{I didn't start keeping a blog until the Autumn of 2008. However, I had been writing short pieces on our China experiences and wrote one about our up close encounter with the Olympic Torch in July of 2008.}
Our Olympical Moment
People have asked if we are going to the Olympics, but it seems instead, that the Olympics are coming to us! From outside our window where the Beijing 2008 banner, that replaced the Chinese flag, waves... to the athletes and trainers we have met at the bus stop outside our gate... to the sailboats and windsurfers on the Yellow sea that we watch on a daily basis from our window, it seems we have to do little more than open our curtain to experience the reality of the Olympics.
Millie coined this great word, "Olympical," and now it is part of our daily lexicon. (Maybe not daily, but at least as often as we make comments about the Olympical events coming our way.)
Yesterday, we watched from our bedroom window as the Olympic torch made its way down Donghai Lu.We made the local authorities really nervous because we were supposed to keep our curtains closed and watch it on TV (whilst the actual Olympical Flame marched not 50 feet from us.) The girls put on their Olympical t-shirts, which are illegally made copies, featuring the Olympical mascots the Five Friendlies. (We honestly tried to purchase legit ones at the official Olympics shop and they didn't carry younger kids sizes!!) Our blonde American girls... with great vigor waved their equally illegally copied Olympical flags which we had purchased under the cover of darkness the night before (and thus missed a cigarette singe in one of the two-for-one-yuan flags.) After two years living in China, there is much symbolism in a copy-right infringed, cigarette singed flag made of quality so minimal that the very act of waving the flag caused it to break!
Originally, we peeked through the curtains in our bedroom, or feigned hanging laundry on the balcony, in order to catch a peak. Sean, unable to get to work, due to every road around our complex being blocked, was home and the girls quite enjoyed the interesting experience of breakfasting in Mom and Dad's room while intermittently sneaking peaks on the street below.
As we got bolder, we were quickly reprimanded by way of a uniformed officer showing up in our yard, Sean threw open the window and had a nice chat, showing our wai gua (foreign faces) and putting the officer somewhat at ease. As it became clear that, after an hour and a half of waiting, the dregs of our coffee grown cold, and the last of the girls oatmeal gone, the torch was actually very near, we threw open the curtain and let the girls watch an event we can only imagine to be a once in a life time experience.Again, an officer swiftly arrived in our back yard, and this time was met with the ferocious flag waving, t-shirt wearing hai zi men (children) overcome with Olympical passion. He smiled, and waved back, and we, without further incident watched Qingdao torch bearer #68 ceremoniously tred 10 meters down Dong Hai Lu before passing the flame to another runner. They, like us, lived a moment in Olympical history which shall not soon be forgotten!
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