aforementioned triathlon ticket and a track & field ticket, which I just used. Walking around to these sites was just pleasant, a word I rarely use in this country. The hotel was in the center of Beijing near some Hutongs, and I found myself unexpectedly sight seeing again. Walking around the center of Beijing in the great weather with 5 Olympic tickets in my backpack may not seem like a highlight compared to climbing the Great Wall, going to Olympic venues or downing shots in San Li Tun, but it was a spectacular, worthwhile hour of reflection on just how lucky I have been this summer.The rest of the night turned out significantly less philosophical than the afternoon. At 8:30, I met Crystal and Anastassia at a side alley of San Li Tun that was quite lively and much cheaper than the rest of Beijing's premier bar street. We made our way to a bar called Shooters, that had tons of hilariously named shots. Our favorite was "Crystal Virgin" which we promised to pair with Sex in the Jing. After throwing down an "Abortion" and 4 other drinks, we decided to take the S off of Shooters and go eat dinner at Hooters. Yes, Beijing has a Hooters. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to this night, but I hope my writing sufficiently describes the absurdity of the Beijing Hooters. All the waitresses were Chinese, but taught to at least sing songs in English. They were decently hot, and on a dare, I actually asked one of them, "多少？" For the non-Chinese literate readers, that question best translates to, "How much?" The waitress didn't understand, so I played it off like I was asking how much the dinner cost. While I was at the bathroom, Anastassia thought it'd be funny to tell the waitresses it was my birthday, and they stopped by and did a little dance and song for me.
After a pitcher and a Philly Cheesesteak, we left in search of the proverbial pot at the end of the rainbow, which in this case was Paddy O'Sheas, the Irish bar of Beijing. Great call. I have to say that my navigational skills were instrumental to our reaching our destination, because if we had listened to Crystal, we would have gon Southwest instead of Northeast, so you welcome. Entering Paddy O'Sheas really made me question why I am going to Dublin in a month, but if the best night in Dublin was like this night, I'll have made a good decision. The atmosphere of that place bore little resemblance to most bars we've visited, as typically active debauchery is discouraged. I don't think the Irish think the same way as the Chinese though, especially with regard to beer. We grabbed a table near the corner and somehow were joined by 2 American college students. Nick was a big guy who had attended UConn to wrestle 197 but had quit after a successful freshman year because he had cut too much weight. We bonded about wrestling and the Olympics, while Crystal and Anastassia bonded with him for different reasons. His friend was named Sean and he was a rising sophomore at GW. Naturally I asked him if he knew my good rising sophomore friend at GW, and when he replied that he was good friends with Thao I think I went nuts and we bonded over that.
That should have been the end of my night, but after catching a cab back to Wudaokou, I decided to enter Lush. I think I justified it within my mind by saying I'd ask for a glass of water. Well inside I spotted John Loong, a Georgetown grad who took me on as his Asian protege, and so I had a glass of water along with a glass of Long Island Iced Tea. John was with 3 Chinese girls, so that was fun, although I'm not sure if any were cute. I think we only stayed at Lush for a few minutes, enough time for me to kill the Long Island, before I headed to La Bamba where I knew Peter Kong awaited. While extremely fun and entertaining, the rest of the night wasn't eventful enough for me to blog about it, or even to remember.
Ok forgive me, I'm editing this on Wednesday morning, after having seen my 8th Olympic event in 7 days. So Saturday afternoon I went with Jansen, Angela and Xavier to see track cycling, or the velodrome, or whatever. The stadium was kinda in the middle of nowhere in the burbs west of Beijing but was actually the first stadium I had visited that was packed. Among the events I've seen, this sport was perhaps the most unusual and therefore the most interesting. Our session contained many different races, all men, including time trials, sprint races, and the incredible points race. The time trials involved two riders, each starting at an opposite part of the track, and then completing their 15 laps as fast as they could. The good British riders were able to catch up to their counterpart, which was thrilling for them and embarrassing for their rivals. The sprint races, I think they were called the Keirin, involved 6 or 7 laps, the first 4 of which are led by a motorcycle. During those initial laps, the cyclists just pedal in a line behind the motorcycle, which slowly builds up to 50 km/hr. I thought that whole buildup was pretty silly, but once the motorcycle left with 2.5 laps to go, things got heated and there was a good deal of lead changes, passing and all out bike sprinting. Fun stuff. But the points race was the coolest event, if most confusing. Encompassing 160 laps, the event required endurance, but it wasn't a simple race to the finish. The race was separated into 16 sprints of 10 laps, and the winners of each sprint would gain points, 5 for the winner, 3 for the 2nd place, 1 for the 4th place. In addition, any rider who managed to gain a lap on the peloton would gain 20 points. A Hong Kong rider was involved and so I cheered him on in Cantonese. The race was extremely difficult to follow because it wasn't always clear who was on what lap, and the riders used very confusing strategy that we couldn't understand. Nonetheless, it was an exciting and intriguing race, and I yelled 香港加油 more times than ever before.
Sunday night held my first trip to the Bird's Nest where I saw Bernard Lagat choke away America's hopes in the 1500m. Monday morning I went up to an hour north of the city to watch Triathlon, which surprisingly rocked. That evening included a trip to Gymnastics. I made a return trip to the Nest last night, and this evening I'm watching freestyle wrestling. I'm busy right now registering for classes for Ireland, packing up cause I'm leaving surprisingly soon, and going to Olympic events, so lots of updates to come later, perhaps in Hong Kong.
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