Just a quick post to let you know that tons of things have happened: gymnastics, track and field, the first day the Bird’s Nest venue was opened and we were there! I’ve got posts stacked up like planes over Newark Airport. But sometime yesterday, the Internet connection in our room died and couldn’t be revived. (Could it be because I slammed those darling little Fuwa? More on that later.) Luckily UPS is letting me hack into their Wi-Fi.
But the amazing thing that’s happened in the last few days is that the rain came in and cleared out the sky. We woke yesterday to a sky as blue as any you’d see in Northern California. Which is absolutely amazing. When we were here two years ago, the air was a constant yellowish with a particularly bad smell. It was rare that you could see from one end of Tiannamen Square to the other. And our Chinese hosts told us things had been cleaned up considerably at that point! When we arrived this time, we did notice an improvement. The smog was a light grey instead of yellow and the smell was gone. Now this! As we stumbled out for our early bus to the National Stadium, Andy said, “Damn, they actually did it. They said they’d clear up their pollution and they did it.” Moral of the story, never bet against the Chinese. They can do anything!
It all looks very different under a bright blue sky!
This Olympics has been so fabulous, so well run, so perfect. For instance, I haven’t seen a cup or gum wrapper on the street yet. Everything is scrubbed, prettified and bedecked with flowers. I’m not sure how London is going to even approach this level, let alone top it. My suggestion: outsource all Olympic preparation, logistics and organization to the Chinese!
In the morning, we watched the Finals of the Women's Individual Gymnastics competition.
In the afternoon and evening, we watched Track & Field events in the Bird's Nest. Here, a Kenyan leads in the Men's 1500 Meter heat.
Andy kept things honest at the Track & Field events.
And about those Fuwa. . .I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid or maybe they’ve broken my will. I love the Fuwa now. The gymnastics Kung-Fu Fuwa especially. Lucy and Oscar will not be given my little plushy Fuwa dolls to play with. And I’ve been giving my Fuwa pins to little kids. But now I’m keeping them all. Especially the ones with the panda on them.
See more pix of Day Three here with more to be added. Here’s my set of Women’s Gymnastics Pix. Here is my Track and Field set. Bare with me and keep checking back. I’m slowly uploading things as I find working Internet connections.
