So I know it’s late September but here in Beijing the Olympic banners are still proudly up (Paralympics just ended a week ago), so I don’t feel bad about reminding you all about that great event that happened here in August, and which I got to personally experience in several different aspects: the Olympics.
So basically August 7th-9th were an awesome three days. August 7th not only was my birthday (Mom couldn’t throw any surprise parties here in Beijing, thank goodness), but that was also the first day the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team came to BNU to practice at the HPC.
While they would continue to come every other day during the Olympics to practice that first day was the coolest because we waited by the fence after class and got to cheer for them as they got off the bus and walked into the gym. They didn’t sign any autographs, but it was still pretty cool to see these athletes that I normally see on TV in person. 
August 8th: the day that China had been anticipating for the past 7 years, the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies (also 8 is a lucky Chinese number, so I guess having the ceremonies start at 8 pm on 8/8/08 must have just been as lucky as humanly possible). That day, a Friday, was a holiday for most people in Beijing, so it was a little eerie to wake up and not hear the normal amount of honking or other car noise outside my dorm, and to look out the window from my 6th floor room and see a noticeably less amount of people and bikes on the large street outside. It was like the quiet before the storm. Everyone in our program was chattering after class where to go to watch the Opening Ceremonies. I was personally torn between wanting to be in the mix of it all and go straight to the Bird’s Nest and try to see it on the big screen outside (despite warnings from our Chinese teachers that it’d be so unbearably crowded, and the warning from CNN.com that talked about the bomb threat), and wanting to relax and watch it on TV. Most of us left in the late afternoon for different locations to watch it: some went to different parks that were designated as Olympic cultural sites and would have big screen TVs showing the ceremonies, others went to the Bird’s Nest (they ended up leaving because it was blockaded off), others to friends’ apartments or local bars at an area called Houhai, and I went with four other friends to the international church I attend to watch it on their big screen. From a theatrical perspective, it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony, and I don’t think I need to describe it as you all probably saw it for yourself. Later finding out that the little girl lip synced, that the “minorities” were actually Han actors, among other things, diminished it’s initial awesomeness. Nevertheless, watching it in a room full of people from all over the world, hearing cheers from people when their respective nation’s athletes walked out, it was definitely a unique experience. Also, toward the end of the show someone in the room announced that they had cheap Olympics tickets for sale, so my friends and I went over to take a look. I had already spent some money on women’s soccer semi-final tickets, but after seeing these decently priced ticket I bought a ticket for women’s volleyball and badminton. They were for the next day, Saturday, so by the time we got back to BNU around 1:30 am I set my alarm clock for 9 am and crashed.
Saturday, August 9th was the first day I got to experience Olympics events firsthand, and but since it’s been a while and I can’t remember the details right now I’m going to copy and paste a journal entry from that day to let you guys into my experience:
Dang, it was a long a day today, but really, really fun. With two newly bought Olympic tickets I was ready to see what it’s all about. This morning I left BNU around 10:30 am and caught a bus to the Capital Indoor Stadium to see a match of women’s volleyball. On the way there I noticed that the other side of the freeway was completely empty…then I noticed that the Beijing police and stopped all traffic to clear the way for either the French or Russian head of state and it’s entourage. I guess you never know who’ll you see during the Olympics. After twenty minutes on the bus I go off and immediately found myself right by the security check. The colors and the different people got me excited right away. Security didn’t take too long, but unfortunately they took away my nalgene water bottle, oh well. While standing in line some Brazilians started to hit their drums and entertain the surrounding Chinese…only a hint of what was to come. Once inside I wandered around and admired the well-air-conditioned and brightly-Olympic decorated venue, somewhat in awe of all the different nationalities present. I found my seats were somewhat high, but decided to wait and see if the venue would be too packed to move to better seats. The match still had a half hour ‘til the first serve when a Chinese cheerleading team, and then a sword dance team, and then a street dance team, tried to entertain the crowd.
It was amusing to see Chinese people dancing to Mariah Carey (I think) in traditional American cheerleading outfits. Once the Brazilian and Algerian teams came out the Brazilian fans went wild and didn’t stop the entire match: draped in the Brazilian flag, wearing green wigs, and banging small drums, these fans definitely got some energy in the crowd. Throughout the match they even walked around to different sections to get Chinese people to cheer for “BRASIL!” (or, in Chinese, Ba-Si 。) 
Halfway through the match I moved down to better seats and watched the Brazilians dominate the Algerians in three straight sets. Fortunately my ticket was good for two matches, so I waited for the Cuban and Polish Women’s teams to come out. I don’t know why, but the Chinese seemed to like Cuba a lot, doing the government-originated cheer, “Jia You, Cuba!” ( a country plus "jia you" is the way to cheer in China). The Poles in the crowd started chanting “Polska!” Throughout the match I looked around the mostly-Chinese crowd and couldn’t help but notice how new this whole sports-environment seemed to most of them…if the Brazilians hadn’t gotten things riled up I think most the crowd would have been a little quieter, as if they were little afraid to cheer loudly or something…I could be wrong. Oh yeah, during the match some people taught the Chinese around them “the wave,” and soon the whole venue was doing it. The funny part, though, was seeing on the jumbo screen, “Let’s do the Mexican Wave!” I don’t know even know. The match was pretty good…and in the end Cuba won in four sets. I had to leave a little early to make my next event, badminton, which was on the completely other side of town. After two hours on two busses I finally got to Beijing University of Technology Stadium. The crowd here wasn’t as big, but the air was just as humid and sticky, so I was thankful to get inside the air-conditioned circular-roofed gymnasium. I’ve seen badminton on TV a couple times, but in person it’s so much cooler.
The stadium had three courts, and there were all always three matches (best 2 out of 3 sets, first to 21) going on at once, so you could never get bored. Just looking into the rafters and seeing all the flags hanging made me realize that this really was the Olympics. Before this coming to this event, I had always assumed that badminton players were the skinny guys who couldn’t do anything else, but the first men’s match that I saw blew this notion out of the water. Villes Lang, from Finland, and Some-Guy-With-A-Long-Name, from Ukraine, both had to easily be 6’3”, 215 pounds. The way they jumped up and just smashed the birdie at each other was really fun to watch, and then they’d break up the rallies with a little drop shots. The crowd here was a little more refined then at most sporting events I’ve been to in my life, but towards the end of the session a match featured a player from Hong Kong, and suddenly it was a whole new gym. Huge chants of “Zhong-Guo, Jia-You!” echoed through the arena with every point the Hong Kong girl won. My friend Bernice speaks Cantonese and said the little Chinese girl sitting behind us was yelling “Finish/kill her!” during the Hong Kong match…the Olympics apparently affects everyone a little differently. Overall, I think we probably saw fifteen different singles matches, men and women, over a span of three and a half hours. One bus and two subways later we got back to BNU, where I now need to get some sleep.I realize this is an incredibly long post, so thanks for taking the time to read it all. I’m gonna end it here; next time I’ll write about the end of my summer program and the preparations I took to get ready for my month long trip around China.
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