A Day of Olympic Exploration

Our adventures in Beijing continued today with the usual morning stop at the National Tennis Center. We arrived to find that there really wasn’t very much for us to work on since everyone was busy with general technical preparations for the impending tournament. Because of this, we were able to immediately head over to Center Court to watch Dinara Safina, the women’s world number one player, warm up…or so we thought. After warming up for a few short minutes, Safina took a seat with her coach to discuss strategy. They sat around animatedly talking for awhile, which then turned into them arguing very loudly. Needless to say, Safina never took the court to practice again. Either way, it was pretty exciting to be sitting in the Olympic venue, in the front row of the stands, just a few feet from the women’s world number one.

Even though Safina’s warm-up was a little bit shorter than anticipated, Matt and I decided to venture over to some ITF players he had seen playing earlier to get a quick interview. Zach White and Ahmen Al Bitar were participating in the singles tournament and were also doubles partners. White ended up being the number one seeded player in the tournament and is ranked number one for juniors in Canada. They were really friendly and interesting to talk to, and we are going to watch Zach's singles match and their doubles match when we come back tomorrow.

We were able to leave work in the mid-afternoon and about seven of us decided to head over to the Olympic Green to check out the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, as well as the Water Cube, and the surrounding area. We emerged from the subway right in front of the Bird's Nest, and it was an absolutely unbelieveable sight. From watching the Olympics last year, I knew that the architecture of all of the buildings in Beijing were stunning, but nothing compares to seeing it all up close. Both buildings are stunning pieces- the Water Cube looks as if it is a giant collection of glowing bubbles. We took a lot of pictures outside of the different buildings and soon found that we were more of a tourist attraction to some of the Chinese than the actual buildings were. Matt was the first one approached by an Asian guy about our age who was thrilled to be taking a picture with him. After that, a ton of people ended up coming up to us and requesting pictures; it was a blast.

Since it was a bit late in the day, we didn't have time to tour the insides of both of the buildings, so half of us split up to go inside the Bird's Nest, and the other half went to the Water Cube. I'm sure you could easily guess that I would chose the Water Cube...how could I not tour the place where all of the most amazing swimmers in the world swam in just last year! When we first got inside, I will admit, I was hyperventiliating a little bit. We got to walk through the entire complex- through the diving area, the main pool, as well as by the warm-up pool. The inside was much more spacious than it appeared on T.V. during the Olympics; it truly is massive. I loved how everything still shines like it is brand new. I really wanted to take a quick dip in the pool, but in order to swim you must pass a swimming test and pay about 10 dollars...well worth it to me, an obsessive swimmer, but not to anyone else in my group, so we passed on that.

We walked home from the Olympic Venue (which we realized was only about a 15 minute walk so the subway wasn't really needed in the first place) and passed a lot of beautiful Chinese style buildings on our way. All of the restaurants and teahouses are so intricately designed and decorated- so much thought is put into everything. We also passed the Chinese Cultural Park, which looked absolutely gorgeous, but it was already closed for the day. Unfortunately, things here close a lot earlier than in the United States.

For dinner, Emily, Jim, Eric, and I decided to go to a small place right near our hotel, and as usual, the food was delicious and the portions were huge. I ordered a noodle dish with a bunch of different vegetables and chicken in it. After dinner, we went to the billiards club nearby, which was a complete blast. It was full of mostly locals so we stuck out like a sore thumb and were clearly the worst pool players there, but we didn't mind. When you finish a game, the men who work there clear the table and re-set it up for you; now that's service. We decided to call it an early night since we had to be at the tennis center pretty early again the next day.

If you haven't noticed yet...I am having the most amazing time of my life :)