A group of us will be watching the Ceremonies in typical ex-pat fashion- at a Western style, hip bar on a giant flat screen tv. Good times. It really feels like New Years Eve. Excitement is in the air, folks are making plans, and traffic is eerily light.
Quick weather update: much has been made about the weather here and the plans to blow up the clouds, shut down factories, etc. At 12:15pm on Aug 8, it is an overcast day. The air actually doesn't have the brownish tint that I've gotten used to, but is just a foggy day, almost SF style plus the ungodly heat. Hopefully, it will rain early this afternoon so the clouds could thin out, but at the moment, thoughts of a clear night doesn't seem likely.
Ticket update: I have been able to score some games and am hoping for more during my one week of Olympiad. Here's what I have so far:
- 8/9 Women's handball prelims- Korea-Russia & Kazakstan- Romania
- 8/10 rowing prelims
- 8/13 Men's soccer- US-Nigeria & Argentina-Serbia
- 8/15 boxing prelims- lightweight and bantamweight prelims
- 8/15 baseball- Japan-Netherlands
Later today I head to the NZ Embassy to try to score some of their unused tickets. More soon.
**UPDATE**: I just returned from the NZ Embassy. Nothing is better than getting tickets from nice folks that speak like Jemaine and Bret. Apparently a number of game tickets reserved by the Kiwis have gone unused. The games that they had available though were not too sexy. I picked up:
- 8/12 women's field hockey: US-Japan; Korea-Netherlands
The other sports they had included softball, equestrian (in HK), soccer (in Sheyang), and canoeing. Like I said, not too sexy. The bright side is the field hockey tickets only cost me 72 RMB each ($10.58). It also doesn't look like I'll be getting tickets to US-China hoops on Sunday night. I can't afford the $500 price tag. I did find out about a viewing party hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce. For 250 RMB ($36), all you can eat and drink at a BBQ joint during the game. Sounds like a sweet alternative, no?**
2 comments:
How fun! Nice that you get to see a cool variety of events in person. Personally I'd be trying to relive my Nadia fantasies and score some gymnastics tickets.
I'm barely seeing any tickets on the open market for gymnastics. I think its signature summer games sport and China is expected to win gold in both Men's and Women's. (Men did win this morning here. The whole office stopped to watch it.)
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