Packing to get home turned out to be a lot tougher than I had originally thought. Since my bag was overweight on the way out to Beijing, I figured that I would have to leave some stuff behind to get the stockpile of souvenirs I've amassed home. It's also a lot harder to get a duffel bag in Beijing than I first thought. I hate traveling with two checked bags, mostly due to the fact that I've had bad luck with lost luggage in the past. This time though, there was no way I could get everything home in my one bag, even when it's as massive as my luggage is.
So after packing my bag in a way that would probably make my mother ashamed of me, everything was in order for the trip home. Chris and I tried to make one last trip to Paul's for breakfast Tuesday morning, but cabs are harder to come by each day as the end of our trip comes and we didn't want to take the subway again, so that plan fell through. That meant nothing but a couple more going overs around the room to make sure nothing was still left out of my bags. I freak out about those things, so it wasn't the most fun in the world.
We discovered another great part about having an Olympics credential, as we got to bypass the normal check-in lines and all of our bags got Olympic tags on them. In the words of the volunteer who helped me, it was so they took extra special care of my bags. I love this kind of treatment.
So I've still got lots of Chinese yuans in my pocket, and with several hours still remaining until my flight, I stopped by the airport bar. Now people have written stories and sung songs about random people that you can meet at an airport bar, but I've never experienced it. Today I started talking to an older gentleman about what we were doing at the Olympics, and it turns out he is the president of the canadian amateur boxing association. We talked for a while about boxing, cycling and Johnny Cash, and the hours ended up passing by pretty fast. It was just another story among the pile of others that I've worked up over the weeks in Beijing.
The plane trip back from Beijing to San Francisco was a lot worse than the trip out to Beijing. The excitement on going to another country during the Olympics helped the earlier flight, and it wasn't a crowded flight. The way back was packed in cheek to cheek, and instead of chairs, the Air China plane featured individual sized torture machines. OK, the controls for the in-flight movie volume are on the inside of the armrest and they protrude about an inch-and-a-half into my thigh. 12 hours of that was terrible. I was ready to jump out of the plan right around when we hit Alaska.
Everything else went well, as both planes from San Fran to Milwaukee and from Milwaukee to Indy were on time. It's amazing how easily one can deal with a four four flight right after you get off a plane you spent 12 hours on. I also probably came as close to flying privately as I ever will on the flight from Milwaukee to Indianapolis. It was only a 40 minute flight on a small jet, and it had only 10 people on it. No waiting for the carousel to spit out the bags either, because with only a couple people having bags, they're already waiting for us by the exit.
I heard that a couple other Purdue students had definite issues getting out of Beijing with delayed flights, and a couple are even stuck in other cities in the U.S. over night, so I'm pretty happy with how my travels worked out. It's nice to be back home.
This will likely be my last post, so I want to thank my family and friends for keeping up with my travels on the blog. Also, all the readers from the Noblesville Ledger, thanks for reading my adventures, because I had a great time telling them to you. Hopefully you can look for me in the future, but for now I'm out of the blogging business. Thanks again.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Final Days
Our final days in Beijing have been mostly caught up with packing and tying up loose ends. Saying goodbye to new friends has caught us up, and tonight we had a dinner party at a former Purdue grad student named Tan.
She gained her Ph.D. at Purdue and now lives with her family in the suburbs of Beijing. The idea of suburbs are brand new in China, and a lot of people aren't very happy about the idea. They work against Mao's ideals of a collective community, or so the traditionalists believe, and having gated neighborhoods that have houses with their own private yards are very different than the communal houses of the recent past or the apartment buildings of modern Beijing.
We had to find our own way to the northern outskirts of Beijing, well beyond the regions that the subway reaches. After the subway, we had to make our way on the bus system, an option that we had avoided like a plague to this point. The busses are a lot harder to navigate than the subway, and the only way we made our way to the neighborhood was a helpful set of volunteers who knew where we needed to get off and actually escorted us there.
The neighborhood that Tan lives in was on par with the largest neighborhoods I've seen in U.S. cities, with large, very suburban style houses. Tan's house was beautiful, and her daughter turned out to be the life of the party. We had lamb cooked over coals and other delicacies, several of which were common in my China experience as I had no idea what I was eating. Anyway, the food was amazing, and after hearing the first set of fireworks at the Bird's Nest at the closing ceremonies we went inside to their film room to watch. We were a little upset that the CCTV cameras skipped over the American athletes at the ceremonies, but overall the ceremony was a good time. The London presentation, which included British cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton riding bikes alongside the bus, was crazy. It presented just how different the London games in 2012 will be from the Beijing games. The 2008 games were great in their own way, but London is going to come with a much different approach.
After Tan's fantastic dinner, we made our way to Sanlitun for the last time, joining the rest of the ONS staff for drinks. We essentially took over the whole bar while getting to get one last good night out with the Aussies, Ernst and Krystyna before we all go our separate ways. They actually ran out of beer at the bar we were at, but thankfully Beijing's cheap drinks helped us again. In all, it was a fantastic way to finish up the trip. The extended groups that we had formed in our nearly two months in Beijing all got a last time to see each other, and we'll all remember the night for a while.
We head home soon, so I will likely have one last post about my travel back to Purdue. Stay tuned for it.
She gained her Ph.D. at Purdue and now lives with her family in the suburbs of Beijing. The idea of suburbs are brand new in China, and a lot of people aren't very happy about the idea. They work against Mao's ideals of a collective community, or so the traditionalists believe, and having gated neighborhoods that have houses with their own private yards are very different than the communal houses of the recent past or the apartment buildings of modern Beijing.
We had to find our own way to the northern outskirts of Beijing, well beyond the regions that the subway reaches. After the subway, we had to make our way on the bus system, an option that we had avoided like a plague to this point. The busses are a lot harder to navigate than the subway, and the only way we made our way to the neighborhood was a helpful set of volunteers who knew where we needed to get off and actually escorted us there.
The neighborhood that Tan lives in was on par with the largest neighborhoods I've seen in U.S. cities, with large, very suburban style houses. Tan's house was beautiful, and her daughter turned out to be the life of the party. We had lamb cooked over coals and other delicacies, several of which were common in my China experience as I had no idea what I was eating. Anyway, the food was amazing, and after hearing the first set of fireworks at the Bird's Nest at the closing ceremonies we went inside to their film room to watch. We were a little upset that the CCTV cameras skipped over the American athletes at the ceremonies, but overall the ceremony was a good time. The London presentation, which included British cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton riding bikes alongside the bus, was crazy. It presented just how different the London games in 2012 will be from the Beijing games. The 2008 games were great in their own way, but London is going to come with a much different approach.
After Tan's fantastic dinner, we made our way to Sanlitun for the last time, joining the rest of the ONS staff for drinks. We essentially took over the whole bar while getting to get one last good night out with the Aussies, Ernst and Krystyna before we all go our separate ways. They actually ran out of beer at the bar we were at, but thankfully Beijing's cheap drinks helped us again. In all, it was a fantastic way to finish up the trip. The extended groups that we had formed in our nearly two months in Beijing all got a last time to see each other, and we'll all remember the night for a while.
We head home soon, so I will likely have one last post about my travel back to Purdue. Stay tuned for it.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
List Time
With only a couple of days standing between us and a return to normalcy in the States, I figured it might be time for a little list. First, what I will miss most about China and living in Beijing:
1. Getting 40 channels of Olympic sports 24 hours a day. While my need for american football is growing, my need for water polo and synchronized swimming has been filed for at least four years.
2. Donata's, the pizza place down the street. Considering even the Chinese students here don't eat the food at the cafeteria, they've basically kept us all from starving weeks ago.
3. The Chinese volunteers that we worked with at the ONS office. Yao, Li, Raul, Winslet, Rita and Erik were fantastic, grabbing Chinese athletes we couldn't talk to and others as well. Hopefully they learned from us as much as we learned from them.
4. Some of the Chinese food. I may never be able to eat at Rice Cafe again after some of the better Chinese food we've had on our trip. But the bad Chinese food we've had may make me not really want to try.
5. Basketball with the locals. They may not really know what they're doing besides put the ball in the hoop, but they're a lot of fun either way.
6. Random singing guy at the outside track at 6 a.m. I really can't explain it better than that.
7. "Welcome to take Beijing taxi," every time we get into a cab.
8. Walking down a street at 2 a.m. and seeing a little old lady walking her tiny dog. And feeling 100% safe.
9. Conversations with cab drivers, especially the ones that throw random English words into their Chinese when trying to talk to us. And cut across eight lanes of traffic, and blow through red lights. Actually not much different than drivers in New York. I'll miss them nonetheless.
10. Not having to worry about what to wear to work, because you and about 1 million other volunteers are all wearing the same uniform.
11. Beijing Subway Musical Chairs, the game that lets you run over Chinese people for a seat because, hey, they're doing it too.
12. The China Daily, the official English newspaper in China. The reporting is, well, biased you can say. Lets talk about the article that says tall white guys with blue eyes aren't stared at in Beijing, when the guy across from me in the subway is burning through me with eyes.
13. I will miss the history of Beijing. The Forbidden City and Great Wall were great, and I'm going to be sad to not have those things around.
14. Krystyna, Ernst, Amy and Andy, our bosses at the ONS. They really were better than we could have ever hoped for, especially with all of the obstacles that we found during the Olympics.
15. Last but not least, 2.5 yuan giant bottles of beer. It equals around 10 cents a beer, which you're not going to get back home.
And now the things I'm looking forward to most about home:
1. This could easily go in the other column, but having everyone speak English is going to be fun. It might take some getting used to in crowded places though, because now we can't just say whatever we want.
2. Not having smog hide the sun, moon, stars and the sky in general.
3. As weird as it feels, I'm actually looking forward to getting back to school and work, if not as soon as I get home though.
4. Not sleeping on a mattress that's as hard as quarry rock.
5. Not having my toilet inside my actual shower.
6. Being able to grab some Taco Bell/Steak N' Shake/Q'doba/Subway whenever I want. Our entire group has been dreaming of food for weeks.
7. Driving a car again. I really, really miss my car.
8. When people form a line, people actually get in the back and don't cut it.
There's tons of stuff more, for both of these columns, but all of our time here has been too much for me to put it all down. Tonight's the Closing Ceremonies, so I still have a couple more posts before our time here is done.
1. Getting 40 channels of Olympic sports 24 hours a day. While my need for american football is growing, my need for water polo and synchronized swimming has been filed for at least four years.
2. Donata's, the pizza place down the street. Considering even the Chinese students here don't eat the food at the cafeteria, they've basically kept us all from starving weeks ago.
3. The Chinese volunteers that we worked with at the ONS office. Yao, Li, Raul, Winslet, Rita and Erik were fantastic, grabbing Chinese athletes we couldn't talk to and others as well. Hopefully they learned from us as much as we learned from them.
4. Some of the Chinese food. I may never be able to eat at Rice Cafe again after some of the better Chinese food we've had on our trip. But the bad Chinese food we've had may make me not really want to try.
5. Basketball with the locals. They may not really know what they're doing besides put the ball in the hoop, but they're a lot of fun either way.
6. Random singing guy at the outside track at 6 a.m. I really can't explain it better than that.
7. "Welcome to take Beijing taxi," every time we get into a cab.
8. Walking down a street at 2 a.m. and seeing a little old lady walking her tiny dog. And feeling 100% safe.
9. Conversations with cab drivers, especially the ones that throw random English words into their Chinese when trying to talk to us. And cut across eight lanes of traffic, and blow through red lights. Actually not much different than drivers in New York. I'll miss them nonetheless.
10. Not having to worry about what to wear to work, because you and about 1 million other volunteers are all wearing the same uniform.
11. Beijing Subway Musical Chairs, the game that lets you run over Chinese people for a seat because, hey, they're doing it too.
12. The China Daily, the official English newspaper in China. The reporting is, well, biased you can say. Lets talk about the article that says tall white guys with blue eyes aren't stared at in Beijing, when the guy across from me in the subway is burning through me with eyes.
13. I will miss the history of Beijing. The Forbidden City and Great Wall were great, and I'm going to be sad to not have those things around.
14. Krystyna, Ernst, Amy and Andy, our bosses at the ONS. They really were better than we could have ever hoped for, especially with all of the obstacles that we found during the Olympics.
15. Last but not least, 2.5 yuan giant bottles of beer. It equals around 10 cents a beer, which you're not going to get back home.
And now the things I'm looking forward to most about home:
1. This could easily go in the other column, but having everyone speak English is going to be fun. It might take some getting used to in crowded places though, because now we can't just say whatever we want.
2. Not having smog hide the sun, moon, stars and the sky in general.
3. As weird as it feels, I'm actually looking forward to getting back to school and work, if not as soon as I get home though.
4. Not sleeping on a mattress that's as hard as quarry rock.
5. Not having my toilet inside my actual shower.
6. Being able to grab some Taco Bell/Steak N' Shake/Q'doba/Subway whenever I want. Our entire group has been dreaming of food for weeks.
7. Driving a car again. I really, really miss my car.
8. When people form a line, people actually get in the back and don't cut it.
There's tons of stuff more, for both of these columns, but all of our time here has been too much for me to put it all down. Tonight's the Closing Ceremonies, so I still have a couple more posts before our time here is done.
Friday, August 22, 2008
BMX and Club Bud
With the Olympics winding dow, we've been as busy as ever while at work. In the past couple days we've seen the end of track cycling and the beginning and end of BMX cycling.
Track cycling ended with Chris Hoy taking his third gold medal for Great Britain in the individual sprint, wrapping up a very good Olympics for the British team. Theo Bos, the before mentioned favorite and cover boy of the sport, finished very poorly and appeared at a few moments to be on the verge of a total breakdown. But with an end to the very staid and regal atmosphere of track cycling comes the wild world of BMX at the Olympics.
We were all excited to get to talk to the BMX guys, just because of how different they are than their track cycling counterparts. Not to mention that the U.S. was very heavily favored to win several medals. I'd apologize for being a blatant homer, but I've heard Great Britain's national anthem way too many times over the past two weeks.
The finals were expected to be yesterday, but rain delayed the runs because BMX, unlike mountain biking, can't be run in the rain. So today began with the semifinal runs, and the winners decided after a single final run for men and women. If you look back at the course pic that I posted earlier, look at the first corner coming off of the ramp. That corner was a disaster for a lot of riders today. I don't know if it was the big stage, the idea they were gunning for an Olympic medal, or what was going on, but the riders were out for blood and the high speed the riders had off of the higher than usual start ramp meant spills galore. The female favorite, British rider Shanaze Reade, fell once two days ago during qualifying on that corner and then misjudged the jump leading into it today and spilled over her handlebars. That wouldn't even be the worst for her, as she made the final run, but instead of realizing she couldn't pass the leader on the final turn and settle for silver, she tried to dive underneath, clipped the leaders back tire and spilled. She said later she wanted gold nothing, and sadly for her, she ended up with the latter.
The crashes were also causing some sniping from teammates, as two Aussies got into trouble on that first turn and would later make comments to the media about it being on purpose, or more not knowing if it was on purpose. Just the mention though gives you an idea of what the girls were thinking.
And this doesn't mean that the guys were free of problems. Eventual bronze medallist, American Donny Robinson, was involved in a couple crashes, one in the first corner. If you were caught in the pack there, it would be bound to happen that someone would either not turn enough and take others down with them or turn too hard and wipe out.
It also turned out that the U.S. didn't dominate BMX like many expected. Mike Day too silver for the men with Robinson getting bronze behind a Latvian rider and American Jill Kintner took bronze behind two French riders. I would have liked to see the U.S. get a gold, but it may be better for the sport in the long run if others do better right now.
Our time here is rapidly growing shorter, so our time to get some more good times in is also short. A couple of us found time to go to Club Bud last night, which is like the Holland House but with the english speaking crowd. It also has free beer, which is never a bad thing. We got to hang out with a couple of the athletes that we've been covering lately, but it was a little bit of a let down that we didn't get to see the BMX riders. If the rain delay hadn't put everything back a day, they likely would've been there with their medals celebrating.
The place really was amazing, but unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it. Also, perhaps highlight of my life so far, I had a couple beers with Jay Mariotti, the columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on ESPN's Around the Horn. I won't lie, I never really liked him on the show. I mostly don't agree with his opinions. But considering a couple of random guys came up to him at a bar and started talking to him, he was a really cool guy. Definitely a great way to be looking at the end of this trip.
OK, the trip is beginning to wind down. We've got a couple more fun things planned before we get out of China, so hopefully you'll look forward to that. Thanks for everyone that has read my blog, and thanks again to the Noblesville Ledger for posting me.
Track cycling ended with Chris Hoy taking his third gold medal for Great Britain in the individual sprint, wrapping up a very good Olympics for the British team. Theo Bos, the before mentioned favorite and cover boy of the sport, finished very poorly and appeared at a few moments to be on the verge of a total breakdown. But with an end to the very staid and regal atmosphere of track cycling comes the wild world of BMX at the Olympics.
We were all excited to get to talk to the BMX guys, just because of how different they are than their track cycling counterparts. Not to mention that the U.S. was very heavily favored to win several medals. I'd apologize for being a blatant homer, but I've heard Great Britain's national anthem way too many times over the past two weeks.
The finals were expected to be yesterday, but rain delayed the runs because BMX, unlike mountain biking, can't be run in the rain. So today began with the semifinal runs, and the winners decided after a single final run for men and women. If you look back at the course pic that I posted earlier, look at the first corner coming off of the ramp. That corner was a disaster for a lot of riders today. I don't know if it was the big stage, the idea they were gunning for an Olympic medal, or what was going on, but the riders were out for blood and the high speed the riders had off of the higher than usual start ramp meant spills galore. The female favorite, British rider Shanaze Reade, fell once two days ago during qualifying on that corner and then misjudged the jump leading into it today and spilled over her handlebars. That wouldn't even be the worst for her, as she made the final run, but instead of realizing she couldn't pass the leader on the final turn and settle for silver, she tried to dive underneath, clipped the leaders back tire and spilled. She said later she wanted gold nothing, and sadly for her, she ended up with the latter.
The crashes were also causing some sniping from teammates, as two Aussies got into trouble on that first turn and would later make comments to the media about it being on purpose, or more not knowing if it was on purpose. Just the mention though gives you an idea of what the girls were thinking.
And this doesn't mean that the guys were free of problems. Eventual bronze medallist, American Donny Robinson, was involved in a couple crashes, one in the first corner. If you were caught in the pack there, it would be bound to happen that someone would either not turn enough and take others down with them or turn too hard and wipe out.
It also turned out that the U.S. didn't dominate BMX like many expected. Mike Day too silver for the men with Robinson getting bronze behind a Latvian rider and American Jill Kintner took bronze behind two French riders. I would have liked to see the U.S. get a gold, but it may be better for the sport in the long run if others do better right now.
Our time here is rapidly growing shorter, so our time to get some more good times in is also short. A couple of us found time to go to Club Bud last night, which is like the Holland House but with the english speaking crowd. It also has free beer, which is never a bad thing. We got to hang out with a couple of the athletes that we've been covering lately, but it was a little bit of a let down that we didn't get to see the BMX riders. If the rain delay hadn't put everything back a day, they likely would've been there with their medals celebrating.
The place really was amazing, but unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it. Also, perhaps highlight of my life so far, I had a couple beers with Jay Mariotti, the columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on ESPN's Around the Horn. I won't lie, I never really liked him on the show. I mostly don't agree with his opinions. But considering a couple of random guys came up to him at a bar and started talking to him, he was a really cool guy. Definitely a great way to be looking at the end of this trip.
OK, the trip is beginning to wind down. We've got a couple more fun things planned before we get out of China, so hopefully you'll look forward to that. Thanks for everyone that has read my blog, and thanks again to the Noblesville Ledger for posting me.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Project 119
I feel like a kid who had his present taken away on Christmas Day. I think I'm the last person in the world to learn that the giant's footsteps down Beijing towards the Bird's Nest weren't real. In my defense, our work has pretty much taken up our entire time, so my time on CNN.com has been severely depleted.
I really thought that was one of the cooler parts of the opening ceremonies, and just knowing they weren't real has upset me a bit. I understand the Chinese's explanation for the need for graphics, that it wasn't feasible nor safe for a helicopter to follow the path of fireworks, but it still isn't nice to hear that they made up the whole thing. It just falls into the whole idea that keeps coming into our lives in Beijing, that the Chinese are so obsessed with appearances that they really don't even care if things really are going well. All that matters is that everyone thinks so.
Whether it's dealing with the bureaucracy at the velodrome where everything has to be done a certain way even after it's obvious that it won't work or seeing the TV switch off of a European or American athlete that is winning to show anyone else. It happens all the time. I can see the interviews with a last place Chinese athlete, I mean it's Chinese TV in China, but they will intentionally not show certain athletes if they can get away with it.
These feelings have been with me for a while, but they're coming out now mostly because of what I've learned recently about Project 119. Kelsey heard about it from her mother on recent phone home, and now it's been on all of our minds. Project 119, formed after the Sydney Olympics, is designed to place China atop the medal count for the foreseeable future. The Chinese government funds athletes to do nothing with their time but train to compete in Olympics. Unlike other athletes from traditional Olympic programs, where professional athletes are paid by private leagues or sponsorships, Project 119 brings the government into the course of Olympic athletics.
Project 119 was also specifically designed to win China medals in their non-traditional sports. For the most part, these include track & field, swimming and rowing events that China doesn't win with any kind of regularity. Except, these Olympics are looking to be the time for China to see Project 119 really take effect. China's already taken medals in swimming and rowing, and even with the loss of Liu Xiang to injury, China may still steal some medals in track & field.
PS, I thought the media would blow Liu Xiang's injury out of proportion in relation to its effect on the Chinese populace, but the reaction I saw from the Chinese we work with was very depressing. He's essentially our Michael Phelps, and imagine if Phelps was injured right before his seventh race. That's the feeling these people are feeling. Probably even stronger.
So now that I've had my time on the soapbox, I don't want this to overtake the great things we've experienced in China. Some of our group are extremely critical of the Chinese, and I've been part of some comments about how parts of this society simply do not work, but I do hope that some things will change here. An openness to new ideas would be nice, and perhaps a stop to the need to appear so perfect to everyone, whether in the medal count or just some fake fireworks. I just don't think it will happen.
For more information on Project 119, look at The First Post's article on it at http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45023,features,chinas-119-olympic-dreams
I really thought that was one of the cooler parts of the opening ceremonies, and just knowing they weren't real has upset me a bit. I understand the Chinese's explanation for the need for graphics, that it wasn't feasible nor safe for a helicopter to follow the path of fireworks, but it still isn't nice to hear that they made up the whole thing. It just falls into the whole idea that keeps coming into our lives in Beijing, that the Chinese are so obsessed with appearances that they really don't even care if things really are going well. All that matters is that everyone thinks so.
Whether it's dealing with the bureaucracy at the velodrome where everything has to be done a certain way even after it's obvious that it won't work or seeing the TV switch off of a European or American athlete that is winning to show anyone else. It happens all the time. I can see the interviews with a last place Chinese athlete, I mean it's Chinese TV in China, but they will intentionally not show certain athletes if they can get away with it.
These feelings have been with me for a while, but they're coming out now mostly because of what I've learned recently about Project 119. Kelsey heard about it from her mother on recent phone home, and now it's been on all of our minds. Project 119, formed after the Sydney Olympics, is designed to place China atop the medal count for the foreseeable future. The Chinese government funds athletes to do nothing with their time but train to compete in Olympics. Unlike other athletes from traditional Olympic programs, where professional athletes are paid by private leagues or sponsorships, Project 119 brings the government into the course of Olympic athletics.
Project 119 was also specifically designed to win China medals in their non-traditional sports. For the most part, these include track & field, swimming and rowing events that China doesn't win with any kind of regularity. Except, these Olympics are looking to be the time for China to see Project 119 really take effect. China's already taken medals in swimming and rowing, and even with the loss of Liu Xiang to injury, China may still steal some medals in track & field.
PS, I thought the media would blow Liu Xiang's injury out of proportion in relation to its effect on the Chinese populace, but the reaction I saw from the Chinese we work with was very depressing. He's essentially our Michael Phelps, and imagine if Phelps was injured right before his seventh race. That's the feeling these people are feeling. Probably even stronger.
So now that I've had my time on the soapbox, I don't want this to overtake the great things we've experienced in China. Some of our group are extremely critical of the Chinese, and I've been part of some comments about how parts of this society simply do not work, but I do hope that some things will change here. An openness to new ideas would be nice, and perhaps a stop to the need to appear so perfect to everyone, whether in the medal count or just some fake fireworks. I just don't think it will happen.
For more information on Project 119, look at The First Post's article on it at http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45023,features,chinas-119-olympic-dreams
Chad at the Bird's Nest
OK, I officially had one of the coolest nights ever. We get off of work real late, but have tickets to Saturday's Bird's Nest session, which includes the now famous 100 meter dash. We got into a cab as soon as we could, and then practically sprinted from the cab stand to the stadium. PS, the cabs stop a really, really long way away from the Bird's Nest.
Anyway, we just get into the stadium when we hear "and starting in lane nine is," so we know that the 100 meter final is just about to start. I said that I'd be happy with going to the stadium even if all I got to see was the 100 meter final, and that, essentially, was exactly what I got. We got there right before the gun went off, with barely enough time to pull out my camera to get some very, very bad photos from very far away. I really wish that I'd gotten it on video, but I had no time to think about anything but snapping away. The crazy finish, with Bolt parading through the finish line on his way to a world record, was only seen after the fact by us, but it's pretty cool to be able to say that you were there.
We've got nothing else to do with the night, so we hang around for some closer pictures of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. The Olympic Green was just ridiculous. I was tired as hell and hadn't eaten in about a day (true story, and if you know me you know that's a big deal), but I figured that I may never, far more likely will never, get another chance at an Olympic stadium. The whole place was ridiculous. The flame was pretty cool, and the different things that light up (the Water Cube, the light fixtures, the ground around the Water Cube, AN ENTIRE BUILDING) are really crazy. They have an entire building dedicated to the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting for the Beijing Olympics, which is the one in the pic with the diamond shaped lights that change.
Oh yeah, everything has different lights, which makes the 100 or so different pictures I took worth while. I swear the Water Cube and bureaucracy building are eight different colors through the night. The entire place is just ridiculous. I realize I've used that word that word a couple of times now, but it's really a cool place to be with everyone there. They even keep the subway open until early in the morning to get people home for cheap. I literally can't describe it all in that great of detail, so hopefully my pictures help it all out.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
So Apparently the Brits are Pretty Good
Saturday meant three more finals for track cycling, and nine more medals to give out. The individual pursuit, the men's keirin, and the men's point race all ran on Saturday. The points race is for the endurance riders and the keirin is very much a sprinter's game, so the pursuit falls somewhere in the middle.
Taylor Phinney, the big story back in the states for his parents and for his own cycling potential, ended up finishing in the bottom half of the first round. He raced a good enough time in qualifying to get him into Saturday's runoffs, but he couldn't beat the New Zealander he raced against who would eventually race for gold and get silver. Afterward, he seemed very upbeat about the situation, happy with his performance and the comforting knowledge that he'll be back in four years in London.
The only annoying part about working in the velodrome is that most journalists couldn't care less about his race and want to talk to him about how much he's been talking to the women's gymnastics team. Since I only want quotes about cycling, that means I have to get my own questions, which ticks off the journalists to no end. I swear these guys look at us like we're bugs running around their feet. Considering we're doing their work for them a lot of the time, you think their egos would deflate a little. I was wrong.
So for the second day of track cycling competition, the British took home five more medals. Chris Hoy, part of the Brits gold medal team sprint team, won another gold in the keirin. I'm happy to say that this blog's new fan favorite, Malaysian rider Josiah Ng, made it into the second round of qualifying, but couldn't beat out a stacked heat of Hoy, Australian Shane Kelly and Frenchman Arnaud Tournant for the finals. Brit Ross Edgar took silver in the keirin, while fellow Brit Chris Newton took bronze in the point race.
The point race is still a mystery to most of us, considering that the race is 160 laps long and you earn points by placing well in the sprints that run every 10 laps. I still have no idea how the points are allotted, so I'm no help there. Watching it can be fun though, because there is one guy that his entire job is to spin in a circle and point at the leader of the race, because the leader isn't necessarily the guy at the front of the pack because guys get lapped. Like a lot of Olympic sports like Judo and others, the rules aren't as important as just enjoying the race.
Taylor Phinney, the big story back in the states for his parents and for his own cycling potential, ended up finishing in the bottom half of the first round. He raced a good enough time in qualifying to get him into Saturday's runoffs, but he couldn't beat the New Zealander he raced against who would eventually race for gold and get silver. Afterward, he seemed very upbeat about the situation, happy with his performance and the comforting knowledge that he'll be back in four years in London.
The only annoying part about working in the velodrome is that most journalists couldn't care less about his race and want to talk to him about how much he's been talking to the women's gymnastics team. Since I only want quotes about cycling, that means I have to get my own questions, which ticks off the journalists to no end. I swear these guys look at us like we're bugs running around their feet. Considering we're doing their work for them a lot of the time, you think their egos would deflate a little. I was wrong.
So for the second day of track cycling competition, the British took home five more medals. Chris Hoy, part of the Brits gold medal team sprint team, won another gold in the keirin. I'm happy to say that this blog's new fan favorite, Malaysian rider Josiah Ng, made it into the second round of qualifying, but couldn't beat out a stacked heat of Hoy, Australian Shane Kelly and Frenchman Arnaud Tournant for the finals. Brit Ross Edgar took silver in the keirin, while fellow Brit Chris Newton took bronze in the point race.
The point race is still a mystery to most of us, considering that the race is 160 laps long and you earn points by placing well in the sprints that run every 10 laps. I still have no idea how the points are allotted, so I'm no help there. Watching it can be fun though, because there is one guy that his entire job is to spin in a circle and point at the leader of the race, because the leader isn't necessarily the guy at the front of the pack because guys get lapped. Like a lot of Olympic sports like Judo and others, the rules aren't as important as just enjoying the race.
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