Riding in a Taxi is alway an adventure in Beijing. It’s not the crazy driving that makes me nervous, it’s the fact that I never really know if the driver knows here he is taking me. This is how it works, I get my destination written in Chinese before hand, give it to the driver, he nods and begins speaking to me in Chinese, I then hold up my hands with a bewildered look and say, “I don’t speak Chinese” Usually we get lost, Beijing has grown so quickly that many of the drivers don’t recognize all the areas. When we get lost and if I’m lucky to be with someone who has a cell phone, I have them call the place where I’m going so that they can hash it out over the phone. I feel sorry for the drivers this week, they have to deal with so many non-Chinese speaking people. I’m surprised they even stop for us, but then again, it’s china, and they are unbelievably hospitable.
I tried to scalp for tickets last night to see the men’s 100m final. It didn’t go so well. The scene outside the stadium was a madhouse of tourists taking photos and scalpers hawking tickets. Unfortunately, there were no Track and Field tickets for that night. However, I could have had my pick of Handball tickets, yeehaa!
Nobody seemed to care about the Police busting them, and the Police didn’t seem to care about doing any busting. There was no hiding, everyone was out in the open, doing their business. I was impressed.
I may not have found my dream ticket, but I did meet a super nice girl who wanted to GIVE me a ticket to the USA women’s soccer semifinals. I didn’t believe her at first, usually there is a catch…not this time, it was a pure, good hearted gesture. She had hoped that China would be in the semi but they lost so she then decided to go on a mission to find an American who would enjoy the game. I was touched. I gave her a hug and said no hanks, I’m leaving on the 18th, boo hoo.
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