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Back from football. USA v. Japan, Women's semi-finals and ...
USA WINS! 4 to 2.
The Workers Stadium is huge. It hold 60,000 and I believe it was full to near capacity. We had meant to pick up something to eat before heading in, but by the time we reached the arena, it was 7:30 and the match started at 9:00 pm. While the security and ticket takers have been amazingly efficient so far, we had concerns so we skipped dinner and decided to have arena food (hoping they'd have different arena food) instead. That was a mistake. Not only was it the same arena food, but they didn't have anything available that was substantial. I don't think bread, popcorn and a Snickers bar constitutes a well rounded meal. The other bummer was that they were pouring all the drinks into cup without lid. Apparently, they had concerns that we'd all throw our plastic bottles at each other and on the field.
We had relatively good seats. 3 rows up behind the USA bench. The shelters for the teams were blocking part of our view of the opposite end of the field, but they were showing the game up on big screens at either end, so we just watched up there when we were blocked.
It was looking pretty grim at the beginning. Japan drew first blood and USA just wasn't getting past their defense. I don't know if you all are aware of this, but every time I leave my seat during a Storm game, the Storm go on a run. Sometimes a little run, sometimes a big run. Apparently, this works in soccer too. USA was down 1-0 and I decided to go to the bathroom with a few minutes left in the half. Before I made it up to the stairs, USA scored. With 5 minutes, they scored again. Our seatmates were prepared to send me back to the bathroom if Japan scored and tied up the game. Fortunately, USA scored again twice in rapid succession in the second half. During the extra 3 minutes (for stoppage), Japan scored one more time, but it wasn't enough.
After the game, Scott and I tried to walk about the Stadium to a McDonalds, but miscalculated the distance and got turned around. We ended up catching a cab back to the hotel instead. We had fun riding the subways, but have learned that it's a minimum of an hour to get to anywhere and you can ride in a taxi for about $5.00 US clear across town. When we are in a hurry or it's late, it just makes more sense to take a taxi. None of the drivers speak English, so we try to have someone at the hotel write out the name of our destinations for the day before we leave and of course we always take something with the name and address of the hotel with us.
A couple of additional notes. We were surrounded by Americans again. A couple from San Francisco doing their 6th Olympics, a couple from Chicago, and a family from Sammamish. Scott had someone take a picture of all of us and I'm sure he'll post it soon. The couple from San Francisco had plenty of good insights on how to afford going to the Olympics without it costing so much. Ann and Mack, we need to talk. There were several large American flags and we ended up on the big screen more than once. That seems to be becoming a trend.
The bathroom was not fun. There were western style toilets, but they were icky and muddy for some reason. There was no toilet paper (for which I was prepared), but there also were no towels for drying your hands and there weren't even the hand blowers. I don't think they thought that one through!
It is also interesting to note that the crowd at the Stadium definitely seemed to be favoring USA. While they would cheer regardless of who scored, they continually started chants of USA and there was some booing of the Japanese team in spots. We also had several Chinese people come up and want their pictures taken with us, even more so when the other Americans showed up with the flags. They seem to love having their pictures taken with foreigners.
Lastly, we say a building marked Beijing Lawyers Association. I mention this because the acronym would be BLA and I think that's funny.
Tomorrow we have diving and more basketball.
Since we didn't get back to the hotel until 12:30 am this morning, we decided to take it easy this morning. The only things on the agenda were a hutong bike tour and a soccer match tonight.
We woke up and showered about 6:30 am and then hit the buffet. Then we just hung around the hotel taking care of stuff. Scott worked on downloading the photos and I went back to sleep.
Around 11:30 we went out and got some food. The Beijing Olympic Committee printed up several restaurant guides and a shopping guide. We selected a restaurant that wasn't too far from our hotel. It was really nice. The server offered to help us pick out food and we took her up on her offer. Scott got Kung Pao chicken. I got a Spicy Chicken dish which was more or less chicken skin deep fried with lots of sesame seeds. Doesn't sound that appetizing, but it was actually pretty good. The server also added a tofu dish and some vegetables. It turned out to be way more than we could eat, but we did our best to eat enough to show we enjoyed the food.
The funniest part was after watching us eat for a few minutes, the server offered to bring us forks. We thought we were doing pretty good with the chopsticks but apparently no so much. We toughed it out for a while longer, but then Scott accepted a fork. They also brought us a purple ice cream for dessert. I have no idea what flavor it was, but it was tasty enough.
Then with very fully stomachs, we headed over for our bike tour. Our group turned out to be fairly large, 18 people, I think. There were people from Germany (but now living in Belgium and Shanghai), an American family that was currently living in Tokyo, a family from Holland and a couple from Hawaii. It was set to be a 3 hour tour through the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, through several hutongs, past the canal and the Bell and Drum Towers and then back to Jingshan Park where we started.
First off, it's freakin' crazy trying to ride a bike here. Yes, there are bike lanes, but they are used by bikes, motor scooters, pedestrians and occassionally cars and in the hutongs, the streets are so narrow that sometimes it is hard to pass two abreast. There is no clear right of way except on really busy streets and everyone just goes when they want and tries not to hit anyone. There is no 3 foot rule like it Seattle. It was a bit nerve-wracking. I was nearly creamed several times and I just missed hitting pedestrians and other bikes multiple times. You really couldn't sightsee while riding too much or you'd hit someone. Because the group was so large, it was often hard to hear the tour guide sometimes.
The hutongs are fascinating looks into the old way of life for the Chinese. Many of the houses don't have bathrooms, so they share a public restroom. Lots of shops and people hanging out in the street. We were closely watched, but many people said hello or waved. There were even so dogs. Mostly small pug like dogs. One thought about chasing the bikes but was called back by its owner.
We had to stop in one of the hutongs because Scott ended up with a flat tire. Our guide took us to a road side shop where the man replaced the tube and tire in about 10 minutes and then we were back on our way.
There was at least one fascinating area we will probably go back and visit on our own. It was called Antiques Street and was full of shops selling handcrafted items, paper products, art supplies and I suppose some antiques but I wouldn't bank on it. It looked like an interesting place to do some shopping.
We also biked on a street next to a canal that runs through the city. It was very pleasant, but very busy. It was interesting to note that it mostly had cafes and restaurants alone the street with couches and tables for sitting out and enjoying the evening. Since it was the afternoon, they were mostly empty. One of our fellow tourist said that up until about 3 years ago it had been a "bar" street that people loved to come to and sit out in the evening. Now, it's been turned into mostly an overpiced tourist trap. Go figure.
At the end of our tour, we caught a taxi back to the hotel so we could freshen up and pick up Wendy before heading to the soccer game. More later.
I was so excited to be going to basketball yesterday. It was the whole reason I got talked into this trip. However, it was a long, long day especially considering we've been waking up at 3:00 am local time and then falling asleep by 8:00 pm. Hopefully, this long day will adjust our schedule.
The son and Mother from Seattle Scott mentioned are actually a young man from Seattle and his parents from Phoenix. He hasn't been to too many Storm games, but his parents are quite the Mercury fans. They are another set of Americans that are just relying on "alternate sources" for their tickets.
The toughest part of yesterday, besides it being such a long day, was that there were no restaurants close enough for us to make it to in-between sessions. So, we were forced to rely upon arena food which is bad enough in the U.S., but is a whole different animal in China. The had plenty of soda, water and beer but for the snacks, they had noodles (that I never saw a single person eating), little loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, youghurt, popcorn (which was a bit like kettle corn), sausage on a stick, crustless sandwiches (very tasteless) and the hot dogs that Scott mentioned from the handball games. They also had some ice cream and snickers bars. It was just an odd mix of stuff. It'd keep you going, but you didn't get too excited about it.
The best part of the day was getting the attention of Coach Donovan and Sue and then getting to speak with Tully. She's such a nice person. Oh, and hanging out with the Aussie fans. They were all very friendly and happy to talk with us.
Now on to today's activities.
