Olympi-mania

I realize many of you perhaps thought I might have died in the smog and pollution that seems to be in the news headlines almost every day. We have not been claimed by high levels of particulate matter, and surprisingly, enjoyed a very clear, blue-sky day. This is highly unusual; our house helper was riding her bike to work today (with her daughter on the back) and at a stoplight noticed the sky and said to her daughter, "ping ping, hurry and look at the blue sky! hurry! hurry!" because is just doesn't happen very often... =)

Anyway, the subject of today's post was the big torch relay. We were so jazzed about seeing the torch, so we planned ahead and got the torch routes off the internet and tried to think about where in the city we'd like to go see it. We were all prepared, and then....

...strange things started happening on our street. It started with this:

Then when this appeared,
we figured we were closer to the torch than perhaps we originally thought. We started getting wind of rumors that the torch was going to actually come down our street. We were so skeptical because 1) rumors of every sort abound and propigate here, and 2) we had the "official" relay route, which was nowhere near our house.

But signs of the times kept appearing. Flower beds were first constructed at the intersections all along our street, and then were planted with beautiful flowers. Flags were inserted all along the median. Huge red banners draped both sides of the street: Let's Go Beijing! Let's Go Olympics! 'our city' is a beautiful city that will bring pride to 'the country'.

Then, the day before the torch, we saw this out our window and we felt pretty sure things were happening (also, notice in the bottom right corner the black puff of smoke? that's a bus pulling away whose smoke infringed in my picture! no wonder we live in a haze!)
It was becoming more and more official - the torch would pass right by our window! How cool was that?! The afternoon before, everyone in our building was given a notice. I quickly glanced at the notice, saw a few times listed on there and thought it was so considerate that they were telling us the specific time the torch would pass. i passed the notice on to josh and went to class.

I came home from a class a few hours later and got the real scoop - the notice said:
1) No one, in any building along this street, may open their windows from midnight to noon on the "torch day".
2) No one may stand near the windows of your house or office.
3) No one may have any paper, clothing, banners, signs or any other thing hanging in their windows from midnight to noon.
4) No one may enter or leave their building from midnight to noon.

Ummm....ok? I was shocked at the degree of censorship that was happening. Apparantly securitiy was taken so seriously that people all along the street were forbidden by standing and looking out the windows? I couldn't believe it. As we talked to our local friends, they all understood the rationale behind the guidelines, even if they personally didn't agree with it. They all advised us to take the notice seriously.

We eventually discovered that the torch would pass by our window about 8:45am. When we woke up that morning a little before seven, I cautiously opened a tiny little peephole in our bedroom curtains. Crowds of people had already assembled and were chanting, cheering on the runners who wouldn't arrive for another several hours.


We all got dressed and ready, and took a deep breath and opened the curtains. Whew! Sniper fire didn't enter our home (something I honestly thought might have been a possibilty!) and we gradually got more and more comfortable getting closer to the window.

By 8am, people all along the street were hanging out their windows, trying to position their camera phones for the best shot. The scene was truly remarkable. There was so much buzz in the air, it was contagious. Crowds were allowed to walk in the westbound four lanes of traffic, while the eastbound lanes were blocked off for the torch. The girls and josh ate their breakfast camped out in front of the window, and I went outside to have a look.


Everyone had spirit, yes they did...I went outside without taking a shower, but I was thankful to find people with frizzier hair than me... =)Just before the torch arrived, these little trucks were trying to get people excited - they were staffed with cheerleaders, megaphones and video screens. The red, white, and blue made me think they were giving a tribute to America, but I doubt it. A charter bus came and dropped off the runner in front of our building. Our city's relay was about 9 miles and had a total of 230 runners...you do the math, and you realize that each runner isn't running that long. We had four runners just in the view from our living room window.

Anyway, runner #1 gets dropped off; he's a cute, white haired man. The crowd goes wild; they momentairly forget he's the apple seller or the guy who comes into their bank. He's suddenly the hero and gets his 15 minutes of fame in grand fashion. The cheers never let up from this point until the flame is out of sight. Here's a larger view of that shot - I loved the mountains behind, the crowds in front, and this lone dude standing in four lanes of traffic. [One these pics had been resized and posted, I realized I could have cropped them and enlarged the detail. Forgive me for them being so tiny. they looked great when I was looking at them full-screen!)Next came the Men in White. I assume they are all Will Smith-type protector dudes who are tough. They looked formidable in their two long lines. Next came a TV truck and the torch dude. The noise was deafening. Exhilarating. Incredible. It was pure, raw patriotism that finally had an acceptable outlet. I've never seen anything like it here, and I wonder if I ever will again. Torch dude was so excited. He was waving like Miss America during his 50 meters of fame. Apart from the men in white, the runners also had their own little bubble of protectors. The crowds were crazy; this was the largest surge right here. We think they were "running" with the torch the entire way (at least as far as they could go anyway). Remember, that is four large lanes of traffic space and it was packed. I have to say, I was totally Olympi-fied after the experience. I doubt I'll ever have the chance to see something like that again - certainly never again from my airconditioned home while I much on breakfast. We are jazzed about the olympics, and now only a few more days to go.

Today was a beautiful, clear day here. Let's hope Friday in Beijing is just as nice!