The Olympics were here, did you know?

This past weekend I went online and bought some tickets for the Olympics for Wednesday morning. Only... I thought we weren't supposed to have class on Wednesday, but it turns out we still have our morning class, so since the tickets were for the marathon from 7.30 am till 11.45 am, this was a problem. But no matter, class doesn't start till 9.30 so we thought we'd go check it out anyway.

Sure thing, except then we had to find out where to pick up the tickets, since you can't just get them at the venue the day of. That would be too easy. So Tuesday after class we set out to the nearest Bank of China to pick up the tickets, our Chinese teacher having told us that was where to go. NBD, we rode our bikes like 5 mins and were there. Except they told us no, we could not pick up tickets there, only certain Bank of Chinas had the tickets. They told us to walk 200 meters to the next closest bank, we could get it there. Right.

So we start walking and still aren't seeing it, so we ask a group of people sitting outside their apartment complex. Sure enough, they are happy to help us out, because when in China if you ask for directions, a committee must form to help you out. (Note: I couldn't remember the world for bank, so my description was (and I'll translate this for Amy) "the china change money place" and they figured out we needed a bank). Anyway, the consensus was "Nei biar" as it always is, so we kept walking.

Turns out the bank was on the second floor of some mall around the corner of the street (aka not at all easy to find) and when we get there the lady tells us "Oh, BEFORE you could get tickets here, but NOW you can't." Luckily she calls someone who tells us in English that we need to go to this other bank and that this bank for sure has tickets.

Ah! So we try three different cabs and the third one finally knows the bank address that we give him. We get there and praise Jesus there's an actual window that says "Beijing Olympic Tickets." But of course, my luck being what it is, I apparently typed my passport number in wrong when I registered online so I had to re-buy the tickets. No great monetary loss, but still annoying.

Oh, it gets better. On our way back, it started raining. And then, pouring. And as we were truthfully warned, when it rains in Beijing it is impossible to get a taxi... but that was exactly what we needed. Well we ended up walking like 200 meters on the side of a busy highway (in the wrong direction, I might add) before we finally captured a cab that was letting some lady off. Only, the lady wouldn't get out of the car because it was raining! We were standing there, huddling in the rain and wind, glaring at her, but she took her sweet sweet time getting out. Ah! And then the taxi driver was like, "But, BeiWai campus is right behind us" and I was like "Well, we would walk there, but it's raining, so drive" or something to that effect. I mean, can you imagine a cabbie telling you to get out and walk in a storm because the place you need to go "isn't that far behind us"??? Crazy. And for the record, the walk would not have been a quick one.

We finally got back like 3 hours after we set out, victorious but soaking. Then we had cooking club, which was of course fun because our Chinese teachers were there and they are adorable. Plus we ate lots of jiaozi. Then the next morning we arose a 6 and set out for the Bird's Nest. It was really awesome being there and I'm sad we had to cut the festivities short in order to make it back to class (although we were half hour late anyway, because traffic apparently sucks again, especially around 9am). But as of last night with the closing ceremony for the Paralympics, the games are officially over! I guess all the old Beijingers are breathing a sigh of relief that life can return to its normal chaos and the cheap DVDs will reappear on the streets. But for my part, I wish the traffic and pollution restrictions weren't being lifted.

Side note: This week I started working with the 400 level Chinese teacher on extra lessons and it's going really well. Of course I have my completely dumb moments where she gives me this look of incredulity like "I have no idea what you're trying to say/you really don't know what I'm saying?" but I think it'll really be good for me. Also I have a new friend who randomly came up to me on campus and wants to help me with my Chinese. She's a recent grad looking to teach English, so her English skills are good, and we're meeting tomorrow to figure out how this language partner thing is going to work. Also, Cheng and I spoke mostly in Chinese over dinner. It was fun! Well, he did most of the talking and I did a lot of listening and nodding, but still, I think my listening skills are getting better. Bring on the Chinese (but please don't kill me with memorizing hanzi...)!