One World. One Dream.

We did it! We were at the Olympics last night at the track and field finals. Someone just asked me via email if it would be worth spending the bucks to attend the Olympics? I don't know
that I would travel specifically for the Olympics, but if I were ever anywhere near them I would definitely make the effort. It was an amazing experience! One of the amazing aspects of the event was ticket prices, which are apparently fixed in line with the host country's economy. With the exception of big events (gymnastics, track, basketball, soccer, swimming) tons of tickets at the outlet where non-Chinese could purchase them were in the $10-20 range. People were going to 1-2 events every day! Mark went to a handball game and the boys went to baseball (Netherlands vs. Korea) and lucked out into soccer semifinals (Argentina vs. Brazil) so I think we got to experience a good slice of the whole experience!

We saw the men's finals in the javelin, 800 meters, 5,000 meters and 4x400 relay, and the women's high jump, 1,500 meters, and the 4x400 relay. The whole thing went very quickly--they seem to run much faster in person than they do on television--so the whole event lasted less than 3 hours. But what a great few hours it was!

First stop (earlier in the afternoon)was the Nike store to get properly outfitted with some USA gear. We found out that night that we were woefully underrepresenting the US in terms of dress and costuming! Aside: Beijing has some serious high-end shopping. Serious shopping. And there are an astonishing number of people in this country. More on that later, but suffice it to say that negotiating crowds is going to be a real art. And that's just the streets. Wait til we talk about the subway or the stores!

Off to the Olympic Green (more like the "Unbelievable Expanse of Concrete and People and where the hell is something to eat?") and the Bird's Nest. The area where most of the venues are is enormous. I was set to pick up some trinkets for the kids and found out that they were all being sold at the superstore at the other end of the Green--about a 40 minute walk! Food tents were selling ramen or rice bowls and we knew food was not available in the Bird's Nest so we opted for the McDonald's.

Walking, walking, still walking. Still walking. And sweating. Walking, we're still walking. And, finally.....

Nope. Still walking. Still sweating. Noticing that there are a lot of Chinese people here. Wondering if the toilets are squatties. Wondering if I'll ever get the sweat out of my clothes. Wondering if the Diet Cokes are cold. Wondering why the bleep I can't buy pins or lanyards or flags at any place but a superstore where I KNOW there will be 25,000 people and no lines (I know this because I was at a superstore in the city earlier that day).

Sniff, sniff. Ah-HA! We must be close! There! The Golden Arches! The smell of the best fries on the planet! Here are some hungry people standing in line at McDonalds. Lucky devils.

Lucky, because THIS is the crowd waiting to

get INTO the McDonalds. Periodically the doors open and 25-30 people rush in and then the doors shut. It would be easier to get into Willy Wonka's factory. We opted for rice bowls.

And here was the black hole of the Olympic experience...the food was packaged--rice, chicken/veggies/sauce. You mix it together on the top tray and open a packet of water and pour it in the bottom of the styrofoam box. Shut it up, pull a string and BAM! Some weird explosively hot chemical reaction and 5 minutes later you have a hot meal.

A hot meal in which an entire chicken was apparently shoved through a grinder, bones and all, and then put in the little packets. Inedible. Sad, too, because except for some cookies and caramel corn that was it for food. Luckily cheap beer was available--that along with a lack of food and the heat could be a recipe for disaster. We survived, but we did hit the McD's for a quick bite on the way home.

Which should not be construed to mean that we are eating at McDonald's all the time. Beijing has fantastic food and we are taking advantage of ordering from pictures and trying whatever we get and loving just about all of it!

But I digress...

When you enter something like the Bird's Nest to watch the Olympics in person, what would get your attention? The torch? The crowds? The energy? How about little remote control cars that return the javelin back to the thrower? Very cool and I want that job as an Olympic volunteer in the future. Although I'd have to be in excellent shape because it was at least 100 degrees on the track and not one bit of a breeze and so I'd have to do it basically naked and I'd want to be in shape for that.

But again, I digress...

That was actually a segue because this is for Karen. The former Olympic gold medalist in the javelin set an Olympic record (but don't ask me how far he threw it because those are details and I kept watching those little cars) and he was from Norway and Karen loves Norway. And he had a cool name--Anderes. And we were sitting with a large Norwegian and Finnish contingent and there were also 3 Finns in the finals and so things got a little testy on the Finnish end of things when the Norwegian won. And also he took his shirt off after every throw and he threw 6 times and it was on the Jumbotron so there was nothin' wrong there.

The women's high jump was amazing. They LOOK so tall! And it's my favorite field event. And I bet I could get my weight down like that. But not by exercising. Gosh, no. By not eating for maybe 6 months. Maybe not. That'd be a lot of work, too. After I thought about all of that I went and got another beer and some caramel corn. Seriously, though, they are amazing athletes--there were several personal bests in the competition that night.

We had a great night to be at the Games. The running events we saw are among my favorites. Seeing these elite athletes in action---the speed is unbelievable--was fantastic. Of course we cheered loudly for the Americans, who didn't stand a chance against the Kenyans (whom we cheered loudly for, too) and watched an Olympic record set in the 5,000 meters. Track is a great spectator sport because there are always multiple events going on at the same time--lots to watch, lots of energy! The stadium was very full--it holds something like 90,000 people and with pockets of people cheering for different athletes you don't get that crushing noise that you would, say, at a football game where everyone's rooting for one of two teams. There were lots of opportunities for people-watching as fans came dressed in flags, hats, costumes, makeup, whatever they needed to make sure everyone else knew where they were coming from. Everyone cheered for their country and if they didn't have someone in a particular event, they just cheered loudly for the country of the person sitting next to them. We sat next to an American who is running an orphanage in China, and close to a happy Australian group and a very enthusiastic Brit who got on British TV by displaying an enormous flag (they were very strict about the size of the banners and flags in the stadiums, but this guy wore this in like a toga). This was in addition to the Scandivavians around us, too.

My favorite event in track is the 4x400 relay. It's not as flashy and doesn't get as much attention as the 4x100 but it always comes at the end of a meet and I think it's because it's one of the most exciting events. It's very fast, but the distance allows for a lot of place changing. It's not unusual for someone to lead in a leg, then fall behind, then catch back up. Every lap is like a mini-race and it almost always promises a great finish. The US women won in the last 50 meters in a fantastic haul down that last stretch. And men set a new Olympic record. No one else was even close, but that didn't stop it from being as exciting as the women's race!

Some of the "heart" moments were the medal ceremonies, and not just ours. How many times have you seen those flags go up and anthems played (there's a fan in each of the flagpoles that makes the flags wave patriotically as they reach the top)? It didn't matter whose anthem was being played--when the music starts it was unexpectedly very emotional, even though we couldn't really see the people on the medal podium.

This is as close as Mark will get to the starting line at an Olympic event!




Imagine putting on all your winter clothes and hanging out at the pool in August. That's not quite as humid and hot as it was in the Bird's Nest. But when we came out the view was spectacular! The Chinese love their neon colors and seeing the Cube across the plaza was very very cool. By then the temperature had approached something in the reasonable range, so we were able to hang out and bask in the glow of being a little part of something big. I think China did an outstanding job of hosting the Games (food and trinket shortages aside) and we were so happy to be a part of what is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event!

The Paralympics start next month--one of Mark's former track athletes from Eden Prairie lost a leg in Iraq and is a US record holder in swimming. She'll be swimming here next month and we're looking forward to getting tickets to see her compete (and a look inside the Cube) as well as possibly some track and field then, too.

There was an afternoon trip into the city that bears commenting on--lots of new cultural things to learn--and laugh at (both at what we do and what we see others do). More on that later!