Reflection Has Set In

Now that I am home safe and sound, I have had a chance to look back on this awesome experience and see what I've learned.

Going into this trip I really didn't know what all to expect. Sure I know it would be great and that I would see and do many new things, but I wasn't sure what those 'things' would be.

I never expected to find good friends who were native Chinese. I never expected to learn so much about myself and my background as I compare it to the past of others. I never expected to feel inspired to stidy Chinese, which I am now doing. I never expected to mean so much to someone, someone who I befriended. I never exspected that saying "hi" to a little Chinese boy or Chinese girl would bring such a smile to their face. I never exspected that giving a little guy my FuWa pin on the subway would make him so thankful. I never exspected China to feel like a home away from home.

When going on a trip or adventure, you never know what you may encounter or what lessons you will learn. Go in with an open heart and an open mind, but most importantly with open eyes. The things you will see very well may change your life, and that's something that you can expect.

BMX

Today marked the finals of the BMX race. As you may know, BMX made it's Olympic debut this year. I am not gonna lie, at first I was skeptical but after being here I definitly think it's worth having in the games (I mean really, compared with events like Speed Walking and Shooting, it definitly fits in better). There are some things that I think are Olympic events, and some that are sports, and I think BMX is for sure a sport!

American riders won three out of six medals in BMX which was awesome. At one point in the mixed zone I had all three of those medalists in front of me, they were all talking with diffrent journos and it was hard to keep focus, but we got our quotes. BMX was probably may favorite part so far. I loved being so close to the action and basically rubbing shoulders with these great athletes. There were so many crashes it was crazy! BMX is an awesome sport and I think after working Cycling at the Olympics I will keep up on the sport and continue to follow it! One [long] day of work left! Mountain bike!

The Odd Couple[s?]

I am not sure if I have made note of this before, but I have noticed something different about couples here: They wear matching shirts. I know, you would think they are twins who's parents think it's cute to make them wear the same thing. They wear matching graphic T's, matching polos, matching designer duds. I'm pretty sure that I have never seen that in the States before. Not all couples do it of course, but it totally happens.

The best shirts are the ones that say "Falling in love with my girlfriend -->" and "<-- Falling in love with my boyfriend." Yes, the shirts really do have arrows on them. The couple will walk hand-in-hand and publicy announce this love that is bonding between them, it's the strangest thing and I have seen it more than once.

On another note, companies and stores send text messages to let people know about sales and upcoming events. So everyday, about six times a day, I get a notice on my phone that says, "Unable to receive message" and it is really annoying. Also, many Chinese download books to their cellphones, use their phones to take pictures as well as play games. It seems overall Chinese people use their phones for more of a variety of things than Americans do.

Work is Working!!!

In our office we have a board were we post articles that have ONS quotes in them. Two of the articles have my quotes! Quotes that I have gathered and put in the system! It is so cool to see the work that we all do put into articles! To think that people thought the quotes were good enought to spice up their story, it's really neat to see that! People all around have now read my quotes, haha, I just think it's cool.

Track Cycling is now over, the GB team basically dominated, they took most of the gold medals. They are such a power house team! Some other athletes who we thought would do well did not, which was rather sad. Personally, I wanted Team Malaysia to do really well. They were kind of underdogs but they were really nice guys, very young too! So I think they will be back in future Games, which I am looking forward to. A man from Spain won a Gold (and Silver) and the Madison team from Argentina won Gold! They were so overwhelmed, it was really emotional and awesome!

Being at the Olympics makes me miss swimming a lot, I really did enjoy competing. So I think that I might do triathlon or be more into swim club this semester! Just for the fun of it!

Home in ONE WEEK! I am excited, it will still be bitter sweet though.

Just Another Day

Today was just another day, not too much happened. We worked at 3 o'clock and got some flash quotes of course. I saw the team from Great Britain break the world record in the Men's Team Sprint for track cycling. Now I have seen two world records broken right before my eyes two nights in a row! Great Britain is really a powerhouse track cycling team! They are doing so well! It is amazing! I got some qoutes today from the gold medalist in the Women's Individual Pursuit, so that was cool.

Work isn't too stressful, I am sometimes trying so hard to hear what the athlete is saying that I don't pay attention to the other races, which is fine I guess. After work I met a friend and we went out for dinner. We went to this little place in a hutong and the chicken wings where THE BEST I have ever had! So good!!! After that we just took the lang way home and chatted. I love talking with people who aren't from the US because they give such a different insight on the world! It's so nice just to talking with my friends here and think of things in a new light (it happens often).

I come back to the States in about nine days, and I am pretty ready to do so. I am not home sick really, just ready to be back. I will really miss my friends here but there are somethings that I will not miss at all. Overall though so far this as been an AMAZING experience and I wouldn't change it for the world!

A Night to Remember!

We started competition at our Venue Yesterday! We had one medal event and it was really cool to get things started! Having all the camera's there and journalists there was crazy, yet it was so cool! We had some problems with being able to be in the mixed zone (the hire ONS to be there and then tell us that we can't be) so some of our managers were REALLY upset. Over all though, it was a good day and a nice introduction to everything. I got some quotes and felt good with myself, haha.

Today was about the same, one of the leading men from the Netherlands who is a cycling SUPER STAR, Theo Bos, was in a crash today! The cyclist in front of him hit someone's wheel, he went down and then BOS rode right into him. They restarted the race but BOS couldn't ride and I bet he was MAD! He has more races to come though.

The real story of the day though (at least for me) came from after work! We were supposed to get off at 7:30 to head over to the Bird's Nest because we had tickets to Athletics, but we got off at 9:40!! It was out of our control, things just ran late and we need to get some quotes. At first I wasn't going to try to go, but then.... I did! I am SO HAPPY I DID! We got a taxi ride there, which took about 40 minutes. We were at the wrong entraence so we ran to the correct one then ran up to our seats. It is actually a very long story, but the end result was that we made the LAST RACE and saw someone break the world record in the Mens 100-meter sprint, I think. It was soooo cool to be there for that. I could wine about being late and how we missed almost everything, but I got to go inside the Bird's Nest, see THE Olympic Flame, Water Cube and a world track record be broken. I am SO glad that we went!

Being at the Olympics is so cool because of all the different people you see from all kinds of countries! "One World One Dream" is played out to real life so much! Random people from different countries take pictures with us. They are like, "We don't know you but it's okay!" It's all about just enjoying this world event together and meeting the people around you! I really think that there is no event that brings the world together like the Olympics and it is so cool to witness it and be apart of it! "How many worlds?" "ONE WORLD!" "How many dreams?" "One Dream!"

Gemenr, Gemenr, you are my Gemenr!

So I have made a few 'gemenrs' since being here in China. In Chinese "gemenr" means "good friend." Some of my gemenrs are Li, Sunshine and Ric, all volunteers who I work with. I love that I have made friends with some Chinese students, but above that I love that I have made friends with GREAT GUYS!

We often just joke around while at work, get coffee and talk, or go out to dinner and just enjoy eachothers company, with bowling and karaoke (KTV as it is know in China) in there one time each! We talk about this and that, and share our life stories. We are all part of the 'Blue Army' as you may recall. We have become fast friends because 1) we have to, our time is short and 2) we have like personalities and enjoy eachother!

I am happy to call these fine young men my "gemenrs," they treat me well and show me the Beijing life. I am happy to share this experience with them all and I hope won't be the last. As we like to say, "Gemenrs 4 life!"