Hit Me Beijing, One More Time

July 4 - 11:25PM

Yesterday we met with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and tried on our uniforms (see left) and talked to our group leaders who will be training us for the games. I found out that I will be working in the National Indoor Stadium which is where gymnastics is going to be held! We still don't know exactly what we will be doing but hopefully will be finding out once our training starts on July 15. 

For lunch we went to a cafeteria on Renmin's campus where I ate a scoop of rice and a plain steamed bun. For breakfast I had a Luna bar so I was basically starving the whole day. It was one of the hottest days Beijing has had in a while (98 degrees F) so I drank a ton of water and began to realize how much weight I will probably lose on this trip. 

In the evening we had a banquet at the Angel Restaurant across the way from our dorms. We were presented with these stones that said our English name and our Chinese name. When the banquet was over, about 20 or so of us decided to go to a Karaoke bar called "Melody." We piled into three different taxis and were pleasantly surprised when we discovered that Melody offered private Karaoke rooms for practically nothing. We arrived around 10pm and left at 1am and it was less than $15 a person for the entire night -- including the mini kegs we ordered throughout the night. It was an incredibly fun night that helped bring all of us closer together as we belted out the lyrics to Britney Spears songs and America the Beautiful to celebrate the Fourth of July. I really didn't feel like I was in China while we were at Melody. There were marble floors and chandeliers ... I felt more like I was in a New York night club! Today, Melody was all we talked about on our hourlong bus ride into central Beijing for some media visits to the People's Daily website and China Youth Daily... it is definitely somewhere we want to go again!!  

The media tours we went on today were interesting but a little frustrating. It gets difficult to listen for long periods of times when the translator struggles over almost every word and doesn't relay anything that seems too interesting. At the end of presentations by the editors of both People and China Youth Daily we were able to ask questions. However, the answers we received always seemed jumbled and not directly responding to the question asked. While we were on the bus, I spotted a man wearing and I <3>

The best part about today was lunch. We went to a four star hotel where there was a huge Chinese-American style buffet. I ate vegetable spring rolls, sushi, fried rice, macaroni salad and banana bread! It was the first time I have been full the entire trip so I really enjoyed it! Since it was monsoon raining outside tonight, a few of us decided to order pizza from Domino's. It tasted just like it does at home so it is nice to know that at least that is available if we don't feel like pig liver or fried eel! 

Tomorrow we are getting on buses again and going to the Forbidden City where I will probably take hundreds of pictures! In the past two days alone I have taken over 300!! It is late here - almost midnight - and we have to be ready by 8am but I took a long nap when we returned from the media visits and just woke up a little bit ago! I'll check in tomorrow! 

XOXOX,

P