Would you excuse me? I cut my foot earlier and now my shoe is filling up with blood.

August 25- Today we packed up all our stuff and switched to another hotel for our last nights in China (WOO and AWW all in one). It was difficult for the taxi man to find it, and it was extremely hidden so I can see why. We drove down a hutong (neighborhood) so it looked a little shady. When we arrived, the outside of the hotel looked dingy, but the inside was really pretty. It had a pretty courtyard and our room was spacious with really comfortable beds.

When we got settled, we went for lunch at a hot pot restaurant. Nobody spoke English and even the English menu was lacking some English, so we had a hard time figuring out what to order. We got some HOT chili pepper sauce and another white sauce that was much more tame. We ordered some meat that wasn't so good, potatoes, mushrooms, and cucumber, and ordered 'one long noodle,' which a guy makes in front of you while he does a crazy dance- quite a sight. The waitress basically showed us what to do, then did everything for us anyway when we tried to do it ourselves. They just laughed at us. Talk about lost in translation!

After eating, we went to the silk market AGAIN for last minute gifts, then got ready to go out and headed to Saddle Cantina for one last round of margaritas in China & some tacos. I'll be sad to see it go. After a couple there, we got in a taxi and headed to Nashville (it's a bar here! Crazy right?) because I had to see it. It wasn't super great or anything like Nashville whatsoever, though. When we were walking in, I stubbed my toe really hard on a tiny cement step up that I didn't see because it was dark, and it started bleeding profusely. I washed it off, and wrapped it up- then played a round of darts with Megan before heading back to the hotel.

August 26- MEGAN LEFT ME TODAY! :( I was all alone... she packed up her stuff while we watched the Democratic National Convention, braided my hair so I didn't have to hassle with it for my plane ride, then got in a taxi for the airport. When she left I went to get some dinero and walked around aimlessly- eventually finding a mall with a Papa John's. I ate there, walked around the mall, then decided to look for a subway stop to head to the silk market (it's really cool, trust me) for gifts I had forgotten. I walked around for awhile before I headed back to the hotel to watch some HBO, CNN and Cinemax (more English channels, yay!) and write in my travel journal. After a couple movies, I headed for one last dinner in Beijing- at Paul's Steak and Eggs. I had a very American meal- patty melt and mashed potatoes. I had a heck of a time getting a taxi back to the hotel! One taxi actually pulled over for me, but the door was locked and he wouldn't open it! Then he drove away- what an ass! It took about 25 minutes to actually have on stop and allow me to get in, which I was grateful for because it had started to rain. Now, here I sit on the computer at the hotel typing out this blog.. perhaps the last entry with information. Maybe I'll have one more being that I leave TOMORROW for AMERICA! I'm very excited to be coming back- washing my clothes, taking showers IN showers instead of over toilets, not being crowded, sweaty or stared at, not walking in water wondering if it's urine or spit, DRIVING MY CAR LIKE A SANE PERSON, and not having to go through 'security' 5,000 times a day. I'm looking forward to sharing my photos with you as well. Thank you all for reading my blog! It's been a crazy ride! Now I must go repack my things! You're Welcome Stockholm! ;-)

Yiwu, China... MY DREAMLAND

August 22- Our last day for Olympic events! We woke up and took a trip to the Olympic Green for Athletics. The 50km walk started at 7:30am, but we arrived around 9:30. We saw some decathlon events (discus and javelin) and saw some of the 50km walkers finish. Italy was so happy when he entered the stadium for his gold medal. He ended up doing some running on the track with his flag, after having just race walked 50km. We didn't stick around long because we had volleyball across town and USA was playing Russia!

It was a great match! USA had won the first two sets, but Russia came back to tie it and take it to game 5. There were a ton more Russian fans than USA fans, so we had to be extra loud. The guys pulled it out though, winning 3-2 and advanced to the gold medal game (that they also won)!

After, we went to lunch and headed back to the hotel to make some signs for the Today Show. It was the last night for them recording, so we had to go. We saw the women's water polo and soccer teams, and the men's beach volleyball team. I finally got a picture with Ann Curry, too, after having tried 2 other times. Third time's a charm! We met up with Sarah and Sean again, and met a guy named Peter who was staying at our hostel and all went out. We tried to find the Budweiser tent, but were unsuccessful, so we went to some random bar and drank and talked. Fun times.

August 23- We woke up, booked out Great Wall tour and got some lunch before heading out to the Summer Palace. It was so pretty there! Definitely the nicest thing I've seen in Beijing. The architecture was great, as was the view from the top of Longevity Hill. It was quite the hike to the top with the steep steps, but it was nice. We also took a dragon boat across the lake to walk across a pretty bridge. After a few hours there, we went to the night market on Wangfujing to try some pan-seared dumplings and did some shopping at the Olympic store and at a nearby market.

When we got back to the hostel, Lena (the owner of the hostel) said free beer and food because China won the gold medal race. We didn't feel like celebrating that (we all know who won the MEDAL race total...) but who can resist free stuff? We had some delicious fried rice, and had some drinks. After listening to really loud music, singing "My Heart Will Go On" at the top of my lungs, and seeing our picture from the softball game on yahoo, we headed off to bed for our early morning on the Great Wall.

August 24- Early rising! We boarded a coach headed for the Great Wall Mutianyu and the Ming Tombs. It took about an hour and a half to get there with picking people up. Our guide Jean kept us entertained with her knowledge of the Wall and the history of China. We took a ski lift up to the wall. Such an amazing sight to see! And so tiring of a climb! We walked up and down a bunch of stairs and ramps, taking a ton of pictures along the way. We spent a couple of hours on the wall before we headed down on a toboggan slide! It was sometimes fun, most times not because I had to pull myself down the majority of the the way because it hardly moved. At the end I got rammed in the back because people didn't stop.

After I bargained for an "I Climbed the Great Wall" shirt, we headed to lunch at a jade factory. We saw how they make statues from jade, and how to tell real jade from fake. I didn't know there were different colors of jade, but our guide described them to us, and that the Olympic medals are special because there is jade in each of them- and different colors of jade for the different color of medal. We had Chinese lunch family-style- beef which was probably the best, chicken, rice, veggies, and I tried a dumpling which was not good. We headed to the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs (not the ACTUAL Ming Tombs like we had originally thought) and it was a little ridiculous. We made the best of it, though, by taking pictures on the giant marble animals. After this joke, we went to a bigger joke of a silk factory. We took a 5 minute tour on how they make silk quilts, then they gave us time to shop in the store. We think that they put us on these little side things not listed to have their friends make some money on the side- so lame.

After a long day, we took a nap then watched 30 minutes of the lame closing ceremonies and went to dinner at Annie's before going out with Sean and 2 guys from our tour- Brad and Brett. We sat out at a bar, then got some beers from a market before talking to some guys from Italy and Hungary and going dancing at a salsa club- random, but fun.

Don't Let Your Neighbors Take Your Items...

Quoted from an announcement on Wangfuging Street....

Here is a photo from yahoo.com...


A fan shows her feelings about softball being eliminated as an Olympic sport after the U.S-Japan gold medal softball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 21, 2008. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (CHINA)

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/softball/gallery/im:urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,reuters:20050301:oly,photo,r1095141401:1

Pretty much HILARIOUS. More to come... tomorrow is the Great Wall and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games. I can't believe the games are over! I'll update more later... obviously, I just wanted to post this picture. ;)

Batter Up.. Hear that call... the time has come... for one and all..

August 21- It rained all morning and into the afternoon, and it was gold medal softball game day!! I hoped it wouldn't be cancelled or delayed, but it stopped while we were on our way to the field. I had made a sign that said "Goodbye Softball... and they're keeping PING PONG?!" and one to hold up when USA won that said "SWEEP."

When we got to the field just before 5, there weren't very many people there. Apparently the game was scheduled at 6:30, not at 5 like it said on our ticket. Our seats were in the outfield, but we went to the infield seats because that's what everyone does anyway. "China Chair Swap" is what we called it, because nobody sits in their actual seats and they just go where they want. Really there's no point in having a seat location on a ticket. We ended up in a section of Japanese fans with bangers. They announced the starting lineups and Cat Osterman took the mound for USA. She had a great first inning, and we came outright away with bases loaded, but couldn't score. Japan scored first in the 3rd inning and again in the 4th before there was a 25 minute rain delay! It was barely raining when they stopped play with one out to go in the 4th, and most everyone ran for cover. We stayed at our seats for fear of losing them, and huddled in our rain coats. In the bottom of the 4th after the delay, Crystl Bustos hit a homerun to cut Japan's lead in half!

Inning by inning we watched the opportunities to score dwindle- they had bases loaded again and again and couldn't score. In the 7th, Monica Abbott came on to pitch. USA had 2 errors in the inning and Japan scored another run. Vicky Galindo started off the bottom of the 7th with a base hit, but then team USA went down in order. USA LOST. I cried. It was such a bummer to see them lose the game- not having lost since 2000, and having won every gold since 1996 when softball first started in the Olympics. All the girls were so upset and in tears, so it was sad to see- I get sad when I see others cry.

After the game was the medal ceremony. I went down closer to the field so my sign could be seen, and seen it was! My picture was taken by CCTV (the news channel here) volunteers, Reuters, and was interviewed by a newspaper columnist in Philadelphia and one in Japan. What made the loss a little better to me, though, was that the girls saw my sign. They were on the side closest to me, and when they got on the podium to receive their medal and roses, Laura Berg turned to the crowd, saw my sign and smiled. She tapped Lauren Lappin and shower her, and she gave me a thumbs up. It went down the line that they saw my sign, and they all smiled, which was good to see. After the medal were awarded to Australia, Japan, and USA, the girls got together and wrote 2016 in softballs & all huddled together and chanted, "Back Softball" over and over again. I started tearing up again because it was just great for everyone on the field to come together and want the same thing. It's sad that it won't be in the Olympics in 2012, but hopefully it'll be back in 2016!

After the game and ceremony, we walked down to leave and all the players and families were down there. Berg came over and tapped my arm and told me she liked my sign. It was a good day despite the loss. I think the whole night I was saying, "I Can't believe they lost," though. I bet they can't believe it either.

Can I help you? No thanks.. just looking.

August 18- We had to get up early for athletics (track & field) today. Again, security took forever and it was quite a walk to the bird's nest. Once we got there, we walked the 124 stairs to the 500 section where our seats were. Women's hammer throw, men's 200 & 400m and men's 110m hurdle qualifiers were all this day. We watched our USA guys qualify for the 299 & 400m. Maybe the best part was when the main track and field guy for China, Adam Pretty (Lu Xiang I think)injured himself before the 110m hurdle heat started. He was China's main chance for a medal in track. When he walked off the field, the crowd was stunned- some of them cried, and most of them left. I think it's humorous to me because he has endorsements to no end here, and now he's not even competing in his sport.

After athletics, we had baseball- China vs. USA! On the way there we saw a man and woman get taken away viciously by police. They were in headlocks and just being treated horribly. We assumed they were scalping their tickets- supposedly illegal but seen everywhere. Sometimes I wish we could have it done to certain people, being in the ticket industry. This time, security was THE WORST. We had about 30 mins to get through security before the game started, but when we got to the closest one to the field, they told us it was closed and had to go to the other one. 50 minutes later, we were finally in- then walked about a mile to get to our seats. We had fun cheering and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." USA DESTROYED China, but it was still a controversial game. One of our guys took out China's catcher when he was coming home, and in the next inning, the pitcher for China hit a batter in the head. He was tossed out of the game, as was China's head coach. The guy that got hit was down for awhile and had to be taken out of the game. The lady we were sitting next to was so annoying. "This isn't professional" she said when the guy ran into the catcher. "This sport doesn't matter," she said because they were losing so bad. "It's okay, we have 38 medals," talking about how many Golds they have. Then, during the game they announced China had won a gold medal in table tennis. "39! 39!" she yelled- it's sad that gold medals are really the only things that matter to the Chinese. Bronze and silver medalists always have a look of disgust and disappointment on their face when they're on the podium. It's really sad because you think they'd be happy to win a medal- no matter what it was made of.

August 19- We went to gymnastics again today! Men's parallel & horizontal bars, women's beam, and men's trampoline. China won all of the men's categories, figures. The horizontal bar would've easily been won by our US guy- he had a great performance, but being that we're n China, it's rigged. We got second in the event, though. All was not lost for the night, though- We got gold and silver on the beam! Shawn Johnson finally won herself a gold medal! Nastia was great too and got the silver. They were both flawless, but Shawn had more difficulty in her performance with flips and things. It was great to see them up on the podium together and hearing the National Anthem!

After gymnastics, we caught the tail end of the Today Show and was totally on it again! We met up with Megan's friend from her tour, Sarah & her boyfriend Sean, and went to the Heineken House- totally random but fun! It was meant for the Netherlands, but everyone was welcome (unlike our USA house which was for family members of Olympians only). Most everyone was in orange being from Holland, and we danced to techno music (in Dutch) and had some beer. It reminded me of being in Holland!

August 20- Today was a full day out at the diamonds- first at baseball, then at softball. We got to the baseball game late because we went in search of some meds for Megan and her illness- no luck. Baseball was good, but hot! Korea was playing the Netherlands & beat them 10-0 in only 8 innings. The Netherlands must've been partying too much at the Heineken House the night before. After baseball, we went to lunch, then in search of a post office and batteries. We went to a mall that had a pharmacy to maybe find meds for Megan, also. When we walked in, we had 2 people walk with us to help us find things and communicate with everyone. It was like we were famous with bodyguards- pretty funny. There was a post office in the mall as well, so we sent out some post cards. While we were waiting to mail them, the girl helping us told us we were clever because we are left-handed, and Chinese children who are lefties are also very clever. We also talked about the TV show Friends and how she loved it, and how Phoebe is her favorite. It was so fun being chauffeured through the mall.

After getting batteries and meds (turned out there was human placenta and earthworm in them so Megan decided not to take it), we headed for the softball field. Australia and Japan were playing in the bronze medal game. We were cheering for the Aussies (basically because they speak our language) but Japan was victorious beating Australia in a 12-inning marathon 4-3. Australia had their chance several times, but Japan wanted it more. Aussies won bronze, and Japan moved on to play USA in the gold medal game. We talked to a family from PA who was really cool. The two kids were 13 & 10 and so mature- probably a couple of the coolest kids I've ever met, to be honest. I am so looking forward to tomorrow for the gold medal game and watching Team USA!!

It's rigged, I tell you! RIGGED!

August 14- It rained forever it seemed! We woke up to watch Phelps win his... 6th? We didn't really move around to do anything until the rain let up a little around 4pm, and went to the field hockey games we had tickets to. We had a difficult time finding the way to get there- we took a bus instead of going through the Olympic Green like we had originally planned. On the way we saw the massive Olympic Village where all the athletes stay... it was decorated with flags of the countries, and pretty much amazing! What I wouldn't give for a pass to get in there! We took longer than expected getting to hockey, so we only saw the second half of Argentina/Japan (Argentina won), and then saw Great Britain/New Zealand play (GBR was up with minutes left to play when we left). We talked to a lady from San Jose and she told us how this was her 7th Olympics... AND she came with no tickets! Several Americans we've talked to didn't come with any. How can someone just come this far without tickets is beyond me. She said she came a year ago to scope out the city and familiarize herself with the venues and transportation- whoever can do that has some cash to spend.. Anyway, hockey wasn't half bad and it was the first time since I've been here that I haven't been miserably sweaty!

August 15- Okay, so THIS day may be the best so far... although the day of softball was pretty much amazing too... We woke up early for swimming- it takes forever to go anywhere because the Olympic Green is so spread out. It took about 2 hours to get there, and we made it just in time to grab some water and hike up to our seats in the 41st row. We were near Americans and even better an Arizona guy! It was good to have a cheering section. We saw Natalie Coughlin get her bronze in the 200m Freestyle, Rebecca Soni win gold in 200m breaststroke, Ryan Lochte & Aaron Peirsol get gold and silver in men's 200m breaststroke, and Phelps win medal #7 with Locthe getting bronze in the 200m Individual Medley- a good day for USA in the pool. We were interviewed by USA Today Online about how amazing Phelps is, so that was pretty much amazing! (Go here to check it out- it's under the Michael Phelps one.) After we went to McDonald's- it was a MOB! I've never seen so many people in a McDonald's before- probably because it's the only thing that has western food! The concession stands sell crackers, popcorn, yogurt, bread, 'hot dogs', and stinky disgusting sausage that smell so bad when opened from their package make you gag. The hot dog is on a stick and looks horrendous, and of course the sausage is in a plastic package. I've yet to see anyone but someone from China eating either of them. After that, we walked in the hot HOT sun to the handball gymnasium. It was forever away, and we had to walk there because they didn't finish the subway for the Olympic line. There's a slogan and song that states "we are ready," and Megan and I decided to change it up and instead say "we're almost ready," or "we're not ready." It was a beautiful day, though- you could actually see a blue sky and the humidity was down! Handball was alright, but we were SO tired. Beijing takes up all the energy you have. It was funny to watch handball- basically you could just tackle people, and pull at their arms to prevent them from scoring.

After we watched Sweden defeat Germany, and Romania destroy Angola, we headed back to the Olympic Green to find the Today Show! SUCCESS! We found where they were filming and it was magical! We had to wait an hour or so before they started to film, but a guy brought out some posters and markers for us to make signs. Ours said "Hi mom and dad in Arizona! Please send more money." We met some friends while we were there too. When the show started (or was getting to start), we saw Ryan Lochte there, and Nastia Liukin & Shawn Johnson, the gymnasts for USA who won gold and silver in the all-around. We got Ryan to sign our ticket from the morning session where we saw him win, and got a picture with him. We also got to congratulate Shawn and Nastia when they were by us signing autographs. I didn't have anything for them to sign, but it was all good... and I shook Nastia's hand. Gold medal glory- haha! Mary Lou Retton and Bela Karolyi were also there, along with US swimmer Katie Hoff, so it was a star-packed show!

During the breaks, Matt Lauer, Ann Curry, Al Roker & Meredith Vierra greeted fans, and they weren't feet away from me! Meredith was the only one who came directly over to us, though, and she complimented how great our hats were and shook our hands- and took pictures with us too! We were on TV a bunch too, which was fun times. We met a girl named Sara who is volunteering and interning for her journalism degree at Mizzou. Hopefully we'll hang a couple times because she was pretty cool. We met a guy named Roberto from Chile, who expressed his anger and said everything out loud that were thinking about the way China is running things during the Olympics. We also met a girl named Katie and her mom who live in China, but were cheering for USA because that's where they're originally from. Everyone at the Today Show was great- I even saw more people from AZ and we cheered for each other. After we took some pictures of the water cube and bird's nest because they look amazing when they're lit up at night!

And, of course, throughout the day we took pictures with several Chinese people because they are so fascinated by our hats (or they think we are complete idiots and are just laughing at us because we don't understand them).

August 16- We had weightlifting today! I honestly couldn't tell you what else we did this day besides go to lunch at Annie's, an amazing Italian restaurant, so that's what I'll leave it at. Weightlifting was quite a sight to see! It was women's 75+kg, and Korea took the cake! (no pun intended here) She broke every Olympic and World record there was to win gold! She lifted 180+ kgs in the clean and jerk, and 150+ in the snatch (yes, that's what it's called.. it's okay to laugh, us immature people did when we read it too). I tried to use a squat toilet because that's all they had in this gym, but I just couldn't! That's probably TMI, but I don't know how the Chinese do it! And they'll use the Western toilets and get on them to squat! It's rather disturbing, I think... but to each their own...

August 17th- GYMNASTICS! How exciting to see Nastia, Shawn, and Alicia Sacarmone compete in apparatus finals for floor and vault- and men competing in floor and pommel horse. Men's floor was first- no USA guys here. China won this (go figure), much to the surprise of everyone but the Chinese. The guy from Spain was clearly better, but it didn't matter because he ended up with the silver. Alicia was first on vault and stuck both of her attempts! Amazingness! In the China girl's first attempt, she appeared to be out of bounds, and her second one she fell on her knees- somehow she had a better score than Alicia! WTF?! We had a contingent of US fans in our section way up high and we all agreed that it was rigged. Needless to say, Alicia didn't win a medal, and the girl who FELL ON HER FACE, got the bronze. Our USA guy Alexander Artemev fell off the pommel horse, so he was out... next up was women's floor! Nastia and Shawn participated in it! They both NAILED their routines- but the Romanian took the gold giving Nastia and Shawn silver and bronze. It was good to see someone else win a medal for a change... (*coughNOTCHINAcough*). Afterwards, we took pictures in the grass (it's a rarity here, and not to be stepped in apparently), and took pictures with the torch again... this time as the Statue of Liberty. When we were taking the pictures, a guy with a video camera from NBC came up and wanted to film us doing it... so we did! I must've held up my arm forever, but I guess he got the shot because I've heard people have seen us! Good times, there... afterwards, we went to Hooters Beijing. HILARIOUS. Our server's name was Cindy (yes, Cindy). They sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and some other song I didn't understand, but it was just a sight to see for sure. Hooters doesn't really translate here, though... as a guy we met on the train said, "it should really be called 'nipples' or 'mosquito bites.'" haha

...The Show Must Go On...

So, it's been a few days since I've updated my blog, but we've been extremely busy with events and sleeping.

Well, I have some good news, and some bad news. We'll start with the bad, and end on a positive note with the good stuff.

In my last blog I wrote about how my Grandma wasn't doing too well and went into the hospital and wasn't doing too well. I got that call in the morning here 8/9 (the 8th in AZ). Well, literally when I had finished writing about bringing back Snickers bars back in my blog that night (the 9th in both places- early AM in AZ), my Mom called me to tell me that after 3 years of battling with cancer, my Grandma was no longer with us. I left the Internet cafe immediately and went back to the hotel so I could cry and talk to my family on the phone 7500 miles away. It was hard to deal with, and still is, as I sit here at this cafe typing this now like an idiot crying while the guy next to me plays some computer game. I know that she's in a better place now, and she's not suffering anymore, but I guess I'm just selfish in the fact that I want to see her again. Someday...

Needless to say August 9th was the worst day ever. But as they say, the show must go on. She would be mad at me for leaving (so my family says, and I kind of believe it), so here I stay in Beijing.

Regaining my composure...

August 10th was a little better. We didn't do much- it had rained in the morning. I think we watched Phelps win his 1st gold on TV, but the days kind of run together. We went in search of Tim's Texas BBQ but couldn't find it, so we ate at Pizza Hut instead. We were by the Silk Street Market, so we went inside and I got some gifts for the family and some post cards. We spent awhile in there, so when we got back to the hotel around 5:30, I got ready for the Chinese Acrobats. The show was amazing! Contortionists, ball jugglers, umbrella jugglers, jumping through hoops as tall as 9 feet, bicycle acts, climbing acts, guys swinging from the air- everything was really cool. What was even better was the fact that it only gost 80RMB ( about $14) for a seat up top, but I got to move down to the floor and was only about 13 rows from the stage, center.

August 11th- FINALLY our first event was here! Swimming! We woke up early so we could be sure to get to the water cube- good thing we did. We left around 7:40am and didn't get to the cube until about 9am. We walked forever to get to the right subway line, then security which is always a joke. There were tons of volunteers at security, but only one metal detector line open. While we waited in line, they told us it wasn't working and made us go to another security area where we waited in another line. Once up, they checked to make sure our ticket was real w/ the microchip that's inside, and then put our bags through a conveyor belt & we went through a metal detector only to be patted down and wanded by someone. THEN we had to board ANOTHER train to get to the Olympic Green where we got off to walk about a mile down the street to the water cube! We took pictures along the way- Michael Phelps is on the side of a building, so we got some of him, the flame, the bird's nest, the cube- and some people wanted to take pictures with us because we looked amazing! We had our cool Uncle Sam hats on with our "GO PHELPS" shirts.

It was fun taking pictures with random people- like celebrities in Beijing! We got inside after they scanned our tickets again & stubbed them, and went to our seats. They were up and in the corner! If we were watching diving they would've been prime seats, but it was alright because we were there in person! We saw Christine Magnuson get the silver in the 100m Butterfly, Katie Hoff get silver in 400m Freestyle, and Michael Phelps win his second gold medal along with Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, and Garret Weber-Gale in the 4x100m relay. They beat the world record by 4 seconds! It was such a great race! We also got to see Phelps qualify for the 200m freestyle and Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers qualify for the 100m backstroke. It was pretty much amazing.

After, we were starving so we went to McDonald's because it's the only western food in the Green, then went back to take a nap before heading out for an actual dinner (no 7-Eleven this night). We found Tim's Texas BBQ- it wasn't super great, but good enough. We stayed in and watched the games on TV, and talked to an Australian guy in our hotel. He was funny, talking about countries he's traveled to, and compared Croatia to Fabio in the sense that it looks pretty, but you get tired of it quickly because it's stupid... or something, I don't know. It was pretty funny, though. Anyway... We got some more tickets to some events (Megan to beach volleyball, me for softball!), so that was good too.

August 12- After Phelps winning medal #3 and Natalie Coughlin an Aaron Peirsol win golds too, we headed to pick up the tickets we ordered the previous night. After, we went to Grandma's Kitchen again for a good lunch, and talked to a fellow American who was working the Olympics. We went to the Forbidden City (finally made it!) where we saw a boy just pee in the middle of a sea of people, and a lady breastfeeding her child for all the world to see! We also went to Jingshan Park behind the Forbidden City and climbed to the top of this giant hill that overlooks the City. It had amazing views of Beijing (what you could see of it with all the pollution, anyway). We also went to Taco Tuesday (which will probably be changing to Fajita Rita Monday, being that we can get fajitas and margaritas for half price... haha), which is always a good time.

August 13- THE best day so far! I had a full day of softball! I woke up at 7:30am because I had a long trip to the softball field. When I got off the subway, I tried to find the bus to take to the field- so hard to do! I finally found it and took the 25 minute bus trip to the field. I didn't eat breakfast so when I got to the field I went to the concession stand to get some crackers and water. I hung out for awhile before I went into watch Venezuela and China. I got up to my seat around the 3rd inning and stayed until the 5th when I saw USA starting to warm up on another field. I went over and watched a little, and took a few pictures, hoping I'd get to see them walk up to the field when they were done. I talked to Vicky Galindo's (third baseman) brother David, so that was cool. I ended up getting to see them walk up to the field afterall, so I was really excited at this point.

China beat Venezuela 7-1, then it was time for USA vs Australia! They introduced the teams- I was sitting in a big USA group- the families of Cat Osterman, Crystl Bustos & Jessica Mendoza- it was very exciting for me! Cat pitched and did amazing! I think she had 13 strikeouts. Natasha Watley got the 1st RBI of the game and Bustos hit a homerun to help lead USA to a 3-0 win. After the game, I hung out by where they entered, and they came out to greet their families. I got autographs from Bustos, Osterman, Monica Abbott, Stacey Nuveman, and Jennie Finch! I also got my picture taken with Cat... hopefully I'll be able to get my pic taken with others in the upcoming games! It was so great to have the opportunity to see them play being that this is the last Olympics with softball, and it made me miss playing even more.

Chinese Taipei and Japan played each other in the evening game. There were some crazy drunk Canadians above us that were so annoying the entire time! Probably the only cool thing they did was start the wave in our section. Japan beat Taipei 2-1, then Canada/Netherlands played. Part of Canada's baseball team sat in the row behind us and we talked to them a little bit about the rules of softball and food in China. Canada was destroying Netherlands 9-2 when we left in the 6th. We went to the bus, got on the train, and walked to dinner at TGIFriday's. It was a great sports day, but very tiring & I felt miserable when it was over because all I did was sweat while I was outside for 10 hours. It was SO worth seeing team USA, though!

Beijing Huan Ying Ni...

So, one of the songs you hear over and over and over and over (do you get the picture?) is "Beijing Huan Ying Ni" which means "Beijing Welcomes You" - and the 5 mascots represent that.. Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying & Ni Ni. I think they're panda bears dressed up in costumes, but I could be mistaken...

Anyway, the song is extremely irritating when it gets stuck in your head, and it's unfortunately stuck in mine.

Yesterday was the Big Day in China! Unfortunately (or fortunately, because they lasted forever and a freaking day) Megan and I didn't get tickets to the Opening Ceremonies, so we watched them on TV... CHINESE TV. Because of some rule the IOC has, only mainland China could broadcast the Ceremonies (or any Olympic event), so our ONLY English channel couldn't air anything. Sucky.

After a couple unsuccessful attempts to go to the Forbidden City, we thought we'd try it again. Much to our avail, President Hu Jintao (of China) was hosting an Olympic Banquet for all the dignitaries at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square (where the Forbidden City is), so it was closed. We watched all of the people arrive and shake the President's hand, including W. Way to go, America. Needless to say, we had to change our plans because of their little get together. We went to TGIFriday's for lunch, then took a walk near HouHai Lake, and went through some hutongs (neigborhoods). We attempted to go to Song Qinling's former Residence, and the Bell and Drum Towers, but everything was closed in preparation of Opening Ceremonies. They actually had fireworks at all major attractions in Beijing set up for the Olympics (so when you saw the aerial shots of the fireworks, it was from those places). The acrobats were closed also, as they were part of the ceremonies. Since everything was closed, we decided to head back to the hotel for another somewhat unsuccessful day.

The countdown to the ceremonies was really cool- the drummers in unison and everything. The acrobats who climbed on each other to form the bird's nest (National Stadium) were pretty much amazing, too. About half an hour into it, I was bored and ready for them to be over, haha! There were other cool parts too- the rings being raised up, the people drawing on the paper. Watching all the countries come in was probably the best part because we could understand what was going on! Towards the end it got irritating- maybe because there were 204 competing countries/provinces/whatever, or the fact that it was all in Chinese and we couldn't understand it! USA was awesome but we couldn't really see anyone familiar. I think I saw Jennie Finch, and Kobe Bryant was maybe at the end of the line. The Chinese do know how to put on a light show of fireworks, though! I mean, they should considering they mistakenly invented them! I thought the Olympic Ceremonies kind of dragged on forever and a day, but I don't think I've ever watched the entire ceremony either- or the fact that it was over 4 hours long! It was cool that I was watching them knowing I was only miles away from the stadium, though. We could hear the finale of fireworks in our room, too. Fun times.

Today (8/9/08) was kind of another unsuccessful day- we were going to yet again go to the Forbidden City but I got a phone call from my mom. My Grandma I guess went into the hospital and can't speak, but can understand everyone and recognizes everyone coming into her room. I don't know what happened, exactly. She's had cancer for awhile, but I thought she was doing alright. I don't think I would've gone having known she was going to take a turn or anything. On my flight and short 10 hour stay at home right before China, I got to see her and she gave me a cross necklace that was her mother's, and told me that when I was in Beijing, to remember that I was Irish, haha! My mom didn't want to call me, but I'm glad she did so I could know what was going on. I really want to go home, and it's so hard to stay here, but my family told me that my Grandma was really excited for me to go and would want me to stay. So after crying for like, an hour or whatever, Megan and I went to get the other tickets we ordered for the games and ate at a place called Grandma's Kitchen for lunch. Ironic, I know, because my Grandma doesn't cook! We also took another trip to Wal-Mart so I could get more batteries (that stupid made in China charger isn't working) and we could get some padding for our beds (which they don't have any of, go figure). But seriously, though... it was just kind of a blah day. I tried to get more excited about things, but now it's even worse. I just hope it will get better when we have things to see, and an actual game plan. I don't feel like doing anything, to be honest. Just sleeping. I can't do much of that, though, because the beds are so hard. I guess I'll just toss and turn. Wow, sorry for being such a Debbie Downer! I just needed to get that off my chest.

Changing the subject... China is kind of lame when it comes to showing the games on TV. As I mentioned earlier, nothing can be shown on our English channel, so we have to resort to Chinese TV. Well, being that we are IN China, they just like to show whatever sports they win medals. So, I got to see this girl win her Olympic Gold in weightlifting about 6 times. And some guy win his shooting competition... and did you know that China defeated Switzerland in their beach volleyball match? I got to see that 4 times. I also got to see China's Men compete in the first round of gymnastics. We did get to see USA compete in FENCING... I have never watched fencing in my life, except for when it's in a movie or something! No swimming... WHAT?! We can see Michael Phelps in a speedo?! What kind of country is this?! You'd think they'd want to show that because he could win 8 golds in THEIR Olympics... no? Right, NO. haha - The first gold given out went to Katerina something from the Czech Republic in air rifle... it was hilarious to hear the news about this, because they just talked about how China DIDN'T win, and how their girl only got 5th place. Just wait for Team USA to come barreling through! We're going to take all the gold out of this country. We can't see anything online, either, because of some block that smart USA has on their websites... so, if anyone wants to post them on youtube, I can watch them, haha.

Now, for some RANDOM CHINA that I mentioned in a previous blog...
- I've almost been run over by several buses and taxis; there is no concept of stop and go... red lights are more of an option here.
- Several bikes have also nearly hit us; they have bells they ring to let you know they're coming.
- Cars just drive on the sidewalk and in multiple lanes at a time. When you're sitting in the front of a taxi, it's quite the ride.
- Shirts in English are so poorly written, or just plain weird and ridiculous! i.e.(I Swear I'm not making these up)- punk is not pretty, Apportxing ways of eerying bread-she makes the sanwich anofas onsseri by using this dough (WHAT?!), and my personal favorite- make love not babies.
- At our first hotel, we watched Sound of Music twice, and both times it stopped playing before Germany invades.
- Also at our first hotel, we had HBO and 2 news channels. Where we are now, we just have the one, with the same stories playing over and over again.
- You skip over puddles because they could be from children (or adults, for that matter) peeing on the street. Many little kids don't wear pants at all, and if they do there is a slit in the croch. Classy.
- People of China like to spit everywhere- not only just regular spitting, but actually getting that loogie (is that even a word?) spit and then spitting it out. Sick.
- People here are SO LOUD! I mean, I am loud, but WOW. They top me... so you know that's loud! They could be sitting 2 feet away from each other, yet if you were down the street from them, you could still hear them perfectly clear, and LOUD.
- It's funny BEING the tourist. Usually whenever I'm at Disneyland (all of you who have been there can totally attest to this), I see the Asians with the cameras around their necks and take pictures of everything... it makes me laugh because that's not something I typically do. Yes, I take a ton of pictures, but I just don't take pictures of things that are everyday and normal. That is until now... I have become the person I chuckle at. Yay for tourists.
- Oh, all you beer drinkers... I got myself a HUGE bottle of beer for 3 yuan... 50 cents. Beat that, suckas! haha ;)

So... that's China. August 11th needs to get here so we can go see Michael Phelps in a speedo, even if it is through the binoculars. And I need softball to get here too. Hurry up, I'm getting impatient.

P.S.- I think I'm going to bring everyone back a Snickers Bar. It's in Chinese at least. I don't feel like shopping.

Hey There

Please keep my family in your prayers as my Grandma is not doing well. I talked to my mom this morning and she flew home from a convantion in Utah, so I know it's not that good. It sucks that I am half a world away and all I really want to do now is fly home...

Oh, China...

Thank You, Come Again.

So, for dinner the other day after the lovely internet cafe, we went to 7-11 (yes, that one)because we didn't want to get too daring with our food choices (well, fine, I didn't), so Megan got some spaghetti and I decided that I would just have a peanut butter sandwich at the hotel.

I developed a blister on the bottom of my pinky toe and it hurt SO BAD. I had been complaining about it pretty much the entire day, but never stopped to look (basically because I didn't want to take off my clean sock and put it anywhere near the dirty floor, haha) at it. I cut it with some nail clippers in hopes that it would make it feel better. Afterall, we were planning on walking a lot the following day.

I woke up on Thursday with no desire to do anything. I was emotionally and physically drained. The whole 'PMA' went right out the window the second I got ready to go. My foot hurt and I didn't want to do any walking. I didn't feel like being soaked in sweat, which was bound to happen the second I walked out the door. So, we had planned on going to the Forbidden City, but Megan wanted Papa John's (gotta love America) for some pizza. We walked and took the subway to the pizza place, my foot throbbing. While we were sitting there eating, we decided not to go to the palace because it would've been a lot of walking and I just didn't want to. We opted for going shopping in Sanlitun and go to the acrobatics show. Well, the acrobats were sold out, and instead of walking a little we walked a TON. Probably would've been better off just going to The Forbidden City.

I was getting really irritated and just wanted to go back to the hotel. Thursday was kind of a dud, in general. Megan wanted to try the movies again (it is NOT like at home where we have new movies every week- they only have 2 films in English and they don't have new ones come out) but it was the same movies as before. Then we walked to the International Bookstore and ate dinner at McDonald's. China had a soccer match, so on the jumbotron on Wangfujing Street was the match, and a ton of people congregating watching the match, cheering. It was a sight, but we were just so tired and irritated, so we went back to the hotel after an unsuccessful day.

I took a shower in our weird bathroom... It was super weird, but I felt REALLY good to be clean. I've felt super disgusting lately, much like China is. haha

Today we were going to go to The Forbidden City, but it was closed because the President of China had an Olympic lunch with other dignitaries around the world. We watched him shake everyone's hand (including W's- HILARIOUS. America rocks), then we went to TGIFriday's and had a lovely American burger, and walked around some hutongs and HouHai Lake. Everything was closed, though, because everyone is preparing for the Opening Ceremonies tonight.. in a half hour! I'll have some random China things in another blog, but right now we have to head back to the hotel to watch the Opening Ceremonies on TV... no tickets to that！Crazy insane prices! We did get more tickets to some games, though... watch out hockey and weightlifting! haha! We might be going to see some basketball, but no USA... boo!

Viva Mexi.... er China!

Greetings!

Well, I told you about our run in with the Mexican cantina... we went back on yesterday (Tuesday) night! We were in serious need for a break from China, and this is the place we'll be going... ;)

Let's preface:
Monday night I was having extreme (that's kind of a nice word...) difficulties with lovely Bank of America and them cutting off my funds because supposedly they didn't actually mark down the fact that I was traveling to China like I had originally told them. My Mom and Dad called me about the situation because I was flipping out about calling the bank "toll free" from China, and I couldn't find anywhere to do so... but My parents FINALLY were able to work all of this out on my behalf - amazingly! They also had B of A up my limit so I could take out more money after having screwed me over(I could only take 2500 yuan a day and needed about 8130 yuan, $1355 the following day for our new hotel).

Tuesday I got out some dinero, but it still didn't leave me enough money to pay the hotel when we got there, so Megan had to take out money only to find out apparently SHE had insufficient funds, which was totally not the case in her matter either. Banks are dumb, but at least they're "protecting" us. We were stressing out, and just had this horrible negative attitude, and were SO over China at this point. We ended up getting enough money out, but it was a struggle! We headed to our other hotel after we saw Mao.

I think it was totally the fake Mao! I mean, how can a dead person look that good after having been dead so long? Not possible. Anyway, he was in this glass case and we were probably 15 feet away from him. It was so random because they had flowers you could purchase to leave at his statue- the flowers were in perfect bundles, in which kind of flower they were. We figured it must be because they pick up all the flowers and take them back out to resell them. Clever Communists. Oh, and we had to go through "security" metal detectors, and I took out my inhaler from my pocket to go through... they asked me what it was, and I told them (by immitating what to do with the inhaler) and they made me actually use it! They had no idea what it was... which I find strange, just because there is so much pollution and smoking everywhere- Chinese must not get asthma. haha

Okay, so I saw Mao... then we went to our hotel. It's really funny because basically it's the smallest room I have ever seen, and the shower is like, over the toilet. I guess I haven't traveled that much, because Megan is talking about how this is so great and everything... ha! We're just glad we had enough money to actually check into the hotel- so we refresh and head out for Outback Steakhouse. (Yes, THAT Outback Steakhouse) Another side story- being that we're all for American food, Megan is all about going to Outback one day for lunch/dinner. When we went to the Temple of Heaven, we were going to go to Outback, but it's in this official Olympic hotel that requires a lovely yellow badge we don't have. Needless to say, just because you say you're American and own Outback Steakhouse (Megan REALLY wanted it...) doesn't mean anything in China if you don't have a yellow badge, so we were out of luck there. Well apparently, there are TWO Outbacks- that one, and the other just inside the Worker's Stadium (where soccer will be played). That one isn't too far from our hotel, so we decided to get a cab and head over there.. well, IT'S CLOSED. Looking forward to an amazing meal again, but no... so there was this cafe in the area we opted to go to instead- Gino's. I had some spaghetti and Megan had fetuccini. You have to love China... haha! It was alright, but we were just really looking forward to those giant margaritas later in the evening!

We headed back to our hotel to meet up with Ali (he was on Megan's tour she took before we met up in Beijing) and his friend Paul (who works for the BBC- fun times!) for the Saddle Cantina. It was Ali's last night in Beijing so we had to go out with a bang. There were even more Americans there on the 5th than there were two days earlier. CINCO DE DRINKO, they called it- where all drink were half price, AND it was taco Tuesday! They had some sombreros, so we grabbed a couple for our fiesta, and I got to speak some Spanish (not to anyone, just randomly out loud because it was fun)! We went to the bar because they were packed, and ordered margaritas... I saw a table open up, so I went over to it and held onto a chair. When I had turned around to tell Ali and Paul I got a table, some dude sat in the chair! I was so mad, but he wasn't budging. His friend came over and said we would play paper, rock, scissors for it. I won the first round, we tied the second, and he won the last two, meaning I lost the table. I was SO pissed, but we ended up getting a better table up on the deck. Stupid Americans. ;) Oh, I forgot to mention I had no money at this point because I used it all to pay for our hotel, so Megan had to spot me. We were having a good time, but we decided to move the party elsewhere because Ali wanted to dance, and it was his night to go out with a bang. We walked down SanLuiTun, and ended up at this place called the Armaini Club- a techno dance bar. Wow. Man, those Chinese can MOVE... HAHA! I have video that I'll put up here hopefully in the near future, and it is AMAZING. We had a drink here, but didn't end up dancing very much... well, the dance floor is spring-loaded, so I had to try it out a little teeny bit anyway. Oh, and I think maybe a Chinese guy hit on me. I'm not exactly sure... haha! We then decided to go to yet another bar, so we hopped in a taxi, only to be taken again to some random place because the driver didn't know where to go, so we just called it a night.

Today we went to the silk market where I tried my hand at bargaining! It was loads of fun! "Hey lady..." "Hey pretty lady..." "Hey friend..." "good price for you" "best price, just for you" "You want shox?" "I have stuff for you only" "I remember you, come buy shoes here" - what a trip these people are! I got myself a nice pair of Chanel sunglasses (ooooh ahhh) for 50 yuan, which is under $10. They started at 500, so I was pretty excited. Granted, that probably is still way too much, but it's okay. It was practice for later shopping experiences! We had lunch at Subway (yum!) and then had to say goodbye to Ali because he leaves back to the UK tonight. Sad times. Then we decided to find an internet cafe, so here we sit! It's so random, really... there's about 100 or so computers, with a bunch of chinamen playing games, mainly... and you can smoke in here, which is making my head and eyes hurt, but it's so cheap to use the computer!

On another note, I'm so surprised at how cheap (at the time) it is to use a cab or public transportation! It costs 1 yuan for the bus (20 cents), 2 yuan for the subway (40 cents), and taxis start at 10 yuan for a few kilometers (which is like, $1.50 or so, and that's all we need for most places!)! It's crazy cheap! I mean, it's totally adding up, but it's pretty sweet that you can get a cab so much cheaper here than at home.

I stil hate the smell, and I'm still looking forward to home, but we're trying to have a positive mental attitude about things. PMA, as Megan likes to say. I guess it just needs to be 8/11 for our first Olympic event! I don't even know what it is, but it's bound to be good.

I have a favor for you all- please eat giant salads and drink ice cold glasses of milk for me (it doesn't have to be at the same time or antyhing, just do it). I miss them.

Toodles!

OH! WATCH THIS VIDEO! IT'S PRETTY MUCH AMAZING... AND EVERYWHERE IN CHINA! HAHA! There's one with the 'top singers' of China (including Jackie Chan, whom I didn't know sang! Haha)


And another one with just random people.. but their expressions are HILARIOUS! Even if you mute it, just watch it. Seriously. Amazing.

Wow, Beijing is amazing. Can I come home now?

Seriously... I've been here for what, 4 days? 3 days? I don't even know, and I am SO OVER IT. AND OF COURSE, THE CAPS LOCK FUNCTION ON THE HAPPY COMPUTER AT THE HOTEL IS STUCK NOW, SO THIS WILL BE AS IF I'M YELLING, UNTIL IT DECIDES TO STOP.

IT SMELLS SO BAD HERE. Think of it (ahhh no more caps- so much better!) as if you've just walked by a port-o-potty that has been sitting out in the hot sun for days. Now, picture that smell EVERYWHERE you are walking. Times ten. If I could bottle it up for you and bring it back as a souvenir, you all would be so happy.

It's SO humid here too! I mean, I thought it got humid in Tennessee... NO WAY! It's ridiculous here! You walk literally 2 yards down the road to stop for a water, and you're drenched. The Chinese must be adapted to this or something, because I don't see them sweating. The men like to roll their shirts up to show of their stomachs, though. That's a little different.. and reminds me of someone I used to play softball with, which is hilarious, but that's beside the point.

I've gotten bit by more mosquitos in our room than outside, I think. Every time Megan and I say we've gotten bit.. 'oh, it's malaria,' we'll say. Funny, but not.

Here's a fun story.. so today I decided to take out some money from my lovely checking account. I had notified Bank of America of my traveling out of the country (specifically to Beijing and Tokyo) and told them when I was going and when I would be returning. Well, LUCKY ME couldn't get any money out today from the bank! It said something about me not being authorized to take out money.. SO LAME! So, I immediately sent my parents a text message (It's SO much cheaper than calling) to see if they could get something sorted out, but no luck! I have to call the bank collect or something, and I'm not quite sure how to do that in a foreign country where I don't even speak the language.

Last night we found a Mexican cantina. We just laughed the entire time because.. seriously, how funny is it to be at a Mexican restaurant in China? You know you want to laugh about it. So, it was fun times- we split some enchiladas that weren't half bad, and had a margarita. We're going back on the 5th because it's Cinco de Drinko where drinks are half priced. I think it's the only way to handle Beijing. ;) It's also Taco Tuesday! No worries, dog is no longer on the menu.

Tonight we went to a night market on a local street... the ones where they serve the fried scorpion, starfish, beetles, seahorses.. SICK! I saw someone eat a scorpion (or two), and a starfish. I was too chicken to try anything, plus I didn't really feel like spending the money. We did see Mary Carillo (she is a sports broadcaster from NBC & played tennis)- our first famous person in Beijing! She was doing some video stuff in the market, where she ate starfish and scorpion. BE ON THE LOOKOUT for her broadcasts! Maybe you'll see her in the market, and us in the background! Haha!

Oh! I also finally had some noodles- it wasn't super authentic Chinese, but it's the closest I've been so far. It was a pretty cool place called the Noodle Loft. They make the noodles there and everything- it was very modern-looking, and didn't taste half bad. I'm not liking the after taste, though... ick.

Tomorrow we're hopefully going to see Mao's mausoleum & embalmed body (creepy) - we tried to go today, but apparently it's closed Mondays. Apparently they have a fake one and his real one... and it's kind of based on which one they feel like bringing out that day. ha!

Man, I have such the headache. I will be SO excited when 8/27 rolls around. The Olympics haven't even started yet and I'm ready to come back home! I need to bathe. haha! Oh, and let's hope that I can take out a ton of money tomorrow because we won't be able to check into our next hotel without any cash! I might have to come home sooner! ;)

What's that smell?!?! Oh... it's China.

GREETINGS! I'M HERE AND I'M STILL ALIVE!

Okay, now for all of you that were worried, I am in Beijing, and still rockin' out! Let's just go through a rundown of items so far that we've done! We have walked SO MUCH over just the past few days... probably 3-4 miles a day. My feet hurt! haha

First off- the plane from LA to Tokyo was HUGE! It was a 3-4-3 seater... a Boeing 777. My legs were crammed into the seat, though.. as they usually are. There was a good movie selection- I watched 21, Fools Gold & Vantage point before trying to sleep for about an hour and a half. Oh, I forgot to mention I only had about 2 hours sleep the night before my flights... I was freaking out, as you can see from my previous blog. Anyway, the flight attendants were very friendly and nice, and one of them randomly asked if I would fill out a survey for the airline. Tokyo to Beijing was a shorter flight and I slept probably half of the flight.. I was just so exhausted.

I landed in Beijing around 8:00pm and after customs (the airport was REALLY clean, by the way, but only to find out that it was JUST built, specifically for the Olympics- haha) Megan was there to pick me up! Thank God, because I don't know what I would've done if she weren't there! We hopped on some trains, and shortly were walking down to our hotel. It was super humid! We dropped off my luggage and went back out for some food because I was hungry after not eating the not-so-appetizing food on the plane. Luckily, McDonald's is 24 hours, so I had a couple cheeseburgers. How authentic! After we went to bed... it's the softest piece of wood I've ever slept on! Seriously, the bed is SO HARD, it's as if you're just sleeping on a box spring itself. haha

8/1- We went to Tian'anMen Square for some photos and saw the Forbidden City from the outside, and Mao's mausoleum from the outside as well. We're going to go to those places later in the trip for a further look. We're getting stares because we're foreigners, it's pretty funny I think... We went to pick up our Olympic tickets and ran into an American who gave us his card and told us to give him a call if we wanted any more tickets- pretty sure he was a scalper. We went in search of a noodle restaurant, but the taxi guy took us in the wrong direction so we ended up at a mall food court eating another authentic Chinese cuisine- PIZZA HUT! It tasted just like at home. We decided to find a movie theatre and shopped at the local Wal-Mart. It was a different experience, though- you can buy live fish there, and they were actually jumping from one tank to another! It was crazy! And there were people buying live shrimp- you just scoop them out with a net, and put them in a plastic bag. Talk about fresh! I don't understand why you would want to pay more for live ones, when the already dead ones are more convenient in my opinion. We walked to the movie theatre, only to find that Kung Fu Panda was the only English speaking movie, so we decided to play in the arcade instead.

They have a game similar to guitar hero, only for drums- precussion master! It was a blast, and I think I played it more than a few times. After heading back to our hotel for a quick break, we went out to another movie theatre and saw Hancock. It had Chinese subtitles but was in English. It was assigned seating, and they had ushers take you to your seat. Very classy place.

8/2- We went to the Temple of Heaven, and MAN was it H-O-T HOT! It was amazing architecture but it all started to look the same after awhile. Reds, blues, greens and yellows are the dominant colors used. It was so hot that we just were kind of over this after awhile, despite the great view of the city (and actual lack of pollution in the air). We went to Sizzler for lung- another American adventure. After, we went to a record store where they had a variety of pop music records from America. My favorite was Jordin Sparks representing the 602 in China! Haha!

We wanted to go to karaoke but they were all private room places and we wanted to sing with a crowd of random people, so we just opted for the regular bars. We went to a place called Red Moon Bar, where they played mainly techno music, but added some Akon and Britney Spears in the mix, before they had a live band. The band was really good- playing Ashlee Simpson and Linkin Park as a few of their songs! I had a Mai Tai, without the alcohol.. it wasn't supposed to be like that, but oh well. haha

8/3- TODAY IN BEIJING- it's 7:45 about here in Beijing as I type this entire blog. That's 13 hours ahead of you Tennesseans, and 15 hours ahead for you Arizonans! We went to the Lama Temple today- there were several Buddhas there symbolizing differe nt things- health, prosperity, and knowledge among others. They had a Buddha that was 55 feet tall carved from one piece of sandalwood. It was a sight to see! Several people were burning inscense and praying to the gods. A short walk across the street and we were at Confuscious' Temple. We walked around a lot saying "Confuscious Say" and some random phrase, just like the stupid fortune cookies we have in America. After, we ate at the fabulous Hard Rock Cafe- westerners were everywhere, of course. It's just something you have to do when you're out of the country and they have a Hard Rock!

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I feel bad for not eating the authentic food yet, but I'm kind of scared to! I don't want to get sick, and I am just thinking that I will.. I haven't had any of the water, of course- bottles only. I feel like I've just got a bunch of play money because it's different colors. Everywhere is yuan and RMB, and American dollars are not spent here, so that's unfortunate. haha- I'm excited to be here, but I seriously CANNOT wait for it to be over and I can be in America where I know what's going on. I feel bad that there's a language barrier and I don't know Chinese to communicate with everyone. There have been some nice people who do speak English and want to practice, so they help you, I just feel bad that I can't ask other people things in Chinese. I'm going to have to learn some more before we go out to the shops and I have to barter. I really just want these Olympic games to start!!

Talk to you soon!! Bye!