So I woke up today pumped because it was 8-8-08! OMG The Olympics finally were here! WOW! I had to get to work at like 8, I had some breakfast and did some posters and organizing of the help desk and venue before lunch time. We had the usual chinese airline food! haha During lunch Jashin and I decided we were going to try and get on the Olympic green so that we could at least see the birds nest during the opening ceremony! We had to wait until 4 to leave though. We didn't have much to do after lunch but me and some of the other volunteers took a walk around the area where the start point was and the result of this walk was about 1,000 pictures of us near the start point! haha
After taking lots of pictures with the other volunteers I was able to walk over to the post office tent and purchase some Olympic Postcards with the postage date of 8/8/08. I thought those were pretty cool so I picked up a batch for Jashin too. Well after work she and I got on the bus and headed to the nearest subway. We got off the subway line 10 and plopped right into the HUGE opening ceremony crowd!!! It was amazing, as we transfered to line 8 (The Olympic line) we saw all kinds of people from different countries and cultures! It was awesome and the energy was like electricity!
Once we got off the subway we had to go out of the station and up to the ground and go through security to get into the Olympic Line. Because the Olympic line 8 takes you directly into the Olympic Green. We stood in line for about an hour and by that time it was already about 5:30 pm. We got to the front of the line and then were told we were in the wrong line! Good grief...so we had to go to the end line, which was the "volunteer" entrance line. We stood in this line, talking to people surrounding us. There were several chinese people of course, but also people from Hungary, Mexico, Brasil and America among many many others. I was able to also trade a lady for a coca-cola pin while standing here. We were in that line for about 45 mins so by the time we reached the front it was near 6:15. We got angry because we were rejected entry to get on the Green. We seriously were the only volunteers that had been turned away from getting into the green from that line. It sucked that we didn't get in and on our way trying to get into the green we met a girl from Slovakia (or something like that) and she wasn't able to get in either. Her name was Anna. Anna left us shortly after we were rejected from the green line so that she could try to get in another way. Well Jashin and I were rather angry but we hadn't gave up yet, so we headed out to try and get around to another gate and while we were walking some people from Michigan and another few people from Canada decided to follow us. We all tried to walk around but by this time guards and cops had all the roads blocked off and we couldn't get around to another entrance. Then the cops and guards wouldn't even let people stand out on the sidewalk where you could sort of see the birds nest. No they were pushing the crowd to move in the opposite direction, away from the green and the Birdsnest. We felt bad that the other people who had followed us were kind of betting on us to find them a way in to. By the time 7 pm rolled around Jashin and I had no luck even getting close to be able to see fireworks. So we had to say sorry and goodbye to the guys who were following us and then we got in a cab. Jashin and I got back to Renmin about 7:50, we had 10 mins until the start of the ceremony. So we tried to go next door to the hotel where a bunch of people were going to watch it on a projector screen. Funny enough, the way our luck would have it, the projector broke just as we entered the room. So we had like 5 minutes to get to my room! We hurried to my room and caught the beginning of the countdown for the ceremony! We sat in my hotel room and watched all of the opening performances and once the athletes parade started Jashin went to order us pizza. I was able to watch the entire show and then once our pizza got here I was able to enjoy some Papa John's!!! YUM!!! After the athlete parade, Blair, my roomie came back to the room and Jashin left to go finish watching in her room. I sat and watched the rest of the ceremony straight up to the lighting of the torch and the very last broadcasted moment. I was blown away by all the fireworks, cool effects and the dancers and performers. I loved the giant scroll that was the center of the performance! How cool! After the broadcast was over I got in the shower and tried to get to sleep fast because I had to be up and at the bus at 5:30 am the next morning because it was the Men's Cycling Road Race!
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