Dear Friends and Family,

As my cab pulled away from Beijing’s Capital Airport, a clock excitedly exclaimed, “190 days remaining!” And when I passed it a week later, no more excitedly, the clock proclaimed, “183 days remaining!”

From the moment that the International Olympic Committee announced that Beijing would host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the people of China have been preparing to impress the world. On the very day of the announcement, people flooded alleyways and spilled onto the streets smiling, waving flags, and lighting scads of fireworks. No doubt before the fireworks yet to subsided, the Chinese government immediately put itself to work, hatching an expensive plan to spiff-up their capital and set their Olympics in motion. Perhaps over the intervening years, you too have heard about the cost of Beijing’s Olympics: the tearing down of traditional residential districts, billions of dollars, controversial “restorations” of historic buildings, and the creation of city greenbelts. I cannot knowledgeably write on this subject and so I shall not; however, most accounts have assessed Beijing’s Games preparation as excellent.

What I can personally report is that excitement for this event, now 155 days, 3 hours, 15 minutes, and 22.8 seconds away, is PALPABLE. Already Olympic advertisements and licensed product stores are ubiquitous. And 3 out of the 3 Chinese people that were willing to converse with me diligently ensured that I was impressed that the Games were soon to arrive. I duly assured them that I was impressed.

The Games will be 15 times zones from Pacific Standard Time - effectively 9 time zones away from the west coast of the US. If you watch the Games this summer, some of the buildings that I particularly noticed are:

The National Stadium - also known as the Bird's Nest

The Aquatics Center - which I noticed has several nick-names including the Watercube or the Bubble Wrap Building

And the Laoshan Velodrome (which looks cool from a distance but even cooler in the construction pictures)

If you feel the need to surf through more venue pictures, check out: http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/lsc/index.shtml.

For my part, sometime ago it occurred to me that I am closer to the Olympic Games than I’ve ever been, financially and geographically, and with this realization, I became very exited. Can you imagine? Attending the Olympic Games in a non-US city? Awesome! Despite the rumors that flights and hotels were already booked, I was optimistic that if I waved my card de credit around and was not picky about where I slept, I, too, could squeeze into over-priced seats to cheer archers and football players and swimmers and table tennis players. I went so far as to excite a few friends in Korea about the notion of attending the games, began my research, and realized that family obligations will pull me to the States during the Beijing Olympics. I was forced to swallow my disappointment then as well as during my later exploration of Beijing when I savored my glimpses of the “Bird’s Nest,” marveled at the Aquatics Center, and bought my father an Olympics baseball cap.

The theme of the 2008 Olympics will be “One World One Dream.” These words are everywhere in Beijing - apparently even in Hollywood-sized letters just below a picturesque section of The Great Wall. The Beijing Olympics open on August 8, 2008 (although for you in the States this means August 7th). Stay tuned to your local station.

Love,
Laura