Rhiannon's Life: Beijing Olympics

So, once again after eight years of very very patiently waiting, I ventured back to China to attend the 2008 Summer Olympics!! While my plan had been to have this as a graduation present, I couldn't quite get it done before and ummm my good excuse was that the Olympics were not going to wait for me to finish my dissertation to happen. I will say that it was well worth a little hiatus from the writing and after writing this blog I will be well on my way back to the writing.
I arrived in Beijing a few days after the start of the Olympics (the flights were cheaper that way). The friends I would be going to events with were also arriving on the 14th of August, so it all worked out quite well.
The first Olympics I was at was Sydney and while before Sydney I was always glued to the TV watching as much of the Olympics as possible, I never really thought that it would be possible to go. I guess I always thought tickets were impossible to get, they would be too expensive etc.. Come to find out, tickets (that is if you aren't going to the opening or closing ceremony, swimming or diving) are quite reasonable and getting them either takes a little planning in advance or a little savvyness (sp??).

Why do I like the Olympics?

One reason I like the Olympics, you get to travel to a different country (nope, don't like doing that:))In addition, the country of course gets to showcase it best aspects. Example, the great wall..... Absolutely amazing!!!

Well there are many reasons why I enjoy the two week long celebration, sporting events (some of which I never knew existed, let alone how they worked) and just plain Fun. While in recent years the Olympics seems to carry with it an assortment of political and social upheavels, those who attend and host the games seem to have an amazing ability to superseed all the political contentions, disputes, and chaos. Individuals come to honestly enjoy sports of all kinds in a different country. If your country isn't competing in one event, you grab the flag (not literally:) and support that country. Or as we did in the gold medal match arbitrarily pick a team and start to support them, find out they aren't the "nicest" team and decide to switch sides and root for the underdog.
Having arrived for the very first time in China seven years ago on July 13th, 2001 the day the IOC announced Beijing as the host of the 2008 Olympics, I was definitely welcomed by millions and millions (literally) of Chinese who were beyond absolutely ecstatic about hosting the 2008 Olympics. And true to their word they worked extremely hard, while I can't say that I agree with all of their practices over the last seven years, it is amazing how the international community is so quick to judge and look at the negative and I feel that credit should be given to all of those who worked so hard to not only provide an amazing Olympics, but to improve the lives of millions within China. Their efforts to reduce the pollution were extremely successful as evidenced by the blue sky every day I was there. I really couldn't believe it, it was amazing!! This is really something that I hope citizens of not only Beijing, but other areas of China really take note of.
Here are some photos. As you will see from the photos, for some events, we were quite far away and others a little closer. The bird's nest which was an absolutely amazing architectural design allowed for everyone to have an unobstructed view. So, regardless of your seat you had a great view. The people were just a little smaller if you sat higher up:)
Baseball Game- China vs. USA

From Left to Right- Aaron, Adam, Me, Eric and two Chinese girls who wanted to have their photo taken with us:)

On Monday of the second week of the Olympics I was able to meet up with a CIDE friend, Shane. Shane is now living in Beijing with his wife and had three tickets to beach volleyball (which I love to watch)and it was the quarterfinal match with Roger and Dalhausser (USA)!! So, when asked if I would like to go, I couldn't refuse.
Dalhausser spike the ball

It was a beautiful, maybe slightly humid (of course after Manila in June and July, I have learned to use the word humid with certain qualifiers before it) day!! And the two matches we watched were awesome! The second match was between Georgia and the Netherlands. I later come to find out that one of the "Georgians" was Brazilian. Never the less it was amazing to see them play. And at the end when they one, Gia (who I assume) was from Georgia ran to the top of the bleachers and stood right under the Georgian flag. This was only two days after the beginning of the Georgian conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Shane and me after the beach volleyball match