Olympic Beach Volleyball

Well I think it's been awhile again since I've written - I've been really busy trying to get caught up from missing so much work!  It's late and I'm tired - so I'm going to start backwards this time and make it short! :)

This afternoon I went ice skating with my boss' kids.  There is an ice skating rink across the street from our apartment in the shopping mall.  The kids don't know how to skate at all, and I'm pretty sure my back is broken from skating backwards bent over and picking them up the whole time.

I went to beach volleyball this morning - coolest event/venue I've seen so far!  We got to see Misty May and Kerry Walsh whatever...I can't remember there names right now, but they're unbelievable. Then another US team played Cuba and won, and then Australia played Greece.  There were tons of crazy Australian fans doing all their cheers and chants - it was great! 

(my boss and our Chinese worker/translator)

So up until now, I've had a pretty good sunglasses tan going on (my eyes are white and my cheeks are tan!)  But today I forgot my sunglasses, and believe it or not, the sun was actually out in Beijing!  It was just a beautiful day - perfect weather and blue skies!  So I'm fried- my eyes are bright red from not seeing the sun in so long!  And my shoulders got plenty of sun, too.  It's usually so polluted and overcast here you don't have to worry about it, but of course the one day I don't take sun block and forget my sunglasses, it's hot and sunny!

Last night Shannon and I went out for dinner to Texas Tim's Barbeque -- yeah, in Beijing!  I couldn't believe it.  BUT THE COOL THING WAS there was a K-STATE flag in the restaurant/bar!  CRAZY!  There was on Texas flag, a few A&M flags, and one big K-State flag!  I ate real American food and was so happy! Of course I got a couple of pictures by the flag! 

After dinner we walked around and found a little DVD store.  I bought 20 DVDs and a couple of series of TV shows for some friends...all for like $40, which is still a rip-off in Beijing.  But it was all the NEW movies, the Dark Night, Kung Fu Panda....the ones out in theaters now!  Let me know if there are any movies you want - they are so ridiculously cheap over here! I love Beijing! 

After that we went and got massages at the same place we went when we first got to Beijing.  I've never been in so much pain in my life!  I literally couldn't breathe he was pushing so hard...I actually sat up and told him he had to do it softer, but I don't think he understood me.  He hit every single pressure point in my body.  And who uses an ELBOW to massage the side of your HEAD!? Come on...NOT going back there!  (But I guess it is better than the ASS massage I got the other day…)

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

Olympic Field Hockey / USA House / Boxing

Well after the long day on Sunday, all I wanted to do was sleep in on Monday, but of course, it was Monday, and I'm not allowed to do that!  So I was up bright and early and went to breakfast as usual.  One of our clients was eating by himself, so I sat with him.  He said he had two tickets to field hockey that morning, and no one to go with.  So of course, since we are supposed to take care of the clients first, I said I would go with him if he couldn't find anyone else! :)

 I kind of wanted to go just to get out of the hotel, but come on, it was field hockey.  I don't even know what field hockey is...seriously...never even heard of it!  I hadn't even taken a shower or anything, still in my pajamas (shorts and a tshirt), but we were late, so I just hopped in a taxi with him and took off.  About half an hour later, the taxi driver stopped at an intersection and ushered for us to get out.  We had no clue where we were, but we weren’t by any stadium, that’s for sure! 

He was pointing to the road blocks ahead and said, "no go" so we just got out and started walking.  Doing the usual, of course, stopping every block asking someone where we are going.  The Olympic tickets are big and have the Chinese and English name of the event, as well as the name of the venue, so if you have a ticket, you can usually get to where you need to go.  We walked and walked and walked forever...and ended up going right by the entire Olympic Village.  It was pretty cool! 

All of the little apartments had flags hanging off the balconies so you could tell who (what country) was staying where.  There were some people practicing fencing, some boxing, some running...people from all over the world there...it really was cool to see!  But we were in a hurry to get there to the event.  Our tickets were for 9am and it was almost 11 now. 

We finally found the stadium and the spectator entrance, after walking a couple of miles at least.  We sat down in time to see the second half of the Pakistan vs Great Britain match.  Pakistan is supposedly really good at this sport, but Great Britain won. 

It was kind of exciting to see, but I'm confident in saying that is the first AND last field hockey match I will ever go to. :)  We left the stadium and decided we would try to sneak me in at the USA House with our client.  It's all about who you know over here!  Turns out my boss went to Stanford Business School with the son of the founder of GAP.  And the guy I was with was a business school friend of there’s too.  Somehow this whole family had passes to the USA House, and got the guy I was with TWO passes.  Each country (or the big ones anyways) has there own "house" over here, where all of the athletes, their families, and sponsors get to go for free food and drinks, to hang out, etc.  And I FREAKING GOT IN!!  I guess this GAP family was a huge sponsor of the Olympics, and got us passes!  It was seriously the coolest thing I've seen since I've been here!  You have to where the big VIP passes around your neck and they usher you in to this amazing three floor restaurant overlooking a lake.  And it was full of famous people!   I took a couple of pictures there, too.  OH and the best part is that they have a huge gift shop there with all of the official USA Olympic stuff.  Yeah, I went a little crazy there, but come on!  I'm at the Olympics for the first time, and in the USA House, which I can almost guarantee I'll never be at during another Olympics again!  I bought some t-shirts, some jackets, bracelets, bags, ya know...whatever I could get my hands on! :)  Everything else I've bought here so far (which really hasn't been that much) has been knock-off ridiculously cheap stuff from the silk market, so it was okay that I bought all the real expensive stuff! :) 

(The entrance - and amazing DID await!)

After we had lunch there with the GAP family, and listened to there stories about staying at the same hotel as the USA men's basketball team, we headed back to the hotel.  (But not before I got my picture taken with some old Olympian and some GAP family member!)

My boss and his wife were heading out to see tennis that evening, but he wanted to take his kids down the street (STRAIGHT down the street) for some ice cream first.  Oh by the way, there is a COLD STONE right down the street!  I was in heaven when I saw that!  So anyways - he said he'd be back at 4pm to leave for tennis.  Well at 4:15, he wasn't back, and had been gone over an hour with two of his three little kids.  We were all getting a little worried, and then we got the phone call that he was lost.  It was kind of funny at first, until we realized he was REALLY lost, and REALLY angry, and had the kids with him.  So off I went, on foot, with a hand-bag, a big camera, and a back-pack on.  I have no idea why I didn't just leave it all in the lobby of the hotel or something, but everyone started to freak out, so I just started running towards the ice cream place.  I thought maybe when we came up from the subway he kept going straight instead of turning, so I sprinted that way...probably ran half a mile with all that crap on, sweating to death, and no sign of a tall bald headed guy.  So I turned around, ran all the way back to the intersection, and ran the OTHER way.  I literally thought I was going to die from running that far in the pollution and the heat, but I eventually found him, dripping wet from sweat, and dragging the tired kids.  He was SO SO mad - or frustrated for getting lost.  We walked back to the hotel and he calmed down, and they left for tennis.  But what a crazy 20 minutes that was!   

Shannon and I hung out with the kids that night.  We walked them down the street a couple of blocks and through a shopping mall.  I found THE COOLEST pair of multi-colored Nike shocks I've ever seen.  I asked the guy if he had an 8.5 and he looked at me like I was crazy.  Oh no...no big sizes.  Come on!  An 8.5 isn't that big is it?  Well in Asia, a 7 is enormous, so no cool shoes for me.  They weren't knock-offs so they were actually really expensive.  We shopped for a little bit, and then took the kids out for dinner.  And guess what we found!?  A Sizzler in Beijing!  Of course we had to try that out!  It was pretty bad, but we had Cold Stone for dessert so that made up for it.  I went to bed pretty early (9:30ish) as I was still exhausted from my late night in Tianjin!

This morning was the last day at the hotel, and the last night with the clients.  We had a little work meeting this morning around breakfast, since all of the Jayhawk staff is leaving today (except me).  After breakfast, we loaded up all 8 thousand of the bags from the 50 rooms we have, and checked out.  I took all of my boss' families stuff as well as mine to the apartment, which we moved in to today.  I took the driver, because there was no way we could fit all that stuff in a taxi. 

I'm getting to know our private driver pretty well, even though he speaks limited English.  He never has the radio on, so I said, "Let’s listen to some music!" and pushed the power button.  I always sit in the front seat and people always look at me weird.  Most of the rich people over here who have drivers sit in the back.  But not me, I want to see what's going on!  So I hit scan until I found a good station, and found one that was playing Pussycat Dolls, and after that Coldplay!  I was SO excited, I rolled the window down and cranked the music and started singing along.  Liu (driver) thought I was crazy, but got a good laugh out of it! :)

We dropped off the bags at the apartment, which literally filled up two carts FULL, and went back to the hotel for Shannon and the kids.  We were hungry so we walked next door to try and find some sort of food for all of us.  There was a little store of some kind...not sure how to describe it because I can't even tell you what in the world was in there.  After several minutes of walking around trying to find something edible, we picked out some sort of crackers with some lemon filling in them, some chips which turned out to be disgusting, and some juice.  And that was lunch! 

The older kids went to a boxing event, and Shannon and I took the youngest one (4) with us back to the apartment with the rest of our stuff.  We walked across the street to the China Word Shopping Center.  It is huge (ice skating rink in it) and very nice, and they have a Subway!  Of course we had to eat again...the crackers and chips didn't do it for us. :) 

I decided to do another "quick" trip to Wal-Mart with the driver to get some more things for the apartment.  I tried to tell him where I wanted to go, but he didn't get it.  I told him to just drive and I pointed to tell him how to get there.  I'm actually pretty familiar with this area of Beijing now, and Wal-Mart is only about 10 minutes away.  When we pulled up he said, "OH, WAAAL-MAAART"...yeah, he finally got it.  Normally, the driver just sits in the car and waits for you, but I told him to come in and shop with me.  I think he was happy, but I'm not really sure.  He pushed the cart for me and I told him what to get...it was great! :)  We got some fruit:  apples, oranges, kiwi, and bananas.  It was so fun...I'd say apple, and then he would teach me the Chinese word!  I can't remember most of them now...they were all really hard to say...apple is so much easier!  We eventually found a trash can, a hammer, some batteries...a bunch of random stuff.  He didn't know some (okay most) words, but his cell phone has a dictionary in it.  So I would write a word down, he would type it in to his phone, and then figure out the Chinese word for it...it was pretty fun at first, but got a little annoying and time consuming by the end of it.  Of course we had to wait in the massive lines and my "quick" trip wasn't really so quick -- almost 2 hours when it was all said and done! 

When we got back and unloaded everything, Shannon and I went out to see some boxing.  Neither one of us were very interested in it, but the tickets were free and we wanted to get out and do something.  (I'm going to be so sad when she leaves and it's just ME!)  So we hopped in a cab, showed him our ticket, and he dropped us off...with the gymnasium no where in sight.  I hate it when they do that!!  So we just got out and started walking...showing my ticket to people every block or so trying to figure out where to go.  About 10 minutes later, we finally found the gymnasium.  I don't why cab drivers do that...maybe just to Americans because they don't like us! :)  Anyways - when we got in and found our seats, they were terrible...almost at the very top.  That's probably why they were free! :)  So we just decided to put our ticket away and walk down closer.  We sat down in two empty seats, and this Chinese guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder as SOON as I sat down and just said, "NO!" and shook his finger at me.  Haha! Okay okay -- we got up and found two other seats...jerk.  We could at least see what was going on now! 

Turns out I don't know the first thing about boxing, and neither did Shannon.  We couldn't even figure out how they were getting points.  It was kind of exciting, but got really old really quick.  We only stayed for a couple of matches, and decided to leave because we couldn't figure out if there was going to be a USA guy that night or not.  So when we got home, we checked the internet, and the HEADLINE was "BOXING SHOCKER" about some USA guy that night, and the same gym we were at, right after we left.  PERFECT!  We missed it...I didn't even read the article, but some American guy was supposed to be good and got killed I think (not literally).  Oh well!  At least I can say I've been to a boxing match now I guess! :) 

So that was it, we went to bed and I just woke up a little bit ago.  It is so much nicer to be here at an apartment where I can unpack and have some space.  Living out of hotels was about to drive me crazy!  Today we are going to a baseball game (Japan vs somebody) and then basketball tonight (Australia vs somebody).

I'll write more tomorrow (or tonight if I have time!) :)

-TK