The beauty of Beijing

8/18/08 14:58 Local time, Broadcast Compound

It really seems like not too long ago that I was counting down the days until I was leaving to come here, and now I find myself counting down until I get to go home. I do miss everything a lot, but it's not due to lack of excitement over here by any means. Swimming ended yesterday morning with Michael Phelps winning his 8th gold in the 4x100 medley relay, thereby passing Mark Spitz in an all-time count of gold medals in one Games. It was so exciting to watch as Jason Lezak finished the anchor leg of the relay way ahead of his Australian competition. As he came into the wall, I watched Michael put his head against Brendan Hansen's (he swam the breaststroke leg of the relay) and then put his hands over his mouth in astonishment. Even he couldn't believe that he had actually done it. He celebrated the victory with his teammates, then turned to the crowd before walking off the pool deck and raised his arms in triumph. Obviously, I cried.

And then took about a hundred pictures.

After the session was over, I got to sit in on the Costas booth when he interviewed Michael live in the Cube. While we were waiting for the interview to start (there was a big crowd of people swarming the booth), I met Debbie Phelps and Michael's two sisters. I started talking to his mom about swimming and we both got emotional and she ended up crying on my shoulder. She gave me some great advice and told me to never give up on this sport. It was such a great moment and I will never in a million years forget what she said to me.

We had a long break in the afternoon between swimming and diving so some of the interns blew up some air mattresses to take naps on in one of the trailers. Since I had been there since 5am, I managed to pass out in an instant, but no more than an hour into my glorious nap did a friend wake me up. He's a production assistant for swimming and he's the same year as me at Syracuse, but we didn't know each other prior to this trip because we're in different majors in Newhouse. We've gotten to be pretty close friends here, and his dad is actually the second or third highest guy up on the NBC executive chain. When he woke me up, he told me I had to go with him to the IBC right away but he wouldn't tell me why. When we got there, we went inside and he found his dad outside the studio surrounded by a huge crowd of people. Apparently, Michael Phelps was inside doing an interview with his mom and Bob Costas and we were getting to go in to watch. I couldn't believe it and I really thought he was kidding but, sure enough, at a break in the interview, his dad opened the doors to the studio for us, and next thing I know I'm standing ten feet away from the interview.

Costas' interview was actually ending when we got in, but Brian Williams from the Nightly News was getting ready to start his. While he was getting everything set up, Bob came over to us, gave us a big high five, said, "We've got the Syracuse contingency over here," then stood with us to watch the interview. It was awesome to get to see how the interview was conducted, and it was even better because I was so interested in what Michael had to say. I stood there with my jaw dropped almost the entire time.

When he was done being interviewed, Michael was taking pictures with all of the NBC executives that were standing in the studio to watch. When all of that excitement died down (Michael had to rush out -- his McDonald's was getting cold), I asked Bob if he would take a picture with me. He loved the idea, but he said we had to do it on the actual set, so he brought me over to the couch where Michael had just been interviewed and that's where I got my picture. His wife came over to take a shot, too, so I got to meet her as well and I took a picture for her of the two of them sitting together on the set. I really couldn't believe what was happening.

As if all of this wasn't enough, my friend's dad came over to me after all of the pictures and handed me a piece of paper that had written on it, "To Dani, Never limit yourself" and then was signed. It was from Brendan Hansen, my absolute favorite swimmer. I almost cried. I asked the guy if I could hug him because I was so happy, but he pointed to his son and said, "Well hug him, he's the one who did it for you." I seriously could not believe that someone would go so out of their way to do something like that for me. It was the nicest thing ever. The days here really do just keep getting better.

Last night was a medal round of diving, and I had to be stage manager for it, which I thought I would really enjoy but really ended up not liking at all. I was so tired by that point that I was literally falling asleep in the commentary booth. It went by much slower than the swimming sessions and honestly wasn't nearly as exciting as I anticipated it to be. I didn't end up getting out of work until about midnight, making yesterday my longest workday of my life: almost 20 hours. It was miserable at the end.

Thankfully I didn't have to be back into work until 3pm today since diving is only happening at night, but a group of interns decided to take our morning to go to the Summer Palace just outside the city. We had heard that it used to be a summer home for ancient emperors and that it was huge and could never be seen in its entirety in just one day, but I was seriously unprepared for what we actually saw. First thing when we walked in, we were standing on the edge of this huge lake completely surrounded by mountains with massive ancient Chinese buildings all the way around the lake. There were boats tied to a dock that were modeled as Chinese dragons and willow trees draping over giant lily pads and fluorescent pink flowers sprouting up from the water. There were elaborate bridges and statues lining a walkway all the way around the lake through all of the trees. The buildings were mostly tucked away in the trees going up the mountains, but as we got closer to each one they quickly became more and more beautiful.

I've already talked about how amazing ancient Chinese architecture is, but it's specifically the roofs of all of these buildings and the intricate and artistic details that make them all so gorgeous. We went to this one gallery that had displays of ancient jade vases and ceramic dishes from the Qing dynasty as well as holy statues that the emperors used to have displayed in the Summer Palace. We saw ancient thrones and religious symbols, a lot of which we unfortunately weren't allowed to take pictures of, and we walked down the longest corridor in the world that had the most beautifully detailed walls and ceilings.

We made our way around the lake to the actual palace itself, which was completely breathtaking from the very first glance. We climbed up the stairs of the whole palace, all of which were made of pure marble, and as we got higher we could see nothing but mountains on one side of the lake and the Beijing skyline on the other. It was a gorgeous and clear day so every view was absolutely breathtaking.

At the top of the palace was the Buddhist Incense Tower, which had miniature statues of the Buddha laid in all over every single wall. We could see the entire city from up there, it was incredible. We walked back down the back of the palace to get out and at the bottom of the stairs we were basically forced by these 2 Chinese women to put on long silk robes and Chinese headdresses to have our pictures taken on this bridge that went over a cute little river. It all happened so quickly that before we could even try to escape these sellers they had all 5 of us, 3 girls and 2 boys, in robes and elaborate headdresses. We decided we'd pay the 10 RMB per person fee to have these women take our picture, but eventually an entire crowd of locals had gathered around us because they apparently found it hilarious to see 5 Americans in these ancient Chinese get-ups and they, too, wanted to take our picture. We even had some locals jumping into the pictures with us. We quickly became quite the attraction.

After our Summer Palace adventure, we were all starving, but a McDonald's was the only food place nearby. I haven't eaten McD's in years, but when you're as hungry as we all were, it's a decent choice. What was funny about it was that we could actually see it from the top of the Buddhist Incense Tower, so it was like we were standing on something so historically Chinese, yet looking down on the epitome of an American food joint. When we got there, we were the only Americans inside. How ironic.

Everything back here on the compound is quickly winding down and that's what's making me so anxious to leave. Our managers and most of our swimming crew left yesterday after we took an entire crew picture inside the Water Cube. It was sad to see them go and it made me want to leave with them. Only another 9 days here and I'll be on my way home, too. Until then, I'm going to try to do some more sightseeing, help out with the diving events, and maybe catch some more competitions at other venues. The Games sure are quickly coming to a close!