained myself. I am sure by the end of these two weeks I will be just as used to Gold medals as Phelps. RIIGHT.

I didn't have to be at the Velodrome until 3:00 yesterday because events didn't start until 4:30. I spent the morning doing what I do best. Sitting in my bed watching the Olympics. Because the medal ceremony was so late for the gymnastics I had to rush to get ready because we now have a shuttle!!! While I cherished my long, sweaty rides, playing running of the dragon, and fighting for a seat, I my happy to be done with the subway.

When we got to the Velodrome I got a little camera happy, we all know I am not a camera happy person. I couldn't help myself. Plus it was a rare blue sky day so I had to take advantage. I was the stinky kid yesterday. Not by choice or lack of proper bathing. I pulled the smelly ONS bib out of the pile. It reeked. By the end of the day my shirt smelled enough that people started to think it actually might be me. We hid the bib to ensure that no one else would have to suffer the same shame and humiliation I did.

Shortly after arrival we are assigned our positions, mine being the broadcast zone. I was pretty excited about this placement, until I met Pinky. Amy took the three of us up there to get in the good graces of the broadcasting people. They are even more touchy than the journalists so you really have to butter them up. The EuroSport people were awesome. They warned us most of their interviews would be in German and French but were more than willing to translate if need be. Then there was Pinky. BBC Sports. Amy walks up, introduces herself and Pinky goes, "I know who you people are. I have dealt with you before. Stay out of the shot and if you get in the way I may ask you to move. Don't take it personally." We all take a few steps back at that response. However, Pinky proceeds to stare me down for a few seconds. I guess in an attempt to break me. Then she says, "I may get a little snippy and I have pointy elbows so watch out." At that we completely walk away. Pinky does not belong there for numerous reasons. Let me lay them out for you.

She is too old to be a women's sportscaster.
She is NOT cute.
She is wearing a pink polo with a white and pink skirt, hence the beloved nickname Pinky.
Her collar was popped. MAJOR NO!
PLUS she is wearing her accreditation pass around her waste like a huge TOOL!

The main problem with Pinky is that we can't avoid her. The way her camera is setup makes it really difficult to get to the Australian Channel 7, CCTV, French or Germany. All of which are important groups of people that some one needs to be standing by. At one point she even tried to stop us from going through because she didn't want us to possibly move in front of the camera. So the number one rule of broadcasting zone is...don't piss off Pinky.

I get the lucky first stab at being by Pinky. The plan was to move past her before the races start and then freely move beyond that point. Wrong-o. I get over there and I am sandwiched in between her camera and some French guy's camera. I catch Amy's eye and tell her this isn't going to work. She comes over only to get another dose of Pinky. "I am not doing any interviews right now and I can't have people standing here in my line of sight." Uhh ok. What broadcasting school did you go to that you can't learn how to ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS! Stupid woman. We walk away from her and decide we will deal with Pinky only when it is completely necessary.

Before I can tell you about the events for the day it would probably be beneficial to explain them. Otherwise these are just words that mean absolutely NOTHING. There were only two events yesterday, Men's Team Sprint and Men's & Women's Individual Pursuit.

Men's Team Sprint: This is a team of three cyclists. Each lead for a lap and then break off for the next cyclist to take the lead. Basically the entire race lasts about 45 seconds, and that seems to be a slow time. There are two teams out on the track each starting on opposite sides.

Individual Pursuit: With this event the object is to try and catch the other person. Two people are on the track, again positioned on opposite sides. The race is about 4 min 25 seconds, the length is 4 km for men and 3 km for women. Recording the fastest time or catching the other rider determines the winner.

If you really are looking to understand these I would go to youtube and try to find a video. It is hard to visualize unless you see it. So the only medal event yesterday was Men's Team Sprint. We had a crash on the very first race, boy does that look painful. The US team qualified for semi-finals, but didn't make it to the medal races. FYI eight teams qualify for semi's and then four move on to the two medal races. At that point the teams with the two best times in semi's compete for Gold and Silver and the other two compete for Bronze and the disdained, oh so close, fourth place. The qualifying races for Team Sprint are nothing to really write home about. They weren't OVERLY exciting, but the finals were SO EXCITING! The Bronze medal race was between Germany and Australia. We had a hard time choosing who to root for, but given that we are impartial we didn't really root for anyone. Ha. Traci and I decided we had to go with our blood, Germany. We love our new Aussie friends, but it's blood. Plus I interviewed one of the guys and he is just the nicest person ever!!! RIGHT CHOICE! They won in the last lap. The Aussie's were leading the entire time but in the last lap the German's over took them. They were so excited and crying. I love when athletes cry. I know it sound cheesy but it is so genuine. I have watched these guys practice for the last few weeks. I have talked to them about their expectations and to see them succeed it really gut wrenching. Tangent. The Brits and Frenchmen (the favorites) raced for Gold and Silver. Now that was exciting. The Brits had a World Record time in the qualifying race, surpassing the three time World Champion French team. Honestly, we didn't care who won because the Brits wouldn't talk to us for the last week and the French are the French. I know I'm not a nice person. I have come to terms with that. The Brits pull off a semi-upset, but given that they were predicted to win Silver, it wasn't all that shocking.

After the Brits did a couple victory laps, took their photos, and hugged their families the medal ceremony started. While the athletes were in doping control a color guard of Chinese sorts brings out the flags. I was impressed to see they treat each flag with the same reverence given to theirs. The flags were placed on the bar and held there until it was time to raise them. Then we saw the beautiful Chinese women bring out the flowers and medals. We were particularly proud of them because we have watched them go from water bottle laps in the velodrome to real medals and flowers. Oh so grown up. Anyway, despite the fact that it wasn't the USA there was still a certain excitement being there.

I really want to write more and I have pictures to post, however, I have to leave for work in 45 minutes and I have yet to shower. So when I arrive home tonight I will give you the rest of this blog post, complete with photos, and a rundown on today's Pinky interactions!! Haha. I just realized that I will probably get this done before you even have the opportunity to see the first blog!

food coma...

2008-08-15T07:32:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I boycotted all Olympic coverage. It was my best attempt to stick it to the man. Actually, there really wasn't anything of interest on. The men did not stand a chance in Men's All-Around, Phelps did not swim until night time and they don't show any night swimming, plus it was only a qualifying race, and I would have watched Women's Softball, however, it poured here yesterday so all our door events were postponed. Given that it was raining I did not want to leave the safety of my dorm. So I watched Grey's Anatomy. Great day!

It eventually stopped raining yesterday, which cooled things off quite a bit. I actually wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt last night. I never thought I would be so excited to wear jeans! Kelsey and Phil were on a mission to get everyone to go eat Italian food. We went to Annie's, now given my Italian food snobbery, I was VERY skeptical of an Italian place called Annie's. Even if it had been Anna's I would have been less hesitant. Anyway, the menu is plopped down in front of us and I lose all rational thinking. Do I want a Caprice salad? Or traditional Spaghetti? Or Risotto? I didn't know what to look at first. Thankfully I had my trusty food sidekick Andrea there with me to pull off a traditional Megan/Andrea dinner. Seeing as we both are kind of picky we choose two meals and in true Chinese, and Italian, fashion we share the meals. Last night we settled on Spinach Ravioli and Fettichini Alfredo! OH DEAR LORD! I was in food heaven. The spinach ravioli was in a creamy white sauce, with a spinach dough and probably the best thing I have eaten in my entire life. Andrea inhaled her half before I could even graze over my half of the Alfredo. The Alfredo was Alfredo, but the best stinking Alfredo in the entire world! Seeing as my food baby, Brunhilda, was starting to show I couldn't even bare to finish the Alfredo (the spinach ravioli was LOOONG gone). Then came dessert. Now I don't normally get dessert but there was this little voice in my head, no not my conscience, it was Laura Shu telling me to do it. She kept saying, "Remember that time in Rome when we ate our Easter dinner and we got tiramasu and you loved it. Do it again. This is like Easter, but not at all." So Laura made me do it. I got tiramasu and nearly went into a food coma it was so good. It was little individually made cakes with the lady fingers completely drenched. I dare say it was BETTER than Italy. Now you are probably wondering what a meal like this would cost me. $15, maybe $20 bucks. OOOOH contrare my little friends. It was only $9.00. NINE! For this glorious feast!!! I guess I was wrong about the name of the restaurant. Annie knows her Italian!

Oh it gets better. Next store is Cindy Lous, or Lucy Lou, something to that nature. An American grocery store. No where in Italy did they have these groceries (at least not to my knowledge). So after eating ourselves into food comas we decide to further the damage and go check out the store. Seeing as we only have 11 days left (TEARRRR) we were all really glad we didn't find this place sooner because we would be a few dollars poorer and about 600 pounds heavier. All the American goods you could dream of were in here, at premium price of course. Ranch ran you $6.00 a bottle, a box of cereal $7.50. They had Ritter sport, snack packs, diet cherry 7-up (which we don't think you can even find back in the USA) lunch meat, cheese, and the list goes on. (I think I am hungry.) Like I said, we have been here almost 6 weeks already and survived so none of us went crazy, just a few essentials, granola bars and gummy worms. I got 'shrooms her salt and vinegar chips she has been dying for.

Given all that I have written about today, food, it was brought up last night at the dinner table that our lives are run by food. After pondering that for a moment I couldn't help but agree. Each day we live for (and sometimes dread) our next meal. What new place will we find? What mysterious food will be in the box lunch today? The funny thing is, as soon as we finish one meal we are instantly discussing the next one. Typically it is in regards to a craving we have or regrets about not getting a certain item on the menu. Half of our energy goes into the next meal. It is so bad we have already started to discuss the infamous first meal back after being abroad. I don't even remember what mine was from Italy, maybe a cheeseburger, who knows. Traci is set on a huge slab of meat. I am still pondering all the possibilities, ribs, veal parm, a HUGE salad. The possibilities are endless. But like I said, we are consumed by food.

I am not sure there is any Olympic news to bring you. Maybe if I wasn't boycotting the tv (which will end today because Phelps is swimming and Lukin and Johnson are competiting in all around) I would know more. Actually, I just looked it up and I don't know if we got many medals yesterday. Swimming severely suffered without Phelps out there to energize his teammates and there were only 15 medal ceremonies yesterday, the third lowest amount in all 18 days. Like I have already said 500 times, today starts competition in the Velodrome. Added bonus, we now have a SHUTTLE! No more subway and sweating! I can look like a human! The French are HEAVILY favored to win, but the Germans pulled a huge upset last Olympics and are hoping to do the same here. Other favorites include Great Britain and the Netherlands. I am so overly excited and nervous at the same time. It's an excited nervousness. This is the culmination of everything I have worked for, including the essays way back when. I probably won't get to talk to the athletes one-on-one anymore because all the reporters are now here, but who cares!!! I hope some cycling is on, it actually is really exciting!

I will try to take photos, but the rules are not to take them while the event is happening, it ruins our credibility. We have already had issues with the domestic volunteers running up to cyclists asking for autographs. It just looks really bad! So I can't promise original photos, but I can promise that I will steal them from any website I can find!

BYEEEE!

confusion and frustration...

2008-08-13T20:02:00.002+08:00

Olympic News:

Phelps as you know, is now 5/5. Once again breaking two world records, absolutely obliterating the previous 4 x 200 Free Relay. Not to mention finishing almost seven seconds before the rest of the pack. This now makes him the winningest Olympian EVER. I posed this question today...can one ever get sick of winning Olympic medals?
The USA Women's Gymnastics team fell as little short today. Falling being the keyword. Sacramone once again crushed under pressure and for the first time EVER I saw Shawn Johnson make a mistake by stepping out of bounds. It's ok, silver is prettier anyway.
France won its first wresting Gold medal in 84 years. That is almost as bad as not winning a World Series in 100, Cubs still win there.
USA got some cycling medals today!! Kristen Armstrong got a Gold medal in the Women's Time Trial, I missed it because it was nap time, but I heard that she was pretty emotional. In the Men's Time Trial Levi Leipheimer came in third. Good day!

I had another day off today, that was good because my favorite event in the Olympics was on. GYMNASTICS. As you will see we started out pretty solid, but pressure got to some of the girls towards the end. I was actually pretty disappointed in them. They had it in reach and all they had to do was do what they do best, the floor. The floor exercise scores were INCREDIBLY low, for both teams, but man Sacramone. She just crumbles under pressure.

In my continuous attempts to bring you something exciting I have decided today I would blog about my top three China frustrations.

1. Staring. I have a new pet peeve. Staring. It might have always bothered me, but it has pushed me to the brink of insanity this last week. Here's the deal. I have spoken to you of the subway. We do our thing, LIKE EVERYONE else and the Chinese people look at us like we are nuts. When we actually get a seat on the train people glare at us as if we were stealing a child or something ridiculous. When we eat people gawk like we are rabid animals that have meandered in for a feast. Then there are the times I will look up and some one will just be staring. I will stare back for a good 5 or 10 seconds but that does nothing. It is just getting really old. I know I sound hateful, but the fact of the matter is, I am. Not only is it really awkward but it is rude. I believe I read some where that it isn't rude here but it isn't like we are novelty anymore. People from all over the world have been flooding in here for the last two weeks; we aren't the freaking circus. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ok now I will take a more rational approach to this. I realize we are a bit of a novelty. It's not often this many westerners are in Beijing, let alone traveling the subways and shopping in the malls. Additionally, I realize that things that are wrong in one culture are perfectly acceptable in another. So to a certain extent I can understand the fascination and the staring. The thing I least understand is how they aren't weirded out when I stare back. I can only stare back for so long before my eyes dart away because I feel awkward. The whole thing baffles me.

2. No USA Olympics coverage. I don't even know where to start with this one because it frustrates me so incredibly much. Each morning I check the Olympic schedule. First going to swimming to see what Phelps is up to for the day, what records he will break, then I look at the other events to see if there is anything I like. Of course there are. Softball, basketball (some days), the list goes on. However, I have learned not to expect to see anything USA unless we are competing against China and even then if we are doing well it will be blocked out. Like yesterday when Nastia Lukin got a 16.8 on the bars and it was not shown because she performed better than all the Chinese girls. The only thing that is always on is the swimming finals each morning. I don't think they could skip that given that all the swimmers are breaking records and such. But even at the end of that they don't show interviews from anyone other than the Chinese people who didn't win anything. Instead of showing any USA events they replay the little 14 or 15 year old winning the 48kg weight lifting or replay a basketball game that China already lost. I honestly do not understand the reasoning behind it. It is not like the Chinese people are going to see an American race or game and start cheering for the USA. I have seen more shooting and weight lifting that I have ever cared to. And if you want to talk about how shooting is the most pitiful excuse of an Olympic event, I am all ears. Anyway, I have no rational approach on this one.

3. Spitting. Originally Mom said I couldn't write about this, but given the fact that the Today Show did a special segment on it Mom approved the blog topic. For those of you who don't know it is perfectly acceptable to spit on the road here, or anywhere for that matter. We will be walking down the road or sitting in our rooms and suddenly we'll hear it. A loud throat hawk. Disgusting? You bet! Why am I sharing these details with you? Because I want you to experience all the joy I do on a daily basis. Then the person disposes it by any means necessary. When this happens we all search for the culprit because at home that is just not heard of. Upon exchanging looks the Chinese person typically looks at us like "What's the problem?" and we give them the "That is super disgusting" look. (As I speak I can hear the men across the hall clearing their lungs. It's precious.) According to my mom, there is a job that requires a person to go around and clean up spit after other people. Then if they catch some one spitting they hand them a card that says "Please be more responsible." It is just SUPER gross and typically makes me want to throw up. I am sure you're glad I shared.

So those are my three frustrations. I really needed to vent about them so I hope you don't think I am completely horrible. I am trying to take a rational, objective approach but sometimes I cannot see the light. It is my last and final day off. Competition starts tomorrow, the first medal is Men's Team Sprint. The French are heavily favored to win so that should be exciting and fun. There is a Frenchman who is at his 5th and final Olympics. I am just all around excited for tomorrow and the next week. I can't believe I only have 12 days left here. It feels like just yesterday I was at 12 days to go, bouncing off the walls of the office driving Carol and David crazy! (I know you two are so excited to see me in a few short weeks!!!!)

Now I am off to find something exciting to eat for lunch!

surprises lurk around every corner...

2008-08-12T15:41:00.003+08:00

The lady on the subway changed. She used to be a little Chinese lady that wore mismatched clothes and tiny slippers. Each stop she would come on the loud speaker and say "Da next esstation is Guomao. Please prepare for your arrival" Last Friday this new woman surprised us. She sounded all western and instead of a cute Chinese lady she is a white woman wearing the trendiest clothes. In her perfect English she says "The next station is, GUOmao. Please get ready to get off." I don't like her. I miss our old lady. I want the Chinese woman back.
And remember how I told you I was going to give you the Olympic facts of the day. Well apparently that was a computer lie. There have been no more facts since Friday. Therefore, I will continue to bring the Olympic news for the day but sadly no more facts. Unless I for some strange reason find myself in desperate need of something to do.

So first and foremost, let me bring you the Olympic news of today. I am going to assume that you already know what happened on Sunday and Monday.

Olympic News:

Phelps is 3 for 3, and yet again broke another World Record.
the USA ALMOST swept the swimming events today. We got first in 3 of 4 (each of those three had two US medalists) and a Silver in the last one. Pretty decent day.
the men's gymnastics team received bronze
the Chinese have yet again come closer to sweeping the diving events, they have won all three Gold medals thus far but there are still five events left.
in a rare podium appearance Mexico won a bronze in diving, that was cute.

Now, let's talk about that Men's 100 Free Relay yesterday?! If you didn't see it, go on to NBC's website and find it. If you can't find it there do everything in your power to see this race because it is EASILY the greatest race in the history of swimming, quite possibly all the Olympics. But that is a debate for another day. What cannot be debated here is the sheer awesomeness that is Lezak. Going into the final 100, scratch that, going into the final 50m he was a half a body's length behind. As one reporter put it, "That's a country mile in a sprint race." As all this is happening we are watching in the ONS office at the Velodrome. As Lezak heads into the final 50m we are pretty sure all is lost. Phelps' Gold medal record is over and the French will be able to take the podium then say "I told you so," at the Press Conference.

But as we watch we slowly see Lezak creep in. With 10 meters left it seems impossible, no impractical, that this man might pull off the race of his life. Everyone in the office was going crazy. I stopped dictating flash quotes, Amy and Krystyna (Aussies) we screaming along side us. My heart stopped for that split second where we didn't know who won. Then you saw Michael Phelps' Hulk impersonation. One of those iconic Olympic moments. An emotional image that will appear with the countless other impossibles. My heart was racing, which leaves me to believe that those actually involved in the race were near eruption. After all the talk from the French about how they would crush the USA, blah blah blah, it was great to see them less than a blink away from winning. Karma, it comes biting back. This race was the ultimate "the thrill of victory. The agony of defeat" moment. (Anyone with a newspaper from Tuesday with Phelps plastered on the front, please keep it for me!)

Yesterday afternoon I interviewed Taylor Phinney, the 18 year old American cyclist who's parents were Olympic medalists. He was very chatty for an 18 year old boy and gave Andrea and me a lot of great quotes. When we finally left the velodrome yesterday it was well past our normal feeding time. There is an Outback by the mall so a couple of us relished in the thought of a Bloomin' Onion. Andrea and Lauren tried to go the other day but were declined because they didn't have the proper accreditation. We tried to get it, but we were declined. Apparently to dine at the fancy Outback Steakhouse you must have a reservation within the hotel or know people who are staying there. What? As Lauren put it, "it isn't the Ritz Carlton." The Asian volunteer got very snippy with us, (some one should warn him about hungry American girls) but we were too exhausted and hungry to fight. Seriously! Outback. Fancy. HA.

We didn't get home until late last night so we just watched team USA crush China. Again. Two nights in a row. I think the final score was 100-something to 50. Nice job girls. I started to work on an article about Taylor Phinney and that pretty much brought me to midnight.

If you are wondering about the weekend, I did what I normally do at home when it is Olympic time. I sat in my bed (at home it would be a couch) and watched as many Olympic events I could take in. They say it is impossible to get tickets, it is all sold out (even though the stadiums are not full) so we have to resort to comfy option B...my bed. Since there are so many CCTV channels I was able to soak up a lot of quality Olympic time. It was the best weekend of my life.

In other news, we received toilet paper, paper towels, ANND soap at the velodrome this weekend. It was like Christmas come early. They promised there would be paper and soap products come Olympic time and boy did they deliver. I don't know what we did to deserve it. (Side note: never in a million years did I think I would blog about the excitement involved with receiving a new roll of toilet paper.) Midst the bathroom hubbub some actual exciting news came early Sunday morning. Jane received some events tickets for us! YEAHAAHAH! A bunch of people went to beach volleyball Monday morning but I was scheduled to work. Not willing to give up my Taylor Phinney interview I decided to pass. But the BIGGEER news... Saturday we have tickets to go to the athletics events at the Bird's Nest!!! The only problem is we have three medal events that day. It has been decided that after we are finished we are going to haul it up there, get a view from the inside, take our pictures, and see whatever we can. I'll take whatever I can get. I am also considering waking up early tomorrow morning to see if there is any way in the world I can get tickets to the Women's Gymnastics All-Around finals. I doubt it, but it's worth a shot. If not, back to the bed!

That's all for now! Ciao ciao!

let the games begin...

2008-08-09T21:54:00.010+08:00

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!

8.8.08...

2008-08-09T10:20:00.007+08:00

People here don't understand my obsession with the Olympics. They think I am just excited because I am here, but my love for the Games goes farther back than 8 months ago when I found out about this opportunity. For as long as I can remember I have soaked in as much Olympic coverage as possible. In 2000, my mom woke me up to see the Sydney Opening Ceremony live. 2002, Salt Lake, fell on my birthday, my friends were all over for a surprise party and instead of doing something I made them watch the Opening Ceremony. You get the picture. This why last night might have been the greatest night of my life. No, I didn't get to attend the Opening Ceremony as we all had hoped, but to watch it, knowing that I was part of this huge event, was beyond words. Knowing the drama and effort that has gone into the Games and the Opening Ceremony gave me a greater appreciation for the show.

I had two options last night, go to a local street and watch it on the big screen or go to Paul's, get food, have a seat and know that there would be an English version. And while I may regret it a little, I chose the second option because it was for sure. If things had fallen through with the street option I would have been devastated, seeing as they didn't I am a little disappointed I didn't do that, but hindsight is always 20/20. This doesn't mean I was disappointed with Paul's. He had a satellite English feed that allowed us to understand what the heck was going on. As I write this you are all probably starting the March of Nations, have fun. It is long. (Oh and there is no rhythm or reason to the order of the countries.)

OOOH and I am seeing the US again right now! So exciting...I am rewatching it. On that note, I have never been prouder to see my country march. Of course I am always proud to be from America, but to be in another country during the Olympics and watching the Opening Ceremony just sparks something. I feel like at home we are so defined by what city, state, or college we are from that sometimes we forget we are one. Sitting there with people from Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, China...etc it just made everything come full circle. I can't really explain it and I don't like to get too deep in these blogs so we'll end it there. Anyway, since the feed was satellite it switched off live and we had to wait almost 3 hours to see the USA walk in. The commercial breaks were 7 and 8 minutes a piece. I will never again complain about the commercial breaks. Three of us were determined to see the team walk. When they came we all screamed, watched them for their two minutes of TV time and quickly ran out to get a cab home. Upon arriving home we found out that they still hadn't lit the torch. I ran upstairs and made it just in time to see the torch lit. Which, by the way, I think is a gorgeous torch.

I was thoroughly impressed with the show. Everyone has been so focused on the negatives and I was so glad for the people, BOCOG, and everyone involved that the night passed with few glitches. The Chinese people are so proud of their country, it's history, and the honor to host the Games that is was nice to see the pollution and political comments cease, even if it is only for one night. I think my favorite part of the ceremony was the fireworks. Many of the streets here were shut down for the firework displays. As you watch it you will notice the fireworks were everywhere. The footprints started in the Forbidden City and moved north to the Bird's Nest (probably my favorite part) it was so original and cool.

I have today off and I am going to brave the town. We have been very sheltered lately only going out to Laoshan that I have no concept of how many people are actually in the city right now. I hear it is ridiculous. I have today and tomorrow off so I am doing my last runs now. You will notice I started to post pictures for the last few blogs, right now I am leaving for the day, but tonight and tomorrow I'll put more up. There is one of my in the uniform and the torch!! I hope you liked the Ceremony!! I don't have last night's so those will have to be in the mix to do later.

pictures...

2008-08-07T21:14:00.002+08:00

Ok I know I keep saying pictures will come and I honestly had every intention of fully updating all blogs today with photos. It was even on my list of things to do today. However, there was a slight snag in the road. The charger to my camera died, the latest in my technological problems, and the battery was so dead it couldn't even open the camera. THANKFULLY Caty my newest favorite person, has the same camera and I am currently waiting for the pictures to upload. I have Saturday off and under pain of death from my mom I will have photos for you. I am very sorry for this delay and thank you for your patience.

Megan

black magic...

2008-08-06T20:54:00.004+08:00

As I mentioned this morning, I totally goofed on the Olympic Torch Relay. While I was waiting to leave for work I turned on the TV because I had nothing better to do. I flipped the channels to see if I could find the BOB (Beijing Olympics Broadcasting) channel and while in the process I was shocked to see what looked like people carrying a torch in the Forbidden City. About thirty seconds later I was screaming because I had realized what I missed. Upon further internet research I learned that the Torch arrived here at 4:30am Beijing time to begin the final leg of the relay before the flame is lit on Friday. I was pretty upset I missed this because I totally would have deprived myself of sleep just to see it. (I'll make up for this later in the day.)

We didn't have to be at work until 10:30, which is why you are being graced with three blogs in less than 24 hours. More athletes came today. The entire Dutch team (including the one and only Theo Bos) came. For all of you who don't know, the Dutch, British, and Australian teams are the super stars of track cycling. The Dutch coach/trainer said that he would not allow us to ask questions today but tomorrow we could. Later he came over to talk to us about all the places he has visited in the US and even dabbled in a little political talk. After which he became worried that we were recording him and backed up his comments with, "I am not here for the politics. I am here for sport.”

Before I continue on I should probably explain the protocol for this whole thing. In my last blog I mentioned that this week the athletes arrive. They are given allotted training times and can come and go during that time as they choose. During these training times we are trying to talk to as many people as possible to get quotes. It is more to establish a rapport and make sure that when the Games start they can recognize a few faces and maybe even seek us out. Anyway, you can't just walk up to an athlete, you must ask first. If one of the managers is there he or she will go talk to a coach or trainer to ask if it is ok. They will then say yes or no. Today we got a lot of "not today's." The German team initially said yes, but they were running late for a party. The sole Ireland cyclist allowed us to interview him but sadly I wasn't there. USA is allowing only one person per day (they are in a bit of trouble for arriving in gas masks).

For some reason I am really nervous about talking to the athletes. I don't know if I am star struck or suddenly lost my gift of gab, I know scary, but I can't chalk up enough courage to go talk to anyone. I didn't come all the way over here to sit on the sideline so I asked one of the boys if I could go with when he talked to the Belgium team. He said yes but only if I asked one question. A little later Krystyna walked the two of us over there to talk to the two Belgium cyclists. This is where I met my future husband. He doesn't know my name and he is married, but it was meant to be. I will let you know when I things are finalized. Anyway, we asked a few questions, took some notes, and that was that. Not so bad. Getting a shot is worse. These two guys Kenny and Iljo gave amazing responses. Typically it is hard to get an athlete to elaborate, let along create a coherent, quality thought. They both had excellent, none cliché responses, that lasted for more than five seconds and gave some MONEY quotes. To make it even better, they had excellent English. If you read an article about the Belgium cyclists that was me!!

While I was typing up the quotes Jason comes running down to tell me one of the torch bearers is upstairs. I sprinted up and took my picture with the torch. I felt horrible asking for a photo but as Jason said, "It's a once in a life time thing." I was so freaking excited.

Tonight we celebrated Andrea's birthday. It was the greatest feast known to man. Pizza, peanut butter and jelly, Snickers, chips, Doritos, CHEEEEESE, crackers, milk, cereal....and to top it all off a BEAUTIFUL, delicious cake from Paris Baguette. It was the perfect meal. Val and I rushed through it because we wanted to watch the women's soccer game. Unfortunately though, China and Sweden were on instead. It was during this time that my roommate came screeching out of the bathroom. I soon discovered that our shower was flushing black water out of the showerhead. There is a disaster left in the bathroom and I am fairly certain that I won't be taking a shower for the duration of this trip. Honestly, I would be cleaner. Right now I am sitting in my bed wishing I had Madden '08 and my PS2 because it would just make this day perfect. The Bears play tomorrow so I am pretty stoked about that and Friday is OPENING CEREMONY! What more can I ask for in two days? Oh wait, I can talk to some athletes! What a horrible life I am living. Time to go deal with the disaster that is the bathroom. CIAO!

a little catch up...

2008-08-06T07:45:00.006+08:00

I just realized that I didn't really give you any clue as to what I did this weekend. Ok, that's a lie. I know I didn't let you know what was going on, but I was semi-avoiding it but since I have extra time this morning I will give you a brief recap on the three days.

Saturday:
We arrive at the Velodrome just in time for the test event. Apparently, the schedule changed sometime after we left the night before and no one bothered to inform us. No matter, we were there. Basically the test events are a way for the Managers and BOCOG to see what kinks need to be worked out before the actual Games start. What they needed us there for was to practice the mixed zone and be "journalists" at a press conference to ask difficult questions. Saturday was the track cycling test event. We did our thing and that was pretty much it. It took all of 45 min and then we were free to go. So basically we traveled 3 hours to and from the Velodrome to work for 45 min. Grr.

Saturday night we celebrated Andrea's birthday because we knew that Tuesday night would have been impossible. While we were out we met and saw a lot of athletes, two of which were sitting next to us outside. I chalked up the courage to ask where they were from and the jerks, who spoke perfect English said they were waiting for us to ask. The one goes to Northwestern the other ASU. Both of them were alternates and probably won't see the pool for their events so we decided they weren't worth our time.

Sunday:
Pretty much the same drill as Saturday except we were out at the Mountain Bike section of the venue. I don't know if I have fully explained this but the name of the venue is technically Laoshan Bicycle Cluster. This means there is the indoor velodrome, the BMX course, and the mountain bike course. Sunday was Africa hot. I mean you walked slowly and you were sweating so naturally the test event for the day was mountain biking. We were outside for about an hour, went in to do the press conference and type of flash quotes and again we were done for the day. Sunday evening was a movie and Megan-trying-to-figure-out-her-last-year-of-college night. As you can tell not too eventful.

Monday:
BMX test event. This was dreadful. The BMX venue is at the top of the hill and the only way you can use the elevator is if you are paid by BOCOG. Seriously? That is the ultimate stupid excuse. Anyway, we sat out side for two hours basically doing nothing. They had planned rain delay and then another press conference. I wouldn't say it was a waste of three days but there wasn't much that we did that wasn't done other days with our managers and journalists.

Yesterday the athletes started to come, but seeing as it is still a while until cycling events start no one was really there yet. Most of us spent the day researching and deciding what who we wanted to interview for our news articles.

Right now I am sitting in my bed waiting to leave for work, I turned on the TV and found out that the Torch Relay was at the Forbidden City this morning. We had no clue and I am actually pretty upset because I could have easily gone early before work. Oh well. As Court said, there is always 4 years from now. Time to go. CIAO.

it's a love, hate type thing...

2008-08-05T20:04:00.003+08:00

I am completely out of blog ideas. I feel like if I write about what we do at work or the train one more time everyone, myself included, will want to jump off the Sears Tower. Other people have written some fun, interesting blogs like Andrea's "10 things she misses" blog or Alysha's "what I still want to do" blog. So given that I have nothing but don't want to steal ideas I ADAPTED the list concept...the love/hate blog. Beijing and I have a love/hate relationship (kind of like you and I Ash). There are so many things I love about this city and the Olympics, but in the same breath I also hate these things. So here is my Beijing Love/Hate List, in no particular order:

1. No lines: I love that there are no lines, except when I am in line...then I get irritated at this ridiculous concept. To the first part, the no lines thing is wonderful. It is what gets me on the subway in the morning when I am not moving as fast as I should be during Running of the Dragon. In this country I am allowed to weasel my way into any space that fits my big, fat, American butt. And when I am going through the train security check, or in line at any food place, if I can push my way to the front then essentially I am next in line. To the latter, this rule sucks. It is stupid, illogical, and apparently America is the only country that abides by this rule. It is a simple concept. The first person walks up to the desk, counter, train, etc and waits. Then each subsequent person stands behind the first person, thus creating what many people refer to as a line. I also had this problem in Europe. If I am not paying attention or show the slightest bit of hesitation people will pass me up and be gone before I even have the opportunity to give the stink-eye.

2. Beds: I have mentioned the beds before and my feelings for them are again two-fold. At first I laid down on the bed and thought, "Oh dear God how in the world am I going to sleep on this for two whole months?" The bed is like camping sans the nice foam pad or air mattress available for purchase at your local Wal-Mart. This is no Sealy Posturepedic, adjustable bed that forms to an individual's back. The only thing it does is provide an elevated surface to fall asleep on. Which, come to think of it, is probably the most accurate description of a bed in the first place. Having said all that, the Serta 2.1 (a.k.a. what the Pilgrims slept on when they landed in Plymouth) that I sleep on isn't the worst thing in the entire world. Sometimes after sleeping my bed at home my back actually hurts more because our wonderful, American mattresses allow our bodies to sink in, which does not keep the back aligned. And while this bed isn't nearly as horrible as I had anticipated, I am still not going to run home and buy a piece of plywood to lay on.

3. Multiple ice cream and popsicle stands: I haven't talked much about this, probably because I am too busy eating my ice cream and popsicles, but the gist of multiple stands is that on any street corner there is at least one man standing selling various popsicles and ice creams. Just walk down any American street, count the number of Starbucks and that is the comparable to the number of ice cream stands there are in Beijing. So these glorious little stands have any type of frozen treat you could want. Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla King Cones, corn and pea (yuck) popsicles, every flavor fruit popsicle...the list goes on. 90% of the battle is choosing what type to get. Do you get a new flavor like Creamy Melon? Or go with the tried, tested, and true chocolate ice cream cone. So incredibly difficult. What could I possibly hate about this beautiful little stands? CALORIES. Unless I just ate or have already had my frozen treat for the day I find it nearly impossible to not stop. Where in the US can you find an ice cream cone or popsicle for $.25? Answer: you can't! So, my conclusion on this...the Asian popsicle man needs to relocate to America.

4. Cycling: I have already professed my new love for cycling so I don't need to go into extensive detail. Despite the lack of interest in America, cycling world wide easily competes with soccer as the world's most popular sport. I have learned to love watching it and I am beside myself knowing that in a week I will be sitting there, trackside, watching the best cyclists in the world race. (Minor freak out on this side of the computer.) The reasons I hate cycling? A. The number of athletes I have to memorize is crazy. I have all the races down and most of the key riders, but it is all the secondary riders; the ones that could come out of no where and pull the upset that are plaguing. B. This isn't so much related to cycling as it is to the American people, but I hate the fact that when I go home I will rarely, if ever, get to watch cycling. I am going to have to pay for a cycling channel or something in order to keep up on this new obsession. When I left for the Olympics I never thought I would get to this point. Whereas before I was mad I would be covering cycling, now I am mad I won't see it again. I should take up the sport, become amazing, and then make the American public love it. Psssh. Piece of cake.

5. Uniforms: Before I even start, I realize I have not yet provided you with a picture of me decked out in the Beijing Olympic attire. I do not have the photos on my camera. As soon as they are uploaded I will post them immediately. I am very sorry for the delay. Anyway, the uniforms, despite a few flaws are pretty sweet. For the last week and half we have been sporting the uniforms in all their glory, at the stadium, on the subway, at the mall and everywhere we go people turn their heads. Multiple times we have been asked if we are athletes (haha) but generally it is just exciting to have something that can’t be purchased at any of the Olympic stores. My favorite part of the uniform is the jacket and the shoes. The jacket is perfect and I will probably wear it so much that it falls apart and the shoes, how cool is this, have Beijing 2008 written on the side! Added bonus, they are comfortable. The flip side is that the designers of the uniform forgot that the volunteers from outside China have hips and butts. We all spent time the other day cutting the elastic in the back of the pants to help relieve the “muffin-top” effect. Even though we perfected the 8-cut process and alleviated some of the issues, the pants still aren’t the most comfortable things in the world. I have not, and WILL NOT sport the floppy hat that makes me look like Gilligan and the fanny pack is just not working with the image I am trying to portray while asking cyclists for Flash Quotes. All in all, I have never received sweeter set of clothes in my entire life. I will probably frame the uniform and hang it on my wall.

Those are just a few of the many things that I both love and hate about this trip. A recap on today: most of the day was spent researching athletes and watching other athlete’s practice. Andrea received today’s golden ticket to watch the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal. I doubt there are anymore, but I am not going to lose complete hope until Friday. I cannot believe it is only three days away!!! Start getting excited and reading up on cycling so you can help me get the US to love it!!!

this is the blog that doesn't end...

2008-08-01T15:34:00.004+08:00

Thursday was probably the single greatest day here. There was some stiff competition from the Great Wall day, Durty Nellies and China Doll night, and bicycling the streets of Beijing...but as it stands now, yesterday is the favorite to win. Can you tell I am in sports mode? There were so many good quotes and moments yesterday I don't even know where to begin. Simply hilarious.

Here is the day in review...

I wake up too early and can't sleep so I decide to go in early with the photo people so that I can play on Olympics facebook. While I am there some of the Chinese cyclists show up to practice. I get my first glimpse at actual cycling. (Sorry no photos, I am not supposed to take them so I didn't.) Lunch was a significant improvement from the day before UNTIL I go to throw my garbage away. Now is a good time to explain the garbage process at lunch. When your 30 minutes for lunch are up you must take your Chinese box lunch over to the "Food Container" and dump any excess food into that garbage. THEN after they check that you have properly performed part one you proceed out the doors to throw away your plastic container, napkin (singular), and any drink bottles. Along with half our posse I go to throw my lunch away. I am dumping my food in with the other excess food, in the appropriate bin mind you, when Amy strolls up behind me and says "You know this is what they will serve for lunch tomorrow." Remember this is a bin half full of rice, some kind of squash thing, green beans, soup, and a pork of some sort, all mushed together in a concoction that looks like something you might throw up. That will forever change Chinese boxed lunches. Thank you Amy.

We did the typical after lunch routine, practiced flash quotes, and press conferences. Today I won a gold medal. I must be a natural. The second great quote of the day comes during mixed zone practice. Andy, our Sports Information Specialist, (WHO, by the way, grew up in Arlington Heights and went to Buffalo Grove for two years before he moved to Colorado CRAZY!) told me to be witty because the British cyclist I was pretending to be is witty. Probably the wrong move on his part, but I decide to run with it. I will give you the complete dialogue for the full effect...

Patrick: What gave you the extra push to lap the field today?
Me: Well, I really had to go to the bathroom. (great quote number two)
(upon hearing me mention having to go to the bathroom Kelsey looks over and chimes in)
Kelsey: Do you always deprive yourself of the bathroom before races?
Me: Yes, it gives me a sense of urgency and really pushes me to move faster so I can get off the bike and go.
Kelsey: Interesting.

I couldn't stop laughing once I walked away. Honestly, I think I should be an athlete here. Not only am I CLEARLY very physically fit (ha) but listen to those golden quotes. You can't get that anywhere. Double ha, aka haha. Anyway, the only bad part of yesterday was that I left feeling very nervous and unsure of myself. I am probably wigging myself out, but I feel like I am not good at this. I can learn all the information really quickly, who's who, what the rules are and such, but I am not too sure how great I am doing at getting the quotes. I am afraid that while I am sitting behind a journalist I will write something down and the next day find out it was completely different from what he had. BLAH. I really just need to stop worrying about it, but that is easier said than done.

Later we watched some BMX, which is the easiest thing in the world to understand and I read a lot of articles. We had decided the day before that all 24 of us would go out to dinner together. Krystyna was a little stressed so Raul took a bunch of us to get drinks first. We journeyed to the last stop on the red line, aka the last place you can get off before you are in the country side and scaling mountains, where we wait for Bob because we are going to his tea house. Bob's brother and assistant show up and the trek begins. We walk down many shady streets, admiring everyone's cute dogs. For some reason, like the children, the dogs are cuter here. Then, after about 10 minutes of blindly following these two people, we walk through the threshold to ultimate shadyville and Eric (one of the Chinese volunteers) says good quote number three. "They are probably taking us some place so they can sell us as slaves to Africa." This might be the best one of the day, but at this point it too close to call. A few dirt roads later we are at this beautiful tea house. Bob gives everyone some sweet tea, melon seeds (delish), and some other random goodies. He has his assistant preform a tea ceremony and then lets a few of us take a shot at it. Leroy was "very professional." Forty minutes later we are hiking back to the train. As we are walking back through the shady building that is full of 5 gallon purified water jugs Lauren says, "This is where they get the water for our room. Legit?" If I had photos of this journey you would understand why that was so hilarious. Just try to imagine a completely run down building full of these jugs and suddenly Lauren chimes in with that statement, which if you are keeping tally is good quote number four.

We load on to the train and go back toward the Velodrome for dinner. Paul had picked out a Chinese place that was only about a 5 minute walk from the train station. Dinner just added to the hilarity that was the last hour of my life. Leroy and Amy picked out the food, it was delicious. We talked sports, politics, and who knows what else. Raul was sitting with us and he mentioned that he has been working at the Velodrome for the last year, every day from nine to five. My response to that "Oh dear God." (I am leaving this off the good quote list, so do not mark it on your tally sheet.) There were a lot of children there, which led me to believe it was a family place, but all of us girls gawked and smiled at the cute babies. Andrea, Krystyna and I took numerous photos and were classified as pedophiles. Good quote five occurred at the other table. Since there is a bit of a language barrier with our Chinese friends they sometimes don't realize that they need to fluff things up before saying them. So Eric turns to Kelsey and says "What's wrong with you." Upon hearing this Li says "Eric that's rude." Eric then says "Well how do I say it? Kelsey are you in a raw mood?" Kelsey took it in stride saying she was simply hungry. I was not there, but just hearing it later had me on the floor laughing. It might also be Andrea's telling of the story that made this so funny, but seriously "raw mood?"

A little while later Eric decides to offer his services as a name translator, but only to the girls. He starts giving everyone names...things like complicated seaweed, green beautiful window, etc. When he comes over to our table Amy asks him what it takes to translate a name. Eric's response, "The one thing is it has to be beautiful because you all are very very beautiful." We all laugh at this obvious pick up line and Ernst, impressed by Eric's skill to lure in the ladies says "Man he is good" and realizes he needs to learn some new tricks. We then make Amy get her name translated to something "Very very beautiful." This is no easy process, when it is all said and done it took him about 10 minutes to give Amy her Chinese name. Eric saunters over proudly with his napkin in hand and delivers the news. This takes longer than the translation. I am fairly certain he said beautiful 4837 times. Ernst and I watched from across the table as Amy tried desperately to not laugh while Eric describes what this all means. And what is Amy's name? Tree, weeds blowing beautifully in the wind, and eyebrow. Other than the name itself, the comical part was Amy reenacting the gestures Eric used while reading her her new name. I decided to translate my name myself, brilliant, awesome, and beautiful (which was a qualification because Eric made sure to have that in everyone's name).

In all seriousness, while I watched him translate the name what he was doing was sounding out the syllables of Amy's name to find words in the Chinese language that made the same sound. There are a number of different ways to translate names, I also saw bookmarks with names on it that were translated using the meaning of the name. Other people talk to you for a while, try to figure out your personality and then translate your name using those characteristics. Regardless of the process, it is still pretty cool, even if Eric uses it as his way to get attention from the lady folk.

Then the train ride. Oh the train. Coming home it is not hard to get seats. A. it is 9:30 and 2. we are out in the boon docks when we are at the Velodrome. Eric continues to hit on Kelsey while I sit completely zoned out on the other side of the train. The last train leaves from the transfer station at 10:30...we get on the last train. There are only four cars and it is pretty packed. I have some man's armpit in my face. Nasty. Kelsey is taking random photos all over the place, and Lauren is going around popping everyone's collar, and buttoning up our polos so that we look ridiculous. We stop at a station and Kelsey turns to get off. She is bouncing all happy to be off the God-awful train, and it is the wrong stop. Instead of using words Lauren and I just pull on her backpack forcing her back on to the train. You probably just had to be there, but it had us laughing for a good five minutes.

I realize this is the longest blog post known to man, but I couldn't justify my initial claim without a full synopsis of the day. I think you can now see that Thursday does in fact rival the other days listed in the beginning of this incredibly long blog.

I've got a golden ticket...

2008-08-01T13:30:00.003+08:00

Wednesday was day three at the Velodrome. Big news came right before lunch, there would be a drawing for 8 tickets to see the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony. The catch, 8/85 would get it. Not horrible odds, but it wasn't like of the 25 or so people working in ONS 8 would go. Lunch was, well, lunch. I had a green orange. Actually, at first I thought it was a lime on steroids it was so green. Regardless, it was delightful.

Immediately following lunch was the big drawing. Each person walked up to the box and made his or her fateful selection. I stuck my hand in, shuffled the papers around a bit, and pulled out a piece of paper. No such luck, it was blank. As we sat there watching everyone you could see each person's look a desperation and hope. Many people, myself included, held their breath for a short moment before opening the folded paper. As if some mystical power would suddenly make the paper say Congratulations. As someone put it, "It's like the golden ticket in Willy Wonka." Leroy was one of the 8 lucky people to attend. He didn't stop smiling all day. And, being the journalist he is, he wrote a detailed account of the performance so that he could report back to us (no cameras were allowed). I have not yet listened. I am trying to be the good kid who doesn't look at her Christmas presents before they are wrapped. Unlike my normal self, I am letting this remain a surprise. We'll see if I can last the week.

After the drawing hoopla we watched cycling videos, complete with crashes. I encourage you to watch this video. Pay close attention to the kid at the top of the screen. No bones were broken and if I remember correctly no one went to the hospital. Typically what happens is because of the friction from the wood and the speed at which a person is riding the bike, if you fall you are more likely to get burnt. I am not going to go into details because it kind of grossed me out. Just watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0tMhlhnga0&feature=related

The videos really helped me understand each race. I can officially say that I understand the different events and can recognize them. Check. One thing down, only 188 athletes to go. Piece of cake. (insert eye roll here) We did more mock interviews and press conferences. I was Victoria Pendleton from Australia and won a silver medal. Seeing that I am the reining World Champ in my event I was very disappointed in silver. Imagine, disappointed in silver!

Wednesday I also started the official Beijing diet. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but if I did I am going to tell it again. Andrea and I decided we were going to start a diet that consisted of no western food, unless it is a salad. Even though it has only been three days I have been very successful. The real test will come when everyone is going to Paul's or Tim's, will I be strong enough to decline a delicious turkey sandwich? We shall see.

Evening was the new norm here, blogging and just hanging out. We played an intense round of Euchre which involved more than one death threat and numerous I hate yous. I have no books left so I went to bed with no story time. Day over.

and the excitement grows...

2008-07-31T00:17:00.004+08:00

Tuesday involved the most intense round of Running of the Dragon yet. I had a lot of amateurs with me and to be honest, I was a bit hesitant about their abilities. They weren't complete rookies, but they had only played once before and today was not a day for messing around. Let me give you the play-by-play. It all starts at 8:15am. We arrive at the train station and experience our first wait in line. As one of my esteemed colleagues put it "I can't believe I am waiting in line for the honor to cram myself on to a hot train with all these other people." Chad's frank answer pretty much summed up everything we were thinking. We waited in this line for about 30-45 min. People cut us, apparently America is the only country that recognizes the concept of a line. At one point I was so bored I counted the number of cars that went under the balcony we were on. 169 give or take a few. So bored. We finally get in the building and are corralled until the train below us leaves the station. Once the guards gave the signal every man was for himself, no looking back, just go. There was a mad dash, some pushing, and even some elbowing. Mind you this is BEFORE the transfer station I have spoke of in previous posts were the actual Running of the Dragon event takes place.

So the first train comes and is it completely packed. I mean, full. No room to move. Nothing. A small Chinese woman tried to push herself on and it was even impossible for her to get on. If she couldn't get herself on there was no way five Americans were going to push their way on. While we waited for the next train I decided no matter how many people, I was pushing my way on. Much to my disappointment the next train was not nearly as full. Why was I disappointed? Well, I have spoken of my great ability to push through crowds and I felt like this was my next challenge. I had prepared myself and was let down. Oh well. We are now on the train and during the next two stops it is decided we will in fact attempt at seats on the next train. RUNNING OF THE DRAGON TIME.

My companions were less excited about this than I was. Anyway, the rookies and I readied ourselves. Given their amateur status we got a poor start. It was looking grim, but at the bottom of the stairs I decided I was going to play the part of "naive American." A nice tactic that can be used in emergency situations. Slyly I work my way to the front of one of the lines and encourage people to follow. I eventually push to four across and the train stops in front of me. As the train stops I elbow my way to be the first one on and miraculously all five of us are seated when the train leaves the station. I don't know if you can tell, but this is probably my favorite thing to do each day. I absolutely love it. Plus, I think there is a certain level of entertainment for my readers when I recap the event. I promise, from now on I will no longer write about Running of the Bull, unless it is in passing.

Forty-five minutes and five sudokus later we arrive at our station. So far, it had been a successful day, until Lauren sprinted past me, OUT OF NO WHERE and beat me to check in. Her and Traci had left 30 min after us and now shamed me by beating me to security. I'll get her back. As for training yesterday, we did a mock mixed zone, where we stand to get the quotes. Everyone was pretty confused, but it worked out well. After that we did a mock press conference. I feel like I pretty much suck at this, so I sit quietly waiting for other people to ask questions.

I am slowly discovering that we have been placed in one of the more high profile sports. At first I was a little disheartened when I learned I would be in cycling, but people outside the US love it. All the Aussies and Brits are jealous of us. Until I started training I rolled my eyes and couldn't understand why in the world any one would want to watch this sport. While I already knew this, I have come to realize it is probably one of the most viewed and more popular sports in the rest of the world. Learning this made me VERY excited, but also pretty nervous. I don't want to mess this up. I am learning to love the sport. I finally have a grasp on most of the events and I am slowly learning about all the favorites. We have 188 riders to know about, and that is in track racing alone. It doesn't include BMX or Mountain Biking, both of which we are also covering. The only cycling event I am not covering are the road races. And I wanted to take on volleyball also? Ha. Oh, by the way, we are no longer switching. The woman took to long to decide and the three of us just want to stay at cycling. I can't speak for everyone, but I am really enjoying it in cycling. If anything, it is another sport I can talk about!

I was exhausted last night and fell asleep at 8:45. Yep. Grandma here passed out and never woke up again until 7am. It was the best thing in the entire world. Ten hours of glorious sleep. I didn't even wake up when my roommate came home. Again, this wasn't a deep, insightful post, but my daily activities don't lend themselves to that type of post. I am not allowed to comment on the behind the scenes stuff, so I really can only generalize my day. Bare with me, I'm sure it will get better. Mulan is over and it's time for bed!!

gilligan, and the skipper too....

2008-07-30T20:29:00.005+08:00

Monday was the big day...we got our uniforms. Now, before any of you ask, no I do not have a picture yet. How is that possible? Well, we actually started to work and by the time we get home we just want to get out of the things so...I PROMISE by then end of the day tomorrow there will be a photo of me in my DAZZLING uniform, complete with the Gilligan hat, water bottle, and fanny pack (waist pack or hipster whatever your preference). It was on Monday that we decided the official theme song to our trip is the opening song to Gilligan's Island. We even gave people parts...sadly I did not warrant one. I am a guest star.

Day one was pretty low key. I am pretty much in love with our managers. There is Krystyna. I have mentioned her before; she is from Australia but has been living in London for the last seven years. This is her third Olympics. In Athens she was a journalist, able to go to any game and any venue. I can't remember what she did in Sydney, but she was there. Now she has moved up in the ranks and is ONS manager (Olympic News Service Manager). She is so wonderful to have as a "boss" because she is very lax (kind of like the ones I have at Purdue) and doesn't believe in having us there if there is nothing to be done. Paul is our Chinese ONS manager and just the sweetest person ever. He is always smiling. And, I don't know how, but knows all of our names already and can even identify us from the back. That impressed me. He is usually running about working on other things.

Then there is Ernst. He is from Holland and has been working for Infostrata. This is the company that deliver stats to the media and write stories for most of Europe and Australia. He used to be an editor but we found out he has transferred over to the stats department. Amy is also from Australia. She knows everything about every sport. On top of being a reporter, she is a member of the Australian Women's Baseball team. No not softball, baseball, which is so incredibly cool. I think she knows every person who will ride a bike and their back story. We have one final manager coming Andy. I don't know much about him, but he is from America. He is coming off the Tour de France. These people are pretty much living my dream life. Working in sports and traveling around while doing it. I can only hope I can one day do the same thing. I think before I leave here I really am going to love cycling. In any event, all four of these people are pretty much amazing. They are MORE than willing to help us with anything and as any expert does, they love to talk about cycling.

So that is the crew. Other than the 10 of us Purdue students, there are only 3 other people working on flash quotes for cycling. So if you hear a cycling quote, I know the person! Yeahaha! Hopefully I will be able to catch a good one that you all can read! Like I said Monday was spent getting better acquainted with the venue and people. Amy told us what all the lines meant on the track and explained each race to us. I was still a little lost, but she did her best to provide a mini demo, sans bike, which helped a bit. We got to walk out on the track a bit...that was probably the last day I could do it because the athletes are starting to come and training starts next week. (AHHHH!) We then played on the Olympics Facebook. Actually it is a computer program with everything you could ever want to know about the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It has a biography for every athlete, information on the venues, event history, Olympic history...seriously EVERYTHING! We spent an hour or two just looking people up. I love playing with it! There is even a Jahrling in the rowing history!

We ventured home on the train with huge uniform bags in hand. The people on the train were not happy with us for taking up so much space with our bags, but what could we do. The rest of the evening was spent goofing off. Our room hosted movie night again. Andrea and Lauren decided to recreate the Peking Opera make-up (pictures to come later). It was HILARIOUS and pretty well done. I passed out watching Grey's Anatomy.

I don't have any really deep thoughts about my day. There was nothing overly interesting or out of the ordinary to comment on. I promise to have those pictures to you soon, complete with photos of the velodrome.

strange things are happening....

2008-07-28T21:17:00.006+08:00

Dear God. If I never shop another day in my life I will be the happiest person on the planet. We left the University at 9:30AM to go shopping and did not come back until 7:00PM. Enough said.

I have already talked about shopping about 2,000 times, there isn't much more I can say. Although, it was noticed by Val that all these stores are over-staffed. In America there would be one person, maybe two on the floor and then one behind the counter. Here, there are four behind the counter, eight on the floor, and one or two greeting customers at the door. The people on the floor are so excited to actually get to do something they follow you around the whole store. My favorite part of the day was this convo...
worker: "Where are you from?"
Me: "The United States."
Worker: "Ohhh. U.S.A. California?"
Me: "No, Chicago."
Worker: "Ohhh. Bulls! Michael Jordan. Beautiful thing."

I just laughed. As everyone has told me, people in China love their NBA and they all love Michael Jordan. I rarely even think of MJ anymore. He was so excited. It was cute.

Other than that the day was fairly uneventful.

As I mentioned previously, the city is in the first stages of it's Olympic manicure. Other than a sign or two, two weeks ago you would have no clue the Olympics were starting in a month, but now you would have to be a complete moron to not know. There are banners everywhere, on light poles, buildings, overpasses on the highway. They have also started putting up displays (for lack of a better word.) This is the best way I can describe them...they are a metal outline with a hollow center that is filled with flowers to give it color. Anyway, they are popping up everywhere, in front of the mall, all over Tien'anmen Square. I have never seen any transformation like this before. At school they make things look all pretty for Homecoming or Christmas but NEVER to this extent. Not to say that it should, I mean this is the Olympics, but that is the only basis of comparison I have. It is crazy. Even though we were only here for a few weeks and never experience the city pre-Olympics, I feel like they are changing my city. I can only imagine what it feels like for people who have lived here their entire lives and watched their home completely change. I realize this is all part of hosting the Olympics, but it worries me to think about how much Chicago might change if they win the 2016 bid. That is neither here nor there, just random thoughts.

The best indication that something big is coming is that tourists are flocking to the city. We noticed more white people in the mall yesterday. It was funny because we were offended by this. For the last three weeks we were essentially the only white people in this city and suddenly, out of nowhere, other people are showing up. We feel like they are invading our turf...you would think it was our own country. They don't know how to use the subway. They think that if a person doesn't understand raising their voice will make it better. We get embarrassed by them.

Well....I just thought I would give you an update. Nothing exciting happened at all. I will make sure tomorrow's is better! Have a good day!

a self-guided beijing bike tour...

2008-07-26T21:47:00.013+08:00

I woke up this morning thinking today was going to be a wasted day. To be honest, I kind of wanted it to be. I am really into my book, The Other Boleyn Girl, and I was totally content with laying in my bed reading it all day. However, around 9:30 I became restless, apparently I was feeling better. I found out Leroy, Andrea, and Kesley were planning on a city bike tour. How could I pass up a bike tour in Beijing? Uhh, correct answer, YOU CAN'T!

We hopped on to the subway and headed towards the Forbidden City. The tour that is mapped out in Leroy's National Geographic book starts at the FC. Apparently, Nat'l Geographic thinks that we all travel with our bikes because it does not tell us where we can rent such a thing. It is decided to start walking the tour and eventually we have to come upon a bike rental. About 30 minutes later we passed one rental that only had two bikes, we needed four. We arrive at this park which according to the book "is a MUST see." The park was beautiful. It had a HUGE lily pond and a couple temples scattered about. We headed aimlessly down the path to see what was there. We stumbled upon a couple different Chinese folk bands...I guess that is what you would call them...and people crowded around them to listen.

Once we exited the park we finally found a bike rental. I was sure this was how I was meant to die. I have already explained traffic to you: do as you wish. Well there is this "bike lane" except any car that is trying to pass another car, or any bus or taxi dropping people off can entire the bike lane. So not only am I trying to navigate away from pedestrians and other moving objects, like motorized bikes and rickshaws, but now I am dodging large buses and cars. Excellent. We start in one direction and realize we have missed our street for the self-guided Beijing Bike Tour. I, ever so brilliantly, start to cross the street to change directions, but instead get caught in the middle of the intersection. It was at this point that I saw my life pass before me. Cars were turning left in front of me. Other cars were pulling up behind me, I really thought I was going to die. Thankfully I maneuvered myself out of the situation and was back on track. There were other close calls throughout the two hour tour but generally we stayed pretty safe. Some how during this adventure we ended up riding through the Forbidden City. It was kind of crazy. It was an exciting few hours, but given the small, non-padded bike seat I now hurt in places that I have never hurt before. I am hoping the recovery time for such a thing is short. I'll keep you posted.

Dinner tonight was probably my favorite thus far...a small Italian place. They gave us bread with oil and I had mushroom risotto...scrumtrulecent! The best part of the entire meal was getting to speak the minimal Italian I know to the manager. Despite my lack of confidence with the language while in Italy, I was excited and ready to use the language today. He was pretty impressed, ha. Anyway...so great. I wish I could have moved the entire restaurant right outside our gates so I could go everyday. It was like home to me. Yeahaha!

Tonight has been another low key night. A couple people went out, but the rest of us decided upon another night of blogging and relaxation. There really isn't much to do here at night unless you are going to the bars and that excitement wore off about a week ago.

Tomorrow is hopefully our last day off for a while. I am so anxious to get started. The photo people weren't off this weekend and they got their uniforms. Which is good news for all of you because that means the much desired uniform photo is on the way! I am also pretty stoked because the Daily Herald wants three of us to write a separate blog for them. (I guess I will have to start proof reading more.) It's not like it is going to be printed or anything, but it is still, in the most minimal way, writing for the Herald!! Yeahaha.

Have a great day everyone!

oooh the drama...

2008-07-25T21:18:00.005+08:00

The Chinese stomach flu won, but not before MUCH drama ensued over the weekend trip to Shanghai. It all started shortly after my Wednesday night post. Lauren found cheaper plane tickets and needed all our information. Simple right? Plug and chug on the Internet and we're off on Friday morning. Wrong-O! 7:30 Thursday morning Lauren receives Chinese text messages, followed by a phone call. "Hello, Thomas and Jahrling do not have a ticket home. The plane was full." Ok easy enough, book a return flight all is good. Wrong, again. Phone call two of the day, "We need Traci to fax a copy of her passport and credit card and fill out this form (in Chinese) she has been red flagged." WHAAAAT? How is Traci flagged? Plan B - - Kelsey pays for Traci's ticket and Traci will pay her back. Around 1:00 a series of phone calls came asking for all our passports and credit card info because we were using international credit cards. A little shady, but they assured us all was good. Phone call 6,388 comes at about 3:30, "Hi sorry. When I talked to you this morning I cancelled Thomas and Jahrling's entire flight. They have no way there now." ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?!?!?!? This is when I decided I needed out. Not only was this the biggest pain in the butt, EVER, but the evil flu was really starting to take over. Once again Patrick saved the day. He called to cancel the two tickets and they told him they were going to charge us a fee. After a long convo and a returned phone call (and him making them apologize to HIM ha) we were out with no fee. That was not the end of the drama. Kesley called at about 11PM to make sure everything was ok, Traci had no ticket booked for her. Sooo long and short, no Shanghai and I am not overly disappointed. While it would have been cool, it would have cost a lot for one weekend. Plus, Chinese stomach flu was going to make me extra crabby.

The drama of yesterday and the flu left me exhausted today (Friday). At 6:10 my alarm went off. I reluctantly rolled out of bed, still debating if it was even worth it to head out to the Main Press Center to try for tickets. (fyi: the last batch of tickets went on sale today to the general public) Three of us brave souls decided to subway it up, with a sub par performance at Running of the Dragon, it really wasn't my day. About 40 min later we arrive at the MPC area and realize we GROSSLY under estimated the local interest in the Games. Over 200,000 people showed up for limited tickets and everyone was allowed two tickets. Sadly, we were in such a rush to leave this morning that all three of us forgot our cameras to document this event. After about 30 minutes and a stroll around the area, we realized how naive and stupid we were to think that we could show up two hours before the tickets were on sale and expect to get some. We left empty handed and a little distraught.

These two events lead me to my latest observations: 1. Americans are coddled like little children and 2. Americans are naive, especially when traveling abroad. The entire Shanghai drama is a perfect example of both points. Booking a trip here is not like booking a trip at home. You cannot just jump on the Internet the day before and have it done five minutes later. It was just ridiculous of us to think that we could just jump on a plane 24 hours after discovering we had free time. When it comes to getting Olympic tickets, HOW STUPID were we?! Seriously. As my roommate said, "You can't go to the Purdue box office 2 hours before and expect to get tickets. How can you expect to do that in a city with 16 million people?" Uhh duh! We were told that the Chinese interest in the Olympics is minimal. Whether or not that is true is a moo point; even if interest is low that means, in a city with 16 million people, about 200,000 people will show up. I guess all this ranting is just me annoyed at myself for being a typical American abroad. I thought I knew better. (Large sigh)

Because of my early rise and the evil sickness that I caught, I spent most of the day in my bed. I organized my photos for all of you; they are now categorized by events and locations. I then separated the photo link out on the side bar to make it easier to find. After a three hour nap and a refreshing shower, I was feeling 10x's better. All ready for the exciting evening...Tim's BBQ. Now before I talk about Tim's let me just explain why we are eating so much western food. It is not because we are ignorant Americans who are unwilling to explore the local food offerings. It is because if we eat that much Chinese food we get very ill. We did it for a week. It wasn't good news. So, typically we eat Chinese food for lunch and western food for dinner. I know it is not the best way to do things, but it is the only way that will bring me home alive. Tangent over. Tim's BBQ, SO FREAKING GOOD! The nachos were AMAZING. The beef burrito was not ground beef, but a pulled pork type beef with BBQ sauce. DELICIOUS. To top it off...THEY HAD RANCH. It was my first taste of ranch in almost a month. Just all around a great idea.

Everyone decided it was a movie night so my computer and iTunes hosted "Remember the Titans."

I am nearing the end of week three, and unlike the first two weeks, this week has gone by much faster. It worries me that we might have taken our first two weeks for granted. From here on out it is going to fly by, especially once the Olympics come. I can't wait for them to start. OOOh and you all should try to watch, at least on NBC.com because you will most DEFINITELY get to see me on tv if I am waiting for a flash quote. EEEK!

hungry eyes...

2008-07-23T21:56:00.006+08:00

Work started today. Even after our eventful Tuesday evening, everyone was up and rearing to go. While on the train it was decided a rousing game of Musical Subway or Running of the Bull (maybe that should be Running of the Dragon?) was necessary since we assumed it was going to be a long ride. I won...again. I am telling you, if this were an Olympic event I would NOT be here flash quoting and I would likely be flying home with a gold medal. Anyway, essentially we all won because we all got a seat on the train but I got there first. I win. An hour later, we were VERY grateful we played Musical Subway...total commute time 1 hour and 5 min (not including the walk to the train or from the train to the venue.) While on the train I made friends with a two year old Chinese boy. He was not happy his mother decided on the train for the day, but the two of us played an exciting round of peek-a-boo, followed by ugly faces, and capped off with a couple tongue stick outs. It was fun and he was adorable. (question: is bringing home a Chinese infant an acceptable souvenir?)

When we arrived at our stop we immediately set out for food. Then we remembered what Krystyna told us, there is no food places out there, eat before you come. That game was over. Krystyna and Paul (not the same guy who owns the restaurant) met us and we walked to the venue. Security was already up so we had our first experience with that...I felt so important. The venue is beautiful, however, I am retarded and did not bring my camera so I am waiting to steal photos from other people. (Mom says I need more color in the blog, so I will make my best effort to start adding photos.)

The ten of us were like little children on Christmas. We walked out on to the main floor and everyone just had a glow in their eyes. Even though the venue isn't huge, it was easy to see no one knew where to look first. The press tribunes, the track, the medal podium. Ours eyes darted back and forth feasting on anything we could see. It was agreed that this is probably the coolest thing we had ever done. While we were there the Chinese cheerleaders were practicing some dance, which we are learning so that we can perform if needed, and the other volunteers were training for their jobs. It was surreal. I couldn't believe that I was standing on the floor of an Olympic venue...oh but it got better. We then went out on to the track and walked that for a while, followed by a tour of the BMX venue and a walk up to the gate where they start the events. After that we were done for the day. Sadly no uniforms and we were told to take the weekend off. I know, rough life. So the exciting plan is - Shanghai!! The girls that aren't in photo are all going to take an overnight train to Shanghai, spend all day Friday and Saturday there and then take an overnight train back. At least, that was the plan as of 2 hours ago. I have been sequestered in my room due to the flu situation addressed in the last blog. We seriously need an infirmary so that we don't keep spreading this around.

We'll see what actually happens with the Shanghai thing, but it sounds promising. I'm excited to go to another city to see the differences. According to our professor Beijing and Shanghai are WORLDS apart. I will make sure to update you on my findings. Right now though it is time for some meds and bed. I will not let the Chinese stomach flu keep me from Shanghai.

come buy pearls...

2008-07-23T21:24:00.002+08:00

Apparently the Chinese stomach virus is slowly creeping up on the sixteen of us. Four people have been hit, and I seem to be the next target. Don't you worry. I am not letting a stupid little flu stop me!

Yesterday I FINALLY made it to the Pearl Market. Given my lack of knowledge on these types of things, it was the most overwhelming situation. You walk in the door and INSTANTLY all the people at their stalls perk up. "Lady you like my pearls? Come buy pearls." Ahh! Over 150 pearl stalls....and that is just one floor. I didn't know where to go, what to look for, or what was good. I took a while to just take everything in. The good thing was I was part of the last wave of people to go so I got to see other people's pearls, which at least gave me a basis for comparison.

Finally, after wandering the entire floor I just had to bite it and pick a stall. I arrived at number 73. A very nice young girl and her mother. She had AMAZING English. I asked for 20 inches and she knew exactly what I had requested and set right to work. They string the pearls right in front of you, making a knot after each pearl. The two of them were so quick. Vivian was her English name and we had a very nice conversation about who I was bringing the pearls home for. I left after getting two full sets but found myself right back there five minutes later. I had a sense of loyalty to her. She made a few more sets and I was off on my merry way. I actually really enjoyed the entire experience. I got to practice my bartering skills and I felt very accomplished at the end of the day. I can't go into too many details seeing as many of you reading this will personally benefit from my trip there. I can now come home, seeing that was the only thing I was TOLD to get.

The three of us did NOT want to take the subway back because it was 100+ degrees out yesterday. We walked up to a cab, bartered for a better price and even got him to stop at Starbucks on the way home for a little frap action. I loved this cab driver. He too had really good English, which we were both impressed and surprised by. He proceeded to tell us that he knows very little English and he learned by listening to tapes for the last two years. When he was in school there were 45 people in his class and he was number 44 in English but he decided to start learning again for when tourists came for the Olympics. It was really touching and it made me think about how we take so many things for granted. I don't want to get all emotional or preachy, I was just another eye-opening experience.

Yesterday was also the roommate's birthday...we celebrated as any American college students would, which resulted in probably over 1000 pictures taken of last night alone. The highlight of the evening: Durty Nellie's in China. That's right. I have now been to Durty Nellie's in America, Ireland, and China. It was the PERFECT idea (pat on the back for the person who thought of it...MEE!!) We had dinner and even got to watch a little baseball. Later we went to a bar called The China Doll, so amazing. Inside they have a little beach area, complete with sand (Laura you'd love it) and outside there is a rooftop bar that was so wonderful. I may have gotten 10,000 mosquito bites, but it was worth every itchy little bite. Overall, another successful day in Beijing. (Oh just found another bite! SWEET!)

sing a mean tune kid...

2008-07-21T13:22:00.003+08:00

Dr. Al used to tell us "I want you to get on the wrong train, going in the wrong direction, with the wrong currency." It sounds malicious, but his philosophy behind it is well sounded. Basically, he knew that we would never grow when everything was going according to plan; it was those moments when everything collapsed that we learned the most. I didn't have many of these experiences while in Europe. There was a minor glitch when we went to Florence, missing the connection train and trying to communicate with the woman at the ticket office, but for the most part everything was fine. That is not the case here. Yesterday I had my first real, wrong train, wrong direction experience, except it was a wrong cab, wrong direction, and wrong language. A deadly combo. After the Olympic store (for the third time), Val and I hailed a cab. Armed with a sheet that had Wal-Mart written in Chinese characters, the cab driver read the paper, nodded yes, and we jumped in. Wal-Mart was probably only 10 blocks away, but to walk that with as many bags as we had did not seem like a fun experience. Enter cab driver. He starts to pull away and gestures left and right. I assumed he was asking which Wal-Mart we wanted, so I gestured right indicating we wanted the one to the right. We started on our way and quickly we realized that the cab driver did not have the same Wal-Mart in mind. The cab continued further and further south, we needed to be going north-east. There was a glimmer of hope when he pulled a u-turn and headed north but then he stopped. No Wal-Mart in sight he made a phone call. This led us to believe he was back on track. Not so much. After heading too far east he then started to go south again. All I could think about was, when am I going to do when he drops us off in some remote location? How are we going to get back home? We finally arrive at another Wal-Mart, God only knows where and he triumphantly lets us out. Val and I were just grateful that he did not drop us on the side of the road, as it originally seemed he was planning to do. We were a bit worried that we would not be able to find a cab back home and furthermore, one that knew where the University was located. Luckily, after a brief scare, the cab knew where to go and proudly practiced his English with us. No more taxis to Wal-Mart. Lesson learned.

Saturday we immersed ourselves with the local running of the bull, yesterday night we did what everyone must do when coming to China...KARAOKE!!! Getting people moving in a forward motion is a task and half. We started at 6:00 and were not out the door until almost 9:30...THANKS A LOT TRACI. (You better know I am kidding.) Once everyone was ready, we walked to the local karaoke bar, not before making a short pit stop at McDonald's for those of us who hydrated while getting ready. Karaoke here is VERY different from home. You don't sit in a large room and watch as people humiliate themselves. I suspect this has something to do with the cultural concept of saving face and not embarrassing each other. Anyway, we arrive and we are given our own room with a screen and two mics. Chad figured out how to read Chinese and we begin what was an exciting night of karaoke, complete with 'N Sync, Spice Girls, Titanic (that's for you Laura) and other classic karaoke songs. We walked home, thus putting an end to another crazy evening in Beijing.

Since today is a day of rest in China, we have once again pulled out the kiddie pool and will be relaxing on the roof. Wednesday work begins and we couldn't be more excited. It has been nice having a few weeks off, but just as Olympic fever is taking over the city, we too are caught up in the glitz and glamor that is the Olympics. Each day we grow a little more restless and ache to see our venue and start work. The athletes are beginning to arrive (no Molly I have not seen Michael Phelps) and we are quickly watching the city change. Flowers and trees are being planted, the three new subway lines opened, and the special Olympic traffic laws are going into effect. It is exciting and interesting to watch the city transform, but that's another story for another day. Right now it's time for me to go play in the kiddie pool!

running of the bulls...

2008-07-21T12:08:00.004+08:00

The boys learned a valuable lesson early Saturday morning...never wake Megan and Alysha at 4:30 in the morning. We very much value our sleep, especially in the early morning. At about 4:30, two of my fellow travelers decided it would be fun to BANG on our doors. I am not talking a light, tap that says "Hey! Are you for some absurd reason still awake at 4 am?" I am talking a pounding that startles you into thinking that there is some one on the other side of the door wanting to kill you. We let them know that banging on our door was not an acceptable morning activity; I am convinced they will never do that again. A few hours later, at a reasonable hour, we attempted to leave quickly, so the boys had time to think about their actions. Sadly our attempt was foiled when Lauren got locked out, thus delaying the quick exit.

None of us had any real plans for the day, so we just got on the train and went. This is when we played Musical Trains, a delightful game for all ages. Here is how the train system works. We are out in the 4th ring of Beijing (I think there are 10) What we have to do is get on the train here, then transfer at another station to get into town. For the last two weeks we have watched in awe as people prepare for this transfer. When approaching the station people ready themselves at the door, there is a mad dash off the train, followed by a sprint up the stairs and over to the next train. As the next train comes everyone pushes and essentially falls into the next train...all of this is in attempt to get a seat on the train. It's kind of like the running of the bulls, maybe more dangerous. So, since we are trying to absorb as much culture as we can, we decided to participate in this event. Lauren (with video camera in hand), Alysha, and I took our positions and readied ourselves for this extraordinary event. The doors opened and WE WERE OFF. I was a rookie, but I took the lead blocking position. If I messed this up it was game over, no seat on the train. I was a bit nervous, but given my ability to swerve through crowds I had confidence I could perform like a veteran. I plowed my way up the steps and rushed around the corner, bypassing those who were less prepared. We arrived at the next platform in good position, second in line, meaning that when the train arrived we could push to four across. A few moments later the train arrived and we were pushed ourselves on...elbows out ready to throw punches for a spot, we made it on and all three of us had seats. We owe a lot of our success to the train driver who stopped the train right in front of us. This was crucial. Had he even been a foot off all would have been lost. I suggest this event for all those who come to Beijing.

After our delightful ride we went to the "Friendship Store," which had a English bookstore in it (very hard to find here.) Everything was too expensive, but just to see an entire article in English was exciting. Lunch was at Paul's again, where we amazing ran into the rest of our group. Apparently we all had the same craving. I have never seen three girls eat faster. Not only were we starving because it was two in the afternoon, but it was Paul's. The man has the best food and it is piping hot when it comes out. We went from full plates to completely empty in about 7 minutes. It was amazing. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping and roaming around Beijing.

Throughout our travels I noticed the stark contrast between places like the Silk Market versus the malls. They are worlds apart and there is very little to choose from in between. The Silk Market and the like are all about getting the best deal possible for things that do not scream quality. You could barter for twenty minutes just to get a knock-off Prada or a pair of shoes that will be unwearable within a month. On the other hand, there is the mall. Chalk full of places like Gucci, Armani Exchange, and Burberry. We walk though the mall feeling completely under dressed and as though we do not belong there. There is no middle ground, which is a hard concept for all of us to grasp.

Since some people will still hurting from the night before, we all retreated to our own rooms for the night and went to bed pretty early. No crazy antics Saturday night. Sunday would be a different story.

shop til you drop...

2008-07-19T22:50:00.004+08:00

(Large sigh) One would think that after, what, at least 8 or 9 years of homework I would learn my lesson about procrastination. Nope. I fear that I will never learn. In high school I would finish my study guides and homework either early in the morning or the class before. In college I write my 10 page research papers the night before; I pull all-nighters rushing to finish entire design projects, typically finishing only moments before they are due. All this being the case I was very surprised (and proud) for keeping up on my blogs during the first week. As we can tell, week two has not faired well. Once again my Mom was right. Now I sit here feverishly trying to remember what events transpired this week. Almost there (sigh of relief).

Starting next week we begin work, so the lackadaisical lifestyle we have been living for the last two weeks is going to come to an abrupt ending. It was raining when we woke up so it was decided a day of shopping was in order. Everyone was all gun-ho about this t-shirt store, that was apparently THE PLACE to get a graphic t-shirt. I was not sure what the amazing allure of this store was but we went there first. We arrived at the street and the cab driver pointed down the street and said something. We assumed from the gesture that it meant the store was down the street. It ended up we stumbled upon a hu-ton (spelling?) Basically, it is a street or alley, with a bunch of shops. Some of the things were hand made, others were seen in numerous stores, but it was just a cute little street with crafty items. I saw a lot of jewelry I thought I could buy many of you (especially Laura) but I didn't feel right bartering for people's handmade items. I felt like I was cheapening their work. Despite the fact that the t-shirt store was over hyped and a big bust, the rest of the street was a success.

Val and Christina had found the big Olympic store. It was OVERWHELMING! I didn't know where to go first, key chains or t-shirts, cups or stuffed animals. AHHH! So much and they like to offer you as much help as possible, even though you don't always want it. I took a lot of it in and only got a few things. My biggest goal during this whole thing is to get as many different Olympic bags as possible (Mom you would be proud).

Shopping here is exhausting. You can't carry anything around the store. You have to get a piece of paper and then bring it to the cashier. Finally, after you pay you can pick up your item. I am sure it cuts down on shoplifting, but it is a tiring process. Then on top of that EVERYONE wants to offer you their help, unless you are looking for help then suddenly they are gone. The story of shopping right? So after an hour in the most chaotic store ever and shopping all day at the hu-ton we were DONE. Too tired to fend for spots on the subway, we forked over the cash and took cabs home.

Yesterday night was another chill night, at least for me. Half the group went out to a sports bar. I was not in the mood to get dressed or shower, so a few of us stayed in to watch a movie. We didn't get far because everyone was falling asleep. Thus bringing an end to another successful, action packed day in Beijing.

Phew. All caught up. Tomorrow morning I will debrief you on today's events!! Maybe I can find the time to add some humor again. One can only hope. One update for today...we are given a five gallon jug of purified water (since we can't drink tap water.) My roomie decided that it was a goal of ours (Dad I think she has a frog in her pocket) to finish this five gallon jug of water in three days. She was very disappointed in our last attempt - it took us two weeks and apparently I put forth no effort. Haha. Anyway, today was day one and the jug is probably halfway gone. I pulled my weight, drinking an impressive 6 bottles of water (anyone who knows me knows that even one full bottle is a good day.) We went hard today with the strategy that tomorrow or Monday we could ease up a bit. I will keep you updated on our progress.

More to come tomorrow!

sally the camel has two humps...

2008-07-19T21:59:00.004+08:00

Hopefully by tomorrow (Sunday) I will have all my blog posting updated. I let myself get way behind and now it is a frantic game of catch up. Yesterday (Friday) I told you about our fairly uneventful Wednesday. Thursday was my much anticipated excursion to the zoo! When I was questioned about my desire to go to the zoo naturally I said for the pandas! The pandas did NOT disappoint, there were a number of pandas because a number of them were rescued from the earthquake down south.

The pandas were the highlight of the trip. Apparently the brand new aquarium was great, I did not want to pay $15 to get in, especially when I entered the zoo for $3. The rest of the zoo was...interesting. It was no Lincoln Park or Brookfield Zoo. Our favorite experience of the day was lunch. When I think of lunch at the zoo I think of a picnic, hot dog, popcorn, a sandwich, etc. Here the option is a drumstick, some sort of hot dog looking thing, or what I guessed was fried fish. Most of us went for the drumstick, which was actually really good, weird, but good.

After lunch I got my first request to take a photo with a Chinese girl. It was really awkward. I could tell she had asked her mom if she could take a picture with me. I didn't know if I was supposed to put my arm around her or just stand there, put up the peace sign or even smile! I felt like such an idiot standing there. It wouldn't be the first picture of the day.

Since Jason and I didn't want to go into the aquarium and we really had enough of the zoo we started the task of trying to get a cab back to the train. It was much more difficult than we initially assumed. Without Patrick or any sort of book to point at we were stuck with gestures. Five cabs later, our best train/subway charades attempt had succumbed to the language barrier. No one seemed to understand my truck horn, my underground gesture or the repeated use of the words "train, subway, or underground." We tried to ask a few people for help but we were still unsuccessful. It was hot, I was tired and frustrated. I had accepted the fact that my new place of residence was going to be the zoo. It was nice enough. I could get by. I decided to try one more thing and then give up. I saw a posse of four boys walking toward us; they were about our age, one of them were bound to know English. I worked up my courage, walked up and asked if they knew English. THANKFULLY one of the boys did and he was able to write down our request. We figured that him writing was better than me trying to speak. I probably said thank you about five thousand times and agreed to their request to take a photo.

As Dorothy said, "We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto." During my two weeks here I have realized the language differences here are far greater than those I experienced in Europe. I did anticipate this; many of us have genuinely tried to learn a few choice phrases, but each time we come out sounding like fools. I have essentially given up trying to speak the language. Paired with a smile, it is amazing how far "hello" and "thank you" has gotten me on this trip. As it did in Europe, it embarrasses me that I arrive in another country and expect some one to cater to my language needs. I realize it is impossible to learn every language, but there have been a number of times, whether I was lost in Prague or needed a taxi in China, that I was in desperate need of an English-speaking local. If either of these people needed my help at home I never would have been able to provide it unless they spoke English. Anyway, unless you have experienced it you might not understand the weird feeling, but it is a sad realization.

I was not feeling well so I took a very long 3 hour nap Thursday afternoon, according to the roommate I was in a coma. When I woke up everyone was ordering Mexican food...probably not the best choice of food in China. Meh. Since I had so wisely chosen to nap from 5-8 I was pretty wired. Val and I stayed up with the boys to play cards but that was pretty much it for the night!

over and over again...

2008-07-18T21:53:00.006+08:00

You know how on Groundhog Day Eddie Murphy wakes up and it is the same day over and over again? Well that is what Wednesday was. I woke up and felt like it was Tuesday all over again. 7:30 am we piled onto the bus. Half the group was missing at 7:31 and another college was ready and willing to leave them behind. Thankfully that did not happen. Upon arrival at the hotel we thought a McDonald's coffee would hit the spot. It MOST definitely did not. Coffee here does NOT taste like coffee at home. I poured lots of sugar and creamer which helped. Minimally. The man leading the group today started us out with this thought..."This is a good day. For the past week a man has been playing Celine Dion on his flute outside and today he stopped." I found that hilarious, you probably just had to be there. We went through more rules about what we can and cannot do. Not worth mentioning. Then there was TEAMBUILDING. I am not even going to elaborate. Since our venue is so far out west Krystina decided that there was no need to go out there and sent us home for the afternoon.

I know I have mentioned a number of times this group has a tendency to revert to childlike activities, Wednesday was no exception. Upon our arrival back home some of the boys decided they wanted to blow up the kiddy pool and put it on the 10th floor roof. Chris blew up the pool and 15 buckets of water later, we had a water paradise. I left for a while and came back to Christopher pimping it out in the pool with two girls. Let me brief you on how big this pool is, it was probably two or three feet deep and about three feet wide. I have NO clue how these three got in there together, but they did. Lauren then decided it was time to do her laundry. She got out her washboard bucket, soap, and head wrap to hand wash her clothes. Pictures will be added to my site later.

For dinner we went to Paul's. Krystina wanted to meet us for dinner so she could get to know everyone better. We told her we were in desperate need of real western food, not fast food either. Paul's it was. He is from North America and his restaurant has all American food. I FINALLY had my much desired Turkey Club and a salad. I know many of you might be gasping, but I was assured by Krystina that I would be fine. It was DELICIOUS. But the BEST part of the entire meal...dessert. Traci and I shared a piece of peanut butter chocolate pie. I would have skipped dinner and just had a piece of this pie of I known about it. One thing led to another that night and we ended up at a little local bar. It seemed like a typical night that could have happened at home, but because we were in Beijing it was that much better. The best part, for an amazing night of great food and excitement it only cost me $20. SOOO WONDERFUL!

2008-07-18T21:28:00.003+08:00

Sorry all for the delay in updates, life has just been so crazy here. Actually, that is a lie. I just get wrapped up in all the excitement that I forget. I guess Tuesday is where I left off. Tuesday started training. At 7:30 we were shuttled to a hotel, some where in the city (typically I have zero clue where I am in this city except for the building I am in. I have no concept of where things are in relation to each other. It's fun.) So anyway. Given that Beijing probably has the worst traffic in the ENTIRE world, it took almost two hours to get about 20 min away. I think. I am not going to lie, there wasn't much about training that was overly riveting. The first session of the day they gave us an over view of Infostrada, which is the company that is in charge of all the flash quote reporters, but we are still under BOCOG. It is so incredibly complicated. I did find out that we had to act professional, I know big surprise. However, this means that no photos can be taken while I am working. I know, bummer. I did have a good laugh during lunch. One of the rules they gave us as we were walking out the door was NOT to talk to any media without permission from our boss. As we were filing out to go down to lunch a girl, who in no way was able to ask permission because she was like the 3rd person out the door, was being interviewed by the media. Oh people who can't listen.

Following lunch we had the second half of the training. That was basically an overview of the quizzes I have been doing this semester/an overview of what I will be doing in two weeks. It was at this moment I realized how lucky I am to be here. Now, don't get me wrong. I have always felt honored and valued the fact that I was chosen but this put the icing on the cake. Over 1.3 million people applied to be a volunteer, totally shattering the previous record of 450,000. On top of that, there are only 951 people in the position I am in. ONLY 951 foreign students were chosen. Pretty freaking awesome.

Since most of us had to wake up early again on Wednesday for more training it was a low key night. Christina hosted story time, reading Cosmo to Patrick and me, followed by a little reading of my own before bed. Like I said, nothing too exciting.

oprah, in chinese...

2008-07-17T09:54:00.001+08:00

Yesterday ended our three day tour on a high note, the Chinese Opera (pun intended.) After all the excitement we were very tired today. Since Monday in China is the equivalent to our Sunday we were blessed with a day off. Most of the day was spent updating our blogs, doing laundry (which is quite the experience) and simply relaxing before the real work starts tomorrow.

To elaborate on the laundry - the machines are much smaller here. The first few people to do laundry had no troubles. However, as the day progressed it got worse. The machine does not go through a spin cycle, and on top of that the water wasn't draining. Our room is currently under flood watch but the humidity is finally starting to go down.

The highlight of the day was our invitation to a Chinese talk show. It had a eerie similarity to Oprah, two feel-good stories, an important person that can help make dreams come true, and a "favorite things" give away. Unbeknownst to us we would be active participants in this show.

He started the show off with an 88 year old man, who is the oldest Olympic volunteer, and apparently a University of Michigan graduate (at least it's the Big Ten.) He is one of the 1 million people who applied to be a part of the Beijing Olympic Games. A number which far surpasses the previous record of 450,000. The media director was also a guest and he explained what was the daily requirement of the volunteers is, how we were chosen, and even provided us with some advice for asking questions to the athletes.

It was then time to turn the show over to the Australians and Americans. Five of the volunteers practiced their interviewing skills by asking each other questions about the preparation for this job, other volunteer experiences, and what was the individual's favorite part about China. It was very entertaining.

My favorite part of the show was the final two guests. These two children hailed from a town about two hours away (by plane.) Each year this school has five students from Norway come volunteer at the school. A previous group decided they wanted to create a project that helped raise money for these children to attend the Beijing Olympics. Shirts were made and sold for donations. The shirts were designed by a blind girl which took her two months to draw and perfect. She was there to show off her newly learned English. Very nervously she said hello, her name (Michelle), and welcomed us to Beijing. She could say more in English than I could in Chinese. The other child that came with was a partially deaf girl who was incredibly artistic. She knitted two purses, drew two pictures, and made these gorgeous flowers, all of which she gave away to the volunteers in the audience. Since I have taken sign language I found this to be the most interesting part. As it is with any language, sign language is different in every country. Most of the show was spent watching the interpreter to see which signs were similar. I even picked up a few: sport, Olympics, grow up, same, volunteer, and friend. I now officially know more in Chinese sign language than spoken Chinese.

Finally, in typical Chinese fashion, we were all invited forward and presented gifts for our attendance on the show. Some of us received designed chopsticks, others got a traditional Chinese dress that covers a wine bottle, all of them were beautiful and completely unexpected.

As you can see, the show had all the ingredients for a perfect Oprah show. Tomorrow starts training. I think I speak for all my classmates when I say we are anxiously awaiting tomorrow. We will learn more about what our various jobs entail and hopefully receive our much desired uniforms. It should make for an interesting day.

paddle your own canoe...

2008-07-14T11:21:00.005+08:00

Sunday's weather - partially smoggy. There was still a blue sky so we were happy.

We loaded on to the bus for day 3 of the 3 day tour. I actually don't remember much of the bus ride yesterday. It was quick and painless, probably because I slept through most of it. We arrived at the Summer Palace, which was much nicer than a lake house in Wisconsin. Henry gives us a brief history. This is what we learned...

The first building of the Summer Palace, the Gold Mountain Palace, was built by the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty. Succeeding emperors and dynasties have built on and it eventually became what I deemed a vacation resort for the emperors. In 1860, the British and French troops burnt down most of the Summer Palace. It was rebuilt 18 years later, so much of what I saw yesterday was a reconstruction.

Regardless it was still beautiful. When we were set free 12 of us decided to go out on the lake. We jumped in our paddle boats and quickly discovered that there were motor boats. After realizing that no one in their right mind would trade a motor boat for a paddle boat we pressed onward. My boat went along the entire perimeter of the lake, taking pictures of whatever we could see. In the distance we saw the Hall of Virtuous Light and Lama Temple (you can see the pictures on my link.) We tried to go under a bridge but when we were able to see the ground we thought this might not be the best idea and quickly retreated. We did however go under the Mirror Bridge to a lagoon area. People were picnicking and simply walking throughout the area. According to Henry, when he was young there weren't many places you could go on the water or just hang out in a park so this was the most popular place to go. It really was beautiful. I could have spent the entire day on the boat. It felt so nice. We docked up with the other boat for a while, but not moving in the middle of the lake was much hotter than the coastal view from before. Shortly after our rendezvous we left, but not before winning the pirate game. Awkward story, but it was suggestion by one of my fellow travelers that the lake would be a perfect place to play pirate. A strategic game that involved pillaging items from other boats, similar to risk but with a boat and in real life. We floated away with the ping pong ball thus claiming victory. Like I said, we have a tendency to revert to childlike activities.

While we were waiting I had another opportunity to view children. It is actually a favorite activity of mine. I would be very interested in traveling the world to see how similar/different children act. I am sure there are plenty of people already doing that, but if all else fails, that will be my back up plan. Anyway, this kid, we called him "Spidy." Most of you should get the reference but for those who don't he was a miniature Spider Man. I couldn't help but think of my brother. I sat there for ten minutes or so and just watched. He loved to cause trouble. (side note: Mike I am not saying you cause trouble, but if you could have seen this kid it was you, but Chinese.) These kids were clearly here on a class trip, and I am not sure if it was down time or they were supposed to be listening but he definitely was not listening. He would run over by us, jump over the hand rail and then go flying into one of the other kids. Then he would get the girls going; they chased him all around the courtyard until he decided he needed a break. Thirty seconds later it started all over again. He even pulled the whole pushing people off the ledge thing. It was entertaining. We eventually saw a teacher or parent tell him to stop and he got the whole "You are going to stand by me the rest of the day." Always a fun one. Children are so interesting and can tell you so much about a culture. Creepy I know, but I love watching them.

After the Summer Palace we went to the Old Summer Palace. This is completely in ruins because it was burnt down by the Anglo-French army in 1860 and then in the 1900s Westerners stole artifacts and treasures from the Palace grounds, many of which are still auctioned off today. As we walked around we could see the fallen stone and marble that once graced the beautiful grounds. There is much controversy about rebuilding it so it currently remains in ruins. We only stayed there for about 30 or 40 min, just enough time to allow us to think about it's previous beauty.

While two Purdue students were interviewed for the China news I dazed off and watched what I suspect was a grandfather and granddaughter eating ice cream together. She was a spunky little thing who was given ice cream to sit still. Grandpa sat next to her in quiet admiration. He never spoke to her, never touched her, but just looked on proudly. It was really cute to watch. I know, I am creepy.

We had our final free dinner and again it was a gorgeous place. Same type of food but I have to say BO-COG (as we like to say it) brought us to some really nice restaurants. After dinner we attended the Chinese Opera. I have never been to an Opera in English so this was a huge first for me. The Opera House was small, other than our entourage, there weren't many people there; we took up most of the seats. We were excited to see that they had captions explaining the story, sadly given my short height and seat location I couldn't see more than the first line. All I know is, there was a marriage, four different emperors, a war, and some pretty cool acrobatics. Seeing as I have never been to an Opera at home, I have no basis for comparison but it was really exciting and different.

Completely exhausted after my three day tour, I came home last night and fell asleep reading. I actually slept until 9:00 am this morning, which was a first. Another exciting experience awaits tonight. We have been invited to attend a Chinese talk show. Absolutely no clue what to expect. Tomorrow starts training and we are anxiously awaiting the uniforms. As I have promised many, there will be pictures!

Speaking of pictures, I know I sent you the photo link, but I have added a link on this site so that it will be easier to access. The link is PICTURES, I know obvious, but if I didn't say it some one would ask. Have a great Monday!

it was only a kiss...

2008-07-14T09:53:00.005+08:00

As I said in my last blog, we had blue sky on Saturday, just in time for our Great Wall adventure. Oh what an adventure. We arrived there to find out the Mexican President decided to take his turn climbing the Great Wall so half of the wall was closed off. This meant lots of people and a very little bit of wall. I used my newly found pushing skills to work our way to the head of the pack. You have to stand your ground here. Once we got past the initial entrance to the Wall it actually wasn't that bad. Lauren and I chilled there while everyone else pushed through. Then we started the hike. If you are looking for a good work out, that works all parts of your body the Great Wall is definitely the place to go. You know, if you're ever in the area. We only had two hours so we set our goal on the highest point we could see. There were portions of the wall that felt like I climbing a ladder...straight up. When we got to the top we fought for a view, people had decided this little station was a place to setup shop for a picnic, nice idea, but not with all of China trying to see the Great Wall. We took a breather and started back down.

As I was walking up there I couldn't help notice all the children. First of all, they are so dang cute. Second it made me think of the times my parents brought me to places like the Great Wall, for example the Epcot debacle. There were kids like my brother who were running forty feet ahead and reenacting an intense battle. There were those like my sister who were quietly excited, not wanting to show that they actually wanted to be there. The final group was like me, whining the entire way, "Why do we have to do this?" This isn't limited to the Great Wall either. We saw children in the Forbidden City utterly bored, at the Summer Palace whining in what I can only guess was, "this is boring." I have come to the realization that children everywhere act the same way when brought to educational places. It definitely makes the world seem a little bit smaller.

We waited at the bottom of the Wall for our bus to come. Apparently it didn't get the memo to come back at 1:30. Oh and Starbucks is MUCH better in this country! I had a taste of someone's and I never wanted it more. But of course the bus showed. It's better that way. Then it happened, just as I knew it would eventually happen. We had our first accident. It was inevitable with the way people drive here. And of course it should happen on a road that can barely fit two cars through. Let me quote our driver, "The cars just kissed. There are so many pretty girls on this bus that the car wanted to get closer." Now you would THINK that leads to police and a guilty party. Nope. A bunch of people picked up the front of the car and moved it out of the way then both drove off. That was it. No cops. No tickets. No exchanging of insurance, which I am not entirely certain exists over here. Just pick up the car, the side window that fell off and go on your merry way. Excellent.

Since our little accident delayed us for lunch we had to eat quickly. No problem. We were starving after our rock climb. Another thing I have noticed. They sell junk everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. When we walked into the restaurant we were handed a sheet of paper just in case we wanted to purchase something. Every tourist places and restaurant has had some store. The only market not tapped yet is the bathroom, but there they want you to pay them for handing you a piece of toilet paper or for moping the floor. Anyway, lunch was lunch same as I wrote about the other day EXCEPT we got FRIES! I have never been so excited to see an oily, greasy potato in my life.

Our final stop Saturday was the Ming Tomb. It was kind of a crash course on the Ming Chinese Empire. Henry tried to tell us as much as possible about the place. Information overload! It was however, very pretty. Only 3 of the 12 tombs are open and we went into the main tomb. Most of the stuff in there was a replica because a lot of stuff was decayed but it was still cool. We only spent like an hour at the tomb...quick stop. Then we could either go to the silk market or go home. We chose home.

We had delicious pizza delivered for dinner and at the spur of the moment a few of us decided to go out. It was some weird banana something place. There were lots of men dancers and seemed to be the place to be Saturday night. It was the first time in my life I got kicked out of certain areas and it wasn't because people were acting up. It was because we were Australian and American. It was weird. We went upstairs and everything was fine until one of the boys came up, then we got kicked out. Then we were standing on the balcony overlooking the dance floor and the people didn't want us there so they went and got a guard to move us to a different location. After watching dancing banana man we had enough.

Well that is all for now. 30 seconds until the next update! Haha. It's official blog day!

grey skies are going to clear up...

2008-07-12T05:45:00.005+08:00

My sister Molly had a doll named Nancy who came everywhere. To the mall, on a quick car ride, to daycare, literally everywhere. When Molly was two Nancy went missing. An entire day was spent in search of Nancy but no luck. My mom bought a new Nancy, even put her through the washer and dryer like the old one, but Molly never took to the new one. Amazingly, one day, months after her initial disappearance, Nancy was found. That day was probably the single greatest day in my sister's life. Today I have found my Nancy...BLUE SKY!!!

Much like Nancy, the sun has been M.I.A. since Sunday. I have seen glimpses of blue sky, even a few glorious moments when it seemed like the sun would peek its head out from behind the smog-ridden sky, but nothing ever really felt like the brilliance of sunny day. Then this morning happened. Having slept in until 5:20 (whoa!) I opened my eyes and suddenly panicked. Are we late? I set an alarm. How is this possible? Frantically I grab the phone and realize I am a moron, that is when I flew out of bed. I ran to the window and saw it...blue. All I wanted was for my roommate to wake up to share in this excitement. The best part of this WHOLE story...we are going to the Great Wall today! Excellent! If you want to know what this feels like buy a fog machine and for five days straight have it running in your backyard; then on the 6th day turn it off!

Ahhh. Ok, moving on. Yesterday we started our three day tour. Doesn't that just make you want to sing "A three hour tour?" Anyway, the tour kicked off with a long bus ride. I know I have mentioned the traffic before but let me take this moment to elaborate. Traffic is horrible. It isn't like in Chicago where after 9 or 10 everything clears up until 4 or 5. If you are going into the city anytime in the morning there is traffic. If you are leaving the city anytime in the evening, even at 9pm, there is traffic.

So we hit traffic. Henry, who pronounces his name Harry, but spells it Henry is our guide. Henry (Harry) likes his microphone and takes this opportunity to talk. A lot. He told us the history of his name. I thought this to be very interesting. It was very deliberately chosen. And not because his parents didn't like some one who had that name, but because of the meaning. I don't feel like that often happens in the US. Well after hearing that he told us about the Olympic dream in China. In the 1900s some one asked three questions, When will China compete in the Olympics? When will a Chinese person win a gold medal? And when Will China host the Olympics. (1936 L.A., 1984 L.A., and 2008 respectively) So we finally arrive at our destination...ready for it? A water sewage plant. The Olympic Committee wanted to show us how water was turned clean. The tour was complete with flasks displaying the different stages of water and a nicely placed clear pond at the end of the line. Let's just say the rivers flowing through there did NOT look as good as the chocolate one Augustus Gloop fell into. Sadly there were no souvenirs. I tried!

After our official sewage plant tour, it was off to lunch. I know perfect right? BEST LUNCH EVER! First of all, lunch in China means a lazy susan, chop sticks, and a free for all. We arrived at the table and there were 6 or 8 dishes already out, one being SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN! YEAHAH! And all you do is rotate the lazy susan. Everyone eats from the same dish and sometimes you touch something that you aren't going to eat. For those with OCD, China is not the place for you. Plates upon plates upon plates of food arrive. There is no humanly way we can finish these things, and for the first time since we arrived\ we felt stuffed. (Side note: So I am sitting at the table all stuffed and ready for a nap when I look up to see Tom Bates. Tom and I were camp counselors together three years ago. I haven't seen him in two but the Olympics half way around the world reunited us. Whoa.)

A police escort, yes we are a big deal here, takes all eight buses of American, British, and Australian students and the Chinese media, out to "rural" China. As one of my classmates nicely put it, we think the term rural was confused for suburb. Regardless, we arrive at a very well kept Buddhist Temple. Pristine and empty, we walked through the courtyard area as official Buddhist Temple employees looked on. We picked up the brochure to use as a fan.

Just down the road was a retirement home. The lady in charge was very thankful for the beautiful place the government has provided these people. Her and the other nurses sang a song about "being old and happy" and recited a poem about the beautiful clean air where they were located. Sadly the beautiful mountains were covered by a thick layer of clouds.Sadly the beautiful mountains were covered by a thick layer of clouds.

After a Tai Chi performance, a quick trip around the golf course, and a view of a house (which has each section of the house separated and centered around a courtyard) we were off to dinner. Put 50 college students on a bus for a LONG 2.5 hour drive and you will see how we revert to our childlike tendencies. Leroy found it amusing to attempt to make our professor laugh hysterically. The girls and boys fought over who was better and if the girls could even score a point against the boys in basketball. Very amusing.

Dinner = duck. I wasn't too thrilled about this. I am not the most adventurous when it come to food. So the man comes out with the baby ducks and starts to cut. I, thankfully, have my back to baby Donald, and we are told that the duck is cut into 90 pieces and each piece should have meat and skin. Then a man comes over to explain how we make our duck tacos (not really tacos but much easier to explain) or duck sandwich. I ate it, and it was WONDERFUL. What you do is dip the duck in some sauce that looks like BBQ sauce, but clearly it's not. Then you put on some white thingies, and then a celery-esk thing. Everything on the table seemed to have some duck in it. I also at fish, but that is because it looked like orange chicken and I figured what the heck. When in Rome right? Dessert was interesting. It was a fried, gooey, mashed up thing. It was awkward because at one point it seemed liked I was eating food then it turned into gum, then back to food. Ahhh it was confusing me.

So that brings us to this morning...and the sun. Patrick just came in and said he thinks it is fake. My roommate says they put blue posters up everywhere. Whatever it is, it is glorious. We leave for the Great Wall in about an hour and today I actually get to pack my sunscreen. It's gonna be a scorcher and for once in my life I actually think I'll like it!

- - Megan - -

2008-07-10T20:47:00.002+08:00

Well yesterday I made it to 5:45. Getting better on the sleeping thing. The day was kind of shot because we had to meetings and of course they weren't back to back. The first meeting at 9:30 was a crash course in Chinese culture. They told us about the different dynasties...aka named each dynasty. If a certain era was known for something they mentioned it, but that was pretty much it. We asked a few questions but nothing too exciting.

Lunch was the great restaurant down stairs. Patrick, the only one of us who can speak Chinese ordered for our table and it was amazing. Two hours later the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee came for a meeting. It was a little chaotic, but fine at the same time. We got our official letters of acceptance, the sym card, and tried on uniforms. They really aren't bad at all and I get three shirts, so play your cards right and maybe you'll be one of the lucky two who get my extra shirt.

We met our ONS leader she is awesome. Currently I am deciding if I want to switch to volleyball or not. My initial decision was no, then yes, and now I am leaning towards no again. I just have to decide by Tuesday. I would love volleyball but I am really scared that I am going to screw up so I might not switch. Who knows. We also found out that we would not be attending the Opening or Closing Ceremonies. I was very sad, but have gotten over it.

Yesterday afternoon a couple of us went to the Silk Market. Haggling is NOT my forte. But apparently the time to go is the afternoon because the people are tired and just want to sell stuff. Just an FYI for all those preparing for a trip to Beijing. Lauren loves to barter and purchased herself a nice (fake) pair of Pumas. Next up was the mall, it was very expensive, but if you're in the market for real Gucci, United Colors, and stores like that...definitely the place to be.

Today we woke up and went to the Forbidden City. (I slept until 8:00 today!!!) It was crazy. So much to see and not nearly enough time (or energy). We paid 60 RMB to get in and decided not to get the info tape. Probably a bad idea but we might have to go back it was so big. LOTS of photos were taken and eventually some day I will put them up on Picasa. It was really cool to just walk around in there. We decided there was too much to see and not enough time and since most of the buildings looked really similar we powered through our exit and jumped back on the subway.

Four hours in the Forbidden City is a lot to take in one day so we have been relaxing. Tomorrow we start our three day tour of Beijing...Sewage Plant and the Fields are our first stops. Peking duck for dinner. That kind of scares me. We'll see how that goes.

- - Megan - -

a few sinful moments...

2008-07-09T06:50:00.005+08:00

As I have already mentioned, I woke up at 5:00am yesterday. There is no excuse for this, and I find it very unacceptable on my part. I thought this early rise would lead to a late afternoon nap, but it never did. I powered through! And we all know how I love my afternoon nap!

After my dreadfully early rise, (aka about 5 hours later) we began the campus tour. I was introduced to A LOT of new people and it was then decided that name tags are an absolute must! We ventured to the bank, which was a complete mess. Some people needed to exchange money, some people needed an ATM, others were just along for the ride....a disaster! And poor Rina, our English-speaking CUC liaison, was so calmly trying to get everything done. Not to mention everyone seemed to forget what we learned in kindergarten...IN DOOR VOICES. After that we saw the rest of the dining halls and then ate. The best part of the WHOLE experience...I FOUND DIET PEPSI! This is always a great accomplishment for me when traveling. I know it is sad, but let's admit, I have a problem. I am addicted to Diet Pepsi. I can't help it. And those of you who have traveled abroad know that Coke pretty much dominates the international market. Not to mention, I am here for the Olympics and we all know Coke is a sponser. So any DP lover can appreciate what a feat this is. Anyway...it was great. I went back to get more and apparently that building, which also holds the ice cream, is in some sort of black hole and cannot be found. It's probably better that way.

Post Diet Pepsi and the amazing potatoes at lunch it was time for the day's big adventure. (Drum roll please) WAL-MART! Now, let me explain. I know this is wrong to go to a Wal-Mart but we were in desperate need of some essential products, so really our well-being was at stake here. Ok, maybe a little dramatic but oh well. A lot of people went to the silk market first and then took the train back to Wally World. Five of us decided traveling with 30 people was just a little too much so we just went to Wal-Mart. As you might have suspected, Wal-Mart is pretty much the same, just everything is in Chinese. Despite the stark similarity, we still managed to spend two hours there. Some of the most exciting finds included Koala Yummys (yeaaah), lots of foreign beer, and a hair dryer that would not kill a converter. We loaded up on the foreign beer, soft pillows, and laundry detergent then headed home. We were pretty much exhausted after that and very thankful that we skipped the silk market.

Speaking of the Silk Market, I hear it is quite the experience. Per my traveling buddies, Americans are prime targets and are pulled into stalls, then not allowed to leave until they buy something. This pretty much scared the rest of us. Later we were told that as long as you have some one else to pull you away it really isn't an issue. Enter Lauren. I have decided she is now responsible for my safety and well-being at the silk market. Oh and for getting me the best deals. Good luck.

The second major traveling sin we committed yesterday came at dinner time. I realize it is WAY too early to be craving food but it hit us yesterday. Our stomachs led us to Pizza Hut. Four of the boys graciously decided that we were welcome on their Pizza Hut trip. So, only an hour after getting off the train, we loaded back on and went out to the Wal-Mart area. Pizza Hut here is NOT Pizza Hut at home. This place was dining at it's finest. There were real plates, an entrance staircase, and a hostess to greet and sit us. After waiting for a longer than normal time to order, we looked around and realized to get service you didn't wait politely but instead raised your hand to let the waiter know you are ready. I actually think this is very efficient, and maybe should be used back at home. Although, being as needy as we are, the poor waiter or waitress might want to die by the end of the first hour, but still something to look into.

Everyone was a little tired last night, so most people went to bed at 9:00. Val, Patrick and I went to meet some of the Emerson people who came yesterday. They were placed in track, softball, and volleyball. I was a little saddened by that, but regardless I am here.

That was pretty much it. Today we are having a cultural meeting followed by one with the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOGOC). We are hopeful that this second meeting means we are getting our uniforms today!! I see a photo sesson in the future! GET EXCITED!

Have a great day everyone!

Megan

2008-07-08T09:12:00.002+08:00

This morning woke up at 5:00am.
Then read a book until 8:00.
Went and got some nasty corn bread muffin for breakfast.
Then talked to Sonnino and Charlie.

Thus far...today has been quite the thriller.

on top of the world...

2008-07-07T10:44:00.004+08:00

I was actually on top of the world yesterday. The flight path to travel to Beijing takes you up through Canada, over the Artic Circle, and back down to Beijing. I learned a lot about fireworks thanks to a very exciting inflight video. Here are the highlights:

Who spends the most money on fireworks per year?
Disney World - Think about it. 365 days x 4 parks = a whole lot of fireworks.

What is the bill for the fireworks in the US on the 4th of July?
200 million dollars...that includes all the little towns.

I was about to learn how fireworks were made but sadly I fell asleep. I also decided it is a VERY bad idea to take children under 12 to China. See, like said we flew over the North Pole. If any child ever saw that they would know in an instant that Santa isn't real. IT IS ONE BIG ICE SHEET. This is not a new discovery, I have known for years that Santa isn't real, oh and that the north pole is an ice sheet, but a small unsuspecting child doesn't know that. If Santa were real his poor little elfs would be frozen gnomes in Santa's vast ice sheet of a backyard. As you can tell I had a lot of time to think.

Other than that the plane ride was uneventful. There were ten open seats on the entire flight and I was graciously blessed with one next to me! The guy on the aisle wanted to be my best friend, but I nicely declined. He drank a lot on the plane too, probably why he feel asleep so easily.

As a I told many of you, when I landed I had a bit of an adventure. I arrived in the new terminal built for the Olympics and it was beautiful. However, I could not find my traveling companions. I almost left the airport to venture into the city alone, but I decided I would wait for Alysha's delayed plane. I'm glad I did because the other girls randomly found me almost two hours after I landed. It made me feel good that if I went missing they would go on a search and rescue misson for me.

The car ride to CUC was interesting. Italy has nothing on the China road system. People are walking and riding bikes through the streets, while the people driving are attempting to avoid them. Oh and avoid other cars. We eventually just had to realize we did not have control of the car and stopped watching. Once we made it to our rooms we threw our stuff down and ran to get food. I ended up not eating because I was a little scared. I decided to eat my peanut butter, THANK GOD I brought it!

The beds are not the most amazing thing you will ever sleep on. We decided it was similar to camping, but harder. Actually, this morning I didn't wake up with a sore back or anything. The bathroom is a little scary. The toilet and the shower are one, and a warm shower is not really an option. Although it is better than what we were working with last night, aka FREEZING cold. In the middle of the room there is the "magical box." This controls all the electricity for the room. So say you decide to turn the ground button off, none of the outlets work on the ground. This causes you to freak out in the morning when you wake up and see that your laptop battery appears dead. Does it sound like I learned my lesson? All the outlets are American, European, and Chinese, so really it is wonderful. Oh and we have AC. Our room is an ice box. As long as we don't get a bill at the end of the 7 weeks we are keeping it this way.

I unpacked this morning and went for an adventure through campus and the surrounding area with my roommate and two of the people with us. We found a nice little pastry place, so I finally ate. Pointing is the new way of communicating here. We learned that flip flops are probably not the best idea seeing that one of the sewers was overflowing and Alysha stepped in some sludge and started to feel a tingling, burning sensation on her leg. For those who are worried...her leg is fine.

The rest of today is kind of up for grabs. I may try some food other than pastries, maybe some rice or noodles? Who knows. Our professor gets here at 7 and then we will figure out our lives from there. Seeing as we don't know how to use the subway or anything we figured it best to wait until some one tells us more.

That is all for now!

Megan!

oh the colors...

2008-06-20T02:31:00.003+08:00

I have literally spent the last two hours playing with the settings and layout of this site. I figured out how to screw with the html settings and will eventually find a new template, but for now (aka until I am no longer on the clock at work) I am satisfied. That's what I get for being a graphic designer.

Throughout my 7 weeks in China I am required to blog (I seriously hate that word...from here on out it will be document, archive, record, etc.) about my experience. While we have not received any instructions, I am assuming there are no specific topics and it is whatever I deem interesting, exciting, and important (haha). I do know I am required to write at least 5 times a week. There are positive and negatives to this arrangement. On the plus side, there is potential for my writing skills to improve and you get to hear from me daily. Adversely, I have to think of exciting things to write and you get to hear from daily.

In general, please be careful about what you write. I can review all messages first, but it would make my life easier if you guys just didn't write anything negative. As my mom always said "If it seems like a bad idea, don't do it." Even sarcasm can be perceived as serious. THANKS!

That is all for now. I probably won't write anything until my first day in China.

CIAO!