Tianqi (The Weather)

High: Excited to be at our first olympic event we were thrilled to hear the speakers boom the olympic theme song. We were a little less thrilled the second, third, fourth, and fifth time it played (in a row) and actually became quite concerned that it was never going to stop. Never fear, however, we were saved by the sweet sweet sound of Ms. Shania Twain. Hallelujah!
Low: We were so well prepared for our first event. We made a special trip to the grocery store to make sure we would be neither hungry nor thirsty. Alas, when we arrived at the front of the line to enter the park we were told by a friendly, but rather stern young Chinese man that we would not be allowed to bring any food our liquid into the park -- he went so far as to confiscate our gum.
AHA: We went out for our first Chinese meal and we were a little overwhelmed by the 400+ items available on the rather thick menu. Never fear, however, because most entries were accompanied by helpful and remarkably accurate pictures.

Yesterday was out first olympic event -- Kayaking Women's Semi-finals and Finals and C2 Men's Semifinals and Finals. We were picked up by our guide at 11:30 even though the event wasn't until 3:00 because she was concerned about how long it would take us to get to the venue if there was traffic...30 minutes later we arrived at the whitewater park. The park was cool -- the course is entirely man-made and actually runs in a semi-circle which gives fans optimum viewing (and we had a full 3 hours to admire the optimum viewing before the first race began). Unfortunately, we also got to experience rain -- serious rain. Flashback to the morning, we packed a grand day bag. Complete with water, lovely Chinese seasme cookies, Chinese melon flavored bubble gum, sunscreen, a 2nd layer, event tickets and lots of cash money. How, HOW did we manage to forget our rain jackets?! The pertetual smog had fooled us. No sooner had we arrived at the venue then what did we see? A huge cloud of rain and large wind blown tree. (thank you Dr. Alden Suess). With our choice of seats, we opted for the higest (and thankfully covered) seats, and we able to watch the storm come in, lightening, thunder and all! The spectators streamed in, everyone with clear plastic rain coat. And then a wave of light pink plastic rain coats, followed by purple and then green. we got the hint, braved the rain and obtained our very own (wihich were aparently being given out at the entrance).

And on with the races! The C2 race was great and the Slovakians were the most vocal, but by the end of the men's C2 semi-finals the lightening storms had gotten so bad that they decided to postpone the women's kayaking event for 30 minutes...and then they postponed it again...and then a note flashed up on the screen that the remaining races were being cancelled until the following day. So we flooded out of the park with the rest of the fans and joined the immense taxi line, only to realize that there weren't any taxis. A helpful woman in line told us that if we got on the K-19 bus it would take us back to olympic village and so we fought our way onto a bus that we were assured was a K-19. About an hour into the ride, right as Alden was mentioning that we were in a part of Beijing that you don't generally see on tours, then bus stopped and everyone piled off. We were decidedly not in olympic village. But, like manna from heavan, a taxi was heading towards us as soon as we left the bus terminal and he delivered us safely back to our hotel without further adventures.

After changing into drier clothes, we headed out for our first chinese dinner at a restaurant about a block from our hotel. Mushrooms in oyster sauce with bok choy, beef noodles, and shrimp wonton and noodle soup, topped off with two Tsing Dao beer -- we were happy and full. And on the walk back to the hotel we discovered that the advantage of pouring rain for 5 hours is that it actually clears the smog. We woke up this morning to the cleanest air we will probably have for the entire trip.

Tonight we leave for Xian and we will undoubtedly have much to say about our first overnight train experience in China. Xie Jian (Goodbye).