Goose bumps, Cops, Volunteers and Opening Ceremonies…

Tonight after a long day of work a few of us decided to take our hosts down to the Olympic Green (similar to the Medals Plaza at the Salt Lake Games). We’d heard that the rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies would happen tonight and we were hopeful that we could get onto the Green and maybe even into the rehearsal. Subway still crowded (as usual)...

Once we got to the Green we had to go through security and see if our accreditation would get us in. (During Opening Ceremonies only those with a ticket, a passport and an Opening Ceremonies credential can go into the Olympic Green and we weren’t sure how strict they would be about the rehearsal.). As we were standing in line at security I started to feel “Olympic magic”…I remember it from the Games in SLC and it gave me goose bumps. The Chinese people have no idea what they are in for!

in line for security check

We passed through security fairly smoothly but we're told we couldn’t take cameras in. So unfortunately I have no pictures for you except this one at security . (don’t worry, we were able to take a few from the stadium on our cell phones -see below).

We walked all over the Green. We found the place where NBC will air the Today show. We will try to make it down to watch them when we can.

Then we walked over to the “Birds nest” or National Stadium where the Opening Ceremonies will be. It is really a wonder up close. Truly a beautiful structure! We made a plan to attempt to get inside to see the Ceremonies. Our first thought was to act like we knew what we were doing, flash our accreditation (surely I could get in with my magic infinity pass!) and walk in….hah! We were turned away at the M gate and walked over to the L gate, no go, off to the K gate then and so on (they all insisted we have a ticket)…FINALLY at the B gate we ducked behind a cameraman and managed to look official enough to get in! We were in!!! (a little sidenote here...I think the Chinese hosts we were with were quite shocked with our plan and could not really believe how we managed to get ourselves in, but they followed our lead very well and I think enjoyed it.) What luck! So now all we had to do was find a place to sit and watch…and how hard could that be? We were soon to find out.

Our plan was to head high to the nosebleed section where empty seats might be found. I mean after all a stadium of 90,000 would certainly have a few seats open, right? Wrong!

Not only could we not find an open seat…we couldn’t get past the Beijing Volunteers. They insisted on seeing a ticket. Now I know that security is tight and I know the Beijing police are tough and well trained, but they have nothing on the Volunteers! This group of people take their job seriously and would not be toyed with!

We were in the stadium, we could hear the music and feel the energy but we couldn’t see anything! So frustrating! We were sadly admitting defeat and walking down to the first level to leave and by pure luck we walked along the first level and found a whole open area with a pretty decent view of the production. No seats but we were happy to stand. (although my feet might want to debate that after 3 hours of standing!) We were shoo’d away a few times by the security but just moved a short distance away and then we were fine. It was a great show. I think if you watch on Friday you will enjoy it. I especially liked the part where they have a man and a little girl playing the piano and then all these others join them and then they all have lights on them. It’s amazing…and very hard to describe…you’ll have to watch. There are so many people in the show…I would think that as many people are in the show as are in the audience!

leaders of the pack...or poor role models however you want to look at it...

inside the Bird's nest!! Delinquents one and all!..

Our first guests arrive tomorrow and I've been told to 'redo' my transportation yet again!! Aggh!