The Games have Began!

Howdy Ya'll
Well we have been here for almost 1 week and sorry for not getting to this sooner, but we have had some challanges in getting access to the internet. This Olympic trip has not gone as planned, with housing becoming an issue which we have resolved, but a challange. It indeed is a unique country. The people in general have been ok, many have been very helpful, but as with any country it has some people that have been a challange to say the least. We have had some wonderful people go out of their way to help, giving us assitance in getting to specific locations and with our limited chinese language and their limited english skills we have been able to get through our barriers and reach our intended locations. I think it is interested the major differences in the cultures that are here from other countries, of course the local population is not as diverse as other countries so it is a challange for the host country. But we are getting by.

The games have begun and as thought, the opening of the games has you have seen where very successful. It was not as enjoyable as other Olympics as the security was extremly tight and did not really allow for a good viewing spot, other than the big screens through the city or from a television. We where able to see the fireworks from our position but we where a good distance away, photos are coming. The night was a hot humid night and the opening was very long 4 and1/2 hours.

The couple of days where interesting, our uncle made it into town, but we had problems getting together which caused us some problems caused the uncle to have to spend the night at the airport. We where just happy that we where able to finally get connected and get us all together. We are all now staying in our hotel and started our favorite past time, meeting and greeting and pin trading.......We have also been to the Temple of the Heavens and have our plans laid out for other places to see.

We went to our first event today, (Tuesday August12) it was a team handball game. For those in the states this is a game that is played on a court similar to basketball, with nets similar to soccer. It is a fun game, played in 2 halfs of 30 minutes, so you get to see two games when you attend. It is an interesting game, very fast, lots of scoring, some very good action. It is very popular in Europe and interesting that it not in the USA. It is a sport that we would enjoy. The games today where between France and China, which the host country was unable to have a victory, with the second game, Spain and Poland, being very exciting with Spain pulling off the victory in the closing minutes. VERY exciting.........

The venues are well done and tickets are very hard to come by, but it is interesting, that the Chinese Olympic committee has stated that all tickets have been sold and this is true, because we have met a number of people who have not been able to get tickets. The sad part is that there are a number, alot, of empty seats at the venues. It is evident that although it is "sold out" not many people are attending. It is to bad that the tickets have not been made avialble to the public, as a number of international people are here who want to witness the games and they can not get a ticket.

Well, it is very late here in Beijing, and I just want to say Xie Xie Ni, (Thank you) for all those local people we have met that have helped us and showed us some kindness. It is a different place indeed, but well worth the trip and the experience.

Will write more later........GO USA!