Opening Ceremony

Wow, I've been doing so much and been so busy I haven't had a chance to post for a while.

I watched the opening ceremony tonight for 4 hours standing in blistering heat outside on the large screen TV. There were literally thousands upon thousands of Chinese and foreigners stuffed together to watch the TV. I heard some Tibet activists were detained already.

So much to say...where to begin. The weather seems good in Beijing, the air seems fine, and prices all seem pretty normal.

I was wandering around yesterday, the day before the opening, and there was a buzz in the atmosphere. There was just so much built up excitement for the games. People were going crazy buying Olympics goods, shirts, stickers. Today, the atmosphere was so rowdy. The locals were thrilled to see foreigners in their home, not protesting or criticizing, but just enjoying the spirit of the Olympics. The foreigners cheered for China and their own countries. Most of the foreigners, and almost all of the locals, had Chinese flags, or stickers or face paintings of the Chinese flag. It was just a really amazing atmosphere. The Chinese seemed so proud and happy to host the Olympics and to show China to the world. Locals took photos with foreigners at every chance.

The French president showed up, after threatening not to attend....what a faggot.

As the countries started walking out during the ceremony, I was a little worried about how the audience would treat the Taiwanese and Japanese delegations. Both received very loud and welcoming cheers. Bush was momentarily boo'ed though.

The foreigners all seemed very excited and happy, yelling cheers like "australia and china are great friends". Locals sang the national anthem like 50 times.

Team China received a monstrous roar, and all the other countries received applause.

Chinese girls look way better than they did just a few years ago, which is a pleasant surprise. Stronger economy leads to fashion and makeup.

For a while, I didn't have a cell phone, and I had to make a few important calls. So I was asking some of the locals if I could borrow their cell phone to make a call. I asked a total of 5 people so far, and only 1 allowed me to make the call(and he ended up stalking the person who i called, asking to be friends with her and such). The others either flat out said no, lied to me saying they have no batteries left, or gave some other explanation. I guess you can't really do that here.

I've been visiting buddhist temples, taoist temples, a confuscian temple, museums, pagodas, and all of that in blistering heat. I visited the military museum today, which was pretty interesting. Another place for China to promote patriotism. I went to a anthropology museum a few days ago, and that was pretty awesome.

I ate a birds nest yesterday. I like eating weird food, but it was pretty gross.

I think there's a lot more that's been on my mind, but i can't remember right now. I'll update later.