You’ve been asking for it, now I’m finally going to live up to my word.

It’s been a few days more than a month since I landed in Chicago to start the next phase in my life. While parts of that have taken off — Jill and I will move into a dream apartment on Nov. 1, and as of today, our date is set: Aug. 8 — but I am still searching for that first job.

The date of our wedding has special meaning. First, and ultimately, the date lies days between our parents’ respective anniversaries. It will also be exactly one year after 8/8/08, the day the Beijing Olympics kicked off. (Of course 8/8 just looks cool, too)

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I spent two months in China this summer, or that I was plunged right in the heart of the world’s biggest event. I look back at the pictures sometimes and it seems like all of that was a world away. That’s a good cliché, because it actually was a world away.

My memories of China are generally positive. The Olympics went without hitch, and I was in the audience during arguably three of the four biggest events of the whole event: Usain Bolt’s 100-meter dash world record, the women’s team gymnastics final and the men’s soccer final. Missing Michael Phelps hardly dulled my experience.

The city of Beijing, for all of its faults, became home by the end. For whatever reason transportation always seems to do it. Once the new subway line opened up just blocks away from our hotel and I learned to travel alone everything seemed to become a lot more homey. That’s exactly how it worked in London; as soon as I took the tube alone for the first time I realized I was home.

It’s hard to figure out why it’s been so hard to motivate myself to write this, or to fill up a photo album, for that matter. During a debriefing in the days before we left, my old sports editor said he’d talked to his wife that morning and that everybody at home was Beijing-ed out. I think we were too. It was a once in a lifetime experience, but when it was done, it was done. I think we all needed a break.

Earlier this week, after watching the nostalgic “Beijing Huan Ying Ni” music video on YouTube, I got one of those ambitions. As memories, insights and anecdotes ran through my head I realized that I could put them all together in the form of a book. So far I’ve only written one sentence, but now that it’s public I have some accountability. As long as I’m unemployed I am going to try to put something together.

In the mean time, here are some of my thoughts one month and I think four days since I’ve been home:

Beijing:
Whenever you meet somebody visiting from overseas the person will point out how the U.S. is nothing like the Beverly Hills 90210 episodes he or she saw on TV. I can safely say Beijing is nothing like the commercials and culture pieces you saw during the Olympics. 

First and foremost, the sky isn’t blue there. Before the Olympics, there were one or two blue-sky days in about six weeks. With incredible pollution-reduction measures in place there were some gorgeous days during the Olympics, but it’s safe to say that the semi trucks are back on the roads and the factories are pumping soot into the air once again, and it will probably stay like that for a while.

There was no underlying “Go Green” theme in Beijing like you see all over Europe and more and more in the U.S. now.

Beyond that, the city itself is not like you’ve seen on TV. Inevitably most commercials and pictures show the overwhelming Chinese culture — Chinese dressed in traditional outfits hanging out in the Forbidden City, Jackie Chan signing a song on the Great Wall, or beautiful shots of the iconic Temple of Heaven.

Well yes, those are all there. What you see is pretty much he extent of it, though. Beijing is without doubt an industrialized city that is continuing to industrialize. The traditional buildings with pointed bamboo roofs are lost in the sea of western-looking high-rises. I made mention throughout my time there: in many ways Beijing feels just like an American city.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are some incredible new and modern structures there; arguably some of the most unique architecture in the world is in Beijing. The twisting CCTV Tower will be one of the world’s most famous buildings when it’s done, the giant egg-shaped national opera house is already an icon, and the Olympics had its fair share of breathtaking architecture.

My point, simply, is that Beijing does not feel as Chinese and exotic as those commercials and promotional videos make it look.

It’s hard to justify not seeing Beijing if ever visiting China; after all the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square will always be among the most famous icons of the country. Still, Beijing is kind of a tweener city right now. If you are looking for a really cultural Chinese experience you can do better somewhere smaller and less industrialized, and if you are looking for someplace modern and architecturally amazing Shanghai and Hong Kong are probably better bets.

Olympics:
For me, the Olympics lived up to its hype. Some seasoned journalists complained that there wasn’t enough to do or to eat on the Olympic Green or at the exterior venues — and there is warrant to that — but after being there I don’t think you will see another event like it. 

First is just the Olympic Green. The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were the two icons of the 2008 Olympics, and London 2012 has already made it clear that iconic Olympic stadiums are a thing of the past. Every stadium or Olympic building I saw — from softball to beach volleyball to the Main Press Center  to the subways — was top-of-the-line. Whether you like it or not, China had the money and capability to make incredible Olympic venues.

Then you have the games. Mark Spitz has been talked about for years; is anybody ever going to beat his seven gold medals? Phelps, I believe, set seven world records as he won his eight gold medals. In the marquee event, the men’s 100-meter dash, a world record went down. The last time that happened at the Olympics was in 1996.

The Olympics also passed the controversy and terrorism test. Before the Games, some extremist group from western China basically confirmed that there would be trouble at the Olympics. They failed. Besides a freak-murder of an American on the first day, nothing major happened. The Chinese authorities had some minor incidents, such as when a group unfurled a “Free Tibet” on the Olympic Green or the scam that was the designated protest area. Beyond that, the Olympics never felt unsafe in any way.

A relevant argument can be made that for all of the aesthetics that Beijing did right, there were some things lacking. First is the food. There were two McDonalds restaurants on the Olympic Green — although one was real out of the way — but other then that there were only very basic concession stands selling packaged and cold food. The other downfall was lack of festivities. There were thousands of people at the events each day, but besides the events and some sponsor showcase buildings, there wasn’t much to do.

All things considered, nothing is perfect, but the 2008 Beijing Olympics were about as great as I could have expected and I will be very surprised if it is surpassed in the near future.

People:
More than anything, I left Beijing with a positive view of the people I met there. Sure, they can be a little nationalistic and naïve at times, but everybody who we met on a personal level was intrigued with us and went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. The Chinese have a very friendly and unique demeanor and I will miss the friends I made there. 

Sometimes I find it ironic how far the Chinese went to welcome their Western visitors. When I am the one visiting, shouldn’t it be my duty to learn basic Chinese and take on a Chinese name? Instead, I essentially got by with knowing only xie xie (thank you) and nihao (hello). The Chinese volunteers, at the Olympics and in general, spoke near fluent English and went by names like Lucas, Doreen, Norman, and Eleven. Well, I guess Eleven isn’t the best example, but I think my point gets across.

On our third to last night in Beijing, Renmin University hosted a going away party for our group and the North Carolina delegation, which was also living there. As part of the celebration various Chinese students took the microphone and sang songs to us, including the ever-popular “Beijing Huan Ying Ni” (Beijing Welcomes You). This, to me, summed up the attitude of the people during our time there. To some people it might have been an awkward situation — a man signing a long and slow song without background music to a group of foreigners — but really, it was just sincere.

I had a lot of fun with my Chinese friends, too. An Olympic volunteer friend, Angela, got a kick out of teaching Brad Pitt and Harry Potter the Mandarin words for fool, stupid and ugly; for the record, the Chinese thought my friend Alex looked a lot like Harry, so I alerted them that I looked like Brad.

Sometimes it was hard to differentiate sarcasm for naivety, but we all joked around nonetheless. Once Doreen, a Chinese boss at the Olympics, asked a girl in our group if she liked flowers. When our girl of course answered yes, Doreen informed her that she would have the honor of watering the plants in our office. To me, that’s a joke. I never knew if it was to Doreen too.

If there is a note to go out on, it’s that the Chinese that I met all seemed to be very happy in life. The security guards at our hotel, working what seemed like endless hours, never ceased to perk up and high five the Americans when we returned home. It seemed like everybody was always smiling; even the toothless, shirtless man poking a stick at garbage in a hutong would smile if he saw the Americans.

To End:
Say what you want about the Chinese government (and there’s a lot to say), my two months in Beijing went without problem at all. Things worked and were efficient (and cheap!); the people were helpful and friendly; and the Olympics will go down as a successful worldwide event, forever.

That all said, I don’t think you will find me ever living in Beijing, or China as a whole. I have good memories from my two months there, but the culture didn’t intrigue me as it does some people. I’m not sure if China as a country is developing in the right way, and while it may be extremely successful on the economic front, I think China itself is being left behind.

NOTE: If you’ve gotten this far, I wouldn’t mind any feedback on this blog throughout the summer. Was there anything you really liked, disliked, any tips for my writing style? Please feel free to comment below with any input/comments. Thanks for reading!

I did in fact make it home. Jill was waiting in Chicago after my 13-hour flight. We spent the next two nights in Chicago before breakfast with aunt Ellen and uncle Rene in Arlington Heights, lunch with friend Bobby and his girlfriend in Madison and home in time for most of the Missouri football team’s season opener against Illinois on Saturday.

First things first, all of my market goods made it into the country with ease. Going through customs in Chicago basically consisted of handing an attendant the little form you have to fill out and walked through the doors to where Jill was waiting. I didn’t wait around to see how the rest of my group fared, but somebody in my program came home with more than 300 counterfeit DVDs, which would be the easiest thing to confiscate if they decided to.

Leaving Beijing felt a little funny but it wasn’t hard — mainly because I knew what was waiting for me at home though. My roommate Eric and I left our room without looking back around 10 a.m. then walked across campus to the post office and then to the small grocery store near our apartment. After saying goodbye and taking pictures with all of the hotel security guards that we became so friendly with and wishing good luck to the six students staying another month cover the Paralympics our bus back out and we were gone.

The day we left made it easier to go. The smog and weather in general improved during the Olympics but on Thursday it was one of those hot, humid and white smoggy days. I had sweated through my jeans and polo shirt before the bus even arrived.

I was a bit anxious as we pulled out of the gate in Beijing, but not the hyperventilating feeling that I felt when we left Chicago on the way here. You see, since the vast majority of the people in the program were heading back to Columbia for classes on Friday morning (or to St. Louis, to skip Friday classes and prepare for Saturday’s football game) we were all booked a second flight from Chicago to St. Louis. My plan was just to get off the plane in Chicago, get my bag and never look back.

Well another girl in the group was getting off like me in Chicago but then re-checking in and flying home to Dallas for the weekend. Apparently she asked one of the United attendants in Beijing how to do that and they got a little freaked out. They told her that it is against the law to not follow your entire itinerary and that the U.S. government can fine you up to $2,000 if you do that. I sought reassurance from as many people as possible before I decided that there is no way that it was illegal for me to choose not to fly domestically in the United States once passing through customs. Whether or not that is right it allowed me to relax and I never had a problem.

The flight itself was long. Thankfully there were a couple hours of darkness, and I may or may not have gotten some sleep during them, but I found myself standing in the middle of the plane just chatting with my old Missourian sports editor five hours in discussing how in two hours we could start talking about it being halfway home. Besides a some occasional turbulence (how does it always happen when you decide to go into that bathroom?) it was a pretty uneventful flight. I didn’t get anything constructive done, but I also wasn’t miserable.

This is a pretty cluttered post, I know, but to my credit I am typing on a bouncing computer as we cruise I-94 through Tomah, Wisc. In the upcoming days I hope to put some analysis and conclusions up about Beijing and the Olympics and my experience there. Thanks for sticking with me!

My two suitcases, backpack and suit bag have been loaded perfectly for my trip home tomorrow. I wasn’t sure that was going to happen after going a little crazy with my extra Yuan today and bringing home two bulbous bags from the market.

Only two imperfections could leave a tainted mark on this pack-job. One, a silk tie got seriously caught in my zipper. The tie is done for, but when I get home I still have to get it out of the zipper. Two, I decided to risk it and put a tea cup wrapped in socks and sweatbands and protected by a cardboard box in one of my suitcases.

I expect to get home with one less tie and a full teacup. The cup isn’t just for show; none of the tea I’m brining home is in bags so it has to be mixed in this special cup that has a filter built into it. I’ll be lost without it.

The last day in Beijing was kind of anti-climactic. As stupid as it sounds it wouldn’t be worth changing my emergency Yuan back into U.S. dollars, so it only made sense to head to the market this afternoon. After lunch with our Chinese friend Jason a group of us hailed a cab and headed down to the Pearl Market — then we walked around back to the secret market.

It’s weird. The Pearl Market is one of the major tourists markets in Beijing. We used to go there a lot as it had great selection of clothes and, well, pearls. That changed one day when my friend Zach was exploring on his own and found this market. Somehow right behind the Pearl Market is another, newer market that is bigger, has better selection, is nicer inside and is cheaper, since nobody knows about it.

All of my purchases can’t be revealed yet as most were gifts and I’m hoping to keep it a surprise. I was pretty thrilled to get four knock-off soccer uniforms (shirt and shorts) for 130 Yuan, especially after buying just the shirt for 60 Yuan at the Pearl Market. To be clear, that is about $18 for the four uniforms today. I won’t be stocking my drawers with eight jerseys and six shorts; at least five jerseys will be gifts though.

It was an exhausting trip, and as we sat in the cab heading home almost two hours later than planned I started to get anxious about fitting dinner, packing and whatever else was on the agenda into the evening still. Regardless, I was finally satisfied with what I am bringing home.

There wasn’t any big emotional group dinner tonight. I ended up walking down the street and eating a traditional Beijing hot pot meal; you basically order a bunch of meat (mutton, in our case) and vegetables and then cook it all in a bowl of broth being heated up in the center of the table. It’s kind of like the Chinese version on fondue. That was a good last full meal in Beijing.

I got home and packed while talking to Jill about tomorrow. It’s hard because technically I arrive in Chicago exactly 1 day, 2 hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds from the time of this writing, but that doesn’t account for the 13 hours that apparently just don’t count while I am flying; I leave Beijing at 4 p.m. Thursday and arrive in Chicago at 4:04 p.m. Thursday.

It finally started to feel like the last day a little bit when I met with some friends in the courtyard we hung out at so often. The lights were out at the restaurant but four of us just sat around a table discussing how weird it felt to be leaving China after two months. For all of Beijing’s shortcomings it finally felt like home toward the end of our two months, and it’s a weird feeling knowing that there’s a good chance I’ll never be back here.

I’ll talk some time to dwell on the long flight home though, and will hopefully post some closing thoughts once my traveling schedule calms down a bit next week. A quick check of the United website confirmed that among the six movies that will be played on the flight home will be Son of Rambow, Married Life (terrible, we watched it on the way here) and the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. If we were flying to Beijing we’d be seeing Kung Fu Padna. I think we got the short end of the stuck

Thanks to everyone who has been following my experiences here and who have been e-mailing me with questions or interesting stories about Beijing, China and the Olympics. Please keep in touch  after I post my last few Beijing memoirs next week and continue to check this blog and my website, www.chrosmcdougall.com.

And now I think I can finally go to bed, at 4:30 a.m. In 25 hours I will be home!

About 10 from our group of 60 already left at various points over the past week, paying a $200 fee to move their respective flight up. It’s hard to blame some of them. About 10 of us graduated in May, but the rest of the group gets back to Columbia late Thursday night and is expected to go to the first day of class on Friday morning. The first day of school was Monday the 25th. I still think I’ve got the best case for wanting to get home though: I proposed to Jill on June 26th and, until the Chicago airport on Thursday, haven’t seen her since June 27.

These last few days are kind of like pulling teeth. Everybody is starting to half pack up, checking to see if they can fit all of their new things or if they have to go back to the market on Wednesday and buy a new suitcase (many already have). I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to fit everything, and I have some complex about starting a precise pack-job before I am completely ready, so I’ve largely avoided packing other than loading a pair of shoes up with some extra socks.

Packing will be a somewhat unique process. I’ll be coming home with a lot more then I came with, and some of it — tea cup, porcelain chop sticks — is breakable. I should have plenty of room in my suitcases, but I will need to properly divide the weight between the two while making sure the breakables are surrounded with thick enough clothes and that the walls of my duffle bag are sturdy. It shouldn’t be a problem, I just can’t start the process until I am ready.

My day today is basically going to consist of eating. For lunch two friends and I took about a 45 minute subway ride and a 10-minute walk to a dumpling restaurant. Everybody had been raving about it for weeks, and the potsticker-like food was good, but it might not have been worth the process of getting there. What else was I doing though? Now, tonight most of our group is expected to go to dinner at Pyro Pizza, a pretty American restaurant in the Wudaokou area. Tomorrow will be last-minute market shopping (anybody want anything?) and then packing. We leave the hotel by noon on Thursday and our 13-hour flight takes off at 4 p.m. Coincidentally we arrive back in Chicago at 4 p.m. on Thursday, too.

Below is a list of things that I did and saw during my two months here. I always wish I had done something like this for London, so hopefully this makes it easier to always remember all of the things I did here. If two months ago somebody told me that I would have a list this long — especially all of the Olympic sports — I never would have believed it.

Olympics Events:
Gymnastics (Aug. 9-20) — Mixed
 • Men’s qualifications (Aug. 9)
 • Women’s qualifications (Aug. 10)
 • Women’s team finals (Aug. 13)
 • Women’s all-around finals (Aug. 15)
 • Women’s trampoline qualifications (Aug. 16)
 • Individual event finals: Women’s vault, floor; men’s floor, pommel horse (Aug. 17)
 • Individual event finals: Uneven bars, women’s trampoline; men’s vault, rings (Aug. 18)
 • Individual event finals: Parallel bars, horizontal bar; balance beam; men’s trampoline (Aug. 19)
 • Gymnastics Gala (Aug. 20) 
Men’s Beach Volleyball — Argentina vs. Latvia (Aug. 11)
Softball — USA vs. Venezuela (Aug. 12)
Athletics — Mixed (Aug. 16)
 • Women’s 800-meters semifinal (3 heats)
 • Men’s long jump qualifying
 • Men’s 100-meters semifinals (2 heats)
 • Women’s heptathlon javelin throw  
 • Women’s 100-meters round 2 (5 heats) 
 • Women’s shot put (final)
 • Men’s 400-meter hurdles semifinals (2 heats)
 • Women’s heptathlon 800-meters (5 heats)
 • Men’s 100-meters (final)
   –Usain Bolt set’s world record!
Men’s Soccer — Argentina vs. Nigeria (Finals) (Aug. 23)
Athletics — Mixed (Aug. 22) 
 • Men’s decathlon javelen throw
 • Women’s long jump (final)
 • Women’s 4×400 relay prelims (2 heats)
 • Men’s pole vault (final)
 • Men’s 4×400 relay prelims (2 heats)
 • Women’s 5K (final)
 • Women’s 4×100 (final)
 • Men’s decathlon 1500 meters (2 heats)
 • Men’s 4×100 relay (final) 
   — Jamaica set’s world record (Usain Bolt’s third of Olympics)
Men’s Handball — France vs. Iceland (Finals) (Aug. 24)

Seen in Beijing:
Tienanmen Square (various)
Forbidden City (July 5)
Drum Tower (July 5)
Prince Dong’s Mansion (July 5)
Temple of Heaven (July 9)
Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (site of Mao’s body) (July 9)
Beijing Zoo (July 10)
Beihai Park (July 10)
Beijing Water Treatment Plant (July 11)
Peking Duck Dinner at Quan Ju De (July 11)
Great Wall of China (July 12)
Ming Dynasty Tombs (July 12)
Summer Palace (July 13)
Old Summer Palace (July 13)
Chang An Opera Theatre (July 13)
Chaoyang Chinese acrobat show (July 21)
Tea Street (
Hutongs (various)
Houhai (various)
Sanlitun (various)
Wudaokou (various)
CCTV Building (various)

Markets:
Pearl Market
Silk Market
Ya Show Market
Toy Market

“China used planes, rockets to prevent wet end of Games” — Agence France-Presse

BEIJING (AFP) - Meteorologists dispatched eight planes to release rain dispersal chemicals and fired 241 rockets into incoming clouds to ensure a dry Beijing Olympics closing ceremony, state media said Monday.

Rain clouds from the north of Chinahad started to move towards the capital on Sunday afternoon, Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Observatory, was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying.

“We decided to use planes to cover a larger area, along with firing rain dispersal rockets from the ground,” said Zhang Qiang, an official at the Beijing Weather Modification Office, according to Xinhua.

Meteorologists also fired more than 1,000 rockets into clouds on August 8 to prevent showers from ruining the opening ceremony — the biggest-ever operation of its kind by China.

China has long dabbled in rain dispersal and rain-making technology, using a vast array of chemicals to either induce or prevent rainfall.

Scientists have viewed the technology as promising, but acknowledge that no method has been developed to objectively prove that such techniques work.

Thanks for clearing that up!

Current Events:
“A reporters journey through the Olympics” — Christian Science Monitor I’d never heard of this newspaper until various Olympics articles were sent to me in the past couple weeks. It’s had some of the most interesting coverage of the actual Olympics that I’ve seen. This personal account from their Olympic reporter is a great way to wrap up the Olympics. It’s a great read, and his experience was very similar to mine. Thanks again, R&B.

After 16 days of the Olympics, as one of my professors said yesterday, the world is Beijing-ed out. After two months, most of it buildup to the Olympics, so are we. But I can’t help but feel for the Chinese.

This country, especially this city, had been waiting for these past 16 days since July 13, 2001. For the past seven years this country has spent billions of dollars, built only the finest stadia and facilities, completely updated Beijing’s transportation system and overhauled the infrastructure and aesthetics of the city. No matter what you think about the government here, most of the people sincerely cared and were proud to host the Olympic Games. 70,000 of them volunteered at the Olympics; thousands more were on the streets. Those who didn’t volunteer openly welcomed foreigners and were glad to showcase their hometown. After so many years of isolation and perceived confusion from the rest of the world, this was China’s showcase to the rest of the world, and the people couldn’t be more proud.

But now it’s over.

I could tell it would be like this from the first day I got here. Everything about this city was focused on the Olympics. In the north of town you could drive by and gawk at the incredible Bird’s Nest and Water Cube stadiums. Throughout the city laborers were busily trying to repair sidewalks and plant trees and clean the city up. At given hotspots there were digital clocks counting down to the Opening Ceremonies.

But now it’s over.

The hangover from the Olympics has got to be worse in China than it is in most countries. Chinese volunteer/friend Angela told me she would cry when the flame was put out last night and she had to rest her head on my shoulder for a moment when it finally did. As the group of Chinese volunteers from our group left the party last night they optimistically told us we would meet again on our next trip to Beijing, really hoping that would be true. I think they all know in their hearts that the past 16 days are the highlight of their country for a while, and the upcoming weeks, months or years could be hard after preparing this well-manicured imaged for seven years.

Say what you will about the government and the Beijing Olympic organizers, but the Chinese were genuinely proud and took these games seriously. Yao Ming couldn’t lead Team China to a basketball medal and Liu Xiang had to pull out of the 110-meter hurdles, but the Chinese gymnasts dominated gymnastics and dominated the gold medal count. They were devastated at the first two but national pride couldn’t have been higher throughout. At each of the events, whether Chinese athletes were competing or whether they even understood the rules of the game, the fans filled most of the stadiums and cheered enthusiastically — even for the foreign athletes. Then there were thousands of Chinese volunteers who were so proud to work endless hours often serving as bathroom greeters, human barriers or picture takers for the foreign fans.

These Olympics were supposed to showcase China to the world and to help China get on track and start granting more freedoms to its people. I’m not expecting all of the positive change to stick after the Paralympics end next month, so I can’t say that China will be a free country by Western standards. I can say that almost every person I have met from China is happy to be Chinese and proud to show us all the work they did for the Olympics. I hope the authority here starts to loosen up and grant some more freedoms, but if nothing else I am happy for the individual Chinese people who gained very little out of these last couple weeks yet never had a second thought when there was an opportunity to accommodate foreigners in the name of their country.

My experience in China, like almost every other foreigner I’ve met, has been mixed. I truly enjoyed the Olympic experience and had so much fun interacting with the Chinese volunteers that we worked with. There are other aspects of the city, like the overcrowding and pollution, that did make it hard. I’ll go into more detail about this later, but for now I am ready to be back home. In these last couple days I will try to go shopping and spend some time with the people on this trip, but my thoughts will always be on the airport Thursday where Jill will be waiting.

Current Events:
“Olympics Close With a Bang and a Double-Decker Bus” — New York Times
A general recap of the Closing Ceremonies for those who missed it and some overall analysis on the Olympics and its final days.

“Olympic success boosts China’s confidence” — Christian Science Monitor
This comment below the article says it all: “proud of china…!! I love my country so much that I want to cry and hug and fight for it…! zhong guo jia you…!!”

“Melting Pot Meets Great Wall” — New York Times
Thomas Friedman says China and the U.S., the top two in the Olympic medal count respectively, could learn a few things from each other about how the other one got there — athletically, culturally and politically.

“In Medal Count, It’s ‘Haul’ Britannia” — Washington Post
Great Britain, or GB as it is known around the Olympics, surprisingly finished fourth in the medal table this year. That’s given them high hopes for London 2012. This article mentions the British goal of finishing fourth in the medal table in 2012 — I was at the meeting for the Associated Press when that was announced, though my story had a different angle to it. I don’t have a link to it online, but the British Olympic Authority made a mock-up of what the medal table would be in 2007 based on results from world championships etc., and it was one of the first times China was projected the winner.

“China’s Economic Gains Give Way to Hazy Future” — The Wall Street Journal
 China has moved more people out of poverty than any country in the modern times and has the world’s third largest economy. What’s next? This article has three challenges for the future success of China: population, resources and inequality.

My first instinct waking up at 4 a.m. is, of course, to send a text message to Jill. Maybe she can help? When I realized I was awake and alert and still a little freaked out I decided to go check it out.

The view from my window looked as it always would at that time of the night: an empty street below lined with a row of high-rise residence halls. But one thing was missing: rain.

Somewhere off in the distance — down south, from the sound of it — there was an epic storm going on. I had never heard such a constant stream of thunder and lightning, and in my 4 a.m. state of mind I realized: This is it, there is an air raid on Beijing and my hotel will have crumbled to the ground by morning.

My fears weren’t put to rest when the weather.com reading said Beijing’s state would best be described as “fair.” I started typing in any reliable source I could think of: New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Guardian; I even broke my own rules and checked CNN.com.

There was no air raid.

My roommate, who was eying me last night, claimed to have not heard a thing. Neither did a guy down the hall. I asked Alex though, and he too was woken up by the storm. It was something bizarre, we decided, and we couldn’t quite figure it out. If there was a lot of thunder, a lot of lightning, no rain and a fair weather forecast, something had to be up.

Our best guess is that we were awoken by the notorious Beijing weather rockets shot into the sky to control the rain. It makes sense in that today is the closing ceremonies and nobody wants it to rain on David Beckham — ceremoniously receiving the Olympic flame for London 2012. That doesn’t really explain the lightning though. I also feel like I would have heard them before, as an article posted on this blog a few weeks ago said something like 2,000 rockets were sent up before the Opening Ceremonies, and I’m sure they’ve been used since.

There was something weird going on last night.

Any ideas?

Current Events:
“Friendly and Efficient? Oh Yeah. But Spontaneous?” — New York Times
This columnist sums up the Beijing Olympics as a success in terms of efficiency and planning, but says there was some left to be desired in terms of fun outside the venues.

“Two Teams, One Ball, One Goal: To Revive an Ancient Sport” — The Wall Street Journal
When I first read that the Chinese claimed that they invented soccer I kind of chuckled to myself. We all know England invented soccer, and that the Chinese government is prone to skewing things. Turns out there’s some truth behind the claim though; it’s the ancient sport cuju. It’s still disputed somewhat, but I think China can largely be credited with the raw invention of the sport.

“A Chinese Hinterland, Fertile With Field Hockey” — New York Times
It’s not just soccer, either. The Daur people of Inner Mongolia have been playing beikou, similar to field hockey, for 1,000 years. Like soccer, the modern game was started in England.

“Omega finally releases Phelps photo sequence” — Associated Press
The other day I posted an article about Omega, the official timekeeper of the Olympics, not releasing the images of Michael Phelps’, sponsored by Omega, controversial win in the 100-meter butterfly.  Well they finally did, and it showed that Phelps .01 second victory was the correct result.

This was bound to happen. Right now couldn’t have been a worse time.

A classmate got four tickets to the Olympic men’s soccer final at the Bird’s Nest today and had two she wasn’t using. I took one, and the four of us headed to the Green. There was nothing unusual about the morning; the temperature was about average in the low 90s, the sun was out, and I was a bit tired and hungry after a short night of sleep and no breakfast. We took the subway to the Green and stood with about 200 other people in line to get some pre-game McDonalds, and then it hit me.

Maybe it was a combination of all the usual suspects — heat, sun, exhaustion, hunger and subway germs — that took me down this morning, but I came away fighting. A few minutes later I walked back out with a wet shirt and pale face and showed Beijing I can handle anything by chowing down a double-cheeseburger and cup of corn. The game was on.

This was my third time in the Bird’s Nest, and luckily we sat in different areas each time. Today we were second tier just beyond the northwest corner of the field. It was beautiful, and the pitch was surprisingly close for a second tier seat. Since the stadium has a running track it might be a bit annoying to sit behind the goals, but I’m not sure there is a bad sightline in the house for athletics.

The gold medal game was between reigning champions Argentina and Nigeria. Olympic soccer is limited to players under 23 years old, but each team can have three overage players. With Argentina, one was national team star Juan Roman Riquelme and another was Liverpool star Javier Mascherano. Argentina also boasted arguably the best player on the planet right now, 21-year-old Barcelona star Lionel Messi. This is arguably the most star-studded Olympic soccer team ever, in what could be the last great Olympic tournament after FIFA announced that club teams no longer have to release their players for the Olympics. Generally speaking that’s the same with Major League Baseball, and check out how exciting the Olympic baseball tournament is. Wait…

Eight-nine thousand people were in attendance at the 91,000-seat stadium. On the far side, in the second tier, the Nigerian fans that have followed the team throughout the tournament continued to play a delightful song on a horn throughout the game. Behind one of the goals appeared to be a raucous contingent of Argentina fans waved flags and banged their thunder sticks. We later discovered the the fans clad in light-blue were actually Chinese — the notorious rent-a-fans who have been filling seats at the venues throughout the games.

The stadium didn’t fill to capacity until about midway through the first half, and even so the atmosphere wasn’t rowdy like the Premier League games I’d been to. Although there were thousands of people there, not enough from the home countries were there to truly make the place light up. It still turned out to be an exciting atmosphere though, especially since most of the crowd got behind Argentina, especially later in the game.

Messi was a big disappointing. He had some chances but didn’t do anything spectacular before being subbed off as a time-wasting technique in the 90th minute. The clashing styles of each team kept the game exciting though. Argentina is top-class in the world, the senior team will easily be a favorite going into the 2010 World Cup, and it showed. The South Americans were able to spread the ball all over the field with crisp passes and always found the open space for a run. Nigeria countered with a typically African style of fast, athletic soccer. Argentina, like most teams in this tournament, couldn’t keep up with Nigeria’s speed. If only Nigeria wasn’t so conservative on the attack the African team could have done it again — they defeated Argentina to win the 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold medal.

Argentina ended up winning on Angel Di Maria chip goal over Nigeria’s charging goalie in the 58th minute. Messi got the assist.

The gold medal match is the final of a major international soccer tournament, but it clearly pales in comparison to the World Cup, European Championships, Copa America and African Cup of Nations. Fans will never be able to support an under-23 team like they do a senior national team, but it was still loud and well supported throughout.

Only one more day of the Olympics now. Wow.

Current Events:
“Michael Phelps Returns To His Tank At Sea World” — The Onion
The eight-time Olympic champion has already left Beijing and returned home to his tank in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“Portable Grass An Olympic Feat In Beijing” — National Public Radio
After the Opening Ceremonies the workers here had to remove the platforms and other equipment and install the soccer pitch/athletics field. They used a relatively new system in which the grass is grown in small patches off-site and is transported into the stadium.

“U.S. women’s soccer sings Sundhage’s praises” — Yahoo! Sports
Written before the Olympics about new U.S. women’s soccer coach Pia Sundhage, who led USA to a 21-0-1 coming into the tournament and later an Olympic gold medal this week. Sundhage, from Sweden, is the first foreign coach of the U.S. women’s national team. Before her arrival the U.S. women were struggling to live up to their dominant form of the past decade. Needless to say, it looks like they are back.

“Life of Reilly” — ESPN
Arguably America’s best-known sports columnist gives the 2008 Beijing Olympics a scathing review.

Tonight’s experience was different from the first. For one we had to pay; it was about $60 per ticket off Craigslist. Then the excitement coming into the night wasn’t the same as the signature event, the 4×100, was missing the Americans, who dropped the baton in the preliminaries. We were also in the nosebleeds, exactly four rows from the back of the stadium. But that wasn’t neccessarily a bad thing.

From the corner after the first curve we could see the whole track with a near perpendicular view of the finish line. The first exchange in the 4×100 relays was just below us. During the third leg, Bolt literally ran away from us and the competition. Asafa Powell took the baton fourth and we watched him cross the line a good two meters ahead of second place Trinidad & Tobago.

The reaction was hardly as exciting. It took a few seconds for my head to drift over to the big screen and see those words: World Record. It took a little longer for the reggae to start, and even when it did the volume wasn’t cranked up like the other night. The Jamaicans walked a pretty modest victory lap and then it was done.

We saw another world record. Besides Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals, this Olympics will next be remembered as the one where Usain Bolt set three world records. Nothing will ever compare to the first one, though. I saw the World’s Fastest Man be crowned on the biggest possible stage.

After the Jamaicans left, an Australian pole vaulter was still going. Steve Hooker had one more attempt at 5.85 meters (19 feet, 2 inches), and I thought we would soon be joining the 40,000 or so who had already left. Still, the crowd stood, began the unison clap that gradually gets faster and faster; suddenly Hooker was pumping his fist as he fell cleanly onto the mat.

When he cleared 5.90 meters (19 feet, 4 inches) he officially won gold. He wasn’t done. The world record was far away at 6.14 meters (20 feet, 1 inch) I believe, but the Olympic record stood at 5.95 (19 feet, 6 inches). Hooker went for 5.96.

We weren’t sure he was going to go for it at first. The pole vault was on the other side of the field, by where we sat the first time, but we could see Hooker lying on his back with his eyes shut on the big screen. His hands were black with what looked like tar, and his face showed his fatigue — he was drained.

Soon enough we were all clapping in unison again and he was running down the runway, but his jump was way off. Hooker went back to lay down and the public address announcer made some sort of announcement about an injury and something being done, but nobody left. Sure enough, about five minutes later Hooker was back at the end of the runway and we were starting our clap again.

His movements were slow and tired looking, like somebody the day after lifting heavy weights for the first time, and I didn’t have much for expectations. Something about it, having waited so long between each attempt, having it already be around 10:30 p.m., it was clear this was his last attempt. And he made it.

Most of the 91,000 fans left after the relax, but those of us who stuck it out stood up and cheered. This athlete put on a great performance for us and in some Olympic sort of way it felt like we owed it to him to stay. We watched as he held off his Russian competitor for gold, saw as he lied fatigued with his eyes shut on the ground, and then cheered him on as he went back for more and more, setting an Olympic record.

Seeing athletics on two occasions has been a dream come true. My track and field career started my junior year of high school, and I fell in love with the sport and the history of our program right away — we were going for our sixth team state championship that year and are the most program in state history. I was never a superstar but I had upside, so my first couple weeks of college were spent training for walk-on tryouts with the Missouri track team. I did well enough to be on the team, but I didn’t blow them away and probably wouldn’t have added many points, so that ended my organized running career.

I’ve still tried to stay with the sport. Throughout the past three years I created and update the Web site for my high schools program, www.moundsviewtrack.com, and have tried to go back to the state meet when I can. Training on my own I’ve also had some success, breaking 40 minutes in a 10K last summer and finishing fifth with a time of 18:23 in the Mizzou Homecoming 5K last fall.

Being able to see the world’s best athletes compete in the Olympics’ signature event has been a lifetime experience. Part of me thinks I will be saying the same thing about the soccer final between Argentina and Nigeria tomorrow that I just got tickets to.

August 16:
Women’s 800-meters semifinal (3 heats)
Men’s long jump qualifying
Men’s 100-meters semifinals (2 heats)
Women’s heptathlon javelin throw  
Women’s 100-meters round 2 (5 heats) 
Women’s shot put (final)
Men’s 400-meter hurdles semifinals (2 heats)
Women’s heptathlon 800-meters (5 heats)
Men’s 100-meters (final) 

August 22:
Men’s decathlon javelen throw
Women’s long jump (final)
Women’s 4×400 relay prelims (2 heats)
Men’s pole vault (final)
Men’s 4×400 relay prelims (2 heats)
Women’s 5K (final)
Women’s 4×100 (final)
Men’s decathlon 1500 meters (2 heats)
Men’s 4×100 relay (final)

“China’s Rise Goes Beyond Gold Medals” — New York Times
This columnist says that China’s dominance in the Olympics medals table will soon be dominance in many other areas as well. He predicts that the reemergence of Asia will be challenging for us Westerners to adapt to. 

“Solo Thwarts Brazil in Victory in Overtime” — New York Times
Once shunned goalie Hope Solo returned to the U.S. women’s national soccer team for the Olympics and was instrumental in the team’s 1-0 overtime victory over Brazil in the gold medal match. The US women have won three of the past four Olympic soccer tournaments, missing out only at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“I.O.C. Asks for Inquiry of Chinese Gymnasts” — New York Times
Since this article I’m pretty sure the IOC announced that all of the documents from the Chinese gymnasts seem to be legit and that, despite looking like they are 10, all of the Chinese gymnasts appear to actually be older than the 16-year-old age limit.

“China’s ‘Flying Spectacles Ace’” — The Wall Street Journal blog
Hu Kai is a Chinese sprinter who always wears glasses and is also a student at the equivalent of MIT in China. He probably won’t win anything, but he is a national hero for his normal-guy appeal.

“The ‘Bolt’ Inspires Copycats, and Ire from the IOC” — The Wall Street Journal blog
The “Bolt,” the archer-like pose Usain Bolt makes after winning gold medals (three, if you’re counting), and other showboating has caused IOC president Jacque Rogue to call out the sprinter for being unsportsmanlike.

“Shawn Johnson is a Star — On CCTV” — The Wall Street Journal blog
The American gymnast appeared on a CCTV — state run TV — talk show the other day and had a gracious reception. I think this writer is trying to point out that her coach is a former China gymnast, and CCTV should try to bring people on the show who are more controversial.

“By Withholding Photos, Olympic Timekeeper Draws Attention to Relationship With Phelps” — New York Times
Omega watches, the official timekeepers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are one of Michael Phelps’ sponsors. Omega also never released photos proving that Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly by a hundredth of a second over Milorad Cavic of Serbia. This columnist wonders if this will hurt Omega’s credibility.

“Why we need this hero” — Baltimore Sun
An interesting take on Michael Phelps, showing the “underdog” in him.

“China’s ‘Miss Manners’ Trained a City to Host the World” — The Wall Street Journal
When China needed to train etiquette to it’s 70,000 volunteers, it hired Li Ning. The volunteers seem to be doing a fine job, but some average people are still prone to cutting in lines etc.

“The Olympics in Photos” — The Wall Street Journal
Great pictures from Friday’s action.