Waterskiing in China

If only waterskiing was an Olympic sport!

From pins

We finally got our Olympic pin collection on the wall. It looks pretty cool!

Opening of the Closing Ceremonies

Here is a short video to let you know what it looked like from the point of view of the live audience rather than the TV audience. We recently watched the DVD of the Opening Ceremonies that NBC produced. It's great, but we were disappointed that there wasn't one for the Closing Ceremonies!

The Opening of the Closing Ceremonies @ Yahoo! Video

Trip Album

Click here to view this photo book.

Here is the final, edited copy. I think it's so cool that I can show it right on my blog! I have the hardcopy now, and I am definitely hooked on making digital photobooks! It is beautiful. This would have taken me so long the old-fashioned way.

Training for the Closing Ceremonies

When we arrived at the closing ceremonies, there was a bag of goodies on each seat! Several of these items were to be used as props for audience participation in the closing ceremonies. Here's a glimpse of our "practice session."

Training for the Closing Ceremonies @ Yahoo! Video

A Night at Track and Field

A Night at Track and Field @ Yahoo! Video

This is definitely not NBC-TV coverage, but this video lets you see what it was like from a spectator's point of view. Our 11yo son was the amateur camera man for the 200m with Usain Bolt. He was a fan of Wallace Spearman of Arkansas, so he focused on him, and you can also hear him yelling for him in the background.

A Happy Ending

While we were at the women's softball finals at the Olympic games, Rebecca discovered that she had lost one of her trading pins - a part of the valuable "2008" set that Panasonic had given us. She wasn't trading this pin - only wearing it to "show that she was a serious trader." Well, a "2008" set isn't much good if it's only a "208" set instead, and Rebecca was definitely upset. We looked and looked as did all the crowd sitting around us. We found all sorts of stuff, but no pin. Then just as we were giving up, she looked on the bottom of her shoe, and there it was! We all had a good laugh, and you can especially hear Terry laughing on the video.

We Found the Pin! @ Yahoo! Video

Harder than it Looks

Over the next few days, I'm going to post some clips of videos that we took in China. Terry is working on editing a movie of our trip, but it will probably be too big to share online.

Here is a clip from an entertainer at the Temple of Heaven. I thought this ribbon was mesmerizing. They had ribbons you could buy to try it yourself, but I had a feeling it would be a big disappointment. There is probably a trick to using your wrist or something. If I had been a majorette instead of a brass player, I might have given it a try!

Harder than it Looks @ Yahoo! Video

What To Do When Bored in an Airport

Here's a video we made on the first leg of our trip to China. We just now got around to putting it to music. Note that the name of the song sort of goes with our destination!

Chopstick Animation @ Yahoo! Video

Noodles!

From noodle shop

We talked a lot about the food we sampled in China, so I thought I'd also tell about one of our food adventures in Japan. We decided to try one of those Japanese restaurants where you sit cross-legged on the floor. There was one near our hotel. I'm sorry I don't have a better view of our table, but you can see here that folks behind us were sitting in regular tables.

From noodle shop

There's a reason for this. Sitting cross-legged while eating was actually quite uncomfortable.

Next came the real fun when we tried to order without an English menu. I thought that Ramen noodles could never be bad (see the first picture for what I ordered), but it was extremely fishy-tasting and was only lukewarm.

Rebecca ordered plain rice, or so she thought. It was purple with a strange spice on top.

From noodle shop

Terry ordered - well, he wasn't sure what he ordered. But this is what came:

From noodle shop

We were very impressed when he ate it. Sign him up for Survivor!

From noodle shop

He told us he would like to say it was better than it looked, but unfortunately he couldn't.

Nathan was the winner. He stumbled into ordering the Japanese equivalent of chicken nuggets!

From noodle shop

Check it Out!

I've been working on a photo book of our trip. It's not finished yet, but I can't wait to share it! When you click on the link below, you may have to enter a password. If you do, use "china". I think it's best to view the book in slide show format. You can slow down the slide show under "options" once you're in slide show mode. When you get to page 69, all the remaining pages are blank. I'm hoping to complete the book by next week. I have never made an album so fast (and with so little mess on the table!).

Shutterfly Photo Book

Edited to add: I have updated the link (10/8/8) now that I've added more pages.

Beautiful Beijing

From Beijing

I've been working on a photo album for our trip (my first attempt at a digital album, and I love it!), and I realized I never posted these pictures taken around the city.

We were really expecting LOTS of people and LOTS of traffic, and we were NOT expecting interesting modern architecture! We were very impressed with the looks of Beijing (at least the parts we saw), and there were not the crowds we expected (we understand the government restricted who was allowed in the city). It seemed like Beijing did not want to miss any opportunity to decorate for the Olympics. There were colorful logos and signs everywhere!

Also, if you'd like to read more about the trip and see some great photos, a gal from our trip has a blog you might be interested in - it's fastmamafrog.edublog.org.

From Beijing

From Beijing

From Beijing

From Beijing

From Beijing

From Beijing

From Beijing

More Funny Food Pictures

Here are a few funny shots of Nathan trying the food in China. First, let me point out that none of my kids are very adventurous eaters. It took a lot of convincing to get Nathan to try this dumpling. Note the glass of water in his hand to wash it down - as if he was taking medicine or something!

From funny

It didn't take much convincing to get him to try the crab claw, as he really enjoys seafood, but he couldn't resist hamming it up for the photo!

From funny

Entertainment at the Temple of Heaven

From Temple of Heaven

When we went to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, it was on a Sunday. There were many local folks there entertaining each other. I thought at first that they were entertaining as a money-making enterprise, but Tom told us that this is just a place they go to express themselves. I never saw a hat out or anything - of course, I'm not sure if this would be allowed anyway in a communist country?

This young couple was dancing -

From Temple of Heaven

This man was singing in very high voice -

From Temple of Heaven

When I asked our guide what the man was singing about he told me, "Long ago in China it was illegal for a girl to be an actor. Men played the girl part. After doing this a long time, men forget that they are men and think they are women. This is what has happened to this man." Not really what I was asking, but it did give me some insight into a few other things we saw.

An accordion player -

From Temple of Heaven

Some sort of martial arts -

From Temple of Heaven

A game between father and son -

From Temple of Heaven

And what was the most entertaining to me - the children -

From Temple of Heaven

And I'm sure we foreigners were a bit entertaining to them, too -

From Temple of Heaven

Did You See Michael Phelps?

This has been by far the most common question we have had since returning. No, we did not see Michael Phelps! That would certainly have been exciting, but I understand that he left Beijing shortly after winning gold medal #8.

The only USA medalist we saw was Raj Bhavsar. He was a gymnast who won team bronze. We saw him while shopping at the USA House, and he posed for a picture with Nathan. Check out those biceps!

From athletes

The only other athletes we saw were all at the Great Wall.

Here is a Canadian rower:

From athletes

Some members of the USA skull team:

From athletes

And a wrestler from the USA:

From athletes

The athletes at the Great Wall all highly recommended taking the toboggan ride down. Panasonic wanted everyone to take the tram down because they were afraid the toboggan was unsafe - this was one of our few disappointments on the trip.

We also saw the entire Spanish olympic team in the Beijing airport the morning we were leaving. We spoke to one of the members of the Spanish men's basketball team (silver medal winners) who plays in the NBA. I didn't know his name - but he was one of the starters, he spoke English well, and he was tall! He had his bouquet of flowers from the medal ceremony in his luggage cart.

From athletes

When we were in the Tokyo airport, we spoke to the family of a member of the men's volleyball team (sister and mom). We have some video of that conversation.

The Golden Arches and the Golden Pavilion

Two things that I've wanted to blog about that really aren't related!

The Golden Arches

From McDonald's

One of the LiHD families asked us to take pictures of a McDonald's in China - including things that were on the menu. Unfortunately, we weren't able to complete this assignment in China. Panasonic took us to some really nice restaurants and we only saw McDonald's from our bus window.

However, we did see McDonald's in Japan. In fact, our taste buds were longing for American food by the time we arrived there. Unfortunately, we had committed to a boycott of McDonald's about a month ago(not because we don't like their food but because we disagree with some of their corporate agenda). Of course, that didn't keep us from going inside and making some pictures.

From McDonald's

From McDonald's

Much as we wanted to eat there, because of the boycott we opted instead for the Japanese version of fast food - Hotto Motto.

From McDonald's

They didn't have an English menu, but they did have these pictures to look at:

From McDonald's

In fact, we found that very typical in Japan. They nearly always had pictures on their menu and very often had actual bowls of food to look at in the window. This was very helpful to foreigners. I wish I could say that the pork curry I ended up with was wonderful, but I did find myself wishing for a Big Mac, especially since it was only the equivalent of $2:

From McDonald's

The last morning we were in Japan, Terry said we could forget about the boycott for just once and eat breakfast at the McDonald's that was around the corner from our hotel.

From McDonald's

Here's the breakfast menu:

From McDonald's

The kids had hot cakes,

From McDonald's

and they never tasted so good. Terry and I had McGriddles - yum!

The Golden Pavilion

From Golden Pavilion

I wanted to post some more pictures about interesting things we saw at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. We had hoped to learn a lot about Japanese and Chinese culture and beliefs on this trip. One thing that we saw were a lot of superstitions (or what we would call superstitions here - I'm not sure if this is part of actual Buddhist teaching or not). Anyway, there were all sorts of charms for sale at the temple. Some just struck us as a bit humorous. Remember that when something looks like it costs 400 yen, that's equivalent to about $4.00.

For success in study (wonder what the difference is between the $3 option and the $4 option?)-

From Golden Pavilion

To pass an examination (in case you don't think the one above will help?) -

From Golden Pavilion

For making your dreams come true -

From Golden Pavilion

For good health -

From Golden Pavilion

For traffic safety -

From Golden Pavilion

This fortune was sold vending-machine style:

From Golden Pavilion

After you purchased the fortune (see above picture), this is where you put them (assuming it wasn't excellent, pretty good, very good or good, which I must only assume is bad):

From Golden Pavilion

And no, I didn't buy one, I was just sort of staring in amazement.

And lastly (and unrelated), here is one of many pictures that Rebecca took of the beautiful children we saw on our trip:

From Golden Pavilion

Musical Fountain

Here's something you might not have seen in the Olympic coverage. This is a musical fountain at Chaoyang Park - the beach volleyball venue in Beijing. When Noah did a report as a school assignment before we left for the olympics, we discovered that there was a musical fountain there, but we weren't able to find out anymore about it. I told him I'd video it if we saw it, so here it is. I can't tell what the lyrics are, but it does sound oriental. This is in sharp contrast to music they played inside the beach volleyball stadium - it was American rock and roll.

Musical Fountain at Olympics @ Yahoo! Video

Beijing Airport

From Beijing Airport

We had so many things to share when we first arrived in China that I forgot to post these pictures. The new Beijing airport terminal was amazing! We arrived at about 9:15 pm and were surprised to see it so deserted - this was not what we expected at all!

From Beijing Airport

This electronic olympic mascot was near the baggage claim area.

From Beijing Airport

And this picture was taken late on the day we arrived. We were in the elevator on the way to our room and thought the glass ceiling would make a neat shot.

From Beijing Airport