OLYMPICS!!

First, a short apology for the long wait: sorry. I have been incredibly busy the last few weekends with my job, classes, tests, and, of course, the Olympics.

Since the Olympics are in full swing, I just wanted to fill everyone in on what I’ve seen, and which events I’ve been fortunate enough to attend.

The Opening Ceremony certainly was a fun way to kick off this month. My friend AJ and I went down to the Birds Nest to see the fireworks. While we were waiting, we were asked for our passports several times, and we got to see a protester get tackled by the Beijing Police. He didn’t even get his flag unfurled.

He wasn’t very fast though- he certainly wasn't on the 100 m dash team, especially since he’s probably still in jail. In the background on the right, through the smog, you can see the Bird's Nest.

After we got to see some preliminary fireworks, which I didn’t get any good pictures of, we headed to Wangfujing to watch the ceremony on a giant television. Wangfujing is a big square with shopping and at night you can buy yummy treats like scorpion kabobs or fried sea horses. There were a lot of foreigners there, and a lot of Chinese too.

Some Chinese girls were nice enough to paint 中国加油 (Zhong Guo Jia You; Let’s Go China!) on our faces, and we were suddenly some pretty popular guys, and made our way to the front of the crowd- front row seats for the ceremony on a 2 story tall TV screen.

The opening ceremony was pretty amazing, and you could tell the Chinese people were really excited about the games.

The first Olympic game I was able to see was actually an accident. I was on my way to the bank, and the streets were blocked off. I decided to stick around and see what was happening. After 20 minutes of waiting, 25 women rode by on bikes in about 5 seconds. It was too bad I didn’t have my camera on me. I think France was in front when I saw them, but there was no way to be sure.

The first game I actually planned on seeing was Women’s Soccer in the Workers’ Stadium (not the Bird’s Nest). It was a double header of sorts, and I saw Brazil beat Nigeria 3-1 and Sweden beat Canada 2-1.

The Brazilian girl who scored all 3 of their goals headed and bicycle kicked 2 of her goals. She was pretty good.

This game happened around dinner time, so I left to go get me some grub at the concession stand. I was a little disappointed. The menu had no real food, but did have many nondescript foods like “bread”, “cake”, and “biscuits”.

All of these people ate "bread" and "cake" for dinner.

I ordered bread, but I got some sort of weird loaf of chocolate bread. Don't let the "sausage" get your hopes up- It is closer to a SlimJim than a Hebrew National Hot Dog. It seems strange that even though the Olympic games are sponsored by McDonalds, they can’t get some ballpark food to the venues. I hear the Bird’s Nest has Ronald McDonald’s best though.

The only other game I’ve been able to see is Men’s Weightlifting.

This was really cool. It was the “clean and jerk” style of weightlifting, which I think is the technical term for lifting a lot of weight while screaming and then throwing the weights on the ground when you’re done.

Everything was in kilograms, but everyone weighed about 160 pounds (75-78 k), and the gold medal winner lifted about 445 pounds (203 k). It was amazing. Korea won the gold medal, China silver, and Armenia bronze.

I am a little sad that I will miss the rest of the Olympics, They have been great fun.