Going Olympic

Last night was the first Olympic action of a three-day stint for me. Last night I got to see Japan take on Chinese Taipei. Japan is one of the favored teams in this thing, so I was pretty pumped. Not only was I excited about watching the game, but also being at an Olympic event. Because my leg’s been hurting lately, I hit up a swim after McD, and then really cut it close getting there. I would have made it in on time had the security check not been 200 people long (just for my queue…see the picture).

Once I was finished being fondled by the wanders and got through security, I got to see the whole complex. This was Wukesong, not the Bird’s Nest, so it was in a whole different part of town. But the facilities were still top notch. The place was crawling with volunteers, staff, and security. I finally found my seat, which was really good—right off the third base line—and only ended up missing the first half inning, in which nothing had happened anyway.

The game was good—slow as usual…it’s baseball—and it didn’t really pick up until about halfway through, when they knocked in a couple runs. But the fans kept it interesting. The Japanese were pretty nuts. They had their contingent all throughout the stands, but most concentrated on the 1^st base line (see pic). They had their flags going and were using these whistles relentlessly along with cheers. Nine innings and they never let up. Of course, the Chinese were saying the only cheer they know, “Jiayou Zhongguo!”…which means, “Let’s go China!” or more literally, “Add oil China!”. At every match I’ve ever seen (on TV), this is the only chant they’ve known. It has to stem from the stunting of creativity/individual thinking…that’s my only guess.

And on the topic of fans, it was pretty crazy the types of people sitting around me. I struck up a conversation with two guys to my right, who were from Dallas—one had actually graduated from UF. He was trying to get me to sell him my Track & Field ticket for Saturday—definitely no go on that one. To my left was a couple—the lady was Japanese and the guy was Canadian. And then directly in front of me was a group of four from Holland and the Netherlands, who was actually living in Beijing for work. They were an interesting bunch. One of the guys kept trying to get The Wave going, but I don’t know if that phenomenon has made it to the Orient yet. And then there were a few people I didn’t get a chance to talk to, like the Japanese group sitting at 9 o’clock, the Chinese guy sitting behind me, or the two Australians sitting in front of the Holland/Netherlands group. The Aussies were really decked out, with one guy wearing his flag as a cape. They made a couple trips for beer.

I got back really late, so because the door gets locked at 10pm, and since I didn’t want to wake anyone up, I tried sneaking through the side door, which I’d done before. Well, because it was locked I didn’t have much success getting in, but I was able to wake up the entire neighborhood when the enormous dog next door determined that I didn’t look or smell like a Chinese person and proceeded to have a bark-fest. He told all his friends too—soon the entire neighborhood was howling. In the end, I didn’t even have to call the stay-in-home nanny, because she woke up from all the commotion. How embarrassing. Tonight, however, is a new night, filled with track & field and without big dogs barking.