This ends my brief intro to the emotion I have regarding the Olympics and where they stand in international importance four days after the end of the Closing Ceremonies.
Now, I must apologize for what some have considered my 'laziness' during The Games (notice how all things associated with the Olympics are capitalized, that's right, I don't care). It was not laziness as much as it was an insanely busy time here. Between my years of accumulating enthusiasm and the tickets I was able to get hold of, I was unable to concentrate on much but enjoying the spectacle that was Beijing during the games. People were alternately unaffected and obsessed. WOAH, I need to slow down. I am getting all dramatic and ahead of myself. Let's start on the auspicious date, 8-8-08. No, one week before that. That is when things really started kicking off. All the decorations were in place and the city was perking up. Thousands of volunteers were out in force strolling through the streets eagerly trying to catch the eye of any foreigner who walked by so that they could have a chance to put the thousands of RMB mommy and daddy invested in English lessons to good use.Sidenote: That is not an entirely fair assessment of the volunteers but ahead of the games it was annoying when they all thought I was just visiting.
When 8-8-08 finally arrived I didn't know what to do. I thought that the city would have imploded at the stroke of midnight but it was still here. People were surprisingly calm. I spent the day inside. I was afraid of somehow jinxing things. I am pretty prone to thinking I have jinxed something, like karma is that interested in what I am thinking or saying. This was a day 100 years in he making according to some. I read as much on the internet as I could about the international media's initial opinions about Beijing and the weather and pollution and all that. It was annoying. I did read Jim Caple on ESPN.com and he made a great point regarding the pollution and its effects on the endurance athletes. He said that we shouldn't be to worried about the athletes, we should be more worried about the people who live in Beijing and have to breathe the pollution 365 days a year. Yeah, worry about me!
In the evening I made my way to my friend Comwell's house to take in The Opening Ceremonies live (1 minute delay) on TV. I was there with Ms. Lili Tan (The Tanimal) and a some dude. It was a bit random but it was fun. We watched in nervous anticipation. We all thought that the collective heads of the Chinese were going to explode once the Ceremonies began. They didn't. The ceremonies were quite impressive. People did not stop talking about them for a few days.
The NEXT day I was headed to my first event, Beach Volleyball. I have heard form the NBC broadcasters that the Beach Volleyball venue is generally regarded as the most fun venue of The Games. We arrived extra early, ahead of the 9am start to the matches. Security was a beast. I knew things would be extra 'secure' or at least more secure looking, but this was insane. Lines FOREVER to get into more lines to be patted down and scanned with one of those handy medal detection doohickies. No metal, no liquids. They were not as vigorous that first day as they would be in the later stages of The Games or as thorough as they would be on the Olympic Green. The Beach Volleyball venue was located in Chaoyang Park, the biggest park in Beijing. The stadium was temporary with the sand flown in from the beaches of Sanya on Hainan Island (been there). The venue was cool an unique. They had the concessions set up outside of the stadium proper. The also had beach volleyball pits dotted around the area.
I was very interested in seeing what they had at the concession stands so I went right for them once I got through security. The signs on the outside of the stands read like a dream: hot dogs, pizza, sausages, biscuits, beer, beer, beer. I was excited to eat and drink all those things over the course of the next 17 days but I was denied that dream by ineptitude and, who would have guessed, inflated promises. The concession stands were just that, stands. No more sophisticated than the stand Courtney and I sold Crystal Light from in front of our house one summer (we charged a nickel, our only customer was the mailman, he drove off without paying and I chased to no avail).
They were pvc pipe plastic sheet covered hovels. They sold popcorn but it was microwaved in bags. They sold sausages but they also came in bags. There was never any pizza and hot dogs came on a stick without a bun. Biscuits were the British definition of biscuits, cookies. One more reason to dislike the British. There was literally nothing to eat from the concession stands. It was terrible. In later Olympic related posts I will detail the differences between the venues and their concession options (that should keep you tuned in). The only positive from the entire concession experience was that the prices were dirt cheap. Three RMB (37 cents) for a sausage. Five RMB (60 cents) for a bottle of Coke. They even had three kinds of beer Tsingtao, Budweiser, and Yanjing. The prices were the same for the three, five RMB for a small and eight RMB for a large. All I could do was immediately calculate how many beers could be purchased at The Olympics for the price of one at the Cardinals game. The answer is about 11 and a half. I must point out that a small beer was a CAN of beer and a large beer was a BOTTLE of beer. Tap beer was out of the question. This proved to be a touch annoying when they would have to open a can and pour it into a cup for you while thirty other people waited in line. There was also no limit on beers. More on that later if I can remember.
The Beach Volleyball itself was fun. They had loud American pop music pumping through the place every time there was a stoppage in play, no matter how short. The venue was a bit small and, as with most of the venues I went to, about 1/3 of the seats were reserved for international media. The crowd was pretty good. There were people from Holland, Australia, and Russia. There were a ton of Chinese fans there supporting their women's team in their first match of the tournament. There was even a special cheering section located at the top of the stadium. These people were recruited to fill seats and create a 'fun' atmosphere. They had gone through training well in advance of the games and they all wore matching shirts. They hooted and hollered for both sides while the average Chinese fan just looked at them, almost ashamed for them. There is one cheer and one cheer only that the Chinese do and if you watched ANY of The Games than I am sure you are familiar with it, Beijing, Jia You, Zhong Guo, Jia You. This is it. This is as good at it got for 17 days.Sidenote: As an American I am concerned with our lack of clever or cool cheers for our country. Everyone has fun things to sing and say except us. The Aussies are particularly adept at being loud and clever. I developed a new and super annoying cheer for the USA, OOOOOOOOOSSAAAH.
As the day wore on it got hotter and hotter and hotter. The thermometer in the sand said it was 120. In the bowl of the stadium air did not circulate and the humidity just took a seat and stayed for a while. Finally, around 11am, the Chinese women came out to rapturous applause. The stadium was about 75% full by the time their match started. I thought it was a decent showing considering the heat. The match went on and eventually the Chinese won. Almost on cue, 80% of the Chinese supporters left. It was terrible. Even the professional cheer squad went home. It was a poor showing of sportsmanship. It was hot and I was not as concerned as I became later when the trend repeated itself over and over again. The attendance issues coupled with the rabid medal tracking made me rethink what sportsmanship is in this country. Initially there was a creepy, China vs. The World vibe happening. Lili and I stayed for another two matches before calling it quits. It was damn hot and I had to get across town to get more Olympic tickets.
I was furiously trying to acquire more and more tickets for the week preceding The Games. I contacted every poster on Craig's List about tickets and ended up finding this girl who lived way across town, on the west side. I went out there to meet her and pick up tickets to Baseball and the Men's Football (Soccer) quarterfinals. I was nervous she wouldn't show up but she did. Her tickets were real. I rejoiced.
I headed home with a fist full of tickets and a sense of what it is like to be at The Olympics. At the Beach Volleyball venue there was a good international mix. While I was unable to cheer for my team I still learned a lot about how to cheer for your country, something I had never done before. You have to be gracious. When you put on your countries colors or even a t-shirt with your country's name on it you become the face of your country. I would say that 95% of Olympic visitors adhered to that notion. Everyone was very friendly and extremely happy to be here. People cheered for their country without ever taunting anyone or going too crazy. It was very respectful. The next day I was headed to the Water Cube to see Michael Phelps compete with the Men's 4x100m Relay team. It would be my first chance to root for my country and see perhaps its best Olympian compete. On the way out of the Beach Volleyball venue there was a small stand selling various flags. I initially grabbed the hand held model of the Star Spangled Banner. I was then drawn to the larger version. It would be my cape. My Olympic look was complete. It was a purchase that would end up enhancing my Olympic experience.
More on that and swimming later
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