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8/23/2008 |
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OLYMPICS 2008 |
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Saturday August, 23rd
One last night at the Birds Nest was a surprise bonus for me. Yesterday morning I got a call from someone who wasn't going to use their tickets...11 rows up from the track at the Javelin throw end of the stadium. I called my friend John Gates, who lives in the direction of the Olympic Green, he was thrilled. We cabbed it to the #5 subway line and off we went. Near the fields we caught the K15 bus that is Olympic ticket holder only direct line to the gates...pretty seamless.
The line in was long, but moved pretty fast and they never tore my ticket. I don't think it means that much, but it is kind of fun to have an untorn ticket to the last event in the Birds Nest (except for closing ceremony, tonight).
The events last night were all for the gold and that made it exciting. Javelin throw, Women's high jump, Womens 1500 meeter, Women's 4 x100 relay, Men's 800, Men's 5000 and Men's 4 x 100s. The 91,000 seat stadium was very full and in my area almost all Chinese.
It is hard to believe that we were in a Communist country. The crowds are new at being spectators at an event like this, but I think they are getting used to it. Now that Beijing has some of the most state of the art sports facilities in the world, what are they going to do with them? China will expect this new phenomenon to carry on.
Brad was bummed. After 8 nights at the Birds Nest complaining about the lack of food, he discovered something they had that wasn't advertised...typical Chinese organization. He said he saw a worker getting a popcycle out of the freezer and asked for one. He was more excited about that than anything last night...having had two already and thinking about a third.
When it was all over and we were back home and hungry, we scootered off to a favorite place in our neighborhood, The Pommegranate...a converted hutong village house into a sports bar. The Pommegranate is as multi cultural as the Olympics. Owned and run by an Aussie and an Irishman, staffed by Chinese and patroned by every sports guy and family from the international expat community. Brad and I shared a cheeseburger...and then saving calories, we shared another one. It is less fattening I think having two halfs and not a whole.
Today is church and then friends are coming over to watch the Men's basketball, stay for dinner and watch the closing ceremonies. The sky is birds egg blue as it really has been for the last several days. We may fit in a tennis match to work off my two half burgers.
Robbie
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posted time 7:34:42 PM |
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