o l y m p i c s

Here's my olympics post.

I flew out thursday night to meet a cowboy in an American flag at the airport. j/k I met up with Timon, his sister from oregon, and our friends we had met on an earlier retreat and got all rallied up for the games. The next morning, we planning out our day strategically: Sell tickets that were conflicting times, and hopefully trade up to an event for that afternoon, then finish off our costumes for track finals later that night at the bird's nest.

It went something like this:

Ok. I can't even type it out becuase it was more charades than anything. "Synchronized swimming? wo men yao tickets?" and then we'd start paddling with our hands through the air, and pointing at the bubble cube building. And the guy would point at himself and his friend and make like they were swimming together. We didn't get tickets, but it was aiite, and we walked on.




Yes. That's it! Me and Jennica are sporting red tights, white shorts and all three of us have matching blue jerseys and headbands, and Timon got the blue tights with more manly white shorts(which later made us look french)




Then we were photographed endlessly by chinese olympic goers. So we had to keep moving. Over and over again. One little girl literally crossed our path as we were walking, and said sternly, "We are family. We must take photo!" adamantly turned around where her father was poised to snap a photo. (We were trying to get away from the people!!!) we wandered for a long time around the place, it was amazing. There was giant empty spaces around the bird's nest just filled with people. The bird's nest itself was a wonder. luxury and lots of red, and these cute cartoony symbols for the bathroom and such. It was fantasmic.

We watched the 4 x 100 world record get smashed by Jamaica, we saw Clay win and receive his medal for the men's decathalon for America(and sung the anthem) And the australian guy try over and over at the pole vault to finally meet the olympic record.

It was amazing.

After all that, we went out to Pyro's pizza parlor/bar and were watching tv, and this american guy comes up, and ask us where we're from. Oregon and Cali. And he starts laughing. "We've been having a debate for a while whether you guys were french or American." and we're like WHAT! FRENCH??? and it was because of the stripes on Timon's shorts!!! hahaahaha and then we started an 80s dance party. There was a guy with a flag painted on his face. It was hard to look at him with out laughing.



Saturday morning at 9am was the bronze medal match, US vs. Japan. And we were def. outnum,bered by Japanese fans, but luckily the Chinese were with us. "Mei guo ji-o!" we chanted with someother americans we met. The other half of the stands were chanting continuously 80% of the time. And you know baseball games are long. whew it was amazing! The game was pretty good, I hadn't been to a ball game in ages, and it was def more laid back than watching track, where there's 4 events going on at once.

There were no backs on the seats at the baseball stadium either! We ate cookies for breakfast, and then took naps before heading to ho hai for dinner. OH wait. Before going to ho hai, we went to the olympic village to see if we could catch atheltes for photos or autographs. And guess who we saw.... Bolt!!!!!!!!!!!!

facebook album

Credits: first two photos are jennica's i think

It was def an event of a lifetime- there was enormous energy in the stadium and not a single person who wasn't estatic to be there. Flashes went off like sparkles. And there was def pride in the air. It was the feeling you expect to get when you walk into the Roman coliseum- but this was times 10, at least. You don't even realize how big the bird's nest is until your inside and the crowd across from you is just a mere blur. Smaller than ants. Its just un fathomable. It hurts my brains to try to concieve a space that huge.

Takes my breath away.

The days are packed!

Hangzhou, Fabric market, and more!


Last weekend, warren planned a trip for 4 of us to hangzhou, 1 hr outside shanghai. We rose at 5 am to catch our 6:30 standing tickets, luckily were granted seats as the foreigners we are, got breakfast and hit Westlake, hiking, and laying the green grass and dozing under the fluffy cloud sky. It was magnificent! So magnificent that you couldn't open your eyes it was so bright and overwhelming.

Caught dinner with his teacher pals from Eng. first, in a an outdoor alleyway restaurant, and then slept. The next day I left early at 7am to get back to the city for a phone call and pick up things from the fabric market. (jeans and a dress) The jeans are AWEsome!!!! I brought in an old pair, and they measured me, and I had "510" stitched on the back pocket to rep the east bay, of course. The dress.... well, you'll see, I suppose! I'm not totally in love with it, but it looks decent on me. Decent meaning, not super flattering, but nice enough to be seen in public and not be totally ashamed of myself.

This week from then on was packed! Top ten list:

1. Shopping [and visualizing] for our "USA outfits" to wear to the olympics, with Jennica and Timon (hint: think 80's)
2. Dinner at Kathleen's 5 in people's square. [salad dressing]
3. The lighting/thunder storm, and being indoors
4. Adventures with claudia
5. Magnum bars + balconies. nuff said
6. Zero computer problems!
7. The olympics. Phelps last race, and the women's 400 IM
8. lunch for 6 rmb
9. Those taiwanese cold noodles we had by zhongshan park
10. strong friends.


woo. I'm pooped.

The last week of july has passed.

It's 10am on a wednesday, and my screen is already covered in stripes. The misaligned pixels stretch vertically across my layout, and as I zoom in and zoom out, they stretch and spread like a virus over my entire document, only revealing half-inch slices of my layout- not near enough for me to actually work on anything. It's going to be a long day. Maximize screen. Minimize screen. Quit. Restart. Typically my computer doesn't start this dance until after 3pm everyday, after I've eaten a full lunch and gotten into the groove of work.

H. from the customer service dept is testing out assembly instructions on the other side of the room, turning round and round a 80 x 80 cm wooden panel to see how it can become a play house. A cell phone goes off and is unanswered for about 2-3 minutes, sounding like a fake bird call. An engineer is filing down a joint on one product as his desk, a labored grinding noise, as clacking ladies heels walk away from the water cooler bearing a cup of hot tea. This is the office I work in.

Overview:

M: Video chatted with family
T: Dinner with a friend, got totally drenched in the rain
W: Dinner with a group to celebrate a couple getting married. Rained less.
R: Order-in dinner and Timon brought his laptop over to play battleship. j/k, we just worked. I'm designing a cover for a friend's book!
F: Cell group, Hagen daz ice cream, and half of "a series of unfortunate events". It was a beautiful california day!!!

This week shanghai was just getting over a typhoon. (K: what's a typhoon?) Think florida, water wars, and becoming a kite. Or at least that how I interpreted it! My umbrella was nothing but a nuisance! BUt hey, once your soaked, your soaked. I stood in the street 10pm at night and its just pouring- like the pressured stream on the massage setting on your showerhead. And you just watch the liquid floor be decimated by torrential bebes[gun] of water. wow. What power!

Another wonderous moment this week was when I was spray mounting some paper outside. I bent down and put my stack of papers, and my spray of spray mount, and proceeded to lay them out so there would be a large surface area to spray all at once. But alas, the wind had other plans, and great gust came and lifted my papers and blew away! Which ones should I be chasing?? ah. they fluttered away, semi-sticky never to be seen again.

The posted photo is an empty lot behind our office complex(which is land owned by a university). That heap of green and debris was once covered in snow. There has been some movement, but its still kinda of a trashed area. And in the distance you see more buildings popping up. This is our area, developing.

I have run out of oatmeal! bye