DISPENCE

It’s been a great almost eight months here in the Middle Kingdom. Now I hop a plane to Washington DC for my next adventure.

As a side effect of studying in China I got opportunities to visit Thailand, Mongolia, Russia, South Korea, work for Australians, Canadians, Mexicans and Americans at the Olympics, be part of history, and be at the center of the world.

There’s not something or somewhere else I could have done or gone to experience anything like I have in China. Images of the smiling road-side food stand guy, the four foot tall old lady collecting plastic bottles, donkey carts rolling down streets outside shiny office buildings, the orange smoggy sun setting over the mountains will all stay with me.

In a time and place with so much and so little money at the same time, there was celebration. The world came to China for the Olympics and the people were ecstatic. Things went off without a hitch and China and its 1.3 billion people are better for it. This country, with one sixth of the world’s population, is on the verge of becoming the world’s newest superpower.

But my time in China was, at times, far removed from international controversy, from Tibet demonstrations, from One China Policy arguments, from communist questioning.

Sitting in my Chinese class at Tsinghua University I was literally surrounded by the world. In my class of 12 there were students from America, Australia, Colombia, France, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Peru, South Korea and Vietnam. No where else could I have experienced a mix like this. No time else in my life could I have interacted with my peers from around the globe.

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I’m almost done with my time in China. Here’s a pic of the Closing Ceremony Sunday night. Everything went back to normal almost immediately. Security at our building ceased, and an access card into my apartment complex isn’t really necessary anymore.

It’s been nearly eight months and I have to say I’m ready to go back to America. I’ll post some sort of China wrap-up soon and explain why China is the land of almost.

And by the way, I’ve been getting a lot of Spam comments from random places like Ukraine. To combat this, I’ve installed something called Captcha that prevents Spam. An actual human must write the comment and type in the special words in order for the comment to go through. Try it.

That’s the 29th Olympiad, of which we are in. These just happen to be the games that fall on that cycle. An Olympiad is four years and these are the games during the 29th one.

I’ve been able to get to a few events. Water Polo and Boxing were great. A friend of me gave me a ticket to boxing but I had to get my own tickets for water polo. A few weeks ago, I stood in line for four and a half hours waiting to buy tickets. I was the only foreigner but the 50 RMB ticket was worth the wait.

Watching Olympic-caliber water polo was great. Finally I saw teams doing things that coaches have been beating into my brain for years! Players would actually wing out at half court. Upon a kick-out, the man-up play was set up instantly. And of course it was awesome seeing these guys get so far out of the water and just nail shots from anywhere.

At halftime the infamous Olympic Fuwa came out. Think of the Fuwa what you want, but it was hilarious seeing them try to dance. They were in big, inflated suits so their mobility was definitely restricted. I wanted to see them fall in the pool and float around helpless…. I don’t know why but it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.

The YingDong Natatorium is across the fourth ring road in the Olympic Sports Center. The 9:30 morning session was packed! By the third game of the session there wasn’t an empty seat to be had.

Boxing was at the Workers Gymnasium, right across the street from the Workers Stadium. The place is a decent stadium but felt small enough that it seemed like we were right on top of the action.

Just south of the Olympic Sports Center there’s an army outpost or something. There are a bunch of anti-air missile launchers and guys standing behind turrets. I don’t know if this is legit or not, but it was definitely unsettling to walk past what looked like a war zone just meters from Olympic venues.

Lately, Beijing has seen some nice weather. Today is the third sunny day in four days. For Beijing, that’s impressive.

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The Games have been going for a few days now and everyone is settling into a routine. ESPN is like this: Not only is ESPN domestic here, but so is Deportes for Mexico, Pacific Rim, South Africa and Australia. It’s easy to forget that ESPN has a big international presence and to some of these countries the Olympics is a much bigger deal than in the states.

Take Mexico for example. They may not have many super high-caliber athletes, but Deportes has a big presence here. Part of two Sportscenter shows originate from the studio here. There’s also the Spanish version of PTI called Cronometro. They host part of that show here too.

I’m mainly working for the Deportes side because there’s a lot more action in the studio for them. The two hosts, Jose Ramon and David like to joke around while hosting Sportscenter for ESPN Deportes. I also help domestic out. Basically any shot you see from Beijing on ESPN I’m standing right there in the studios in the building here.

As I explained before, the company I worked for in July provides offices and studios for a bunch of networks from all over the world. So ESPN and the like get offices and studios. The place is crawling with media from all over.

There was some blue sky the other day. Here’s a cool shot with building A of Pangu Plaza.

There’s a song for the Olympics that is just blasted all over town. It’s called Beijing Welcomes You. I think it’s great, but others are just completely sick of it. It may sound like they’re singing about total Chinese athletic domination but they’re really just being friendly. (The literal translation from Beijing huan ying ni is Beijing Welcomes you, but it can be Welcome to Beijing too.)