Ok so I'm alone in Uncle Andrew's apartment in Hong Kong now, for the third and final time this summer. I've got some time and hope to make a bunch of blog posts right now about various reflections of the summer and hopes for the immediate future. This post will be a simple recap of the last 3 days.
My dad flew in on Wednesday night and we spent the night at separate events - me at wrestling, him at field hockey. Thursday night included a dinner with my dad's friends, including his Australian coworker Mark who had gotten me two Olympic tickets. The restaurant was in 世贸天阶, an upclass area near Guo Mao. This part of Beijing doesn't feel like Beijing, and while it's nice, clean and fancy, it seems designed merely for Western businessman - aka it's Shanghai in Beijing aka it sucks. But on this night, upon leaving the restaurant, a special event was happening. My dad pointed out to me the world's largest outdoor LCD screen, this gigantic piece of covering. Acting as a roof with the screen facing directly downwards, the proportions were
something like 25 meters by 150 meters...it would have taken Usain Bolt like 14 seconds to run across it, which means the screen was pretty big. The ground directly underneath the screen was walled off by large canvases covered with the Coca-Cola logo, so we couldn't see what was going on. Suddenly dad's friend Daniel, whom we had just eaten with, stops and says, "Did you hear that voice? That's Yao Ming in there." Pause. "WHAT?"I run around the canvas looking for any openings - there are some and although I couldn't see the stage, I could see another giant screen, this one facing normally, and Yao Ming is clearly being interviewed. Then I hear the word "Jams" and the screen shows highlights of an American dunking. I figure they're showing a highlight reel of slam dunks, but then I see layups and jumpshots. Finally I realize that the same guy is taking all these shots, and his name in Chinese is "Jia Ma Se." The next thing I knew, LeBron James steps onto the stage to uproarious applause. At this point I am legitimately giddy; I feel like a 13 year old girl at an Aaron Carter concert. Upon reflection, that is not a feeling I am very proud of, but bear with me. I mean, I've never been this close to LeBron in person in the states, and here I am in Beijing marveling at how much Yao Ming towers over LeBron. The whole show was rather dull, where a white girl asked LeBron some basic questions, "How are you guys feeling for Argentina tomorrow?" and then translating his answers into Mandarin (her Mandarin sounded native). There were no good questions that I would have asked if offered the gig, like, "How do you like Beijing?" or "What was the coolest thing about the ceremonies?" or "How do you like being surrounded by Asians?" or "How excited are you to joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2010?" or "How much did it hurt when Pierce matched you jumper for jumper and the Celtics beat you?" I definitely spend too much time thinking of questions for hypothetical encounters with famous athletes.
But now I actually had a chance! I went around until I saw a lot of bystanders, and correctly guessed that Yao and LeBron would be leaving via those exits. After a rousing edition of 我和你, a ton of Chinese cops file through the exit, then some entourage, someone who looked like Tayshaun Prince, and then suddenly LeBron James. I had been thinking of what I should say and as he passed within 5 feet of me, I could only shout, "Good luck against Argentina tomorrow!" As the only native speaker of English in the crowd, I had hoped that I would get some sort of reaction, but alas, one was not received. Upon reflection, I should have said something like, "Go St. Vincent St. Mary's!" (his high school) or "I saw you on TV the other night" or "You know the Celtics have a ton of cap room in 2010!" And then Yao Ming was there, indescribably tall in person, and I couldn't think of a thing to say nor did I know what language to say it in. Then they were gone, ushered into a parking garage to return to the heavily guarded Olympic village.
Friday morning I went to work for the last day. Considering my job was not even close to my number 1 concern here in Beijing, and I often came into work late, disheveled from a night of drinking, and almost dozed off during a lesson once, they absolutely loved me. I was stunned by the reception I gave when I told people I was gone. I actually gave a presentation the previous Thursday, my usual presentation time slot, in which I gave a powerpoint summary of my summer (minus any foxy pictures) and then gave a short speech in Mandarin. I spent the morning crafting the speech with my boss Jessica, i.e. she wrote it, and then the rest of the afternoon practicing it. I delivered it awfully - while my colloquial Mandarin and ability to make expressions has improved leaps and bounds, my ability to read a large piece of unfamiliar words was still unrefined, even though I had all the pinyin. But they loved it and that's what counts. And now I know how to say good luck in Chinese! 祝你好运！
That evening, dad and I went to see handball, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had seen the sport on TV here and had some idea of what to expect, although I didn't realize how close the movements and motions can be to those of basketball. The fast break action is furious, the goal keeping is exceptional to watch, and the athleticism is superb. Among the highlights are the foot saves by the goalies, as the foot tends to be the blocking medium of choice (they'd get their share of foot blocks in Ultimate) and this French guy who on a breakaway, jumped so high on a shot that when he landed he actually did two somersaults. The game really does require the base athleticism of speed, power and coordination that sports were originally about, not the pseudo-athletic (though nonetheless impressive) skills that say, synchronized swimming or canoeing requires. Not to hate on water sports. That said, much of the game is infuriatingly repetitive. Take away the fast breaks, and every offensive possession is the same. Unlike in basketball, where shots can come anywhere, from 28 feet to 0 feet from the hoop, and in any shape and size, handball shots are basically just a player jumping from outside their no entrance zone and throwing the ball down as hard as he can. Occasionally there'd be a dramatic alley oop type play, or a player would fake a goalie out and lob a soft shot over him. But that's it. Team handball is a nice simple game, but too simple to really catch on as a popular sport.
Well there are big plans for after the Handball, so after entertaining dad's unquenchable desire for photograph poses, I hurry back to Wudaokou and meet up with Crystal for one last night of partying. We set out to make the night epic, and I'm afraid to say we did not fail. Here's how events unfolded:
Crystal and I wandered around San Li Tun looking around for Anastassia. Initially failing to find her, we instead bumped into Karen Wu, another Georgetown '10 member who apparently lives in Beijing. That was really cool and we chatted for a bit before I went into Shooters and downed a shot and a Long Island Iced Tea. Crystal and I regrouped and found Anastassia with her girlfriend Kerena, and btw they are so cute together. We chilled there for a few drinks before going off for a chicken and beer break. At the chicken stand, I saw my American co-worker Dan, legally wasted from an Olympic baseball game where the US lost, and let's just say that that was freaking awesome. Soon after, I had to head to a boat party for Peter and his Columbia program. Although Crystal had initially wanted to go, she elected not to join me, and I made a 4 block walk alone and without a real idea where I was going. Somehow I did make it, and I think that was the beginning of the end of my night. Seeing Peter brought out some drunken hugs, and I had by now met enough of his classmates that I rolled around the boat chatting it up with a bunch of different people. I think here I had Long Island Iced Teas 2 and 3, and afterwards I heard from Anastassia that they were going to White Rabbit. So I got into a cab with someone else who was going to White Rabbit (apparently a Chinese teacher from the program) and I guess I made it to the club and got a beer or something. I don't know how long I was in the club, but Anastassia wasn't there yet, and I was basically alone with a Chinese teacher, so I scrammed pretty quickly and got into a cab for home. It must have been 2:30 at this point. In the cab, I get a call from Anastassia that she's at the club, and I tell the driver to go back to the club and fall back into the club. I don't know if they were all there at the same time, but eventually I clubbed with Anastassia, Crystal, Clary and I think Nick the wrestler. Come to think of it, the only thing I remember is getting another drink...guess what it was? Yeah, Long Island #4. See the problem is, well it's kinda multifolded. First, I have a really difficult time speaking in loud places, especially when I'm drunk. Second, the bartenders have a difficult time understanding drinks in English. Third, the Chinese drinks I'm most comfortable ordering are Qing Dao and Long Island Iced Tea, the translation 长岛冰茶 is a rather humorous literal translation of each individual word. So I can bust out those words at any time and get a drink, and I did that...4 times. Oh one final problem? Long Islands are lethal.
I hadn't booted in Beijing all summer, but I did at least once that night, out the window of a cab. Yeah I really don't want to think about that. I don't remember calling Crystal from the cab, I don't really remember getting back into the apartment, and I don't remember what I told Lisa when I skyped her (the call ended at 4:57am - fuck!). I do remember waking up the a guy knocking at the door at 11am, and just feeling awful. Worst hangover I've ever had...I barely made it to a final lunch at Lush with Crystal and wasn't totally fine until around 6:30pm.
I did make it to track & field that night, which was a ton of fun. Dad and I sat next to a guy who used to throw javelin at Berkley and tried to qualify for the 2000 and 2004 teams. He and I talked track for the whole time, which was great cause I never get to talk track with anyone. The javelin finals were going on and he explained everything I want to know about that, and I'm not convinced that along with the high jump, the javelin requires more power and explosiveness than any other event. Before talking with this guy, John, I considered the event a specialty event, for smaller throwers. I mean, on the RL team, everyone tried out the jav including skinny cross country runners like Billy Hubbard, and our best thrower was Fernando, who while big, is hardly a model of speed. But as John explained to me, the best jav throwers have to not only have a really strong throwing arm and shoulders, but need to bench a ton, and have the same extreme leg strength that sprinters and jumpers have, as well as impeccable technique. While bigger guys can get away with good results amidst poor speed in high school, at this level these guys are supreme athletes who are often pretty good decathletes. And speaking of decathletes, John trained with Bryan Clay, the American gold medalist, and described him as a really cool guy who could just do it all. In fact, if you don't know about Clay, get to know him. Besides being one of the best half-Asian athletes of all time, his results are absolutely fantastic. he runs a 100m in the low 10s, clocking 10.44 in a first place finish in the pouring rain in Beijing. His weaknesses are the 1500, which every decathlete sucks at as they're all fast twitch guys, and the shotput, and he's not too consistent at the high jump. But his discus throw was insane, his long jump would have placed him in the finals of the real long jump competition (which is insane), he won the 110 hurdles, and he can toss that javelin pretty far too. It's tough to gauge where that ranks with someone like Usain Bolt, but I gotta put Clay up there as one of the dominant athletes of these Games.
Oh so yeah I didn't actually see Bryan Clay that night. I did see this Norwegian throw a Javelin over 90 meters for an Olympic record in a really awesome display. I saw a great, heralded Croatian female high jumper who was a 12:1 favorite to win gold start off hot, not missing any of her first 6 attempts, but eventually being stunned by a Russian who cleared 2.05 on her first jump. I saw the US women win the 4x400 in super exciting fashion and called Sanya Richards comeback on the last 100, which was definitely the highlight of the night, especially her baton pump at the end. I loved every second of the men's 4x400 when the US won every single lap, and the event I was most excited for, the 800m, turned out to be totally unexciting as some dude went wire to wire and Abubaker Kaki wasn't even in the finals. Nonetheless, it was the favorite of the 11 events I attended and afterwards dad and I got some nice shots of the Olympic torch.
Packing up was awful, I dallied and did a poor job, getting 4 and a half hours of sleep, but whatever, I made it here to Hong Kong. Here I managed to meet up with Conor, who had been in Shenzhen, despite him not having a cell phone and not knowing the city. We met up with his older friends for dinner and watched the Closing Ceremonies at an Irish bar, which did not fail to disappoint. I'm very burnt out now though and totally needed the quiet night of blogging that I'm currently undertaking.
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