Words I know in Chinese: 28, learned one yesterday, though now I have to remember what is it...
Gymnasts we hope show up today: the USA women’s team. Woohoo!
Ok, so I HAD to write. Yesterday started out not a good day for me. I think I got whatever stomach thing is going around. Icky! So when Ted called after work to say he had good news, I was expecting him to say he’d found another NBC place (he’s been stalking them, hehehe, I’m only partly kidding).To my surprise and joy, he pulled out a pass saying “Rehearsal” on it. Ok, so it wasn’t actually a pass into the Bird’s Nest for the opening ceremony rehearsal, but it was a pass onto the Green. As Richard put it, it was a pass to stand around outside. But it was MY pass! Hehehe.
We got there kinda late, since we waited for people, so the good spots I wanted were taken. But we set up just south of the Nest over the pond and waited. Luckily, they didn’t disappoint us. Not only was everything lit up last night, but they shot off fireworks several times throughout the practice. Now, if I had my tripod and wide angle lens, these would be awesome, but they’ll do :)As people were swarming out, one of our Chinese colleagues mentioned her friend getting inside after the last rehearsal. Yeah, right. I was very skeptical. But, sure enough, no one stopped us.
It is completely amazing. Walking between the huge pillars that make up the outside of the nest, you can only see a little sliver of what’s inside the stands. But, as you approach, it just opens up into an amazingly huge stadium. Everything circles around unobstructed to the very top. While not as decorated from the inside as I’d have imagined (maybe they’ll do that before the 8th), it is something to behold.Check out my panos
