Sucker for the silk market

8/1/08 23:38 Local Time, Media Village

When I was planning for my trip to Beijing, I of course was factoring in spending money, but I didn't think I would have much time to go shopping, and I certainly wasn't planning on the silk market. That place is my weakness. Everything is so cheap there, I actually got most of my Christmas shopping done after work today! I need to stay out of that place for a couple of weeks.

We met this one Chinese woman who was selling Coach purses, and she was so funny that we ended up taking a ridiculous picture with her in the middle of the market. People in China love to give peace signs in pictures for some reason, much more so than Americans, but we decided on the universal thumbs up sign for this one instead.

At work today, the producer and director for swimming came onto our compound for the first time. The producer, Tommy Roy, has won more Emmy Awards than any other sports producer in history, and he's one of the nicest guys on the swimming production crew. And he has ties to Syracuse...go figure! I guess he's supposedly a very hyper man who can't sit still in his desk chair and drinks Pepsi 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Since Coke is the official sponsor of these Games, NBC is actually having to specially ship in mass quantities of Pepsi for this guy. The Olympic Committee is NOT happy about that one.

I finally found life in my apartment this morning! My roommate was on her way out the door as I was getting ready for work. Her name is Katie and she just graduated from UCLA. She seems like a really cool girl, but I haven't gotten to spend much time with her yet. Claire and Shannon and I actually ran into her and another intern at the silk market tonight, but we were all going in different directions.

As the Games get closer and closer, the Olympic areas get more and more crowded, and understandably so. It's amazing, though, that the patience level of the Chinese volunteers when dealing with all of these foreigners in their country is still through the roof. I mean, you try throwing this many people from all over the world into New York City, and more people would be miserable and angry with the crowds than they would be helpful. Maybe that's why I like this city so much better!