The Olympics Have Passed (Thank Goodness!) My Parting Thoughts

Although the Olympics have passed, the Para-Olympics are now in progress. As a result the crowds have thinned a bit, but not completely. Yesterday I asked one of my coworkers, a true Beijinger, if it was wrong of me to ask: "When are all of these foreigners going to leave so we can get back to normal?" He merely laughed and said"Yes!" Seriously though it has been a pain. Traffic has been redirected, taxi's are easy to come by, the subway is even more crowded, I'm required to carry all of my official paperwork wit me where ever I go, and the prices of everything including groceries has almost doubled (my per Diem however has stayed the same)!

We were able to witness the motorcade of one of the visiting countries officials which demonstrates the disruption that has been taking place. Keep in mind that 204 countries were represented, so that's quite a few disruptions that take place over the course of a few weeks:






Notice the stopped traffic



























The lead car passes































The payload























Hey wait a minute, how did this guy get in there?

























Traffic resumes! It really only took about 2 minutes for the whole thing to pass, but repeat that about 200 times a day across the city and see what it does for your daily commute!














Also here's the real reason to watch Sand Volleyball:

Honestly I feel very fortunate and also very lucky to have been living in the host city during the Olympic Games! It was a unique opportunity to observe and meet people from all over the world, and to experience the ultimate in sports competition!

Olympic Fever!

IIII'mm baaack!

After a brief struggle with my Internet connection I'm finally able to get back on!
Ok, ok so I also took some time off to travel to Malaysia and visit with Lightnin and SPC Dude while they were here, but I'm back none the less!
























This past couple of weeks I've been lucky enough to view several of the Olympic venues! Lightnin, SPC Dude, and I were able to catch the Beach Volleyball competition and see the China Women's team kick some butt against Switzerland.





















































What's wrong with this picture?

Then the following day Dude and I scored some free tickets to boxing, unfortunately we had to say good bye to Lightnin as she headed back to the US so she wasn't able to join us. We were troopers though and managed to enjoy the boxing anyway. ;-)








The next night SPC Dude and I were able to see the China women win against Greece with my friend from the Netherlands (Mischa), but this was a much closer match up and very exciting. The heavens let loose on us right at the end of that match and we were soaked to the bone. It didn't drown our spirits though as we headed for the beer tent and sat it out. There we met some local college students who were able to come to the games and we had some great conversation and made some new friends! "One World One Dream" was definitely the spirit we had!



Sunday night I was able to attend the Athletics (Track and Field) venue at the "Birds Nest". This was awesome because as many of you know I was a runner in high school and college. I ran the 5k, 10k, and the 3,000m steeple chase, among other things. I was able to witness a new world record in the women's 3,000m steeple chase and an Olympics record in the men's 10k. I think the only thing that could have been better is if it had been me that had set a record, but as my dad told me it was probably a lot more fun being at the Olympics as a spectator! These are truly time I will never forget!















Well, that's about all I've got at this time. it's getting late and I have to work again tomorrow.
I'll try to get some more stuff out there in the next few days!

Picking Up The Slack (Again)

It won't be a long post, but just wanted to share a photo or two with you. We were able to attend the 2008 Olympics in Beijing! Watching the opening ceremonies while in Beijing is a once in a lifetime opportunity. When the fireworks were going off we would step out on to the balcony and hear them and see the reflections off of tall building, totally awesome! Thunder, Spc Dude and I went to see sand vollyball the first day. Then they were able to go again on Sunday for a boxing event and again sand volleyball. Thunder still has two venues to take in and I know he is stoked about it! Especially the track and field event having run track in high school and college. So I'll see if I can get a picture posted, enjoy! Hopefully Thunder will post more after Spc Dude leaves and he has some down time!

Lightnin