Boring Beijing

This may sound really strange given all of the attention and excitement focussed on Beijing right now, but this city is really boring right now.

The Olympics are a lot of fun, but strangely the city is REALLY boring right now except for the Olympics. The streets are bare and kind of quiet & orderly (VERY strange for Beijing), I can't go to work because they closed campus for the Olympics, and almost everyone I know left town to avoid the chaos (which really isn't chaos). All of the fun bars, clubs, sidewalk cafes, are all closed (to maintain an orderly environment for the games). And to add to the boredom, the Chinese TV shows the most boring events, like weightlifting, badminton & ping pong, ALL DAY LONG!!!!!! I haven't seen one of Phelps swimming competitions yet (and NBC has locked down Youtube!).

I did gather at an American bar one night to watch USA pound the Chinese basketball team on satellite TV. I am sure I will be trekking it to the ex-pat bars more as more medal rounds come up. tomorrow I am taking my neighbors to baseball, then Friday I go to Tianjin for women's quarterfinal soccer. Pathetic as it may seem, I don't have anyone to go with yet. One of my friends is asking her boss for the day off, so by tomorrow I may have a mate!