Game On!

A full day has passed since the Opening Ceremony... and to answer the question at hand... YES!  I did get to go to the opening (thanks to my good friend David who miraculously pulled a ticket out of - never mind, I don't want to know where)... IT WAS AMAZING.  

It was an event just getting there!  I was sitting at home (the China People's Prison...I mean Palace), and I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not be going to the Opening.  Our staff of four had been given three tickets and I wanted Queen and Crystal to go as this was the only time the Olympics would be held in their hometown, and Amy was my boss, so I took the moral high road... hoping that I had not run over my dogma with my Karma and that my good deed would in fact be rewarded.  I was not going as far as I knew it.  It had been decided that Maarten, Tina, Leslie and myself would go to Heinekin House to watch the festivities from afar... and perhaps drown our sorrows in a few pints and commiserate.  I had got all dressed up (as people at Holland House tend to dress) and I was in the elevator heading to the lobby to meet Maarten to head out.  Then the phone rang.

It was David telling me that he had a ticket and I had to boot it to the bird's nest... if only I could take flight.  For the love of God, they had that thing sealed off like the secret to the bleedin' Caramilk bar!  I dashed to my room, threw on a pair of shorts and my Canada T - of course and bolted out the door.  I called Maarten on route praying that he would understand.  He did.  He still called me a jerk.  Rightly so.

Once I finally found a cab I hopped in.  In my utter excitement I could not, for the life of me, get the cabbie to understand where I wanted to go.  I even turned into "that foreigner" and when he did not understand I just spoke more slowly and MUCH more loudly... thinking back, I would have punched me if I were him.  I called David and he put someone on the phone who spoke Chinese and the message was passed... once he found out where I was going and why I was going there we were off!  I was ecstatic.  It was 7:00pm and the opening started in an hour!  Tons of time to get to my seat!  I was walking on air... or driving in a cab in air that you could probably walk on if I was being honest. 

Self Pic of me in the cab on the way - phone still on figuring out where the heck I was going to pick up this ticket in the mass of people!.... The smile did not last long.

I was feelin' good, until I realized that the police had blocked off all of the highways because it was so close to go time!  For the love of Mao!  Side roads in Beijing!  Are you freakin' kidding me????  The cabbie did not even think that he could make it anywhere near the stadium and thought that he would have to take me back! No way!  Thank goodness David stuck with it (he had my ticket).  He went to the nearest info booth and had them explain to the driver the closest place he could get to the stadium - the place where the transaction would go down.  I was getting excited again... Then came the masses.... usually cars just barrel past/into pedestrians here... but there was no getting around them.  Holy Tofu! out of my way!  Did they not realize I was on a mission?????  I stayed on the phone for the entire time of what seemed to be the longest cab ride of my life, and I have to say that David did not give up on me.  I was determined.  At 7:40, I finally made contact.  I gave my cabbie 100 yuan for a 58 yuan cab ride (18 bucks total) and you would have thought I was giving my cabbie a gold medal for driving.  Trust me, that is one competition that the Chinese would NOT win... but they will win every other medal so don't feel bad, they will be fine.

Great I thought!  20 min to get to our seats... then I realized we were still 2+ km away from the stadium.  David and I ran! We were flashing our ticket to every cop that tried to stop us (we were supposed to be in our seats by 6:30 or 7) and we made our way to the stadium.  We made it with 8 minutes to spare... just enough time for a photo op with performers from the opening ceremony who wanted pics of the crazy westerners.

Cheerleaders for the opening - you can actually see the sweat on us in the photo!

I dropped David at his gate and then bolted. I was at the very back at the top of the stadium.  I felt like getting to the opening was an Olympic event!  I sat down in my seat at 7:59... I made it! 

My first impressions... MAN WAS IT HOT!  It was at least 45 degrees in there!  No AC - here is the photo to prove it... Now I sweat a lot!  But this was the most I have ever sweat in my life.  I was sweating more than a priest in a whorehouse in hades! 

Now that my friends is wet! (funny thing is that it was so hot that it dried in less than 10 minutes.... odd)

I had made it!

Spectacular!

The show itself was amazing.  For those of you who have never been to an opening or who do not care to watch it on TV - it is broken down into three parts really.  1) the first part highlights the history and culture of the host country (in this case China) 2) parade of Nations - each team marches into the stadium - this was the largest ever with 204 competing nations! 3) the official part - speeches, the oaths and then the lighting of the torch.

The first part was indescribable (I will post lots of pics instead).  It was classic, elegant, innovative - visually stunning really.  Sit back at take a look at some of my pics from the ceremony...  Ok - so my internet has stopped working!  Yeah China's people's prison... I will stop here for now (as it is 1am and I have to be up at 6).... I will try to finish tomorrow morning before work!...

It rocked.