Sunday we finally headed to the Olympic villiage in search of Gold. After the driver decided to take us on a circle of Beijing before we got him headed to the right place. Dropped off in front of the birds nest we anxiosly made our way inside.
Security was tight and it was early so we walked around taking it all in. Much to our pleasure guess what we found at the snack booths? Beer! Deciding now that Laura and I going for gold our selves in the 4X10 Beer Meadly Relay we had to get started. We had a good showing in the forbidden city where shortly after noon we had a beer in the sacred garden. The next day we followed up a strong performance on the great wall with beers on the wall, 9:00 am. This was a hair of the dog effort so extra points. Today we broke the seal with a 8:45 AM performance in the middle of the village. For some reason there is no shame in this since it is late evening in the states and the Chinese don't judge. We will ramp up our efforts since in the Olympic village beers are 5 yuan (eighty five cents). Walked the village and went into "The Cube" early to watch swimming warm ups. We hope to complete our beerlympics with a strong final showing in the events tomorrow.
Saw Phelps and the others in the practice pool. Dara was actually getting stretched out in the main hall so I snuck in behind her for a picture. If you don't know who she is she is the 4 time Olympian who took Silver in a single event and helped the women take gold in the relay all at age 41!
Then came the history breaking moment. 4x100 mens medley relay. You saw it on tv so I won't elaborate but Team USA with Phelps took the gold handing Phelps his 8th and final Gold in Beijing!
After the race I caught a swim cap from Jensen (5th in the 1500 free) and met Bella Karoli.
A few hours to kill before the gymnastics so we walked the village. Unlike the plethora of cheap beer we were facing having little to eat. The snack booths had only snack like items including a box of rice and meat that self heated (like those Marine meals). Normally we'd be all over the local food but not this time. Not wanting to leave the village we took the only other option that I am ashamed of. For the second time in my traveling history I was forced to go to McDonald's over seas. Somehow having a beer with your BigMac makes it a little better but I'm not proud of myself.
Into the Arena for Gymnastics. We walked the joint looking for Steve Butcher who is the FIG US president and Olympic judge. Steve and I met in college and havn't really stayed in touch but I was hoping he'd remember me. We later found out that he had already left Beijing to return home due to the poor health of his mother.
The meet was good and after explaining the scoring to Laura we still couldn't help some of the people were gypped on scoring. It made me want to get a pommel horse and start doing that again to stay in shape but alas.....I have no where to put it and I'm extremely lazy now.
We are off to an early start tomorrow to go out to the Women's Triathlon event in the morning. More tomorrow.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Laura who, the wall and drinking again and foot massages
I forgot to tell you yesterday. Apparently Laura doesn't exist. I know this is modern China but if you don't have a twig and two berry you don't really exist here. The wait staff in almost every establishment doesn't really respond to you unless you are the "man of the house". Laura can't get served to save her life. She would signal to them to no end but when I simply raise my eye browse I get 3 people to help me. They would even fill my beer up with hers while leaving her glass half empty. If only I could get this tradition to follow me back to the states we could curb ugly fat pathetic male impotence immediately in the US. Granted Prozac sales would plummet but I'm willing to take that risk as long as I can short Pfizer first.
6:30 came like your mother waking you up for Sunday School. This was actually a pinnacle of the trip. We entered our private car that Laura set up for us (Thanks Laura and ViaSystems!) and headed to the Great Wall of China! Peter our over zealous tourguide who decided to share with along the way that he was basically what is wrong with Americanized sensibility in China. He is an overweight Chinaman (they do exist) who likes to just play video games all day, lives with his girlfriend and can't be bothered to actually do anything. She is a surgeon's assistant, makes more money than he does, is not attractive and has little ambition in life. In a country where the women outnumber the men in a pretty bad ratio I weep for the future of this country.
Back to the Wall. We get there and I have only really one word........un-believable! The advice we got from the people in the hotel the day before paid off. Getting there early resulted in the wall to our selves. Sun was up, sky was clear, weather was cool and no huddled masses of camera hoarding ass monkey's to get in your way. Peter took us up the stairs (he was winded getting to the tram) the left us for a 45 min to explore the way. Can't say enough. This was fantastic, I will post pictures soon. I overheard one tour guide say that he had NEVER in his life been able to see Beijing from the wall. So clear, so beautiful, so green so........thirsty. So you have to commemorate a moment like the only way we know how, beer. So we bought a can of beer to cheers our concerning of the Mongols as if we had laid the bricks our selves. This was actually a two prong accomplishment. One was to celebrate our awesomeness and the other was to get a hair of the dog to put our hangover at bay. We ditched Peter to walk down the wall and take the toboggan down instead of the tram. Returned to the hotel and took a nap. Sorry the chink (pun intended) in the armor is showing.
This is now Laura entering...After Dave finally woke up from a 3 hour nap, yes 3 hours, LOSER, we met up again and went shopping. His favorite past-time, we went to the Silk/Pearl market, fake knock off shit of Beijing. I could not go to Beijing without doing some of my famous China shopping, looking for knock off jeans, clothing, and of course purses! Well, Dave, being a man, put a little damper in my shopping. He thought all the items were crap and we just kept walking. I trying to get him in the shopping mood talked him into his first ever foot massage. There were all these little booths that did foot massages and we finally stopped, I wanted the 55 minute, he asked if I really expected him to sit there for that long, I told him he would regret it and we agreed on a 30 minute foot massage. Let's put it this way--Amie, get ready Dave wants one every day now and paid for my massage for making him stop. He is still talking about how good his feet feel--that little shit I should have made him buy a purse and he would have still been talking about the bargain, but at least we stopped for foot massage. Then to a great Western Random pub we found after our feet felt so good and smooth, we stopped for a number of beers, salad, and pizza (at least it had duck on it--but could not do Beijing duck one more night). Then to bed early, the alarm went off at 6:30am again today to finally watch some sporting events!!
Games are tomorrow....
6:30 came like your mother waking you up for Sunday School. This was actually a pinnacle of the trip. We entered our private car that Laura set up for us (Thanks Laura and ViaSystems!) and headed to the Great Wall of China! Peter our over zealous tourguide who decided to share with along the way that he was basically what is wrong with Americanized sensibility in China. He is an overweight Chinaman (they do exist) who likes to just play video games all day, lives with his girlfriend and can't be bothered to actually do anything. She is a surgeon's assistant, makes more money than he does, is not attractive and has little ambition in life. In a country where the women outnumber the men in a pretty bad ratio I weep for the future of this country.
Back to the Wall. We get there and I have only really one word........un-believable! The advice we got from the people in the hotel the day before paid off. Getting there early resulted in the wall to our selves. Sun was up, sky was clear, weather was cool and no huddled masses of camera hoarding ass monkey's to get in your way. Peter took us up the stairs (he was winded getting to the tram) the left us for a 45 min to explore the way. Can't say enough. This was fantastic, I will post pictures soon. I overheard one tour guide say that he had NEVER in his life been able to see Beijing from the wall. So clear, so beautiful, so green so........thirsty. So you have to commemorate a moment like the only way we know how, beer. So we bought a can of beer to cheers our concerning of the Mongols as if we had laid the bricks our selves. This was actually a two prong accomplishment. One was to celebrate our awesomeness and the other was to get a hair of the dog to put our hangover at bay. We ditched Peter to walk down the wall and take the toboggan down instead of the tram. Returned to the hotel and took a nap. Sorry the chink (pun intended) in the armor is showing.
This is now Laura entering...After Dave finally woke up from a 3 hour nap, yes 3 hours, LOSER, we met up again and went shopping. His favorite past-time, we went to the Silk/Pearl market, fake knock off shit of Beijing. I could not go to Beijing without doing some of my famous China shopping, looking for knock off jeans, clothing, and of course purses! Well, Dave, being a man, put a little damper in my shopping. He thought all the items were crap and we just kept walking. I trying to get him in the shopping mood talked him into his first ever foot massage. There were all these little booths that did foot massages and we finally stopped, I wanted the 55 minute, he asked if I really expected him to sit there for that long, I told him he would regret it and we agreed on a 30 minute foot massage. Let's put it this way--Amie, get ready Dave wants one every day now and paid for my massage for making him stop. He is still talking about how good his feet feel--that little shit I should have made him buy a purse and he would have still been talking about the bargain, but at least we stopped for foot massage. Then to a great Western Random pub we found after our feet felt so good and smooth, we stopped for a number of beers, salad, and pizza (at least it had duck on it--but could not do Beijing duck one more night). Then to bed early, the alarm went off at 6:30am again today to finally watch some sporting events!!
Games are tomorrow....
Tiananmen, Porn and Cab Rides
Laura and I have been on a three day drinking and Olympic binge. I don't even know where to start.
First off we have had many new challenges with the cab drivers. If Laura didn't have her cell phone hot dialed to the hotel to have them talk drivers in from wherever we are we'd still be picking rice in a field somewhere. One driver decided to get us across the street from the hotel after going 12 miles an hour on the freeway all the way here. When the time came for him to flip a bitch and get us home he balked and simply meandered down the street about four blocks before we just got out and walked back. If and only if (not saying we did this) but the walk was just long enough to have a smoke along the base of the elevated train back to the hotel. The driver this morning for example took us around a 20 min tour of the city in a circle before actually asking us where we were going (we made the dumb ass assumption that he knew where we were going). Ok enough about the cabs.
We did head down into the city on Friday, after meeting Erik Vendt's parents in the lobby after I had too many cups of coffee with corresponding bathroom visits we headed out to the Forbidden City. City was beautiful but after walking through 3 gates and 17 tea rooms we were ready for some refreshment. Laura and I decided to have a beer in the inter garden. BTW remind me to re-watch the Last Emperor when I get home. Beers in random places will become a theme so watch out.
Tienanmen Square was nice. Not actually as large as I thought. I was expecting check point Charlie kind of crap since that seems to be the center place of political dissent in this country but instead all we found was a bull shit "security screening" with light metal detectors and a sign reading to the effect that I couldn't protest or bring in weapons and pornography. I immediately had to surrend my Penthouse since I was hoping to read the articles in the open pollution of the square in all it's glory.
We ended up leaving there to go pick up our massively overpriced tickets that we bought from our ticket broker and drank the day away in the hotel. Not all was lost as we of course got hungry and went to a local eating establishment and had duck crepes, soup, dumplings and of course, more beer.
Since we only talked a big game the first night we felt compelled to drink our limit so we came back to the hotel and drank my, Laura's and some "imaginary friend's" share and past out drunk (which should also explain the lack of blog updates this day). Which reminds me. While we were "socializing" with ourselves we watched 3 hours of the most impressive sport in the Olympic family......equestrian. You've never seen such pageantry, love for sport and complete and total rich douche bags with nothing better to do and at least 8 generations of inbreeding. If I have to watch another fag in a top hat riding around on a beautiful horse he's obviously violated by holding a carrot in his butt cheeks trying to get this horse to jump, turn or mount then I might get sick. So in such a circumstance what can you possibly do? Gamble. So we started betting on..........I don't know, there isn't win, place and show so I through out the fact that the next horse (yes I said horse since they are the only thing in this event that actually do anything) would come in 28th place. Nailed it! In fact Clyde did in fact come in 28th, no medal for him but hell, I should be in Vegas right now. Things only progressed down hill from here.
I have to be up in 7 hours to go to the wall........
First off we have had many new challenges with the cab drivers. If Laura didn't have her cell phone hot dialed to the hotel to have them talk drivers in from wherever we are we'd still be picking rice in a field somewhere. One driver decided to get us across the street from the hotel after going 12 miles an hour on the freeway all the way here. When the time came for him to flip a bitch and get us home he balked and simply meandered down the street about four blocks before we just got out and walked back. If and only if (not saying we did this) but the walk was just long enough to have a smoke along the base of the elevated train back to the hotel. The driver this morning for example took us around a 20 min tour of the city in a circle before actually asking us where we were going (we made the dumb ass assumption that he knew where we were going). Ok enough about the cabs.
We did head down into the city on Friday, after meeting Erik Vendt's parents in the lobby after I had too many cups of coffee with corresponding bathroom visits we headed out to the Forbidden City. City was beautiful but after walking through 3 gates and 17 tea rooms we were ready for some refreshment. Laura and I decided to have a beer in the inter garden. BTW remind me to re-watch the Last Emperor when I get home. Beers in random places will become a theme so watch out.
Tienanmen Square was nice. Not actually as large as I thought. I was expecting check point Charlie kind of crap since that seems to be the center place of political dissent in this country but instead all we found was a bull shit "security screening" with light metal detectors and a sign reading to the effect that I couldn't protest or bring in weapons and pornography. I immediately had to surrend my Penthouse since I was hoping to read the articles in the open pollution of the square in all it's glory.
We ended up leaving there to go pick up our massively overpriced tickets that we bought from our ticket broker and drank the day away in the hotel. Not all was lost as we of course got hungry and went to a local eating establishment and had duck crepes, soup, dumplings and of course, more beer.
Since we only talked a big game the first night we felt compelled to drink our limit so we came back to the hotel and drank my, Laura's and some "imaginary friend's" share and past out drunk (which should also explain the lack of blog updates this day). Which reminds me. While we were "socializing" with ourselves we watched 3 hours of the most impressive sport in the Olympic family......equestrian. You've never seen such pageantry, love for sport and complete and total rich douche bags with nothing better to do and at least 8 generations of inbreeding. If I have to watch another fag in a top hat riding around on a beautiful horse he's obviously violated by holding a carrot in his butt cheeks trying to get this horse to jump, turn or mount then I might get sick. So in such a circumstance what can you possibly do? Gamble. So we started betting on..........I don't know, there isn't win, place and show so I through out the fact that the next horse (yes I said horse since they are the only thing in this event that actually do anything) would come in 28th place. Nailed it! In fact Clyde did in fact come in 28th, no medal for him but hell, I should be in Vegas right now. Things only progressed down hill from here.
I have to be up in 7 hours to go to the wall........
Friday, August 15, 2008
Talked a big game.
I met Laura in the lobby last night about 7. Of course we immediately went to the bar and had beers. Decided that we better head out to dinner soon since we were going for blood and it would be a long night of drinking. We asked "James" the most charismatic and best English speaking bell boy in the hotel where we should go. After confirming us a reservation and writing down the directions off we went. We got to the place and it of course was ornate and tacky all at the same time. After proceeding down the grand plastic stair case past the section of the restaurant that looks more like a pet store we arrived at our table sided with a jade green couch on both sides. Duck, Chicken, Dumplings, Asparagus, noodles and beer oh my.. Service of course was smotheringly good and the "Forman" of the restaurant came by to ensure we were doing fine. She insisted on escorting me to the bathroom each time (had to go twice with my little girl bladder and 5 beers). There is something really funny about this level of service when getting a new beer is a national emergency requiring her to literally run to get it in high heels that don't fit right and a skirt. She then walked us all the way out to the street to say good night.
Back to the hotel a beer or two and right to bed. We talked up a first big night but the food bloat, beers and jet lag took us down before midnight.
This morning we woke up to the best weather yet. There is a sun, I can see it! I can also now see well over a mile (as opposed to across the street the first day). I was up early again this morning had a chat with my boss back home who didn't know I was in China (I love an empowering hands off boss!) and all is well on the work front.
Finally got through to the ticket broker for our Gymnastics tickets so we are off in a bit to have breakfast, pick up the tickets and head to the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and Mao's Mausoleum.
We are also trying to track down Becky Lavell today to see if we can hang out.
Dave
Back to the hotel a beer or two and right to bed. We talked up a first big night but the food bloat, beers and jet lag took us down before midnight.
This morning we woke up to the best weather yet. There is a sun, I can see it! I can also now see well over a mile (as opposed to across the street the first day). I was up early again this morning had a chat with my boss back home who didn't know I was in China (I love an empowering hands off boss!) and all is well on the work front.
Finally got through to the ticket broker for our Gymnastics tickets so we are off in a bit to have breakfast, pick up the tickets and head to the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and Mao's Mausoleum.
We are also trying to track down Becky Lavell today to see if we can hang out.
Dave
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Beijing - Not your father's China
My only frame of reference is Shanghai from eight years ago so this could be a 8 years later thing, an Olympic thing or a Beijing thing but China has exploded. Everything is under construction, the bikes have given way to cars, the buildings are big and bright and have even taken on a Vegas feel in some areas (one building had a Jumbotron four stories high and as wide as the building on each side, playing the live Olympics of course). I really only got to drive through town today on my way to work but.....I did go past the Olympic village, saw the "birds nest" stadium and the outdoor venue (sand volleyball was going on inside). Pretty impressive stuff and there was no feel of communism or repression anywhere. I guess it's true what you say, make a fat and happy middle class and most people will chill out.
After a few meetings and trainings in the office today a few of the locals took me out to a crazy lunch. A very nice place specializing in duck. So we get this private room where the duck guy comes with a certified, numbered duck (they gave me the certification, duck number 1,586,212 that they have served since 1845) and he proceeds to chop it up for you into various plates. Duck breast in broth, duck sides for crapes, and of course my favorite, straight fried duck skin (dipped in sugar if you are into that sort of thing). Call me a duck purist but you could hand me a bag of duck skin and I'd eat it like a bag of chips. No I didn't get the duck sweats but needless to say, it was the shit. I'm not sure I need dinner now. Well it is 5:00 AM in California now so I could just be jacked up.
One more day then Laura gets in town. Dinner and drinking will be mandatory at night, hungry or not......This could be a blood bath.
Dave
PS. It was actually fog today, not pollution.
After a few meetings and trainings in the office today a few of the locals took me out to a crazy lunch. A very nice place specializing in duck. So we get this private room where the duck guy comes with a certified, numbered duck (they gave me the certification, duck number 1,586,212 that they have served since 1845) and he proceeds to chop it up for you into various plates. Duck breast in broth, duck sides for crapes, and of course my favorite, straight fried duck skin (dipped in sugar if you are into that sort of thing). Call me a duck purist but you could hand me a bag of duck skin and I'd eat it like a bag of chips. No I didn't get the duck sweats but needless to say, it was the shit. I'm not sure I need dinner now. Well it is 5:00 AM in California now so I could just be jacked up.
One more day then Laura gets in town. Dinner and drinking will be mandatory at night, hungry or not......This could be a blood bath.
Dave
PS. It was actually fog today, not pollution.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Beijing - Summer Olympics
I've been a bad blogger lately. I'm going to try to make an effort this trip. Ok, quick re-cap before I go brain damaged and pass out.
I was able to come to Beijing for work and while I am at it Laura Patton is also in town and was able to not only swing free tickets to the Women's Triathlon but also Track and Field. I of course couldn't stay away from Gymnastics and then we both agreed to go to the swim finals to hopefully watch Phelps win #8 in Beijing.
I came in late tonight so it was already dark but it is either really polluted or just misty tonight. I'm going with polluted.
Jumped in the cab to have him not know where we were going but a few calls later and him backing up on the freeway to take a different route through traffic and I made it to the hotel. BTW everything here so far is brand new. They clearly want the world to see them with their shit in order. Help desks everywhere, floors so clean you could eat off of them and no lines for anything. It is almost creepy how sparse it was here tonight coming in.
I don't think Laura gets into Beijing until Thursday but I'm here working for the next two days to get most of this crap paid for by the company.
Speaking of Laura she sent a note saying the Becky may get bumped up to the show this week after Laura Bennett may have had to pull out? Trying to find details but nothing official yet.
More tomorrow!
Dave
I was able to come to Beijing for work and while I am at it Laura Patton is also in town and was able to not only swing free tickets to the Women's Triathlon but also Track and Field. I of course couldn't stay away from Gymnastics and then we both agreed to go to the swim finals to hopefully watch Phelps win #8 in Beijing.
I came in late tonight so it was already dark but it is either really polluted or just misty tonight. I'm going with polluted.
Jumped in the cab to have him not know where we were going but a few calls later and him backing up on the freeway to take a different route through traffic and I made it to the hotel. BTW everything here so far is brand new. They clearly want the world to see them with their shit in order. Help desks everywhere, floors so clean you could eat off of them and no lines for anything. It is almost creepy how sparse it was here tonight coming in.
I don't think Laura gets into Beijing until Thursday but I'm here working for the next two days to get most of this crap paid for by the company.
Speaking of Laura she sent a note saying the Becky may get bumped up to the show this week after Laura Bennett may have had to pull out? Trying to find details but nothing official yet.
More tomorrow!
Dave
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