What day is it?

So I think it is somewhere around day 11 or 12 in China. The only way I know what specific day it is now by reading the elevator carpet first thing in the morning. Always tells me the day. Although I hear they misspelled Wednesday. We shall see.



As for dates....I'm starting to get a better idea with my new job. Its obvious that I have Mexican blood in me since I have about 5 jobs here in China. My latest job assignment is transportation - basically coralling US teams and as they fly into Beijing, helping them get their bags and on to whatever bus is needed. China being China, this is actually a lot harder than it seems.



Backing up a few steps, the way I know the date is by scrolling through travel manifest to see what teams are coming in on specific dates and be prepared for certina types of luggage that could pose problems. Ie, yesterday, archery came through. Our task was to make sure their bows and arrows came through. Canoe and Kayak also came in, so we had help them get their boats and oars in and loaded. Approximately 55 rowers came in with about 4 peices of luggage each. We had to make sure the team got onto a bus that took them to their training site, which is an hour outside Beijing, then make sure their bags got onto a another bus that would meet them there.

This still seems easy. But remember, this is China. Nothing is easy. For one, we need a credential that allows us access to get into baggage claim. The day before I sent a copy of my passport over to get the credential. Naturally, this fails because Chinese authorities keep changing the rules and wanted our actual passport. So I didn't get access, but my partner did. My partner being Matt Cramer, who works with Sport Partnerships in the USOC back in the States and runs airport transportation here in China for the US delegation. He and I will work well together as we have a working relationship that goes back to my US Cycling days where he served as a development coach.



Anyway, Matt got his credential. But not without a) hours of hastle; b) an interpreter who rocked; c) noticing his 5 day credential only lasts 1 day and that we have to do this every day!

So literally after 2 hours of working with the airport authorities, we get set up to snag our US team. Why snag? Well for one, after a 16 hour flight, people's curious minds our worse than normal and they tend to wander off like 3 year old kids, especially when they see shiny things and hear loud, appealing noises. Second, 5 of the 20,000 Chinese volunteers will come up and see our athletes and try to "help" by randomly grabbing bags and escorting them to a random bus that takes them to the athlete village. WE DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. This is how people get sold into the Mongolian slave trade by accident and wind up spending the next 5 years wandering the Gobi desert.



So Matt goes on into the baggage claim area, I stay on the outside with our interpreter, Sarah Ye, who helped enormously and will more than likely prove quite useful in the future I am sure. The importance of a quality interpreter who also understands Chinese culture is essential and fully explaining this is a whole other posting (Sarah also knows a ton about basketball even though she has lived in China for all of her 20 years of existence and is white and attends Brandeis U in the States - and her fluency is in Mandarin in jarring at first). Luckily, we also had Doug Ingram on hand to help, with another interpreter who stands at 6 feet 5 inches. We also had a sign.



Even then people kept slipping through like stray cattle. And before the hungry BOCOG wolves could get to them , we had run into the fray and snatch them up and bring 'em back to the fold.



Controlled chaos. But we got it done.


Some highlights....

• Actually seeing groupies at the airport (pictured here, love the irony of sneaking a picture of groupies taking sneaky pictures). Two young girls wanted to see if they snag some man meat and go to their airport everyday to complete their mission. Hilarious.
• Getting to see a familiar athlete face. I've known Carissa Gump since I moved to the Springs 6 years ago, so it was a great morale boost to see her at the airport and welcome her to China. Even though we only got to chat for about 3 minutes (we talked about one of the books I recommended to her, she is an avid reader of anything and comes to me for good reads every week - I bye her book every 2 weeks or so).
• The creepy mascot robot that we think is a government spy.

That's all I have about my airport experience. Be on the lookout for my adventure to the Chinese Walmart (they actually have a Walmart Superstore) as well my most difficult assignment: making an Nintendo Wii Game System work.
I'm off to unload another truck, put together fencing equipment, and set up a pool for water polo practice. All before 3 pm (it is about to be 10 am here). Then I have a team meeting, followed by a possible trip to the Pearl Market to find equipment for our Athlete Lounge (pictures to come!).

Again, feel free to email me questions or comments or requests. Thanks mom and dad, it was great talking to you today, miss you guys a lot. Sorry to have gone 2 weeks!

I'll leave everyone with a few more tidbits:

• There are reportedly over 100,000 volunteers from China alone to work the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• BNU is reportedly more secure than the athlete village, even though our initial security check ins are guarded by 17 year female volunteers that make supermodels look fat.
• The air quality is actually good. This from our sports scientist Dr. Randy Wilbur,who has been researching pollution in China for the last 4 years and is one of my favorite 3 people at the USOC. So if he says it, I believe it. Will post more on this soon.
• The new Portishead album is pretty good.