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!"

Where at the tickets!??!!

There is something that I do not understand, where are all the tickets forOlympic events!!?? When we watch some games on TV, there are empty seats! When we walk by stadiums and they are half empty it makes us wonder where the tickets are!!?? Everyone wants tickets to events no matter which ones they are, so why can't we get them!?! They are "sold out" but yet some stands have lots of empty seats.

Some of the girls on the trip went off one morning to watch the USA softball match, hoping to buy tickets at the door; however, the ticket booth was boarded up and the volunteers said, "no tickets." As they walked by the stadium and then watched the game at home, there were TONS of empty seats, TONS! So tell us, where are the tickets?! Where are all the people who bought out ALL these tickets? It looks really bad when there are empty seats and there are people who would love to be at these matches! So what's the problem!?! Why are these tickets not made more readily available!!??!!?? It looks bad for the Games and as someone who wants to see these games be a GREAT sucsess it is a concern of mine.

Turned Down!

Today I had to work with just two other flash quote reporters when usually there are about eight of us. I looked up the teams that were training and saw the New Zealand had not been interviewed yet. Our manager was not there and I was kind of scared to ask a coach if I could talk to an athlete on my own, but after a while I finally asked the NZL coach if I could talk to one of the riders. He said yes, that would be fine if he was "in the mood" and he said he would tell him. So I watched as he went to the rider who was sitting down, he told him and they both looked at me. The rider had seen me before because I was the only flash quote reporter there at the time.

I waited around for almost two hours and skipped luch because I really wanted this interview. I had set it up myself, I researched the guy and had come up with some good questions. The team ended their training session and one of the managers (who I had not talked to earlier) walked by and said, "he's coming" so he know who I wanted to talk to. Then the team came by. They were all wearing the same thing and I had only seen my rider on the track from a distance, so I missed him. They all looked so similiar and when he rode by on his bike he was looking the other way and pretty much avoiding me. I mean, yeah I guess I should have called out his name but I was 100% sure it was him. The thing is though, he knew I was waiting and he just got on his bike and road past when many athletes walk by. I was really upset. I mean, I understand if you aren't "in the mood" to interview, just tell me that when I ask so I don't waste time. The fact that the coach said, "if he is in the mood" kind of makes him sound like a diva anyway. It just sucks that I was so excited to be flying on my own and to be proud of myself for putting it together just have it all crash down. That just set the mood for a bad day.

After the bad day at work I went to dinner with two friends from work and it was really fun. We just ate, watched a soccer game and then walked back in the ran. It was fun. I am sad that my time with my Chinese friends is coming to an end! The time that I do have left will be very busy!

I'm going to see Beach Volleyball tomorrow! I am excited!

Blue Army

We have something that lurks around our venue. It’s always there, always watching, always moving. It stands in line at check-in, it greets us with a smile at lunch and waves goodbye when we leave. It’s a little something that we like to call the “Blue Army,” the huge number of Chinese volunteers that work at the Laoshan Bicycle Cluster with us. They have been dubbed the “Blue Army” because of their blue volunteer shirts and because they huddle in masses around the venue.
We first noticed the “Blue Army” on our first day of training. We didn’t, nor did we expect to, see so many Chinese volunteers. They are there to check our bags, check us in, to check our passes, to tell us where we can’t go, to be translators, to help spectators find seats. You name it and they do it.
The Chinese volunteers applied to be volunteers over a year ago. Many of them participated in the “Good Luck Beijing” test events last summer. Being an Olympic volunteer is a big deal and not something they take lightly. They have been preparing for months. They work long days and are confident that when game time comes they will be ready to rock!
At first I looked at the “Blue Army” as a single unit, after a while one smile just faded into the next and I thought of myself on a different level than them. Not in a bad way, just in the sense that they all had experience and more training under their belts. I have come to find though that ever face has a story, every face has a job. Everyday I try to meet some more Chinese volunteers. I know that this is the only opportunity that I have and that our time together is short, but that doesn’t stop me. I have become fast friends with some of the language specialist, all of them university students. I have found that we are not that much different. We are all excited for the Games, we all like music, we like to crack jokes, we all like to learn about each other’s cultures and we all have a common goal, to help host a great Olympic games.
It’s so refreshing to look at every smile in the “Blue Army” and know that it’s not just another smile; rather it’s a symbol of genuine joy and appreciation for being apart of a great event. As cheesy as it may sound, I have to say that the “One World One Dream” Olympic motto rings true in the lives of the Olympic volunteers, whether Chinese or international. We are all ready to help host an awesome Olympic games!

Day Off

Today I had the day off, which I needed, cause I was out late for the Opening Ceremony.

I didn't do much, went to Starbucks and wrote some postcards, went to the mall and had lunch with a friend. After that we went ice skating and then out for coffee.

It's so nice to just sit with someone and talk. Forget about everything else and just listen to what they have to say, especially when they are from another country. It's so refreshing to get a world view on diffrent subjects and just hear what others think. I live for little moments like that. Long conversation, little times spent alone with friends. Not huge parties, graduations, weddings... but little moments that bring people together, that's what I love. I have had a couple of those while here. I have had many conversations here that just make me think. I love learning about how other's lives have been diffrent than mine and in what ways we are united. I love getting to learn about other cultures, it's one of my passions.

On the subway ride home I met a few high school seniors who just graduated from a high school in California. Their friend's dad owns a HUGE business in China and paid for all six of them to come over FOR FREE for a month! They have been lots of places all over China! It was really cool. They are lucky guys.

Work in the morning, should be exciting.

The Day the Games Opened!

Yesterday was 8.8.08 which means it was the Olympic Opening Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Summer Games. It was awesome!

I met some of my Chinese volunteer friends at Tian' Anmen at 8:30 a.m. to kick off our day. The square was closed (as much of Beijing was) so we walked around and they took me to Qian' Men Avenue. It's an old avenue that looks like how it did back in the days of the Emperor but full of shops and stores. It was actually really cool. We then had lunch at a little restaurant and ate Beijing Noodels, which were pretty good.

After our morning hanging out around Tian' Anmen we went to the Temple of Heaven. It was diffrent than I thought it would be, I didn't think the actually land area around it would be so big. The Temple of Heaven was beautiful, along with the park area around it and all the other buildings. We walked around and took lots of pictures for a few hours, then we headed to KFC where we got lunch and rested for a while.

After lunch we headed to watch the opening ceremony at their university in an auditorium. It was really cool to watch with a huge group of Chinese students. They were all so excited and it was such an exciting time. We choose to watch it there becuase we would actually have seats and if we went somewhere in the city to watch it on a big screen it would have been SO crowded. There were so many people you have NO idea. Thousands and thousands plus some! So I was happy with my little community of Chinese students and my seat, haha. I am so excited for Beijing and China to host these games and to showcase their awesome culture and long history.

Also, the ceremony was AMAZING! It was so cool! I have no idea how they did all that stuff! When it was over we could hear all the fireworks when we were walking outside. It took us forever to find a taxi to the subway station! We walked forever but finally found one after 45 minutes. Once we got to the train station though it was smooth sailing, not busy or anything which was a suprise. 8.8.08. WAS A GREAT DAY!!!!!

Torch Holder!

This morning on the subway I noticed that a good amount of people were on the train holding little Chinese flags and some had armbands with Chinese writing on them. I didn't think too much of it, I just figured since it's close to game time people must be getting pumped up. When we got off at our station I noticed people selling Chinese flags, stickers, arm bands and things and I figured it was for the same reason. Upon walking to our venue, I noticed a lot of people were lined up along the side of the road on the road perpendicular to us. I just said, "look at all those people lined up" and kept walking. Later, I found out that it was because the Torch Relay went really close to us!!! I heard it was in the Forbidden City earlier but I had NO idea until after, and then to find out that we missed it so close to us I was a little upset! It was just across the street and we didn't know.

Later, as I was standing in the middle of the velodrome, I noticed a torch relay runner had come out on the floor and was talking pictures. I saw others take pictures with the torch so I went over and asked my Chinese friends to ask if I could get one, and the runner said YES! So I got to hold an Olympic Torch, one that actually carried the Olympic Flame!! It was SO COOL!

Also, I lot of teams came in today, although, we only got two interviews. Team USA was there, NED, BEL, GER, Czech, COL, CHN, GBR, Ireland and maybe a few others. A lot of the famous riders that we have been reading and researching were there training and it was SO COOL! Many of them don't want to talk with us yet, they are just 'in the zone' or too far out from Game time to have much to say, so we only got two interviews. Team USA would only give us one, and one tomorrow maybe!

If you didn't hear, the American Cycling team showed up in Beijing wearing black masks to protect themselves from the smog. They later apologized but I think the damaged was done; they got a lot of press because of it.

I also had a great day just hanging out with some Chinese volunteers. I kind of stray away from the Purdue group because I like meeting the Chinese student volunteers and getting to know them. I have made friends with some of the "language specialist" one who speaks German and one who speaks Malay (but they both speak English too). They are really cool and really fun. I had a great day and I hope there are more to come, just TWO DAYS 'til the start!

Training Day?

Today marked the beginning of the official training for the athletes. Each country had a two hour time block where they could come in and train, it was supposed to be super exciting, we were supposed to interview some and maybe start to write some stories... but hardly anyone came! We are still 10 days away or so from the start of cycling so some of the cyclists won't be coming in until just a few days before. Also, some of the assigned times where kind of early so they may not have wanted to come. I think the American team just came today and the German team won't even be here until tomorrow.

There were some riders there though! The Chinese team was there, a Cuban rider, the lone rider from Chile, a man from Uruguay and the team from Columbia. The Columbian team actually did some cool training. They went around really fast and were really close to each other's wheels (which is my definition of "cool training", haha). It was neat to see some more riders out there. I hope the next few days bring some more.

We were hanging out in the middle of the Velodrome track in the broadcasting mixed zone and the agencies and companies' names are marked on the ground in tape. The tape says, "Channel Seven" (Australia) "CCTV" (China) "BBC" (Great Britain) and a couple of other news organizations. It's neat to be in the middle of where all the action is going to be in just a week or so!

After work we went to Pizza Hut and then to get coffee (we wanted American food tonight) and we actually ran into some Team USA athletes at Starbucks! They are rowers, one girl and two guys. They were really nice and they talked to us for a while. One is from Ohio, which was pretty cool. It's nice to meet athletes that don't have an ego because they aren't super famous, but they are still VERY talented. This was the third set of athletes he have met, others were rowers from Ireland and swimmers from Croatia. I love seeing all the international people (coaches, athletes, techies, journalists, London Organizing Committee people), it's really awesome.

Tomorrow is training for the cyclists again, hope it's more exciting than today! Although, today was cool.

Run Through

Today we had another run through of an event, this time it was BMX. It's an outside event so it was humid and we were all sweating! They had to "delay the event do to rain" (it wasn't really raining though) so they could practice what would happen if it really did rain. They delayed it for an HOUR so they could practice covering up the track and everything with tarp. So we kind of just hung around in the heat until it stopped "raining" and then went on with the test event, which was getting quotes in the mixed zones.

Basically what happens is that Chinese volunteers pretend to be athletes and then we interview them with a translator. BMX is so far from the ONS office that we have to call the quotes in, so we practiced doing that as well. We also had two press conference practices. They translate everything from Chinese to English and in one there was a German translation as well. I actually asked a question in German which was pretty cool.

Some Chinese students study German as well as English, or just focus on one more than the other. I met a Chinese volunteer today who spoke German, it's so interesting that he is from China and I am from the States but the only way we can speak is in German! I think that's so funny.

Tomorrow marks the start of official training! So it is going to be VERY exciting and I can't wait to see all the athletes! I am a little nervous about talking to them though. I will keep you posted on how it goes!

My Asian Hair Cut, Oops.

Many hair cuts here in Beijing are really cool, stylish and very diffrent from the US. On the subway a lot of the younger guys have really cool haircuts that are awesome and edgy. There are a good amount of bangs, sticking up hair, and long hair; I would say "edgy" is the world that best discribes it. I have joined this Asian trend, but not really on purpose.

I went to get my haircut but what I wanted kind of got lost in translation between my friend and the hair stylist. I wanted it shorter on the sides, a little taken off the top but still with some bangs. Well, it's basically turned into a really wide mohawk! He didn't take as much off the top as I wanted and the sides are a little short, but here's the thing, the back is still kind of long. When I told my friend to tell him I wanted it "shorter on the sides" I kinda assumed he would know the back too.

Where I went though is famous for really stylish creative hair cuts, and I guess to get a simple one you have to keep telling them "simple" but in Chinese... this I learned after I was done.

So my haircut is very new, very diffrent and otherwise I would have never tried it so for now I am okay with it, it might change sometime though, I'm not sure when. It seems it would work in any country but the US. Haha. Some people seem to like it and others say that I am not Asian so I can't pull it off. Overall though, there has been good feed back.

Practice Run

Today we had to do a practice run of an 'average' day of competition at our venue. We went to work at 9:30 and did a run through of a mixed zone complete with music palying, people annoucing, and we had people pretend to be athletes. We then typed up our quotes and had a press confrence run through. We were done by 10:15. So we traveled an hour to do 45 minutes of work, oh well. It was cool though because more teams were training! the Czech Republic team and the and a Cuban rider. Some of those riders have legs the size of tree trucks! They are so big!

After that I went to a mall with a classmate and then to a book store. I came back and took a nap and went to dinner with my friend LI at a Taiwanese place here on campus. Andrea's birthday is on Tuesday so tonight many of us are going out. Today was a pretty chill day, not a whole lot happened. More later!