Olympic Basketball

I didn't do a whole lot during the day yesterday (Wednesday).  I just worked and caught up on emails. 

Last night Shannon and I went to basketball.  The gymnasium was SO cool from the outside...right next to the two baseball stadiums and it was all lit up and changed colors.  It is a new building they built for the Olympics. 

We took the driver, Liu, and I showed him on the map where we wanted to go.  It was literally straight down the main road that we live on...quite a ways away, but still, straight down the road.  Well Lui took us all over...I have absolutely NO idea where we went or how we got there, but I think he just gave us a little tour of Beijing!  I didn't care though...I rolled the window down and cranked the music up and sang along to Coldplay!  I've found a couple of good radio stations over here that play American music, and Lui thinks its hilarious when I turn up load music and hang out the windows and sing along. :)

Once we got in the stadium and walked in to the gym to find our seats, we realized it was WOMEN'S basketball! Haha!!  We were actually kind of excited to see some men's basketball, but that was quickly gone when we saw all the girls down there.  Thankfully, it was halftime of the Australia versus Korea game.  When the Australian girls took off there warm ups to start the second half, we both almost fell over from laughing so hard.  They wear body suits to play basketball in!  Who does that!?  It was like a one piece leotard...I don't even know how to describe how hideous it was...it made us laugh for the whole second half.  It was the most unattractive thing you could ever put a girl in...even the tall skinny girls looked terrible!   I still can't get over it...they were just terrible.  And we sat right behind the family of one of the Australian girls players, and she said all the girls complain about them and hate them.  No wonder!! 

So we were going to leave after the game - Australia killed Korea by like 30 points.  But then we saw that USA played next, so of course we had to stay, even though it was already after 10pm and there was a 35 minute break in between games.  We sat there and talked to the nice Australian family and waited.  During the break, a solid row of Asian security guards walked in, wearing all black and blocked off one whole section.  The Asians in the crowed were all going nuts, apparently knowing what was about to happen, and three big black guys form the USA mens' basketball team walked in.  There was literally almost a stampede of the Asians trying to get to them, and I don't even know who they were.  I think one of them was Tim Duncan, maybe.  Is he even on the team?  The other two didn't even look like players, I think everyone was just excited because they were big and black and from the USA.  The one I thought might be Tim Duncan had on a huge diamond earring and you could see his huge watch sparkle from across the gymnasium, seriously.  They sat down in the front row and the whole gymnasium was just snapping pictures and waving and yelling.  It was absolutely hilarious.  We could've cared less who they were -- it wasn't Lebron James, it wasn't Kobe or Tony Parker or anybody big I would've recognized...just some random players I think.  During the national anthem before the game, those three guys turned to look at the flag, and the whole section next to them just stood there and jumped and waived at them and snapped pictures throughout the song...SO funny. 

Anyways - the USA team played Mali...where in the world is Mali?  There are so many random countries I've never even heard of.  They were all black and had crazy red and blue and died hair, and they played Jamaican kind of music - maybe some island or something?  I don't know, but they were terrible at basketball.  The US was up by like 30 at half, so we decided to leave.  We walked out and couldn't get a taxi, so we walked across the street where there were less people.  I'm usually pretty good at getting taxis, because I stand out from all the Asians, and I'm just pushy and walk out in front of them sometimes. :)  So I flagged down a taxi, or I though I did, and two Asians walked right in front of me and got in!  I was so mad and started yelling at them but they had no idea what I said and just got in...SUCKED.  So I walked farther down and got one like two seconds later, but they still stole MY taxi! ;) 

So remember how it took Lui like an hour through little streets and neighborhoods to get us there?  Well this taxi driver went STRAIGHT down the street and we were back in like 10 minutes.  No fun music though, so I'll take Lui's crazy driving any day! :) 

Went to bed around midnight and got up this morning at 7:30.  Just hanging out here at the apartment and working this morning.  Shannon and my boss’ wife took the kids to a shooting event (it's like an hour away from here) and I am going to Wal-Mart here pretty soon to get some more stuff we need.  That's it for now!

-TK