You are currently browsing articles tagged Olympics.
Sipping on champagne at USA House!
I know that it has sounded like a huge party, but volunteering at USA House has actually been a lot of really hard work. We’re celebrating the hard work with foot massages after we close. Last call, please!
My final night in Beijing comes with mixed feelings… I certainly miss the people and comforts of home (like toilets), but on many levels I’m really not ready to leave.
USA House was absolutely crazy tonight! We had special events for the women’s beach volleyball team (gold medal), the women’s water polo team (silver medal) and sponsors like McDonald’s and Hilton.
The women’s soccer team also came to USA House after their gold medal victory – the match went into overtime and didn’t conclude until after midnight. By the time the girls had gone through “doping” and the medal ceremony, it was almost 2am. And they were just getting started…
We also had celebrities in the house… Everyone was excited about Vince Vaughn, although I didn’t see him (like I would know, right?). Elissa and I had one funny moment where we thought some girls were trying to sneak in – turns out one of them was the Prince of Monaco’s girlfriend and they were OK… I need to brush up on my royalty, I suppose…
More later.
Long story short… I had to walk to USA House to print some stuff out. And as I was leaving, Crystl Bustos from the USA Softball team was walking in. So cool!
This morning I was lucky to get tickets to the USA-Japan softball game. And it was intense! My seat was next to Monica Abbot’s father which made it even more gut wrenching. (Monica Abbot pitched for the US in this game.)
Monica Abott pitched almost 9 complete innings in today's game vs. Japan. USA won 4-1.
Crystl Bustos solidified the US win with a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning.
The game was 0-0 after seven innings, so it went into softball’s version of overtime. Play continues, and the last batter out from the previous inning starts on second base to advance the offensive play.
Innings seven and eight remained scoreless, and then USA turned it on. Natasha Watley, who started on second base, motored around the field and scored on a hit by Caitlin Lowe. Then Crystl Bustos hit a home run, earning three more runs. The US crowd LOVES Bustos. They yell “BOOOOOOOOO-stus… BOOOOOOOOO-stus” when she’s up to bat.
This win advances Team USA into the gold-silver match-up and guarantees them a medal in the Games. The final softball game is on Thursday.
Go team!
It’s been a whirlwind of a day (or two?) here in Beijing. I’ve been up completely around the clock, and now I’m ready to catch my breath.
It started with the trampoline qualifying round on Saturday. It was interesting… The group I was with definitely didn’t understand the rules, but we had a good time creating our own interpretations and scoring. Unfortunately, it didn’t match with the judges and none of our “uniform winners” advanced to the next round.
From there, we had lunch at the McDonald’s at the Olympic Green. McDonald’s is a worldwide partner of the Beijing Games, and so we have lots of coupons for free meals. It’s hard to pass up at the Games… especially when the alternative is China’s version of the hot dog… They have an interesting ordering system where they use hand held machines – sort of like the UPS guys have for capturing delivery signatures. At McDonald’s, the machines output a ticket that you take to the register to pay. And then you move to another line to pick up your order. Which would all be very efficient if the Chinese adhered to waiting in lines. It’s chaos.
I took the subway home from the Olympic Green and stopped by a nail salon on the way back. Ahh… You can get extremely good service here for very little money. I had girls working on my hands and feet at the same time – the royal treatment. All for just $20 USD – and that was considered an expensive salon. (I think I’m worth it.)
From there it was directly to work for a late night of fencing and shooting medal celebrations. One of our shooting athletes was awarded the Bronze post-event because the person who scored into third place tested positive for drugs. They presented the medal to him at USA House, and then he presented an “Order of Ekos” medal to his coach. The “Order of Ekos” is new to the US team this year – it’s an award that athletes who medal can present to a coach or supporter. The medals are given out during the “Managing Victory” celebrations at USA House.
Sunday morning I was up bright and early to leave for the women’s marathon by 6am. I took a cab to the Bird’s Nest where security was very tight and very slow, and made it into my seat with just two minutes to spare.
It was an awesome race – a lot of upsets and surprises. The silver and bronze contest was really tough. The video is rough, but you can watch it here:
I was able to watch the entire race on the big screens at the Bird’s Nest until the finish. I was seated just before the 42km mark (the marathon is 42.165 kilometers) and had a great view of the final stretches.
During the race, there were Chinese “cultural” performances going on in the stadium. At one point, they played a Green Day song and all of the Americans (and the Canadian) that I was with started to sing. The Chinese thought this was hilarious and started videotaping and taking pictures like we were rock stars. Photos of the race are on Flickr here.
From there I went to the Summer Palace, which is northwest of the Bird’s Nest and just outside of Beijing. It was built by the Jin dynasty in the 1700s and includes gardens, a lake and dozens of buildings in various architectural styles.
Inside the buildings you could see relics of the original palace – mostly furniture and artwork. To be honest, I think a lot of the significance was lost on me since signage was almost entirely in Chinese. Photos from the Summer Palace are on Flickr here.
From there, I went directly to USA House. I went in a few hours early so another team member could go to the men’s tennis match.
Work was long, but exciting. Michael Phelps and Dara were in the house – although I didn’t see them. Not that I’ve been very good at recognizing people…
Last night I talked to Venus and Serena Williams and helped them shop in the store for quite awhile without realizing it. I didn’t catch on until the US Wrestling team started swarming them for autographs. Duh.
I was similarly stupid yesterday – I talked with Michelle Kwan about Olympic pins for about 10 minutes and never realized who she was.
So, I definitely have no problem not acting starstruck … I don’t recognize anyone! We’ve also had Kerri Strug, David Schwimmer and some girl from Grey’s Anatomy in the house recently.
After work I had passes to Club Bud – a night club where celebrities and Olympians can go. There were tons of people wearing Olympic medals and Opening Ceremonies garb. I didn’t tour the entire club, but it’s set up for different themes based on the Chinese elements of nature. One room – I’m assuming “water” – even had a swimming pool. Of course, I didn’t have my camera.
So today, I’m taking it easy… I slept in a little and then went to a yoga class. I found a really great yoga studio in my neighborhood. It has classes in both English and Chinese, although I slept past all of the English classes today. I decided to try out the Chinese version and really enjoyed it. I didn’t understand a single word said during the entire class, but it worked out okay.
Now, it’s time to do laundry and recuperate. It should be another big night in the house…
