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8/17/2008 |
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OLYMPICS 2008 |
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Busy, busy weekend of Olympic viewing. Ben, my son who lives in Xiamen,China came up Friday afternoon. After he, Brad and I scootered over to a Middle Eastern restaurant for an outdoors lunch we caught a cab to the airport and rode the airport shuttle to catch the subways to the games. Ben and I went to see more swimming at the Cube and Brad took in some tennis. We got to see Mark Phelps qualify for the 100 meter butterfly, which he of course went on to win the gold (by 100th of a second!!)
The next morning Ben and I met up with two friends John Jennison and his visitor, Amy and headed off for a day and night of fanfare. We went to basketball in the morning. Watching Angola get beat by Greece was not much of a match. I think St. Mark's could beat Angola, but I know Highland Park could. The game between Russia and Australia was better. But a lot of the fun is getting to see another incredible venue and experience all the international fans! Each country has fans with their own personality for sure.
We then met up with one of Ben's old roomates (pre Jenny his wife) who lives here in Beijing now. Ben Hopgood finished his MBA at Xingua Daxue (university) and is heading today for a 3 month internship in Egypt...these guys lead such interesting lives.
We then headed to marathon tennis. We watched a China favorite, Li Na, get beat by Safina Darafina (probably mispelled) in a close match. It is always great fun to be in the crowd with a Chinese athlete competing...the fans go wild. Of course that is not what fans are supposed to do at a tennis match, so everyone was given "tennis etiquette" pamphlets and the judges had their work cut out for them to do crowd control. So funny!! It is much like the days we had all last year called "queing" days, to help the Chinese learn how to stand in line. Their nature is to push and get ahead of you any way they can. Even after all their "Miss Manners" classes, you dare not leave an inch in front of you in line. It will be usurped.
Then we watched Serena and Venus Williams win the gold and John Blake get beat by DJakovic of Serbia (also mispelled I am sure). Djakovic was so exstatic when he won, which was a bronze medal...he fell to his knees, got up ripped his shirt off and began throwing every thing he had to the crowd: his shirt, his wristbands, and even 3 rackets!! Very cute.
The highlight though was watching Federer and Warinka take the gold in the 4th game of best of 5. Seeing the Men's Doubles Medal Ceremony so up close and in a small venue was great. Through out the match the bantering between the uptight Swiss fans (for Federer) and the hillarious Swedes was worth the price of the ticket.
That was a late night...got home and in bed around 1:30. So having Sunday as a day of rest was welcome. Church, then lunch, quiet afternoon with two young friends from Dallas: Trip Edwards (who lives here and I see regularly) and Leslie Horn (who has been here as a volunteer intern with her school.) We hung out, had a foot massage, ate some Tex Mex and off to the Athletic events at the Birds' Nest. What a truly magnificent structure...it was a thrill to be there. This week for me will be more back to normal with a sprinkling of Olympics...I have to focus now. It has been a blast, but responsibilities are catching up!
(I did just snag a few tix to kayaking and field hockey and hoping for soccer finals...so, just to be honest, I am not going cold turkey!)
Robbie
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posted time 8:51:49 AM |
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