Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Day One, Part Two

Day One in China


I can some up Day One in one word - WOW! This whole experience is just so unbelievable. When we walked into beach volleyball this morning after having just watched this team a few days ago on our own TV, it was like stepping into the TV (Rebecca says sort of like Blue's Clues). There they were, as big as life! I've had a similar feeling with all the sites. I can't take the time to choose just a few favorites, but click on the picture above and you can see all the pictures (350 of them) that we took yesterday.

As several of the pictures show, Nathan is the one who suffered most with jet lag. He actually fell asleep at dinner. We finally got him to drink some coke, and he perked up.

Probably the biggest WOW! factor for me yesterday was walking into the Bird's Nest Stadium. I fully expected to sit in the "nose bleed" section, but when I saw our seats on the 50 yard line right in front of the runner and medal stand, I was speechless. Tom told us that our seats for the closing ceremony were even closer.

We have enjoyed getting to know the other folks on tour with us. All are from the broadcast division - meaning that they buy the really big cameras from Panasonic used in TV/video production. In fact, today they have planned a tour for us at the International Broadcast Center on the Olympic green. It is apparently not open to most folks. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything works behind the scenes. It seems like every detail is taken care of. We even noticed that when they raise the flags for the medal ceremony, as soon as the flags reach the top, there is an internal blower in the poles that makes the flags start waving.

Well, I've got to run. We're seeing diving and softball today. It's raining outside but much cooler. I checked weather.com, and we're supposed to have clear skies the rest of the week, so I won't complain.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks like you have had a great day and seeing lots. We are so glad that we can see some of what you are seeing and doing. I guess by now you are already at Thursday events. It's 8:30 pm here. I'm glad its not to hot there.
Love Mother

Anonymous said...

Wow! What great photos. Thank you for posting them and allowing us to take part in your amazing adventures from afar. Enjoy your time there. My wife says you need to try the fried eel- you won't regret it! (She says they taste like French fries...)

Ann said...

Tell Nathan not to worry about falling asleep at dinner because his mother did that several times as a child at camp, and she couldn't even blame jet lag.