Olympic Fever

Kim and I flew into Beijing on the August 21st and since the Olympics were still going on we decided to head down the Olympic Village and check out the hoopla. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun to see everything lit up and experience the excitement a little as we watched events on the huge tv screens, saw the Bird's nest with the torch lit, heard the cheers, saw SO many foreigners and witnessed the pride in every Chinese person's face. We even met a sweet family on the subway that had their little boy get an "Olympic haircut." Too funny.

































Looking for Phelps...
And since China won the most gold medals but the US won the most medals overall I feel like a very good compromise was achieved. It's been fun to talk about the Olympics with people here and share in their pride. They absolutely adore Michael Phelps and have all sorts of funny nicknames for him in Chinese (i.e. "fly fish"). They also love to talk about the Redeemed Team and how their favorite NBA players came to China....and, of course, Yao Ming. They're very sad about Liu Xiang's (the great Chinese hurdler) injury but seem sympathetic.


Taken in Beijing in June of 2006 when my mom and sister were here for a visit. And now, in August of 2008.


With all the excitement that was built up for the past eight years or so, I've been a little worried about how the country will respond now that it's almost over. I must admit that on August 9 (the day after 8.8.08 and the opening ceremonies) I surprised myself by being a little sad that the much anticipated day had come and gone. I talked with a Chinese friend on QQ over the summer and here's his response to how his country will respond to the end of the Beijing Olympics.

"After happiness, there's always a down and then calm down and then up. Just like a tide."

Spoken like a true Chinese philosopher. And I do believe he will be right.