History

I just realized that some of you reading this may not know why/how I'm here at the Olympics. Here's a little history...

Last fall I heard of the opportunity to volunteer at the Games through the journalism school at Mizzou. I went to the informational meetings and cleared that it was okay to do both Australia and Beijing. Then we had the application process with letters of recommendation, forms, and an interview. After making it through that round we (about 60 of us) had to attend weekly sessions on culture, the Olympics, and reporting style. I was only able to make three meetings before going to Australia, but they sent all the ppts to me by email. The rest of the group had rigorous training, including practice debates and writing exams (all of which I was exempt from because of Australia, hehehe).

While I'm here I am officially a BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) volunteer and I also have to write weekly summaries for a Chinese Culture credit. The picture is of my accreditation pass that makes me feel pretty cool, and also lets me ride all the buses and subways for free! I like to flash it to random people sometimes...

Ticket Frenzy

It has always been my dream to actually attend events at the Olympic Games... apparently this is the same exact dream as hundreds of thousands of Chinese people. The moment the announcement came that tickets would be on sale again on July 25th people showed up with their tents, mats, beer, cards, even their dogs to wait in lines. I thought I would surely be able to score tickets if I spent the night at the athletics stadium before it opened at 9am the following morning. Then I heard that there was actually a schedule- basketball and baseball on the 25th, track on the 26th, gymnastics on the 26th, etc. I made plans to secure my spot in line the next night. By the next morning rumors about the pandemonium at the ticket venues were swirling. No one had prepared for the mobs. No guards, no fences, absolutely no organization. Some of my friends who had waited for tickets said metal barricades had been bent, people had been trampled, and no tickets had actually been purchased. People who had waited for days in the heat (mid 90s) and smog (lung cancer waiting to happen) were knocked over and passed by those who had just arrived. Imagine the running of the bulls but with Chinese people. The "schedule" of ticket sales was abandoned and they sold out of pretty much everything within 24 hours.

Needless to say, I decided to try another approach. I began scouring craigslist.com, which resembles eBay, but more like classified ads on the internet (so no bidding, just selling). Of course tickets were much more expensive than face value, but still much cheaper than expected. After lots of emails and close calls I finally have tickets in hand for the night session of track and field on the 19th, including:

Women's 200m Round 2
Men's High Jump Final
Women's 5000m Round 1
Men's 200m Semifinals
Men's 110m Hurdles Round 2
Men's Discus Throw Final
Men's 400m Semifinals
Women's 400m Final
Women's 100m Hurdles Final
Men's 1500m Final

But of course the ticket buying became a fever... I found out that tickets were not yet sold out for softball (not at all popular in China) so I rushed to the venue. Stephanie and I managed to get class A tickets to USA vs. Canada and China vs. Australia in the same session! The kicker- they were only 50 yuan, which is $7 each! All tickets for all events at face value were $110 or less. I honestly expected prices to be between 200-700 dollars for the Olympics. That's the blessing of exchange rates.

I have a few other ticket options pending, including beach volleyball and another track and field. Swimming sold out long before I even got to China.

The smog was terrible today. I have a picture above. You might think it's just foggy, but really it's smoggy. I feel like I'm breathing second hand smoke all day. Journalists were able to enter the country today so I'm interested to see what they have to say...

On a more positive note- my uniform is pretty cool! Oh, and I hijacked one of the scooters at the venue. They're harder to ride than I though! hehe My supervisor, Jessie, is really sweet. Today she taught me how to count and ask a taxi driver 'how much further' in Chinese. We've been preparing for the journalists' arrival by setting up the press workroom and trying to think of all the questions they might ask us so we can be prepared with answers. The test field hockey match proved that we are still a little unorganized...

Tonight Sam, Regan, Lindsay and I found a little hole in the wall dumpling restaurant that restored my faith in Chinese food. The place is famous for their multicolored (dyed) dumplings. Was a little weird eating a purple one, but good nonetheless!

The picture at the bottom from L to R is me, Wendy, and Stephanie.

Summa time

I knew it was only a matter of time before I NEEDED to find a pool. I'm a pool rat for life, what can I say? We had the weekend off so we hit up Google to find a swimming hole in Beijing. After finding one, managing to get the front desk to translate directions, and getting lost in the taxi, we made it there. The Chinese are quite a bit more modest in their swimwear (mostly one pieces or tankinis) and I thought at any moment I would be scolded by one of the moms for an inappropriate bikini... but they didn't. It was a more of a little kids pool so we really didn't swim, but soaking up the rays felt nice. We did this two days in a row...

Also at the pool I was starving and had no choice but to try some mystery meat on a stick. They cooked it in hot oil in front of me and several days later I'm still living, so I guess it was fine. Speaking of strange food, a couple nights ago some friends and I decided to brave the night market. This is a long line (two block long maybe?) of street vendors selling food- everything from fried scorpions (which Regan tried in the pic) to silk worms to starfish on a stick. Usually I'm pretty brave with weird food, but I was already feeling a little sick with a cold so I didn't put my stomach through that rollercoaster. They did have regular food like fruit, dumplings, and fried ice cream, too.

I talk a lot about food don't I? haha Well, we were starving for mexican food last week and found a little place called La Bamba with a great happy hour, good nachos, and a pool table. They played country music while we attempted to play pool (i'm afraid we're terrible) and I almost felt like I was in Texas or Mexico or something. Was a good night.

Oh- and one of the coolest things I've seen on this trip was the Chinese Acrobat show! The ladies could pull their legs over their heads and balance little chandeliers on their feet at the same time. They must have a few less ribs than me... The men jumped through hoops and did crazy stunts- most without safety harnesses or nets! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. When our group came out of the theater we all had our mouthes open, but were speechless!

Yesterday I had my first day of training at the Olympic Green (my field hockey venue). Although I will not be working as a flash quote reporter I've accepted my job as is and am looking at it through a more positive lens. Officially, I will be an assistant in the Press Workroom where all the journalists go to get their quotes and work on stories. I will be there to answer questions and guide them to the mixed zone (where reporters talk to athletes) or the venue. My supervisor is actually from Sydney and has worked a few Olympic Games before this. One of his jobs was in marketing at the Games, so hopefully he'll be a good contact for later! During lunch we were able to go inside the hockey, archery, and tennis venues (which are all close to each other). I actually got to stand on the hockey field and also stand over where Federer and Nadal will play tennis! This was the first time all of this actually seemed real.

Just an off day today. I'm going down to layout in our back yard of the hotel. We like to imagine that we're in Cancun cuz the restaurant has little umbrellas like Mexico would. If you just close your eyes it feels like paradise...

More later.

Correction

I have to make a correction...

Yesterday we had another ONS training session during the morning. Afterward, we were all supposed to meet with our managers to get our accreditation cards (badges that allow us into the venues.) Stephanie (also in field hockey) and I went to the person we thought was our manager, only to find out she wasn't. I will spare the details, but as it turns out, most of us who studied abroad last semester were not given jobs with the Olympic News Service, but instead with Press Operations. This means we will be doing things like crowd control or passing things out... Needless to say we were REALLY upset. We were all unable to take the exam that the Mizzou kids took in March, but were told we'd just be pushed through. We still thought we'd all be doing journalism. Several of us went yesterday to talk to the professors about this, and they are contacting our managers to see what can be done. I know Mizzou wants this to be a substantial experience for us, so hopefully they can figure something out.

SO- since my situation is evolving and still somewhat unclear, I won't begin work until next week. Today was a nice free day, just laid out by the hotel with some of the girls and talked about what else we should see in China. BOCOG set up so much for us that we've pretty much knocked out all the important tourism attractions in Beijing!

I'll keep you updated on what happens with my job...

BOCOG tour

BOCOG stands for Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games... they are who we are volunteering for.

Over the last 3 days we took a parade of tour buses with several schools from the US, Australia, and UK (including U of Iowa!) around Beijing. The first day we toured the water purification plant, where they told us it was acceptable to drink the water (??) and I was interviewed by CCTV. They were mainly yes/no questions and I've never been good under the camera's scrutiny so I'm afraid it wasn't the best interview, but oh well. We then went to this suburban area that they told us the government had built to show us what the future China would look like... I have some suspicions on this part, but probably shouldn't write in this blog. Here we also watched a famous calligraphy teacher paint some characters. I've included a photo of the gorgeous work he did in front of our eyes.

Saturday we went to the Great Wall! This was one of the things I looked forward to most... We went to the Badaling portion, which is the most touristy part, and unfortunately the most crowded. As we were entering the gates the crowds were halted from going in or out for about 30 minutes. There was a lot of confusion until a long brigade of cop cars, black limos, and motorbikes filed through... apparently the President of Mexico was visiting that day as well! Finally, we were let through the gates, but it was a smelly, sweaty herd of hundreds of us and it seemed that one in three of the Chinese had open umbrellas that got caught in my hair or poked me in the eyeball. Quite frustrating. Anyway, we finally made it onto the Great Wall and managed to climb to the top. The crowd aside, it was one of the most magnificient sights I've ever seen. The history seemed to come alive. We were also blessed with one of the rare smog free, blue sky days, which allowed us to see the mountains and the Wall in the distance.

Sunday we visited Summer palace, which served as a summer getaway for the corrupt Empress Dowager Cixi. It has several lavish buildings and the world's longest corridor surrounding a lake. I tried to imagine what it would be like with only the sound of the birds and a handful of people. That night we visited the Ming Tomb, which has a famous walkway with stone carved elephants and other animals. I was a little disappointed that we only saw the tomb and not the walkway...

Our tour guide told us the ancient 5 most important things in life. They have a saying in Chinese about this, but they are- Eating, drinking, peeing, pooping, and sleeping. HAHAHA! I guess it's true, though!

Monday was a rainy free day, which we used once again to scour the flee markets. It's hard to turn down souvenirs when they are so CHEAP!

AND- today we started training. All of the ONS (Olympic New Service) volunteers met in a hotel auditorium for 6 hours of Flash Quote training. We'll be in the mixed zone (where the athletes walk by the reporters on their way to the locker rooms) with the journalists. Our job is to listen and write the quotes word for word and submit them to the INFO2008 computer program that is used to aid all international news agencies big and small (like the Associated Press down to the DM Register.) I am officially doing Field Hockey, a sport I have never even watched, so I have a lot of studying up to do! The training was done by Australian, which made me a little homesick for Sydney! The Aussie students were also sitting behind us.

Tonight a group of us are going to Hard Rock Cafe Beijing for a little American food relief. I'm proud to say I've almost polished my chopstick skills though!

The past few days have been a whirlwind of tourism.
Friday we toured two major media venues in Beijing. The vice president at both places gave us a presentation on media in
China and how their businesses worked. I was surprised to find that many of them are pushing for more freedom for journalists. Our lecturer on the Media industry in China mentioned that US reporters got their facts mixed up on the issue in Tibet, and he said this could have been prevented had they been allowed the freedom to go on location and report. Interesting...

Saturday the university had set up a tour of some major attractions in Beijing, starting with Tiananmen Square. It was drizzling, but I decided that was better than 96 degrees... We saw the parliament building, Mao Zedong's tomb (where they kept his body for TEN MONTHS after he died for the public to pay respects), and a national museum. Tiananmen Square is located on the midline of Beijing, along with the Forbidden City, which we moved onto next. This was where all the emperors lived until 1911 when the Republic of China started.

I could bore you with all the historical facts about these places, but I'm sure you'd rather hear about the little cultural spectacles I noticed along the way. First, the toddlers don't wear diapers... they have the middle of their pants cut out and they just squat right where they are. The picture above isn't as cute now that you know what he is doing... haha! Also, I had heard that the bathrooms in China consisted of holes that you squat over, but I didn't think it was still that way- I was wrong. For the women, there is a urinal type thing on the floor that you go into and then flush. No toilet paper, no seat. It is true. I took a picture, but spared my blog audience! While we were at the Forbidden City suddenly a rush of Chinese guys came over to our professor and all wanted pictures with him. He's a tall, bald, middle aged, black man, whom they all believed was Michael Jordan!!! AHAHAHA All the Mizzou kids played along and the Asians loved it.

After these two attractions, we moved on to the Hutong Villiage where the Hutong families live. This is a huge extended family that has a rich heritage in Beijing. They were offered a large sum of money to sell their valuable, center city piece of land, but chose to retain their historical location. We were able to tour the traditional Chinese village and the shops near by in rickshas (carts pulled by men on bicycles).

After this we went to Prince Gong's Mansion, a garden and mansion preserved as a park for tourists. Here we attended a traditional Chinese tea. She prepared four types of tea for us and demonstrated the proper way for men and women to drink it. She had these neat cups that changed design when hot tea was added... I had to buy a couple for souvenirs. I'm not usually a tea drinker, but this stuff could work miracles!

Sunday was a free day, so Sam and I took a cab to a market in the city. This was the mecca of all markets! Five floors of knock off purses, bags, designer clothes, etc. Plus authentic souvenirs, wall decorations, and jewelry for cheap. By the time I got to the floor with all the silk items I was getting pretty good at bargaining... I was able to get several silk scarves for a ridiculous price! It kinda became a game to see how low we could go... good fun!

Today we had lecture on Chinese/Beijing History for 3 hours in the morning and then had the afternoon off. Sam, Regan, and I decided to check out the famous Beijing Zoo with the pandas. They're really trying to fix up the zoo and panda area for the Olympics, which was noticable, but the rest left a bad impression. There were all the standards- giraffs, lions, tigers, monkeys, etc, but their habitats were not up to Western standards. The animals' homes were not very similar to their environments, especially the lions/cheetahs/tigers. These poor fellas were in small cages. I really left the exhibit feeling pretty bad for them.

Have I mentioned how CHEAP everything is here? The zoo was 20 Yuan (about 3 US dollars) lunch is around 10 (so about $1.50) and so on! A great change from Sydney!

Tonight we have a formal dinner hosted by the university and may possibly meet the students volunteering from North Carolina. I know I'm repeating myself, but the Chinese people at the university have gone over and above to make us feel welcome! More later...

Chinatown!

I suppose I should change the title of my blog to something like Details about the Chopstick Chicas or the Beijing Babes...

After some of the hardest goodbyes of all time, Sam and I were dropped off at the Sydney airport about 2 hours and 20 minutes before our flight- plenty of time. But the line at check-in was outrageous. By the time we got to the counter we'd been waiting 1 1/2 hours! Then I found out that I was over the number of bags I was allowed and Sam didn't have her return flight itinerary. So I had to pay and she had to convince the ticket people to let her use my itinerary that had her name on it. By this time it was 30 minutes until take-off. We sprinted to security, physically perspiring by this point, where we had to cut in line several times. As our bags were going through they took one of Sam's aside and proceeded to check through it. I decided since we only had 15 minutes to board that I would go to the gate and tell them we were coming. As I'm finishing through the security line, all the sudden a security guard informs me that I will be the random search. As I'm being frisked, I see Sam sprinting past. After catching her attention and getting my privacy back, we ran to the gate- only to find out we didn't have to rush at all. There was a wind advisory and the plane was delayed for an hour! We were both panting for breath at this point after our 400m dash to the gate. Anyway, after 2 movies and 4 episodes of Two and a half Men on the plane, we landed in Beijing. But the drama continues... I get to customs and they don't believe it's me on the passport! hahaha! As if anything else could go wrong! They called over someone else and were finally convinced it was me. We found two people from Renmin University who picked us up and took us to our hotel.

Yes, I said hotel. The place we are staying for the next 7 weeks or so is actually a nice hotel! Quite a change from the Australia living conditions!

Today we were up early and were busy all day. We took a group photo and one for our ID cards right away, then tried our uniforms. We get to keep the polos, pants, and shoes. It's all Adidas and even the shoes have 'Beijing 2008' embroidered on them! OH YEAH! I will be covering Field Hockey during the Olympics, but am trying to get tickets to other events. So far it's been hopeless. Sam and I have been trying for months, but the marathon and triathlon are free so hopefully we can make it to those. Then we went to lunch at the cafeteria where we'll be eating for the duration- which only offers chopsticks. So I guess it's learn or starve.

This afternoon we had our first Chinese Culture lecture on the Chinese Media. Apparently, Renmin University and Mizzou have had a relationship for 94 years! It was interesting to hear their opinion on CNN and American media in general- they actually seem to be pushing for more media freedom in China.

Tonight we had a banquet to get to know other Chinese students and other Mizzou students. We were all presented with marble stamps with our Chinese names on them, which I found pretty touching. Everyone has been so nice and helpful, and are trying to do everything possible to make us feel at home. The Chinese seem to be such happy (and hilarious) characters!

Tomorrow we'll visit a couple of the major media venues in Beijing...