My first full day...

7/27/08 20:08 Beijing Time, Media Village

I had quite the eventful first full day in Beijing today! I woke up a lot during the night last night because of the jet lag, but by the time I had to get up I actually felt pretty rested, but maybe that's still just the excitement taking over. Breakfast is complimentary in the Media Village, but the selection was hardly anything to brag about. The first person I saw when I walked in the building, though, was Shannon Archer, another swimmer from home. I was so glad to see her!

After breakfast, we met with our internship coordinator, Professor Hollenback, who happens to be from Newhouse, and hopped on a shuttle bus to the International Broadcast Center (IBC) for orientation. There are huge security checks outside the BVillage at the West Gate before boarding any of the shuttles to the venues. They made us drink from our water bottles, take pictures with our cameras, put my little bottle of perfume on my wrists, and even take a breath from the inhaler I carry with me everywhere, all for security purposes. Once we got through and were wanded down, the bus ride was actually fairly pleasant. We passed by a lot of venues that I haven't seen yet, too, so that was exciting.

The IBC itself is this huge, majestic building absolutely surrounded by security, within which each individual country represented in the Games has its own assigned section for their international broadcasts. The NBC section is by far the biggest one, and we got to see every broadcasting studio in it on our tour. We stopped in the cafeteria, where there's free Starbucks and gelato (!!!), and met some NBC people who introduced us to the broadcast managers at each of our venues. They're the people we report to first. It turns out Claire and I are the only 2 interns specifically assigned to swimming, and Shannon and this boy, Aidan, are the only ones on diving, so they're putting the 4 of us together under "aquatic sports". Now I get to see both swimming AND diving!

I feel like such a small fish in a big pond in the IBC, but the goal is to do my job as well as I possibly can and get myself noticed -- make myself stand out from the other 110 or so interns as much as I possibly can. I want to do my best for them here.

After orientation, Shannon and I decided to go to Tianenman Square with another girl from my school, Nassdja, because we all had the day off and were encouraged to explore the city and experience the culture. Talk about an adventure! We took a taxi (none of the drivers speak any English so we literally have to show them a card that says "please take me to..." in Mandarin) the entire 35-minute drive to the Square. The total toll for the cab both ways was like 7 bucks each or so, so we definitely weren't complaining! The entire area around Tianenman Square is completely dedicated to the Olympics. It's so inspiring to see how proud these people are to be hosting these Games!

The first place we visited was an area of Holy Gardens all dedicated to certain Gods. It is absolutely breathtaking. The architecture was all so traditional and the colors and details on all of the buildings were brilliant -- I couldn't stop taking pictures. Oh, and apparently neither can Chinese people. I literally was asked to take pictures with 3 groups of Chinese people at random, including one little girl whose parents wanted me to kneel down next to her so she could put her arm around me for a picture. And when they didn't ask, they would just randomly stand next to us and have a friend take a picture without us really knowing. Apparently, they really love Americans? Who knows...

Tianenman Square is so interesting mostly just because of the history rooted there. Again, the architecture was just unbelievable. There were vendors everywhere trying to sell us everything, and I actually bought a beautiful painting of my name in symbols that are bamboo for long life in the "D", 2 love birds in the "A", a Chinese dragon in the "N", and another bamboo stick for the "I". I love it -- the colors are fantastic!

We wanted to venture into the Forbidden City just beyond Tianenman Square, but by the time we got there it was already closed (everything here closes so early it's ridiculous), so we could only take pictures of the walls surrounding it, which were still beautiful.

It was so hot and humid all day that we were just completely spent after our adventure, but it was SO worth it! And, hopefully, tonight if one of the other interns, Mike, gets out of work early enough, we're venturing to the Lake District, which supposedly boasts a strip of delicious ethnic restaurants and bars. And tomorrow it's rise and shine bright and early to catch an 8:00 bus to the IBC for my first official day of work! I can't wait.