Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sunday August 10

Taran, thanks for posting the previous entries that I emailed.  We found an internet cable in the hotel room though, so I'm back on it.
The Chinese people are working very hard to make us feel absolutely welcome and safe here.  There is a guard of some sort on every corner and often in between.  They seem unsure if they should smile.  Most want to but are a little reluctant.  The people out of uniform hold no such reluctance.  They go out of their way to smile and be helpful in every way they can think of.  Thanks to Silvan, the US Slalom Team Head Coach, we are staying in a section that is away from the larger more international hotels.  The area we are in feels more Chinese.  There is a large vegetable market right next door.  The park down the street is visited by many more Chinese than others.  It's a little out of the way.  I find myself having to explain to cab drivers...okay not really, it's more like pointing at the map.   At any rate i have to know where the hotel is so I can point on the map.  Once the cabs see the actual location they can get us close and we have to guide them the last block or two.   Hand motions are more or less universal.  And of course I am an expert after less than 24 hours in China.
I have to admit though that it was nice to go the the Bank Of America Hometown Hopefuls building today and be surrounded by Americans for a brief time.  Bank of America is doing an incredible service for families and friends of US Olympians.  They fed us, gave us a place to escape the humidity, which makes Atlanta feel dry by comparison.  I never thought I would say this but Atlanta has sissy humidity.  They, Band Of America gave us some event tickets.  We went to Boxing and watched the small skinny guys class.  Tonight we have tickets for Artistic Gymnastics.  We got some Track and Field tickets.  We didn't get Davis' favorite stuff, but we get to go in the Bird's nest.  Of course the most important thing is tomorrow when Benn races but we already had those tickets.   Also at the Hometown Hopefuls we found other MOOs
It's getting easier to get around.  We've heard good things about the subway but haven't found it yet.  We've been using taxis.  They are very inexpensive and convenient.  As I said though it does put some pressure on us to know where we're going.
Should I mention food?  So far there has been plenty of it.  Our breakfast is covered at the hotel.  Noodles for breakfast is not what we're used to but it works.  Then the lunch today at Hometown Hopefuls was great.  The red stuff was fish.  The brown stuff was duck.  The pizza was kind of like pizza.  
Interesting note; we had lunch today with Catherine, Lucy and Constance who are here to support the US rowing team.  Catherine knows some of our friends from the Canadian paddling team.  She knows Pierre pretty well.  I wish I could say we learned some really embarrassing stuff about Pierre.  I didn't even ask though.  I've tried to get the upper hand on those Canadian rascals before.  I don't think I could embarrass Pierre no matter what dirt I had.  Funny though that we travelled to China and accidently had lunch with a friend of a friend.  It's not really a small world.  If it were then it would not have taken three hours for my feet to de-swell after that heinously long plane ride, and Marsha would be seeing the same trash cans here that she sees at home.  
Tom

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