Some Spewing and Some Soccer (i.e. the Olympics!)

Well, the first part of this post has very little relevance to China specifically (or does it?), but I think it might top the most embarrassing moments list for the trip (hard to do), so, I mean, why WOULDN'T I want to post it all over the internet for everyone to see?

I'm sitting at my desk in the office on Monday, enjoying my PB&J for breakfast as I do every morning and drinking my little mug full of luke-warm water, when part of the last sip I had taken goes down the wrong pipe. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem (maybe I would've gotten some looks for coughing since no one seems to do that here - they only hack - loogie style, but that's beside the point), except that the other half of the sip was still in my mouth. So, we have a problem. My best efforts to suppress the cough were but futile, and, failing to think quickly enough to get a hand in front of my mouth, I was soon facing of a 2-foot-radius hemisphere of mist which had just been spewed somewhat dramatically from my mouth all over my desk, computer, etc...
OR SO I THOUGHT it was 2 feet. Until about 20 seconds later when I notice the girl who sits at the desk a good 5 or 6 feet in front of me in front of me wiping down all of her belongings. DOH! But, the whole time the whole office was SILENT, and she never gave me so much as a glance, and between the lack of eye contact and time delay (a good half a minute had passed by now) I felt weird apologizing, and she just went on wiping for a minute or two (she missed the little pieces of bread which had been carried out by the stream plastered to the back of her chair). Anyway, I thought maybe she was mad, but she gave me candy like half an hour later and we had a quite pleasant conversation after that, so I don't know. Maybe one of those "don't make her lose face" things? Whatever it was, talk about awkward moments... I basically spent the rest of the morning mortified in the elbow on the table, hand shielding the eyes position of humiliation.

...Which meant I was even more excited to get out of there and go to the Olympics! I left the office around 3 to take a taxi to Workers' Stadium (I guess a little most subtle than naming it Communist Stadium, but not a whole lot...), and we finally got through some pretty intense security in time to see the women's games Brazil vs. Nigeria (Brazil won) and Sweden vs. Canada (battle of the two most peaceful countries EVER? - Sweden came out victorious) Anyway, it was a pretty cool deal. Although the stadium was about 90% Chinese people who weren't particularly loyal to any of the teams playing. They've also stacked the stadiums with Chinese cheering sections full of volunteers armed with little inflatable noise making sticks, which they bang together in unison FOR BOTH TEAMS. Ok. Other highlights included the half time show, which was the giant inflatable Fuwa (Olympic mascots) marching around the track, dancing to HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL?! Really? In Beijing? At the Olympics? I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved it, but REALLY?! Check out these sweet snapshots of the jumbotron too :).

Who knew that the Mexicans had laid claim to the wave? Let me tell you, the Chinese people LOVE the wave...
also...CLAPPING!!

Outside the stadium, after braving security



Inside


The yellow sign in the middle of the picture says no open umbrellas...

On another note, as cool as it is to be in Beijing while it's all happening, I feel pretty out of the loop when it comes to the US Olympic stories, because all they show here on TV are the sports that the Chinese are winning medals in (i.e. A LOT of weightlifting and 10m air pistol). For example, my viewing choices right now are, let's see, Badminton on CCTV and what other than Ping Pong on CCTV2.
We're hitting up Beach Volleyball in the morning, so if you happen to read this before 9 pm (EST) Wednesday night and care enough, you can look for me in my Stanford shirt cheering on Kerri Walsh on the sand. (Also somewhat interesting is that Georgia beat Russia in Sand Volleyball today. Except the Georgians were native Brazilians, but still.)