Weather forecast

I woke up this morning to clearer skies, meaning I could actually see the apartment buildings across the street from our university. The good visibility always happens the day after a good rainstorm, and we had one yesterday. You can tell exactly how the day is going to be (usually) by looking out our window to see the apartment buildings: Smoggy? Yes, no sun to be seen today. Less smoggy? Oh it'll just be hot and humid. Clear? What?!?! (That's only happened maybe three times since I've been here.)

I know that the news reports from Beijing have said that the air quality is indeed improved (not visibly, but by scientific measurement) but I am not sure that this is the case. I personally have not noticed an improvement, except maybe in the pollution caused by the traffic reduction rule. I know that we are becoming more used to the air here, but it's still by no means vastly improved. I feel bad for the marathon runners.

The air situation was actually mentioned by two of my fellow Chinese photo volunteers. One was talking about her brother, who lives in the States, and how much 'different the environment is' there. The other said that there weren't as many birds in Beijing because of the air quality-- this is true, there are a few sparrows and that's about it, besides the caged birds that are popular pets. I was very surprised to hear the situation mentioned by any citizens here.

I'm going to go enjoy the view while I can...

Kung Fu Panda and Kong Chef's Table

The photo services crew (Val, Alysha, Chris & I) were in for a night of fun after training with our new Chinese friends. We had asked them last week about Noodle Loft-- due to our quest to visit it-- and they were so excited. Yesterday, when I arrived at work, Lake (his English name) informed me that he had eaten at the Noodle Loft the previous day and it wasn't that great. He had found another noodle place to eat instead, Master Kong Chef's Table! He also bought tickets for us to see Kung Fu Panda at the cinema.

After work, we took the subway to the restaurant where we enjoyed delicious beef and noodle dishes as well as some interesting desserts. My favorite dessert was the mango ice cream and peanut ice cream; least favorite (the Chinese love it) was a red bean and green bean iced dessert with mango and the little gelatin balls that are found in bubble tea. Interesting. The girls at our table were so cute and fun. We had a blast!

Before we left, we were given red envelopes with one yuan inside, which is a gift of good luck, according to our new friends. Red envelopes with money are traditionally given on special occasions like weddings or Chinese New Year. What a sweet gesture!

There wasn't enough time to go back to CUC before the movie so we headed there and played games in the arcade. We raced cars and tried to win a panda out of one of those elusive claw machines. Amanda, a Chinese volunteer, and I tried DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for the first time. What a disaster. I can safely say I will never attempt a repeat performance. But at least I tried.

Kung Fu Panda was great, and I am happy to be able to have seen it while in China. It was really neat to see how many of the cultural details really are (somewhat) like the country, and I know that firsthand now. Most notably, the differences between the theater here and at home are that they serve sweetened popcorn (it was a strange sensation when my taste buds were expecting butter and salt!) and the movie sound is much quieter. The seats were really comfortable, too, but I will say that I can't wait to eat some buttered popcorn at my next viewing experience at home.

We were so thrilled to have had this experience with our photo services comrades, and they seemed equally as excited. They told us after that they would not have had dinner and a movie in the same night if it weren't for us. We felt guilty for them being so generous, but hopefully we'll have an opportunity to return the favor sometime soon. It is so fun to make new friends at work, and to learn more about Chinese culture from people our age.

It was a great ending to an interesting day. At the venue, we learned more about where we would be stationed during the events and what would be happening where. It's important for us to know where photographers can and can't go as well as who can go where (Pool photographers have the run of the house, pretty much) but more about this later. We were able to see some Chinese track cyclists practicing, which was awesome. It made me want to buy a bike when I get home, for sure, and gave us a taste of the speed we would be seeing at the Games.

Today I saw a Mao suit

Val and I had a fabulous morning at Beihai Park. We planned to get an early start, in order to check out the morning activities of the locals, and set our alarms accordingly. We rolled out of bed and out the door by 6:30, certain we were too late to get to the park in time (it took about 40 minutes by subway/taxi to get there), but we were greeted by the sight of a elderly Beijing man walking backwards past our building—a sure sign that it was exercise time.

As we walked along the streets, people were lined up at shops’ counters to get their breakfast- various meats and rolls and pastries. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure a chicken wing is not the best way for me to start my day, so Val and I passed. KFC was open, full of hungry customers chowing down on sandwiches of all sorts. This is 7 a.m., don’t forget.

We arrived at the park and were happy to find that we didn’t miss anything. In fact, we were in the midst of entertainment wherever we went! I have to say that this was the most enjoyable morning I have spent in Beijing. We watched people practice tai chi, flag and fan dancing, tap and jazz dancing, as well as a strange exercise that involves wearing thick gloves and walking on all fours. Not sure what this accomplishes or signifies…

In addition, there were people playing all sorts of games like badminton and kicking this feathered toy, which looked so fun to try.

The park was beautiful and peaceful for the first part of the morning, until more people started to arrive. After we had our fill of the dancing and such, we found a quiet spot by a pond where others were enjoying snacks and naps to plan the rest of our day.

Next stop: the Drum and Bell Towers to the north of Beihai. We climbed the Drum Tower to see the drums being beaten, which was an even steeper climb than the Great Wall (or very close). It was a nice view—had there been no smog—followed by a short presentation of the drums sounding. All of the drums are replicas of the 24 that were beaten in Imperial times, when the civil and military leaders apparently organized their lives around the signals. There is one original drum which was very neat to see; it seemed as if it would fall apart if touched.

After the steep descent (I didn’t fall down!), we grabbed lunch at a little Chinese café near the towers. It was the first spring rolls we had seen in Beijing, and they were fantastic. So fresh and tasty! Val was pretty excited about soy sauce, which doesn’t usually come with meals anywhere here, believe it or not. Also there is no salt or pepper available (unless you’re at a Western restaurant). In addition, I enjoyed some crab dumplings which were pretty good too.

We decided to be super-touristy and take a rickshaw (bicycle with passenger seats or cargo area) around the hutong area we were in. It was fun, but our driver kept stopping at all of these doors that were significant in some way and insisted on taking our photo at each one. Of course, the accompanying signs were written in Chinese so we had no idea what we were seeing. It was on this ride that I saw an old man in a Mao suit, as in a military green, Chairman Mao Zedong, style suit. Wow. What a sight.

My guide book included an interesting walking tour of the Dashilan area, which includes some notable stores dating from the Qing era as well as some great hutong. We were headed in the right direction, but then could not find where exactly the walk started. The book does not list anything in Chinese, only English, so it was kind of difficult…okay, really difficult at times. To help you understand how the hutong system works, picture narrow alley-like streets with no comprehendible signs to indicate where you are or where you should be going. There is also no one around on many of the smaller streets, much less anyone who can speak a word I can understand.

Finally! I found a recognizable street included in the tour! Of course, it turned out to be the last street, the one we were supposed to end up on at the end. We did the logical thing and proceeded to go backward through the route in the book. It worked out great! We saw some fun shops and I bought a piece of celadon pottery to take home. The people in the shop were so nice, and then invited us to have tea. We enjoyed a traditional Chinese tea and learned a lot. The tea was so good!

Since this blog is getting pretty lengthy, I will just tell you about one other notable shop we visited. This was the Tongrentang traditional Chinese medicine company, where you can find anything from shark fins to giant mushrooms to dried lizards and sea horses (among other things I could not identify). Some of the items were very expensive, up to thousands of yuan. It was crazy! Two floors of all kinds of healing elements, and the shop was bustling with customers.

The shop was on a main street near Tiananmen Square and was being prepared for the Olympics. Flowers in planters lined the streets and some heavy-duty street construction was taking place... I wonder if they'll have it done in time?

What a day! And to top it off, I had some coffee-flavored gum that left me craving a latte, as well as some chewy strawberry candy that was like gum but meant to swallow after a little bit of chewing. One other thing you might find interesting was something our Chinese volunteer friends introduced us to, a drink that they call the ‘acid drink’, which tastes like BBQ sauce, no joke. It is refreshing to drink cold, but I won’t lie—I couldn’t finish it. It is very fun to see all of the flavors here for products that we would never consider using at home, like prawn-flavored potato chips. Oh yummy. I am going to make it a point to write more about these foods in the future.

Here’s a quick shout-out to Carah, Liz and Caitlin. Thanks for the call the other night; it was great to hear from you! I have yet to hear any Dave in Beijing, but I'll keep my ears open.

Learning, waiting, watching

We got our uniforms today! After three hours of waiting and waiting… and waiting, we finally got them from the storage area, transported them to the velodrome by bicycle – I got to drive!—and sat and organized each person’s items. This all could have taken place rather quickly, in an hour or so, but it didn’t.

I’m not sure if it’s a lack of organization or what, but it was so hard for our little group not to just take charge and distribute the items ourselves. Or at least grab our stuff and get out. It also might be that the Chinese just don’t seem to be in that big of a hurry to get things done; things just kind of happen when they happen.

This isn’t to say there is a right or wrong way of doing things; I just want to point out some differences. Yesterday we were sitting in the press conference room and four people walked in. They proceeded to care for the plants in the front of the room at the podium. There were maybe 15 medium-size pots. One man watered, one put dead leaves into a bucket which the third woman held, all while the fourth watched.

This type of group work can be found throughout Beijing, and I’m not sure what it accomplishes. It is just very different from the U.S., where we like streamlined and efficient systems to get things done. Here, not so much.

After biking to the velodrome with the boxes of clothes, I hopped off and proceeded to grab a box to take it inside. It was immediately grabbed by one of the guys with me and he said no, no that they had “many friends to help”, indicating more men on their way over. I tried again to help and they finally let me after I told them that in the U.S., women like to do the same things as guys. I picked up a box that maybe weighed 20 pounds and was told by a girl that I was “so strong!”

I’m not sure if this was just politeness or what, but it struck me as interesting. Women here are treated as equals of men (so I’ve seen on some levels at least) but with more old-fashioned chivalry, I guess you’d say, than in the States, for the most part. The guys that ride with us to and from work on the subway are always the first to grab a seat for us before themselves and let the women get in line for lunch or enter buildings first. This is not to say that our American boys are any less polite, of course…

At lunch, we learned from our Chinese friends that the soup which accompanied our meal every day was actually Green Bean Soup (no beans, though, just broth) and was good to drink in order to lower your body temperature in hot weather. Could someone please explain to me how this works?

I can without a doubt say that you learn (or at least observe) something new every day here!

Training days

Wednesday was our first day of training at the Laoshan Bicycle Cluster. We left our dorm at 7:30 a.m. for a commute by subway (we take Line 1 from one side of the city to the other) and then on foot to the venue, an hour and a half of travel total. Good times.

I will preface this by saying (if it isn't evident by the lack of detail I've given thus far) that we know very VERY little about the details of our work. It is kind of tiring to wonder day after day when you'll be given your instructions or at least know what you will be doing the next day (or any day, for that matter). But--finally!-- a call from Lisa, one of our supervisors, alerted us to report for duty.

So there we were, walking up to the brand-new Laoshan Velodrome (where track cycling events are held and we'll be spending the majority of our time), ready for duty. But first a morning pat-down by security, scanning of credentials, and a stroll through the x-ray machine. We signed in, received meal vouchers and our three bottles of water (down to 2 today) and headed to the Photo Manager's office. There are a myriad of titles and acronyms used in this place which I won't bore you with. Unless of course people want to know. Like I said earlier, I could create a dictionary of sorts for this.

Here is what we think our training schedule looks like until the Games begin:
Morning lecture
Lunch 11- noon
"Rest" until 1:30
Some kind of activity in the afternoon

I wasn't able to attend yesterday as I was still battling my mystery sickness (sorry for ignoring the blog, too) but today followed this same schedule. The lectures are from various managers and supervisors around the venue. Usually, we hear the same information at least three times. The first day we also got to tour the facilities, which was great. It is unbelievable to be behind the scenes, especially before all the commotion begins in August. Construction is basically finished, there are just minor things going in now, especially all of the computers and technology required for information storage and delivery between our venue and the MPC. (Basically, the faster the photographers from the big outlets like Reuters, Getty and AP can get their images out, the faster and more they are used/sold by news media around the world.)

We checked out the BMX track which looks insanely difficult to master at high speeds on a little bike (in my inexpert opinion). We have the great honor of seeing the first BMX Olympic competition ever which is really exciting!

The mountain bike competition will take place on Laoshan Mountain (more like a very large hill) and some of the inclines those riders have to face look terrifying. I have only seen glimpses of the course but it looks intense.

Today, the best part of work was our rest time which we spend on battery-powered scooter bikes that are amazingly fun. Basically you can pedal if you want, or use the throttle (maybe?) to use the motor (I am not very technically inclined, I apologize) and then if you pedal AND use the throttle it goes really fast. Chris and I (whose scooters were the most charged) made it up a big hill and decided we needed the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz's theme music to accompany our rides. I have a feeling we'll be using these a lot!

My roomie Val and I won't be able to sleep tonight; we are so excited about getting our uniforms tomorrow!!

Back in the game

I'm back. I apologize for the delay in posts, but I have been sick for the past few days with something that left me curled up in bed drinking Sprite, watching old Cary Grant movies, and eating meager helpings of rice and Cheerios. I don't know what it was but I'm glad it's over. Let's just say I have never wished for homemade chicken soup so much as then.

Since my last post, I have done a few things. Getting an hour-long massage that was cheaper than a grande Frappucino and muffin at Starbuck's was a highlight. Four girls and two guys decided to go, and some had already visited the massage parlor once, so they knew that the women gave a much gentler massage. There was only one female masseuse available, however, so Chris and Patrick did a rock-paper-scissors war to see who would get her.

After putting on slippers about two sizes too small with cartoon cats on them, all of us girls went into a room, donned 'pajamas', and enjoyed our massages. Kelsey, who was next to me, was getting a special treatment that sounded like she was being beaten with a wet noodle. She said it felt good, though! I enjoyed my visit thoroughly but the next day my back was slightly bruised. Well worth the pain, I thought.

Watching the pre-Olympic coverage on CCTV 5 entertained me when I wasn't sleeping the past few days. They show sporting events from past Games as well as qualifying events for this year. Sometimes they are tutorials of how individual sports work (this type of thing is also shown on the subway); my guess is to have the people of China broaden their knowledge of all the Olympic sports by Games time.

Today, we took the subway to the Pearl Market, where we bartered for pearls for ourselves as well as gifts. It was a little overwhelming for me, since I don't know anything about jewelry. The advice we did have was to bite the pearls to make sure they were real. It was a pretty fascinating place. Megan, Val, and I wanted Starbucks so we found a taxi and asked the driver to take us there before we went home. He was great! He spoke some English (which he learned by tape, he said) and helped us with a few key Chinese phrases. He waited for us to purchase our drinks then drove us home.

The drive home was much faster today, thanks to the new driving laws enforced by the government for the Olympics. It basically states that on certain weekdays, vehicles with licenses ending in odd numbers only are allowed on the road, and on the other days, only even-numbered plates are allowed. We weren't sure if this would actually work when we first heard about it, but after today I am pretty sure that it will make a difference. Not sure how well it could be enforced in Chicago, but this would do wonders for the traffic in the city!

Tonight we are going out to dinner for Alysha's birthday. Happy 22nd!

Picture of persistence

I'll start this post with a cliche which I have come to believe applies to my life in Beijing: 'Good things come to those who wait.' Yesterday was a pretty great day and included three successful cab rides-- yes, three, in one day! We went to the Beijing Zoo, anxious to see the native pandas as well as the other creatures. When we arrived, I was thrilled to find out that there was even a Penguin House!

I'll admit I was a little shocked at some of the animal enclosures. Not what I expected for the largest zoo in China, housing some of the most endangered animals in the country. I love animals, so of course I wanted to help them all. We had fried chicken for lunch, which seemed to be a popular lunch choice for a day at the zoo (a little more appetizing than cuttlefish on a stick, if you ask me). There were also these Pringle-type chips that tasted like they were basted in V-8 juice. They were okay.

The aquarium adjacent to the zoo was pretty neat; very new. There were some fish that were big enough to eat a small child. I don't know where they find these things.

Afterwards, we wanted to keep up with our lucky day and decided to visit an Olympic store. (It's a goal of Val and me's to visit all the official stores.) We met a few new friends and learned of a huge store further down the road. We decided to go for it, so Val, Kelsey and I trekked down to Wangfujing Street, where there are many large hotels and stores. And then we saw it. Amazing. The flagship store for the 2008 Beijing Olympics aka retail heaven for those of us with gifts to buy for friends and family. We spend a good two hours in the place, it was so large. Then we ate at an authentic Chinese food court downstairs which was very entertaining. Basically, you walk around (and since you're American, people all want you to buy the food from their shop-- don't ask me why) and choose what you want and pay with it using a prepaid card. When you're done, you return the card and receive a deposit and any excess yuan back. It's somewhat inefficient but I'm sure they have their reasons.

Today, we hit up a t-shirt store we'd been wanting to visit in a hutong (charming, narrow old alleyway communities) area. This street turned out to be one of my favorite places I have visited on the trip so far. It was so quaint, with fun shops and cafes to enjoy a beer and snack. We took our time checking out the shops and chatted for awhile at a little bar. I got a sweet pingpong player t-shirt.. very Beijing. I also found some pottery for my apartment, and bartered like a pro today. The strangest thing I saw: dead bugs posed as people in different sports scene. See my photo album for a soccer one.

Taking a cab back instead of the subway turned out to be very worthwhile. We saw the city all lit up, and it was a beautiful sight.

Goodnight!