Bye For Now

It's been a whirlwind adventure. I loved every minute of it.

Here are some pictures wrapping up the trip. I have to admit I was getting a little sentimental toward the end so I took pictures of a lot of things that I always loved seeing around town.

It's still weird to be back, a lot less asian. But I can't wait to go back!

Cell Phones

China Mobile dominates when it comes to cell phone coverage here.  Granted they do a pretty good job.  I usually get service in elevators, in all buildings, even on most subways.  They make getting a cell phone and making it work very cheap and easy.  The first day of work with NBC they gave us all cellphones with unlimited minutes (I was pretty stoked about it and still am enjoying the free service.)  The first in-office crisis we faced was: setting up voicemail.  This was the first thing all the reporters and photogs wanted to do, but of course here in China, they don't believe in voicemails.  This was a hard concept for many of them to grasp at first, but soon you realize texting is way more efficient anyway.  There a couple special little characteristics of the phones here when you are making a call.  Most chinese people pride themselves in having really schnazy phones, so they want to use all the cool gadgets such as ring backs (I think thats what they're called.)  When you make a call, instead of hearing it ring, you hear ring backs – these horrible little songs that play on repeat until someone picks up.  Another wonderful part of making calls is when someone is busy or they don't pick up.  That's when you get this recorded message that first speaks chinese, but then in english and says, "the subscriber you've called is busy now please try again later."  Usually when I hear this message I want to chuck my phone against a wall...it frustrates me a bit.  But, today I got a new message that I've never heard before and this is a direct quote, "sorry the subscriber you've dialed is power off."   It's wonderful Chinglish like this that makes my day a little brighter.

It all makes sense now

I was riding in a cab today on my way home from work, and I realized why i like being able to speak Chinese.  As a child, like most children, I loved to have secret languages with my friends.  It started at a very young age.  Before I could write in cursive, I would fill notebooks with this chicken scratch stuff that really resembled a squiggly line.  Page after page of these squiggly lines!  Then in elementary school my friends and I would write notes in our secret language that we had made up.  So when the opportunity arose to take chinese in middle school how could I pass it up?  I got to learn a whole country's secret language.  Even today I get a little joy in speaking Chinese to other people when you know people around you won't understand a thing.  Like in the workspace at NBC, the other runners and I often talk in chinese when it is something about wanting to go home or something you wouldn't want to talk about around your boss.  hehe

On a completely other note, all the olympic volunteers (mostly chinese people) were given these really awesome outfits to wear to identify them as volunteers.  They're these collared shirts with a swirly blue and white pattern on it plus these khaki pants with the zip-off legs so they can turn into shorts.  You can't buy them anywhere except, of course, Ebay.  On ebay the whole outfit is going for about 5,000 yuan ($720USD)!!  I guess every volunteer received two of these get-ups and many of them are keeping one and selling the other to make a pretty penny. 

This picture is one of the Chicago reporters, Phil, in his brand new volunteer pants.  He has been talking non-stop this whole trip about how much he wants one of the volunteer outfits.  Well today, Blessing (one of the other amazing runners) came in with a surprise for him.  One of her friends is a volunteer and gave her his extra pair of pants so that she could give them to Phil.  Phil was so excited he immediately went to put them on and he will probably wear them for the rest of the trip.  Needless to say, Blessing has probably now secured herself a job at NBC Chicago.

Tonight is the closing ceremony, so security is really tight all over the city and a lot of the buses aren't running their normal routes.  There aren't very many cars on the roads either, it makes me wonder if they put an even bigger restriction on driving today because of the ceremony.  Last night it rained, so it was a beautiful day today...the weather was obviously planned, but it is extremely hot out, so to be honest I would not want to go sit in the Bird's Nest tonight to watch the closing ceremony because it will be soooo hot in there!

Tonight should be some crazy parties because USA took gold in basketball – men's and women's – and men's vollyball...definitely going to check it out.  I have yet to stay awake all night and then go to Tiananmen Square for the flag raising ceremony at sunrise, but maybe tonight is the night?

Added some more pictures

This is the same album from below,

but I added a bunch more to it.

Work is winding down, so it's time to play!

Yesterday was good fun! I was at work and one of my friends, Amy (the Aussie) came up to me and offered Matt (another runner like me) and I tickets to go watch Canoeing and Kayaking. Gosh, I love obscure sports! We went to our boss and nicely asked if we could go. He knows how much we wanted to go so, of course, he said yes.

They offer a free shuttle bus just for the media to and from this venue. The venue is a hike away, it isn't even in Beijing, so we jumped on the opportunity to have a free ride out to the middle of nowhere, in this case called Shunyi. On our way there, our bus crashed full-speed into a little white car. This being a busload of photographers, everyone whipped out their fancy sports-lensed cameras and started snapping shots. I was truely amazed as to how fast 5 police cars, a SWAT team and 4 soldiers with machine guns showed up at the scene considering we were in the middle of the countryside. Click here for all the pictures. As you can see the bus came out pretty much unscathed, but the little car was destroyed and their peaches went everywhere!

Gotta run, more later.

why I keep getting massages

Turning the corner onto Ji Qing Li Street, I am greeted with flashy lights welcoming me to Long Island.


When I enter the spa, I head down this well lit staircase lined with little potted plants.  I can here the waterfall and soothing music coming from the reception area.  I cross a little bridge 

a little pond of water and make my way to the front desk to check in for my appointment.

If they have me wait, I take a seat in one of these canopy daybeds and kick back with a magazine.  Then I am escorted to my private room.

 

The foot massage room usually has two plushy purple velvet chairs with a matching footstool.  Each room is geared with air conditioning and a TV if you choose to use them.  Before your escort leaves you in the room to either change or get comfy in the chair, they take your order.  Did I mention that they give you free food from a full menu.  They offer anything from dumplings, fruit plates, beef and noodles, and hamburgers to watermelon juice, tea, and omelets.  Also if you feel like it you can change into these little scrubs that they give you.  Next your masseuse will come in with a giant wooden barrel of hot water.  As you slowly ease your feet into the extremely hot water, they add cinnamon and aromatherapy bath salts to soothe the skin and make it smell yummy.  Next the masseuse will have you turn around and sit on the foot stool with your back to him and your first half hour of the 90 minute massage begins with a deep tissue back massage.  Once you're completely relaxed, he will move onto your feet.  You turn back towards him, this time he brought me a couple hot pads...one for my neck and one for my back, then you recline the chair and the reflexology foot massage begins.  All this for only $25!!  Just writing this made me realize I should probably go back tomorrow for another one!

Weirdo Baby Haircuts

This is the haircut I was talking about...have no idea how this became a trend