One Thousand Miles: I heart Beach Volleyball

go team USA!

Outside Chaoyang Volleyball Stadium

The Victory Ceremony

Friday morning my friend Sunny invited my to go to the Men's Gold Medal Beach Volleyball game at Chaoyang Park, on the eastside of Beijing. As opposed to Thursday's rain soaked woman's final, Friday morning was made for Beach Volleyball. The sun was shining, the beach girls were dancing, and the FUWA were jumping around - life is grand!

The venue held 12,000 people which means every seat has a decent view. The Brazilians, who I love and adore as a people, were out in full force as fun loving fans. Complete with body paint, wigs, singing, they shamed the American fans who had a few puny flags, and a USA flag - draped Evil Kenival - Elvis type guy walking around. The Brazilians also played in the 9 AM bronze medal match, and won. I have noticed Americans are quite sheepish when it comes to being patriotic at large international sporting events. We are the country everyone loves to hate, and when living overseas or traveling, don't usually broadcast our nationality in a big way. So when we show up to root on our country, Americans compared to other nations that go crazy for their national teams, are kind of muted and lame. Understandable, but I throw my "discreet American" identity out the window and cheer like crazy. The Brazilians all managed to sit together in a tight knit group of seats so they could sing and jump up and down, the Americans were scattered all around and yelled our "Let's Go" "Jia You Mei Guo" sporadically.

This was definitely the best event I attended for may reasons. First, it was a gold medal match and USA was playing. Second, my new awesome friend Sunny was a blast to go with to the event. Next, different from other events, there was music blasting, beach girls dancing, an emcee show-boating around, and such a fun-filled atmosphere. Between matches fans could come down and try to serve and "knock out" a giant FUWA, now that's fun!

Tomorrow marks the end of the games, and we are still in denial here in Beijing. Although the games have been a pain in the pass, and anti-climatic for all of the Beijingers who imagined all of the fun & liveliness of the games that never in fact happened. In fact, the atmosphere has been subdued as most people tried to keep their heads down in order to stay out of trouble with the ubiquitous authorities. We miss the usual fare that makes Beijing great, bustling public markets, good live music, films, art & the constant stream of great speakers and events that stream through China's capital. All non-athletic events are on hold and I for one, look forward to a bit more of a mixed bag of entertainment choices that will bring this city back to status quo life.

Beijing Olympics 2008 has been awesome, so now what?