Uniforms

Previously this week we all received our long awaited uniforms. Placed in a large Adidas bag, we received one pair of sneakers, two pairs of adjustable pants (they zip off to become shorts), three polo-shirts, one fanny-pack, one water bottle, three pairs of socks and a baseball cap for the guys (fisherman's hat for the girls).

A game that was played after receiving our uniforms became; How much did this all cost? Using standard retail prices for all the items, one calculation that was derived was around 300 dollars. Not bad considering we got this all for "free". The uniforms aren't the sexiest things I've worn in a while, but they are presentable and now all of us feel like a part of the great blue army that is the Beijing Volunteer Corps.

Gift of Family

As the last couple free days were winding down, my aunt who was visiting from Hong Kong to see the games took me out around the city. Our handy media accreditation passes allowed a free trip nearly halfway around the city as I arrived at her apartment.

I haven't seen my aunt in about two or so years, and over the course of that time she's given birth to one my cousin of mine. My meeting up with my aunt allowed me to not only see my other two cousins in the two year span but meet my newest family member as well. This is baby Lillian.



My aunt and her family are in Beijing for the next three weeks as they plan on attending the opening ceremony and a few other events. They're filled with Olympic pride as well.


So our day started with a delicious lunch at a Japanese restaurant at the China World Hotel, followed by a trip back to her apartment here in Beijing. Then the most glorious thing happened. I was able to take a steaming hot shower for the first time in nearly two weeks. The simple things in life.

The 1=1 theory.

Ever since I moved to China at the end of sixth grade, I've always wondered why at times spending 1 RMB is almost equivalent to spending 1 USD. So the purpose of this blog post is to list approximate prices of daily items in both currencies, and see where the exchange rate really lies.

Food Items:

McD Burgers Fried Rice

3-5 USD 10-21 RMB 5-7 USD 5-20 RMB

Bottled Water

1-2 USD 2-5 RMB

Services:

Massage 1(Hr)

30-70 USD 50-100 RMB

Hair Cut

10-25 USD 20-50 RMB

So as you can see, there are quite a few things where the RMB is nearly one for one with the Dollar in. Services is especially true, as the large amount of obtainable labor allows for very cheap prices in manual labor. One dollar, or 6.9 RMB can go a long way here.

That first real meal.

After living on crackers and water for the past three days, I decided to venture out and eat something substantial. Our good friend Paul, from his Steak and Eggs restaurant was the chosen destination of edibles.

Cold ginger ale, minestrone soup and half a New York strip steak later, I left Paul's feeling more satisfied then I had been in nearly a week. I'm pleased to say I'm about one day away from putting the illness behind me and get ready for training.

On a unrelated note, several Purdue students who were assigned to photography have received their uniform and I am excited to receive mine.Thanks Alysha for the wonderful picture.

Hospital(ity)

Sorry for the slow updates, but I was overcome with a stomach virus at the beginning of the week and have been bedridden since. Good news is that I am gradually feeling better and I hope to be able to report to my first day of training by Monday.

Tuesday this week, I had already begun to fever amongst an assortment of other maladies and was at breaking point. I called my parents to see if they could arrange for someone to take me to a hospital to get a diagnosis. Little did I know at the time, Beijing had long made plans for easily accessible health care for the Olympics, and the hospital I was taken to had been designated as the official Olympic hospital for all tourists. There were quite a few foreigners there when I arrived, and the hospital worked in an extremely efficient manner. You start off by taking a ticket and waiting for your turn to be called. I barely waited ten minutes before a doctor opened her door to me, and asked me to explain to her what was wrong. A temperature reading, blood and a stool sample later I was prescribed three medications that would neutralize whatever bacteria living in my stomach and I would be on my way to fair health again.

Thanks doc.

Media Accreditation

Over our two day training session, the cycling venue manager provided us with our media passes.
While I'm still waiting on my pass to provide me access to the volleyball venue, these passes have given us nearly free reign while traveling up and about Beijing. It feels good to have "VIP" service, as we will not have to pay for another subway pass provided we show these passes when purchasing tickets. But on the same note, the severity of security at the Olympics have been very apparent as our passes specifically state not only what venues we have access to, but also what areas in each place we're allowed to be in. Understandably, security at a large event such as the Olympics would be extra tight, but China has taken a step beyond normal security and has put measures into place to have everything under control.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/antiterrorism_exercises_in_chi.html

I wonder if I'm getting frisked every time I'm going to get a flash quote.

Grass is greener

The old adage: "The grass is greener on the other side" can not be more true for the culinary aspects of living in a foreign country. While I do believe I am more accustomed to the different food items that Beijing offers, than my fellow classmates, there are times where I would do almost anything to find an Olive Garden and order a medium rare steak gorgonzola alfredo. Conversations about food with Leroy, Chad and Chris usually are forced to end as we all reminisce about our favorite eateries back in Indiana. While we might not be able to find an authentic burrito or a warm plate of pasta cooked to perfection, we have been making do with what is available.

Our unanimously favorite place to eat in Beijing would have to be Paul's Steak and Eggs. With an amazing location in the embassy district of Beijing, Paul's restaurant has provided us with the most authentic "American" food to date. I have sampled both his pastas and his steak and egg namesake, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every tiny bite I've taken. Thanks Paul for bringing home to Beijing.

Other safe choices would have to be the more established franchises. McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut are in abundance, and all of those places have served pretty good food. Those restaurants for the most part have stuck to their international counterparts menus, but there are a select few items that seem to have a local twist to them. The McDonald's fish fillet apparently includes a generous serving of Wasabi sauce, rather than the mayo that we're used to. I'd stay away from it.

Markets!

As shopping goes, I've only actually spent meaningful time in two different areas. The first one being the Silk Market, which is more of a five story building with hundreds of different vendors set up selling everything imaginable in the clothing industry. As one browses through the rows of nearly identical stalls, which often result in multiple occurrences of deja vu, as many of the stalls sell identical articles of clothing.

Entering the market from the Yonganli subway station, places you into footwear haven as vendors attempt to convince you to buy from a nearly endless selection of Nike, Adidas and various other brands. Each floor caters to a different selection of clothing, with purses and wallets rounding up the first floor and shirts, pants and jackets claiming most of the stall space on the others. The top floor of the building is entirely made up of jewelry and pearl sellers.

The Buynow department store, which is the second large shopping venue that I have made a return trip to, is an electronic silk market. Haggling is completely permitted and even necessary as one browses through vendors that sell anything from computers to video monitoring systems. This market is a mecca for any technological junkie, as they sell nearly everything imaginable that relates to electronics. For example, after breaking my power adapater for my laptop, I was able to bring the unusable unit, and procure myself a brand new one for three American dollars. Amazing.

Volleyball

As our training started, Christina who is the cycling manager told us that a few of the Purdue students were to switched either full-time or part-time to the volleyball venue. Without any other way to determine who was to go, we drew names out of a hat and now I will be covering volleyball at the games instead of cycling. I'm definitely excited with my new "beat", as volleyball is a sport that I am more familiar with.

I met my volleyball manager and in our brief conversation, it appears that they will put to use my bilingual skills, and have me interview specifically the Chinese teams, and translate their quotes back to English.

I am somewhat disappointed that I will not be able to work with my fellow students, but I realize that the Olympics is just such a unique opportunity and that any little thing us volunteers can do is just a small part of this great event. I'm hoping that I will meet different people at whatever venues I will be working at, and that those relationships will last past these games.

Better start learning those volleyball terms now. In both Mandarin and English.

TV Show

As one of the more interesting experiences of my life, Purdue along with a group of Australian students were invited onto a Chinese talk show. We were ushered ushered onto a small stage where an elaborate set was in place. The talk show started with the introduction of an eighty-eight year old gentleman who aspired to take part of the Olympic volunteer program, and another man who was a supervisor for the volunteers.

The host of the show, along with the pianist were great at setting different moods for the show. The show had several different turns with either humorous portions, such as asking the audience to conduct interviews, to serious ones where students with disabilities provided the audience with small gifts.

After the show was over, the majority of the audience rushed onto stage to take a picture and greet the host and his guests. To our surprise, the elderly gentleman was actually a University of Michigan alum, and it was an incredible experience talking to him about going to a Big-Ten school back in the 40s.

Quack Quack

World famous Peking Duck. It took awhile, but after a unique tour of a sewage processing facility and of a rural village on the outskirts of Beijing, we finally made it to Peking Duck. Our trip started at 8:30 am as a collection of students from Purdue, Emerson and Queensland University of Technology gathered at the lobby of our host university, CUC (Communication University of China). We were greeted by two massive busses as we arrived at the south gate of campus. Our enthusiastic tour guide, known to us as Henry, provided a constant stream of dialogue as we braved the Beijing rush hour traffic to our first stop, the sewage processing plant. An hour later we arrived to an unknown location where we were greeted by employees of the plant. Walking across metal grating over bubbling dark water definitely was a first for me, but I'm sure the experience was definitely new to quite of few of us. With the help of Henry's translation, we learned what the different processes occurred in order for the brown sludge to refine itself into clear usable water.

After touring the plant, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and then headed out for a rural village on the edges of Beijing. The village consisted of a temple and a retirement home. While I'm sure there were many other parts of the village, it seemed our tour was composed of mainly those two parts.

Peking Duck was our next stop, and the two and a half hour bus ride definitely built up the anticipation. The bus ride itself was a great bonding experience for all of us, as it allowed us to really get to know each other. One common point of discussion was the ridiculous driving and traffic that compromised nearly every single Beijing road. We came to the conclusion that for our trip, we spent more time sitting on a bus than any other activity.

The restaurant did not disappoint. We were ushered onto the third floor, where an entire ballroom was dedicated for us Olympic volunteers. There aren’t many words that can be used to describe the sensations one feels when warm roasted duck enters a mouth devoid of nutrition for nearly seven treacherous hours, but needless to say this was culinary perfection. The ducks were brought out onto carts located in between tables and we salivated as chefs masterfully sliced the duck into thin pieces that fit perfectly in our wraps and buns. Add some great side dishes and it made for one amazing dinner. While we were told our ducks might have been raised in some questionable ways, the end result was without a doubt one of the best meals of my life.

Handsome man, we have your size

Day two of Beijing consisted of a quick tour of the host university by some of the local college students. It was a lot of fun being able to meet people of our age, studying in similar educational fields as us. The most shocking revelation was probably when I met a local student who attended the same high school I did in Shanghai. The high school in question is called Shanghai Middle School, and it has two different divisions. There is a local division and an international division. I was in the international division the same time as this student was in the local division. Small world.

The tour consisted of mainly locating and explaining many of the different facilities within campus. We visited banks, cafeterias and small supermarkets. After absorbing all this information, the option was presented to us to go to the Silk Market. From living in Beijing previously, I remember the Silk Market to be a busy street with hundreds of small vendors selling knockoffs of everything imaginable to man. While the location has changed to a building connected to a subway station, the concept has remained the same. Store clerks are almost vulture-like as they try to drag you into small shops that aren't more than ten feet by ten feet. The greatest thing about the whole experience was the fact that, as the only Asian surrounded by many Caucasians, I was left unscathed as my fellow classmate were unmercifully dragged and shoved into these stores. Leroy, another Purdue student, mentioned something of a death grip as he was being pulled into a store. Aside from the physical hazards of navigating the Silk Market, we also encountered different phrases of English being yelled in an attempt to funnel us into these stores. Chad, another student was warmly welcomed by phrases such as "We have your size" and "You so handsome".

As part of the small group of students that banded together to navigate the obstacles of the market, we finally found our sanctuary with a foot massage parlor. The wear and tear of navigating subways and streets took their toll on us, and the feeling of your heel being kneaded and your calves being squeezed is something out of this world. After our half hour massage, none of us had any desire to leave the chairs that we had been sitting in. This definitely capped off our trip the Silk Market with a bang.

Beijing Take 2

After spending a day and a half in Beijing, I have come to the not-so unexpected, but still quite pleasing conclusion that Beijing has modernized herself for these Olympic games. Many new buildings have been constructed, and at least two new subway lines have been built to accommodate the surge of traffic that is surely to come.

Six or seven years ago, which is around the last time I was in Beijing, the city was much different. It wasn't as English friendly as it is now, and many facilities appeared be to outdated and in extreme need of renovations. This is definitely not the case now.

So for our first day in Beijing, a couple of the guys and I decided to head down to the outdoor basketball courts adjacent to our dorm. We were greeted at first with stares and quizzical looks, but finally a couple of local players accepted our challenge to play a pick up game of four on four. Our team definitely had a size advantage, but the locals had experience on their side. While we were able to have our way the first few games, our lack of being in shape showed up quickly and we finally lost. It was a great time regardless of winning or losing, and this is something that I'd definitely love to do again.

Day before

Unlike most of my fellow classmates who will be undertaking their half-way around the world 14+ hour trip, I will be waking up around 7:00am tomorrow morning to take a relatively painless two hour flight from Shanghai to Beijing.

All I can stay is that I'm stoked to start working at the Olympics. It's not very often that one has the opportunity to just visit an Olympic host city, but to actually contribute is one giant step beyond that exciting prospect. I've lived in Beijing for two years, albeit being around fourteen at the time, and I am excited to see how much Beijing has changed to evolve and adapt itself into a city worthy of housing the world's best athletes. My family resides in Shanghai, and I return once a year on average. Each trip back is almost a different experience in itself. Shanghai has been leading China with its expansion and modernization and I don't believe Beijing is far behind. The new "Bird's Nest" sporting complex and Aquatic center "Water Cube" are architectural marvels. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourselves.



Since we will be assigned to cover cycling, our primary daytime residence will most likely be the Laoshan Velodrome. While not as unique and otherworldly as the nest and the cube, it still is pretty impressive looking.



Anyways, off to finish packing. I'll be posting from Beijing soon.

Welcome!

First and foremost, I would like to welcome my readers to this blog. Before you all immerse yourself into this wonderful reading experience, I would like to tell you a little bit about me, and what content you might expect to find over the course of the next two months.

Who am I?

My name is Patrick Qi and I'm a junior at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. I study professional writing and mass communications, basically journalistic type stuff. I also write sports for Purdue's independent newspaper, The Exponent.

Other things of possible interest include the fact that I am Asian-American. I was born in New York, but I have split my entire life living in China or Stateside. I am bilingual, and I have experience with the lifestyle and cultural aspects of China.

What am I going to be writing about?

Well, hopefully the title of the blog is pretty self explanatory. I've been very fortunate, along with a few of my classmates to be invited to volunteer as apprentice members of the media for the 2008 summer Olympic games. Our main focus will be covering events related to cycling, however our stay at Beijing should allow for insight into many other events as well.

As to the specifics of our duties, the majority of the volunteers from Purdue will be designated as flash quote reporters. This means we're the first wave of media to interview athletes, usually right after they finish their event. Our quotes and notes will be used by other journalists for their own articles.

What else am I going to be writing about?

Seeing as how I am the only member of the Purdue delegation with the ability to speak fluent Mandarin, I will also be writing about my experiences as I guide my fellow classmates and friends around the hustle and bustle known as Beijing. Hopefully my comrades will be adventurous enough to enjoy Beijing for more than what it can offer tourists, but for all the small things that make China unique.

Seeing as how this is my first post, I will stop here in an effort to not overwhelm you. I'm extremely ecstatic and grateful for this wonderful opportunity, and I hope my writings will provide a similar experience for you. Thanks for reading!