Badminton and other favorite sports

A fellow foreign teacher was able to score us some tickets to some Olympic matches. First up was Badminton. Security was pretty thorough although somewhat theatrical as well. The venue was packed with Olympic Volunteers who were among the most polite people I have ever met. On our way out of the stadium one said, "Thank you very much for coming." I responded with, "Thanks for welcoming us to your country." He seemed surprised but also beamed a bit. The educated people in China are extremely polite, hospitable, and just all-around friendly. All the volunteers fall into this category. Unfortunately, I have witnessed a few white people being somewhat patronizing toward them and getting frustrated by their own ignorance of Chinese characters.

Inside the Badminton arena. Three games were going at a time. It seemed to be very distracting to the other two matches when the Chinese would score a point and the crowd would erupt.

Me, looking like I have conquered something.

The venue form outside. A very nice building. (I used a tripod and 1 sec shutter speed to get this)

It was also nice that the Chinese didn't mark up the prices on the food. A Snickers was 75 US cents and a Coke about 95 US cents-- maybe a 10% increase from outside.

A few days later, Laurel and I made it to the Birds Nest for the first day of Track and Field. We were a little late and missed Walter Dix (an FSU athlete) run the 100m prelims but we still say some great races.

Some solar panels on top of the gates outside the Bird's Nest.

I found these fellow US Americans outside and had to grab photo with them.

It is more remarkable in real life. It is definitely one of the most magnificent structures I have ever seen, maybe second only to the Golden Gate.