Here We Go Again...

I really can't believe it's been 4 years since Beijing, China! Lucky for me, this time around the Olympics are in LONDON, ENGLAND!!! Somewhere that speaks my language. I'm so excited, really! I attempted to learn Chinese, but WOW that is a difficult language. I'm pretty sure I only learned how to count to 6, and say "My name is" so it wasn't that great of a help.

Megan and I got tickets to several events in the 11 days we're going to be in England. Originally, we were just going to be there 8 days, but we got some more tickets, including the gold medal match for football (or soccer, in American terms)! So, we'll be spending 3 extra days there and I'm not upset about it one bit. Unfortunately, we had already booked our hotel, so we'll either have to contact them to see if we can add some days, or find somewhere else to stay!

We got tickets to basketball, fencing, tennis (at Wimbeldon, Centre Court!), beach volleyball, taekwondo, synchronized swimming, and wrestling - none of which I went to in China. I'm still pissed there's no softball (or baseball for that matter), but we get to see new things.

After London, we're going to head to Belgium for a day, then Luxembourg, before we head to Paris! We'll spend a few days in Paris, then head to the south of France. Cannes, Monte Carlo, and Nice... where we'll see MADONNA. I can't believe it myself!

I booked my flight the other day to London, which, thanks to Megan and her generosity of giving me her flight miles for my birthday, I only had to pay taxes on it! I've yet to book my flight back to the states, so I might just stay there and get a job. But in all actuality, I've been looking at flights, and it's possible that I might fly through Iceland and make a pit stop there. When would I ever go there? I just don't know that 1) I have the money to really do what I want, and 2) I keep adding things I want to do and it might be too much on my plate?

I'll keep this blog updated as I go places on road trips, plane rides, and across the pond. Ready for the next adventure- let's get crazy!

Photos Galore!

Here are my photos from my 28 days in China! Password is: danielle

Beijing '08

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!!