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

Highlights from Kyoto

Here are a few comments and highlights from our time in Kyoto (which is like Tokyo spelled inside-out).

From Kyoto

One of the things we enjoyed was renting bikes and riding all over town. It was a little scary at times, but all the pedestrians, cars and other bikers got out of the way and we survived!

We rode the bikes to the Golden Pavilion,

From Kyoto

and then to the Imperial Palace where we took a tour.

From Kyoto

You couldn't go in the buildings, but we had a tour guide who taught us a lot. It was interesting that there was far less color used on the buildings than what we saw in China. I thought the gardens were the most impressive sight as the buildings started to all look the same after a while.

From Kyoto

The next day we visited one of the many Buddhist temples in Kyoto.

From Buddhist Temple

Kyoto is supposedly the spiritual capital of Japan, and this was a working temple. The following pictures show a few of the hoops that you have to jump through to get your prayers answered in this belief system.

From Buddhist Temple

From Buddhist Temple

From Buddhist Temple

And here is the Japanese version of voodoo -

From Buddhist Temple

Rebecca and I thought this display was interesting. Apparently when they offer food to the gods, they put bibs on them -

From Buddhist Temple

The highlight of our second day in Kyoto was a visit to a studio where you could be made up as a geisha or samurai. It was hard for Nathan to be extremely convincing as a samurai without facial hair, but Rebecca's transformation was striking. I think these photos show that they had a lot of fun.

From geisha

From geisha

From geisha

From geisha

From geisha

From geisha

Sports Summary - Our Perspective

I can sum it up in three letters - WOW! We started out at the outdoor volleyball arena watching the semifinals in men's doubles. It was a cool way to start, and both sets were close, but the biggest impact on us was when we walked down to our seats at the Bird's Nest that evening and stepped into the middle of the Olympic experience. Right in front of us, runners, pole vaulters, and hammer throwers were making history. We saw the Jamaican blast out in front in the 200M just 50 feet in front of us!

Day two started with 10M diving which is about 5M too high for most mortals. In person, that is one high jump! One mistake and splat - like a bug on a windshield. Again, we were seated close enough to feel the pain. We closed the day at the women's final softball game. It was particularly meaningful knowing that it would be the last time softball would be played at the Olympics - only better if we had won.

Our final day of events started with some real neat interactions with the Chinese fans. First, Rebecca and Nathan were swarmed by families wanting to get their child's (singular) photo with two kids who looked alike and were American. They were real surprised to learn that there were two more just like them back home (Caleb & Noah). I had a neat opportunity to get to know a precious little girl who made my day. Not only that, but it appeared to warm the hearts of many locals that a man would take the time to recognize a girl who likely gets overlooked a lot.

We finished the day watching the Redeem Team win their semifinal game. This was clearly one of Rebecca's & Nathan's favorite events. Also, Nathan, Rebecca, and I got on the overhead screen waving our big USA flag. That was our latest night to date, so fatigue was evident on everyone in our party of 30.

I had hoped initially to blog about sports while in Beijing, but timing and computer access and a detour down the food court made that too difficult. I hope you enjoyed the detour.

DOUBLE CLICK SLIDE-SHOW TO ENLARGE

I started to say that the first thing we did in Japan was to visit the Panasonic Center, but actually the FIRST thing we did was to eat at TGI Friday's and catch up on our sleep! The next morning, Terry navigated us on the Tokyo subway to the Panasonic Center.



They gave us a VIP tour, and it was very interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

They showed us some really cool things that are not on the market yet, and unfortunately they wouldn't allow photographs of those. We saw the biggest plasma TV in the world - nine times as large as ours at home! We also saw the next generation of plasma TVs - less than an inch thick with improved resolution but using only half the energy. The thing I liked most was a huge interactive video wall where you could watch multiple channels, cruise the internet and play games all by touch.



They had a big Olympics display,



a car of the future,



and even things like dishwashers, potties and refrigerators, which I didn't realize were made by Panasonic.

They also had a display here called "Future House" where you could see all these new technologies in an actual house. It sort of reminded me of the "World of Tomorrow" ride they used to have at Disney World.



They had a hands-on science section, and just like in the U.S., there were lots of school children there on a field trip.



They also had a video game section. They had a great cafe upstairs where we enjoyed some pasta and ice cream.



We tried to explain the "Living in HD" program to our Japanese tour guides. Though they spoke English fairly well, we could tell they weren't getting it. Nathan had on his LiHD t-shirt and they had the ability to pull up the internet on their big TV in the lobby. So we had them type in the website from the back of his T-shirt. They got really excited when they saw our picture on the screen!

Panasonic News @ Yahoo! Video

This last part is a demo video they made while we were there.

Surprise!

After the Olympics, we went to Japan! Stay tuned for more about our trip there!

He Got It!

Ever since we started trading pins at the Olympics, Nathan was on a quest for one special pin - one depicting the water cube. He was just SURE he would get it. But after four days of trading, he had not ever seen it (his sister saw it once). So even after everyone else packed their pins away (so as not to set off all the metal detectors at the airport), Nathan insisted on keeping his with him in case he saw the water cube there - he was SURE he would. Well, wouldn't you know it - right as we got ready to show our passports to leave the country - he noticed that the businessman in front of us had several pins on his backpack. One was the water cube pin! Nathan asked him if we wanted to trade, and the man nodded yes and just gave him the pin - no trade required! Then he threw in another cool pin depicting the National Stadium (Bird's Nest). Nathan was ecstatic and wanted me to be sure and post this so that the folks traveling with us would know - especially Eileen - that he really did get the pin!

More About the Closing Ceremonies

I wanted to share a bit more about our experiences at the closing ceremonies.

Right before the closing ceremonies, we had a conversation on the bus with one of our guides. He was telling us among other things that "yes, he was allowed to leave the country any time he wanted" because "it fits with the government's goal to make the whole world Chinese." That's a bit unsettling when you think about it, and this conversation came to mind several times during the closing ceremony. So instead of just being beautiful, the ceremony was also a bit sobering in terms of China's status as a world power. But not too much - as the mood was too fun to be very sobering!



This gal is the way I prefer to remember the Chinese. She was so obviously proud of her country and literally smiled like this for three hours straight.





We seriously would love to have toys like this! After the ceremonies were over,the guys on the bouncy stilts entertained the crowd with stunts for quite a while.



When they first built this human torch, it really looked like ants swarming on a banana or something. This would not be a good job for a claustrophobic person.



This isn't a very good picture, but I wanted to show how these acrobatic guys were right on top of us. Not a job for someone scared of heights!

Here are our jobs during the ceremony - much easier!

Cloudy with a Chance of Doughballs

Several readers have asked for a description of the food that was photographed, so I thought I would update the previous slide-show with captions and add all the other photos we’ve taken of food. But first I should explain the title. This is a take-off from a popular children’s book and also describes our first day in Japan. The doughball part will be obvious from the photos.

In China, we ate mostly Chinese food but also enjoyed Greek and French. I loved everything served from the latter two. American Chinese food is considerably more appealing to the American palate, IMHO.

If you are considering a move to China, breakfast would take a lot of getting used to --- mostly meat and vegetables --- and unrecognizable ones at that. Additionally, you will have some fun with some of their adjectives. Specifically, we noticed “hairy” and “gelatinous” used a lot, and my favorite descriptor was “sauteed assorted fungus.”

Additionally, the Chinese seem to enjoy most of their meat as close to natural as possible with bones, shells, and skin. The most unusual in my opinion was eating crab that was all covered in cheese. Apparently, you either eat the shell or separate it in your mouth.

I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the desserts. We did find most of them to be fairly good. There were a few odd ones like ice cream and bean curd, fried potatoes, and my favorite ”eight treasure pudding (glutinous rice with assorted beans) --- looked great, but I just couldn’t order it.

Closing Ceremonies

By now, you folks back in the USA have had a chance to see the closing ceremonies, so this won't be a spoiler.

The main theme of the show was that even though the torch has gone out, the people can each carry the torch in their hearts and become collectively a "human torch." It's a nice setiment, and the imagery was stunning! Probably the overall image was better on TV (particularly if you have high definition), but our seats were on the sixth row, so we could see lots of details. Rebecca took tons of pictures, and I'm sure she'll be saying more on her blog.

There was lots more security in going to the closing ceremony than there was when we simply attended olympic events. We went through at least three security checks involving an electronic pat-down and we had to show our tickets at least six different times. At one checkpoint, someone accidentally (we hope) set off an alarm for radioactive material, and you should have seen those volunteers scrambling! They quickly decided that it was a false alarm.

Once we got to our seats, we all had a gift bag full of mementos and props. Before the ceremony, there was a training session where we learned when to flap our glittery paper or our fans and when to turn on our little battery-powered torches or play our drum replicas.

One of the biggest surprises is that we were told the ceremony would last four hours, but it was only two.

I have more to say, but we have now arrived in Japan and are getting ready to go see the Panasonic Tokyo Center this morning - then on to Kyoto by bullet train this afternoon.

Shopping in China

Shopping in China has been a real experience for us. Terry loves to bargain, and he was right at home in the silk market (except that the sheer number of choices of things to buy was overwhelming). I would have loved to "window shop," but that is apparently just not done in China. If you even hesitate a little in your step or cast your eyes over the merchandise, you will be accosted and have items shoved in your face over and over. They don't seem to understand "I'm just looking." We shopped at the Cloissone factory and one woman followed me all over the superstore there. I could not get away from her. I probably would have bought several items if I had been able to shop in peace.

It was actually even a little scary when going down the path from the Great Wall back to the bus. There were vendors on either side of a narrow walkway, and they were jumping out at you from both sides. Our family got split up, and each of us ended up running this guantlet alone. I was almost in tears by the time I got to the bus.

There are great bargains to be had in China if you have the stomach for this sort of approach. In fact, Terry is out shopping right now!

One exception has been the Olympic superstore. It was Western-style shopping - meaning that the price is what you pay. There is no bargaining and no hard sell. I bought a lot there.

Another bargain in China has been concessions at the Olympic venues. Drinks of all kinds are just 70 cents!

Our Great Wall Day!

Aug23

Here are our pictures from yesterday. Unless you're a family member, you may not want to wade through all of them. I haven't had time to edit!

One of the best things about our trip has been meeting all the folks that we are traveling with. Nathan said yesterday that was what he would miss the most about China. We took a group picture at the Great Wall yesterday.

All in a Day!

We are running non-stop here, and to give you a little of an idea of what can be fit into one day, I'll give a brief rundown of what we did all on August 22nd.



First, we packed up and left our hotel about 8:45. The day before had been rainy, but today was bright and clear.





Our first stop was the National Stadium where the men's 50 km walk and discus throw was taking place. It was very hot, and the men's race was taking a while to complete (as you can imagine it takes a while to walk 32 miles - even if you are walking 7-minute miles), so we did lots of pin-trading and photo taking. There seemed to be lots more locals at these events today - I assume it wasn't quite as hard to get tickets to - and we enjoyed visiting with some of them - especially this little girl that was sitting behind us.

After enjoying track and field, we went shopping at the silk market and then to a Greek restaurant for lunch.



Next we went on a tour of a hutong (old-style Chinese neighborhood) by rickshaw. We got out at a home and got to visit with a Chinese family and see the inside of their house. It was quite interesting.



Next up was a trip to a tea house for a lesson in Chinese tea. We got to smell and taste several different kinds. My favorite was the jasmine tea. Nathan wasn't too sure about it, but he tasted it all.



Next we had another elaborate meal. We are seriously served about 20 dishes at each meal - only about 3 of which are recognized by any of us. I'm glad to know that some of the adults are just as picky as my kids.



This is what Nathan did through most of supper. Bless his heart - he was so tired - and we still had our major event, men's basketball, to attend.

I figure most of you have seen highlights from this game already. Our Chinese guides are actually basketball fans and were rooting for the US, but most of the non-USA crowd was rooting against us.

There was interesting entertainment at every time out. Here's a Fuwa doing a slam dunk.



After the game (which ended after midnight), we moved to our new hotel which is closer to the Great Wall. We arrived at almost 3 am. Whew!

Pin Trading!

We have been fun doing what has been called "the greatest olympic spectator sport," -pin trading. Panasonic started everyone out by giving us a stash of Panasonic sponsor pins to trade with (and a few that are really too nice to trade). There is one gal in our group - Eileen - who says that she could sell a comb to a bald man, and she is a natural-born trader! She got so many pins the first day that Rebecca asked if she could "shadow" her yesterday. She shared all her strategies, and all of us had a blast trading pins. It is interesting to see who likes what kind of pins. I like the sponsor pins (especially the NBC one I got yesterday), and Terry likes the olympic pins. Rebecca likes the pins with moving parts, and Nathan likes ones that have Fuwa on them doing olympic sports.

Here's a slide show of our pin trading yesterday. You can see from the umbrellas that it was a rainy day, but at least it was not hot at all.

August 21

I'm going to post on this blog today (or tonight) and I just thought I would remind everyone to read the Panda blog and my blog. The links are on the side of this page.

Anyway, today we did a lot! First we went to the women's semi-final 10m platform diving. All I can think to say is: Wow! There were so many impressive dives and one cool thing is that we got to see Laura Wilkinson dive. She didn't qualify for the finals, but it was nice to watch a former medalist. She is also a Christian and that is a very neat thing.

We were divided into groups after lunch and toured the Internation Broadcasting Center. That was really neat and I was impressed that it had only taken a few months to construct. There were so many computers and TVs and cables that it boggled the mind! The security was also very tight and we had to give them our passports while we toured it. The guide for the tour told us that they even had back-up power from three different places if anything ever went wrong. They also have about 300 generators to help! That is really crazy!!!

This afternoon we went shopping in a Super Store and it was an absolute madhouse! There was a huge line to get in, but thankfully we were able to talk to the staff of the store and got permission to enter through a back door without waiting in the line outside in the rain. When we got inside it was very crowded and noisy. The Chinese are somehow a communist country and they don't seem to believe in turns or waiting. They all pushed a lot and there didn't seem to be any real lines....just mobs! I think I will need therapy when I get home for that! My mom and dad bought a few things for family and friends so the time I spent going crazy inside there was productive anyway.

When we got finished shopping we went to the women's softball finals and it was a very good game! The US team played Japan for the gold and about a third of the way through the game they had to stop playing for a while for the rain. They brought out these huge tarps (that would have been great for slip'n'slides) and laid them over the field to keep it dry. I was surprised how fast that happened! As soon as it was only a slight drizzle they pulled off the tarps and started the game again!

Anyway, we had an overall great day even with the rain! I can't wait 'til tomorrow when we get to watch the men's basketball games.....but it is hard to believe that we have already been here for 2 days!

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.

Food Adventures (by Terry)

I decided that since sports fans often get sidetracked on food that I would simply start on food. Bottom line is if you like everything and like to try new stuff, then you would have had a blast. If you're not so inclined, then nuf-said.

I pride myself in liking almost everything, and I'll say that I really didn't try anything that I couldn't eat. However, I do believe that genuine Chinese food has a little room for improvement --- you won’t find any good ole American/Chinese food like Kung Pao Chicken.

Most of the meats I tried were very good. However, I would have to get used to the idea of several being served cold and with sweet spices. The best meats were duck and pork --- mostly enhanced by higher fat content than westerners are accustomed.

The vegetables are considerably different and are served in a wide variety of ways, though most were bland in flavor. Additionally, they all seem to have a similar aroma --- kind of like broccoli, greens, or cabbage. Add that to curry and that is what I seemed to smell all around town.

Bottom line, if you come to China one day, then you need to accept the idea that meat is often served whole --- eyes, beaks, and fins, that few vegetables taste like you are accustomed, and deserts can be anything --- e.g., pumpkin soup (sweet, warm, and with rice added).

Day One, Part One

Wow, I only have about 3 min. to type before we head out for dinner and then track and field. Here are just a few of the tons of pictures we took today at the Beach Volleyball venue, lunch, the USA house (where Nathan got his picture with a gymnast), the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. We'll have to follow with details later so we don't keep everyone waiting for supper. We're having a great time!

We're Here!

We arrived in Beijing just a few hours ago and are headed to bed for a much-needed rest. We flew 18 hours in three different legs and now have about six hours before we need to be at breakfast. We hope to have time to update our blog a bit more tomorrow, but here are a few pictures from earlier today.



Here's a picture when we were leaving Knoxville. We were fresh and well-rested then, and very excited!



These Korean stewardesses had very interesting head decorations. They were made of metal, so they all had to take them off when we went through security.



We sat on the very back row of the airplane for our flight from Chicago to Narita, Japan. Nathan absolutely loved the flying! We were able to sleep 2-3 hours on the 12-hour flight. We had some interesting food to eat, but those pictures haven't been uploaded yet, so that will have to wait for another post.

Left Behind

Today we drove to Knoxville where Terry's parents live. They will be keeping our sons Caleb and Noah while we're in China. Next to Panasonic, they deserve the biggest thanks for making this trip possible.

Today was a whirlwind of packing and housecleaning, but now we are enjoying a relaxing evening of watching the Olympics on TV - still in disbelief that we will be sitting in the stands ourselves in just two days!

We leave at 10 am tomorrow and fly first to Chicago, then to Japan and then to Beijing. Nathan does not ever remember being in a plane, so we're hoping for a window seat for him.

Rebecca and I don't dread the long flight at all - it's a good excuse to spend lots of time reading! Terry and Nathan don't share our love for reading, and I'm not sure how many games of travel chess they can play without going crazy.

Lord willing, the next time we update our blog, we will be in China!

LiHD T-Shirts!

Hot off the press! Here are the LiHD T-shirts which I understand are going to be sent to all the families soon. We got ours early so we could wear them to the Olympics. We actually got a gray set and a blue set. All are size large so we may have to do some creative washing and drying for size adjustment.

Thanks for the Memory!

Panasonic sent us this cool backpack to take on our trip and lots of extra memory cards. I am also planning on moving most of our photos from our laptop to an external hard drive before we go. It is amazing how many photos we have. I am soooo behind on scrapbooking, and we haven't even made this trip yet!





Last night we had fried rice and egg rolls for supper, and Rebecca gave us a lesson in using chopsticks. She has issued a challenge to all of us to only eat with chopsticks on our trip. I think it would be a guaranteed way to lose weight. Between the chopsticks and all the bicycle riding in China, it is obvious why they don't have the weight problems that we have in America.

Caleb and Noah even used chopsticks with breakfast this morning. Noah found out that they don't work too well with poptarts, but Caleb thought they worked perfectly on his mini-wheats cereal.

We Did It!

Our sprint triathlon was this morning, and we did it in record time - not olympic record time, mind you, just our personal bests. We swam 1/4 mile in Lake Chicamauga, rode our bikes 8.2 miles to downtown Chattanooga, and ran two miles over bridges and through parks to the finish line. It was a beautiful morning - bright and sunny and not too hot.



Laura beat us all with a time of 1:06. She is a speed demon on her bike! I am very proud of her agreeing to the challenge. She is a great friend!



Rebecca came in next at 1:14. She was just glad to have it over. She hates running!



I finished in 1:16. I have three excuses - I am older, I am spastic (I wasted 2 minutes in transition because I couldn't get my helmet to snap), and I am riding a bike meant for a 10-year-old boy.

At the beginning of the summer we had set our goal to finish in 1:30, so we were just pleased to make our goal. I'm not sure we would have stuck with it if I hadn't written in my Panasonic olympic-essay entry that we were doing this. That gave us the extra motivation to keep training.

Before we started the race, they gave all the participants "body marks." Since this is the closest we'll probably ever get to tattoos, we thought you might want to see them. The ones on our legs showed our ages.





And here's one more picture of us at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. We stayed at the Holiday Inn there.

Opening Ceremonies Party

We had a great time last night at our Opening Ceremonies Party! About 40 folks gathered at our house. It was a beautiful evening - fortunately not too hot. We ate international dishes, played games and watched the opening ceremonies in awe.

It was hard to believe that we will be there in person in shortly over a week. I hope the Chinese held something back for the closing ceremony! They really know how to put on a show.

I'm writing this post from a hotel in Chattanooga. We have travelled here so that Rebecca and I can compete in a sprint triathlon tomorrow along with our good friend Laura O'Bryan. In contrast to the Olympic athletes, we've only been in training for nine weeks! Our families are here to cheer us on and take pictures so we can prove we really did this.

It's Mii!

I told you in my last entry that our kids were given the opportunity to earn a Wii Olympics game by completing a memorization challenge and doing some oral presentations for the family.

Well, they finished everything and got the game yesterday. We decided to make the game a bit more educational by insisting that they only play with "Olympic Miis." So far we have Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Mary Lou Retton, but they have plans to create many more!

Here's a video of the challenges. One reason I'm glad we have our new video camera is that I have missed getting their voices recorded a lot in the last several years. Noah's little voice is still so cute! If you stick with it until the end, you'll see a frantic 100 m Wii race.

Olympic Challenge @ Yahoo! Video

Two of fun things we've enjoyed learning about this week are the national anthems and the olympic mascots.

We played "Name That Tune" using itunes clips of different national anthems. We are now pretty good at identifying the anthems of the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, China and Russia. After that, it gets pretty difficult. It would be neater if each country's music reflected the kind of music you associate with that country, but instead I think all the anthems were written around the same time period with pretty much the same style.

We also learned a lot about the past and present Olympic mascots. These are the ones from the Beijing Olympics:



I thought they were pretty cheesy, but when I read about what each one represents and why they were designed the way they were, it seems like a lot of thought went into it. You can read about them here.

Anyway, if you still think they're cheesy, you need to check out the mascot from the 1972 Munich Olympics - a pastel-striped weiner dog!

The Challenge

Our kids have really been wanting to get the Olympics Wii game that is out right now. I thought it might be fitting to get it - especially for our boys that are left behind. Anyway, I gave them a challenge on the first day of school and said I'd buy the game once they all completed the challenge. They had five things to memorize (the Olympic motto, creed, oath, and two passages of scripture) and two reports each to do (one on an Olympic sport that they didn't know much about and one on a country).

Well, it's taken only about three days for them to all complete everything. Nathan chose to do a report on fencing, Noah chose beach volleyball, Caleb chose cycling and Rebecca chose the paralympics. Last night they made some powerpoint presentations when we hooked up our laptop to the plasma TV. Here is a picture of Noah getting ready for his presentation.





They are getting ready for the new game by making lots of new Olympic-athlete "Miis" for the game. They've had to do quite a bit of research as they're trying to make sure to get things like the eye color right. By the way, Michael Phelps has brown eyes, but his Mii just doesn't look right without a Speedo.

Here are the two passages of scripture that the kids have memorized. Even though they're "done" memorizing them, we can continue to glean spiritual insights from them as we discuss them in light of the Olympics.

1 Cor. 9: 24-27

Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Hebrews 12: 1,2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of our 08/09 school year. Some years we have a special breakfast or take photos. This morning we simply had toast and sat in front of the TV watching the Today Show's coverage from Beijing. It was so cool thinking we would see those places ourselves in just 14 days!

Today we spent some time learning the history of the modern Olympic movement and practicing the Olympic motto, creed and oath. Last year the boys enjoyed (yes, they really did enjoy this, believe it or not) learning Greek and Latin roots, so probably the most interesting thing that they learned today is that "gymnos" means "nude," so gymnasium really means "a place for naked exercise." In the true fashion of 8-12 year-old boys, they talked about this over and over! We also learned that the word "stadium" is based on the "stade" which was the length of the foot race in the original Greek games, but somehow this did not bear repeating as much as gymnasium.

Each of the kids chose a sport and a country to prepare a report for to present tomorrow night to the family.


We did a few experiments from our "Sports Science" book - learning how the brain is the most important body part when it comes to success in sports. Our experiments were on reaction time (which involved dropping and catching a ruler with a partner - it turns out that Rebecca had the best reaction time)



and learning about balance (Nathan won the balance challenge!).



Probably the biggest thing that I learned today is that shots hurt!



Nathan, Terry and I had our hepatitis shot in preparation for travel. Since Rebecca has traveled to China before, she got to skip this ritual.

Speaking of ritual, we are watching a documentary tonight called "The Real Olympics" and learned that the first Olympics started with the ritual of animal sacrifice. I'm glad that won't be part of the opening ceremonies this year!

Ready, Set, Go!

Here's a picture of Rebecca with all the stuff we got in a recent package from Panasonic. We are excited about getting to trade pins with the collateral they gave us - it will be a great conversation starter. And I love the fancy luggage tags!

We also had a phone conversation this week with Panasonic and found out many more details about our trip. These are the events that we're going to be seeing:

Men's Beach Volleyball
Men's 200 M
Men's 50K walk
Men's Basketball
Women's Softball
Platform Diving

I'm probably most excited at this point about Platform Diving as Rebecca and I have been fans of Laura Wilkinson since the 2000 Olympics. I'm also pumped to see the Men's 200 M as I'm sure some former Razorbacks will be competing.

We also found out about some of the specific sites we'll see in Beijing - I'll post more about that a different time.

We also got a package from amazon this week - several books and videos to complement our unit study that we'll start next week. I've also put a ton of books on reserve at the library!



To change gears . . .



Rebecca and I have completed eight weeks of training and will be competing along with a great family friend, Laura O., in a sprint triathlon next Sunday. We did a mock run of the race this week. As soon as we exited from our swim in the lake, the heavens broke loose in a downpour. We decided to risk a lightning strike and just go for it! It was better than running in extreme heat and humidity at least. We are not competing as a team - but we'd do better if we did - Rebecca is the best swimmer, Laura is by far the best biker, and I am the best runner. But the good news is, we all finished within our goal time. The bad news is that I have not lost a pound. I do feel pretty good, though. Our families are traveling to Chattanooga with us to cheer us on.



I'll end with this picture. We took it for the latest HD challenge - we're supposed to be taking some pictures that could end up on the side of a truck. We'll take few more tomorrow as I'm not sure the ones we have are that good. Anyway, this picture sort of reminds me of how I feel right now. My family is in a photograph, and it feels both fun and scary to have your family on display.

In The News

Here's an article that came out in the local papers about our family. It has a bit of misinformation as it implies that we were chosen out of thousands to attend the Olympics when we were actually just chosen from among the HD families. The main reason to look at the arcticle is that you get to see my new haircut! I was sort of bummed that the kids were out of town when the reporter came by. They would have enjoyed being in the paper.

Article

Karla and Paul Gately have given us some ideas of places to go in Japan. One is
Karuizawa and the other is a Torchbearers site at the base of Mt. Fuji. Panasonic folks in Japan are also providing us with a sample itinerary.

We have our passports and tickets now (we'll be flying on American Airlines to Chicago and then on Japan Airlines the rest of the way). The visas are in process.

Lotsa Stuff

First of all, check out this video that Nathan made. He built the set himself - he loves to make booby traps.



This week our kids are at "Cousin Camp" in Knoxville. I understand that the boys built a go-cart yesterday with Poppa - I'll be anxious to hear how that went.
Here is a picture of the T-shirts Rebecca made for all the cousins. I thought they turned out cute. They say "My cousins are nuts from the same family tree."



Lastly, I thought I'd give you an update on our Panasonic Trip.

Right now we are set to fly out at 7:13 am on August 18th. We will be connecting through Detroit and then Japan. Once we get to Detroit, we will be traveling with lots of Panasonic folks. Panasonic is a big Olympic sponsor and is sending lots of their execs. These are the first Olympics to be broadcast entirely in high definition. We will be staying the first three nights at the Kuntai Royal Hotel in Beijing and will then be moving to The Grand Epoch City resort - which is a resort built to look like the old city of Beijing. The first place is closer to the Olympics, and the second place is closer to sightseeing.

On the way back, Panasonic has given us permission to layover in Japan at our own expense, but we have to decide by tomorrow. So we're looking into things to do and places to stay in Tokyo if we decide to do that.

We're Going to the Olympics!

I almost don't know what to say! Rebecca says that I am so excited that I am spastic! God has been so good to us, and we will be going to Beijing on August 18th to see 4 days of Olympics (including the closing ceremonies) and do 2 days of sight-seeing. It will be a whirlwind, and we will need to be documenting everything on film and video in order to produce material for the Panasonic website. What an adventure!

I feel bad for the families that didn't win, but Greg told us that they were going to do something for all the families that applied. What a great bunch!

Here's the version of our video that we sent to Panasonic along with our application.

More Jumping Pictures

This time with the whole family! We grabbed these frames from the HD video camera.

Jump into Summer!

My kids have recently discovered they love jumping in the lake! We found a dock that's been for sale for a long time right in the cove where Terry likes to ski. It's a great place for the kids to hang out while Terry skis (getting them out of the boat reduces the wake), and they finally got brave enough to try jumping in. I love these pictures! The older guy is Mike Baker, a Moody Aviation grad that we befriended years ago and who recently came to town for a visit. Rebecca jumped, too, but not with the camera!