Last adventure...homeward bound!!

I was on my own today...no one to join me on my last day of adventure. I wanted to go to the Summer Palace and after about two 1/2 hours of travel, subway #'s 1/5/10 and 13 and bus #375, and at last I was there! After all that travel I was sure I'd be disappointed ... but I wasn't. It was really beautiful and so large and spread out! I didn't get to see it all but was impressed with what I did see.

the infinity pass gave me free transport and free entrance! But the big question now is...will it get me into First Class??? I'm going to wear it on the plane just in case! :)

View of Beijing from the Summer Palace...this lake belongs to the Palace too! Lots of 'haze' these past few days. They have allowed all the cars back on the road yesterday...maybe that is contributing to the pollution?

lake at the Palace..you can take a ride on these boats

gotta love the stairs...they are everywhere!

map of the Summer Palace area...if I was the Emperor, I'd never leave!!

I had a foot massage tonight after all my walking...Tami was right. They did soak my feet in some dark liquid...but I didn't feel any little fish eating away at my skin..not to say they weren't there though! The massage was great! I could have stayed all night! And I could have afforded to stay too! It was only about $13 US for a little over an hour AND I got a shoulder massage thrown in! I will definitely miss this about China!

I can't believe it's finally here...my last day in China! It's been a great adventure and this blog has been fun to write and recount my days. Thanks for reading and for your comments. It's made me feel closer to home even though I'm so far away. But this time tomorrow I'll be in the USA and hopefully giving big hugs & kisses to my little black dog! (if he remembers me!)

sights, shopping and sappy goodbyes!

Today a few of us went to the 'dirt market'. Basically a flea market. Didn't find much in the way of souveniers but it was an interesting part of Beijing that we hadn't seen before. We had lunch in the "house of dumplings" and then went back to the Silk Market (which has little silk) and I traded some pins (Olympic pins are quite the trade item) for a few pieces of jewelry.

lots of beads at the dirt market

dirt market wares

Tonight we had a 'staff party' with regular staff as well as hosts. Two of my four hosts came and it was a sweet but very sad experience. They gave me a few small gifts and we hugged and cried. They held onto me and didn't want to let me go. It was quite overwhelming for me. I hadn't expected to affect anyone in this way on this trip. I don't think they had expected this either. One of my hosts will be coming to the US next year to study at the Univ. of Michigan. I hope I will see him when he comes. The others are studying here in Beijing and unless I travel back I doubt I will ever see them again. But I guess what we should take away from this is the joy of how different cultures can join together for a common goal and how we learn tolerance and acceptance of each other. The Chinese people are really quite lovely. Their government isn't the best and the fact that their population is so large can be challenging not to mention the difficult language barrier but really, they are wonderful people.

me with the infamous Elana... best of friends!

Isaac and Jessica, two of my hosts...such sweet 'kids'

forming a heart...to express their love...

Okay, so I'm being a little sappy here...well, after an experience like this (and a couple of glasses of wine) I'm allowed aren't I?

Last day tomorrow. We are going to try to go to the Summer Palace and then get a foot massage! Dinner somewhere fun and soon, homeward bound!

Packing up and saying goodbye..

Tonight as I write this I'm back in my original hotel with my big comfy bed and I am a happy gal! I was up quite early with some guests who had early flights. We are done with them all now and I'm feeling good. This last group was challenging...they were 'friends and family' of the full time staff of CoSport and we had to treat them with extra care. It was not unusual to get calls in the middle of the night...I even had a call last night from one of the guys who went to the closing ceremony and couldn't find the bus..."Elizabeth, I'm lost, can you help me?"...I was trying to get out of my sleep haze enough to tell him where to go...you know...to the bus of course.

But we are done at last. It's a bittersweet feeling. I'm so glad to be done but have had such a great time. And I have to say goodbye to some of my new friends which is a little sad. I took all of my hosts to lunch today after we were done with our last guest. We went to the most popular Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. I let them do the ordering which was a little scary for me but they did great. Everything except the duck liver was really good.

As a side note here...a few nights ago I did go down to the "snack alley" and saw the likes of beetles, crickets and snakes on a stick...and saw one young American eat a sea horse! I totally lost my appetite and couldn't eat for the rest of the night...the worst was the scorpions. They were on sticks and (if you are squirmish you might not want to read this...) and they were still alive!! They were moving on the stick...it was gross! ugh! When you order one they put it on the grill and it dies. I was just plain sick!

Back to the Peking Duck...

salad, bok choy and shrimp w/vermicelli noodle...all really good


Our duck arrived and was carved at our table....


first course, duck skin with a bit of meat on it..it's very hot and you dip in sugar and then let it melt in your mouth...wow, amazing. Not the best for your cholesterol but... yum...


Then the duck comes....the way to eat Peking Duck is to wrap it in a flour wrapper (like spring roll) with some cucumber and celery and a soy sauce mix...a Chinese burrito...yum! After I was eating one of my hosts pointed to the celery and cucumber and said, 'you eat this!...many people don't eat this because it makes them sick..'...now she tells me! (Tonight I'm listening to every gurgle my stomach makes but so far I'm okay).

Bon Appetit!

We closed down the hospitality suite and sent our office supplies back to the main office. I stopped by there to drop a few more things off this evening and the place looks close to being deserted! How fast! Yesterday they were a normal operating office, today it's all boxes and empty desks! Tomorrow we turn in our phones and computers...have a staff party tomorrow night and then I think that's it! We had to do a final report and staff evaluations, I did mine while I was watching the Closing ceremonies. So I'm done I think. Tomorrow a few of us are going to the 'dirt market'...I know! I have no idea what it is but will find out soon!

P.S. I packed up my uniform tonight...how good it will feel to wear 'regular' clothes from now on!!!

Last Day on the Green

My last day on the Olympic Green started at 10 am in the Birds Nest. We saw the soccer final game. It was fun but the game itself was pretty dull. Argentina won 1-0.

Nigeria vs. Argentina

kick off

Gold medal ceremony

The media are like swarms of bees, locust whatever...they are everywhere!

After the game I left the group and went over to the Swim cube to see the team Sync. Swimming. I took my place in the Olympic Family area and watched as Russia took the Gold. I think it's an interesting sport but all that slapping of the water gets a little old. During the presentation of the medals I had a little laugh. The other day when I watched the sync duet finals I started talking with this women from Aruba. She was giving me all the ins and outs of the sport. I thought she was nice and thought nothing of it.

Today as they were about to give out the medals I realized they had just introduced her! She was one of the officials (former Olympian) giving out the medals! Pretty cool huh?

US team first in the water...they came in 6th I think...




After the ceremony I went over to see the Artistic Gymnastics but found out that it was held in a completely different place...and the place I was at was having the handball gold medal game between Russia and Norway. Now I know nothing about this game and found it to be a little strange but I sat down and watched it anyway. Norway won...




Gold medal ceremony for Norway

Everywhere I tell you!!


These girls had to train for months to know exactly how to hold and deliver the medals! Bet you never even took notice!

After the handball I went over to the Today show. The were filming a segment for Sunday ...none of the regulars were there. Then I met up with a friend and we went to the Diving finals.

We walked right by the diving platform right before the event...the divers were all practicing!

Can you believe that I have seen what I've seen and done all this? I can't. It's truly overwhelming.

The Closing Ceremonies are tonight and I know you are expecting that I will be there in the audience but I won't be. They are pretty short on tickets (infinity pass doesn't work for this event!) and none of my staff, nor my partner were able to go to Opening Ceremonies so they will go and I will not. To be honest I'm not upset about it. I'm actually a little relieved. If I was offered a ticket I would definitely go but I'm relieved because I know exactly how hot it will be and how long it will go and mostly how many people I will have to push and shove through!! Tonight I'm just happy to sit in my little room all alone!!! and watch like you on TV...except I won't know what's going on because it will all be in Chinese!!

Crowds ...claustrophobia and sports...

Today I had some free time so I thought I would stop by the Olympic store, seen here ...what a mistake. I have only one thing to say, "if you are not getting something 'Olympic' when I return home, this is why"...


too many people!!! I'll never complain about crowds in the States again!!

China totally missed the boat on merchandising here! They had only 2 large stores and they were always packed with people. The venues all had small 'shops' but those only had a very small selection and the sizing also was small. Our guests were constantly frustrated and disappointed at how difficult it was. Not only that, if you did squeeze into a store and found something to buy you could not take it to the cash register. You had to find someone to write on a piece of paper what you wanted. They would keep your items (and you would hope they would still have them when you returned) and off you would go to stand in the incredibly long line to pay for the items, get a receipt and find your way (pushing and shoving) back to the person who held your items and then they would give you your purchases IF they could find where they put them! Crazy!


Then I went out on the street...more craziness!!! Traffic was at a standstill. I found my way to the subway, which was also a mass of bodies, and decided to head to the Olympic Green and settle in for some events.



On my way I ran into a gal that I met on my first day. We stayed at the same hotel. She was going to the Modern Pentathalon so I decided to join her (it was also in the Green).



I don't know much about this event except it consists of 5 events, swimming, shooting, running, fencing and equestrian. Tonight was the horse jumping & running portion. It was fun to watch. We ran into another gal who, like me, had an infinity pass so we decided to go up to the media/Olympic family area. It was very nice and we couldn't resist the nice food display in the lounge area...so we had dinner in the Olympic Family lounge! We were all out of uniform so I think it was okay, but probably not what we should have done. While there the President of the Olympic Committe Jacques Rogge came in. We sautered off to the corner as the media hounded him.

I left the Pentathalon a little while later and headed to the Birds Nest to see more finals in Athletics. It was really exciting..

.

5000 meter and long jump...there's a women in this long jump picture but she is so fast my camera couldn't focus.



these little cars return the javalins to the athletes. I kept thinking that the volunteer who had the job of driving these must have thought it was the coolest job at the Games!



Men's decathalon final race (USA got gold, yea!), women's long jump, women's 5000 meter, men's and women's 100 meter relays and more. But the most exciting was watching the men's pole vault. Throughout the evening you glance over and keep watch (it takes forever!) but as the night wore on, this Australian guy just kept hanging in there. It was he and the Russian at the end. It was so amazing. These guys must have vaulted 100 times...but the Australian hung in there and we did too. Many people left because all the other events were over but we stayed to watch him break the Olympic record. It was just plain fun. I think the crowds roar was helping to lift him up and over. He gets his gold metal tonight.


Austrailian Hooker (forgot his first name) up and over....here is is celebrating.


With more celebrations all night long!!

Closing in on Closing Ceremonies...

Our last group of guests arrived today! Yipee!! Everyone arrived safely although I did lose one man at the airport for a short time...(currently waiting for Elana's call)...I'm having a glass (or two)...of Great Wall Cabernet 1998 to celebrate this wonderful day!

Tomorrow my partner is going with the group so I essentially have the day off. I'm trying to decide what to do...sleep, massage, shop, events -tons of finals, athletics (where the group will be), artistic gymnastics, diving, and prelim. tech. syncronized swimming. Oh my, what to do!!?? Not sleep for sure...sorry mom.

They are expecting record numbers of visitors on the Olympic Green...over 500,000 at some points due to the variety of events that will be taking place. How exited am I about that? Not so much...500,000 picture taking strollers? How does one navigate that??? Guess I'll find out...

Olympic Dash around Beijing

We had tickets today for the Basketball semi-finals but was disappointed to find out that we would not be seeing the US play. Our tickets were for Spain/Croatia and China/Lith. Still interesting but being the HUGE basketball fan that I am (not), I decided that I would drop the group at basketball and then hop on the subway and head to the Olympic Green to try to catch the Sync. swimming final. The thought was a good one, but I'm not sure it was all that practical. It took me about an hour & 1/2 to get to the Swim cube...I was about 20 minutes late for the event and the place was packed. I couldn't find a seat anywhere in the 'regular people' section and just when I was thinking about leaving I remembered my pass...I soon found myself over on the media side of the room hanging with the press and Olympic family. :)

packed stadium - camera man w/ the judges sitting in down below in blue

I enjoyed watching the event but didn't much like their choices in music. Way too dramatic for me...I wanted to hear a little Beach Boys or something. I did get to see the Russian team, they were amazing...they got practically all 10's and I couldn't spot one single error! (as if I could). I want to see the team events later this week...

After swimming I had to make a made dash back to basketball. I walked with complete focus and determination. I'm sure there are many photos with a streak of baby blue in them as I crossed picture lines (multitudes of people taking family pictures with the Birds Nest, Swimming Cube, Olympic flame etc...in the distance) in my attempt to find the quickest routes. I got to the subway in 20 minutes (with the ever present sweat dripping down my back) and began to strategize in my head about how I could get a seat on the longest part of the ride.

I'm learning that there is a system to getting a seat on the subway in China and it requires positioning and careful watch of your surroundings. You have to position yourself in the middle section of the seating area and then try to determine who will be likely to leave first...when you've got it all sussed out, you wait...then you move as quickly as possible and it's best to have your butt slipping into the seat just as the person leaving is slipping out. I had to transfer twice and when I was on the final leg I made my move...actually it was just pure luck. I must have looked pretty tired because when a seat opened up this Chinese lady would not allow anyone to sit in it and pointed for me to. (most times I'm racing a man for a seat...and they usually win...no chivelry here!). Anyway it was glorious!! I had about 20 minutes off my feet! And I actually fell completely asleep and in dream mode before I realized I was at my stop. (so all totaled, 3 hour transport for 40 minutes of swimming) yea,I know, but it's the Olympics! ..and I made it back to basketball in time for the end of the 3rd quarter of the second game. China lost unfortunately but I was glad that when they lost this far along it wasn't to the US.


Yao Ming...one big dude, China loves him! and their other stars...these were all Chinese reporters trying to get an interview.

This new group is working out pretty well...but they like to stay up and chat. It's after midnight and I should be closing up but I still have a few here drinking wine and chatting....it's likely to be a very long night!!!