A bit exhausted - what an amazing adventure.  I can't wait to upload my photos in the next few days...we were able to go to USA Water Polo's winning game against Croatia (the best victory for USA Water Polo in 2 decades), Track and Field (including Bolt's world record), and the bronze medal Ping Pong match.  More soon...the energy and pageantry of Beijing was fantastic.

Yes, I'm headed to the Olympics!  Last night, I walked over to the Shanghai Stadium for 2 soccer games - and had a complete blast.  Security was tight.  They patted me down in a rather invasive manner...and this was after the police stopped me 2 blocks before the stadium looking for my ticket.  In fact, the security woman at the gates checked my gums and recommended I floss a bit more.  After rolling my backpack thru a full-on conveyer belt metal detector, I entered the stadium with Clay.  Fortunately for us, the beers were only 5 RMB.  Yes, that is $.80 for a cold beer (Tsing Tao of course!) 

2 games : Korea v Honduras -- Korea was dominant but only ended up 1 goal..should have been titled "Korea vs. The Honduras Goalkeeper" and Belgium v New Zealand...should have been titled "My High School Soccer Team vs. Your High School Soccer Team"...ok, that's a bit harsh, but wow was there a quality dropoff.

I also took some photos - will post them soon.

Tomorrow I'm flying out to Beijing - no tickets yet, but we're confident that we can make some laowai magic happen.  I do wish I could have heard a the soft gentle tones of, "Ni huai shuo yingwen ma??" on my trip to the Olympics, but... Wish me luck!  Also, don't forget, .... USA! USA! USA!

also, if you have seen it, check out the opening ceremony...WOW http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0808_hd_oc_au_en198_r1

Shanghaiist: Attack on an American volunteer by anti-Carrefour mob in Zhuzhou, Hunan: UPDATED

Granted, he went into Carrefour in front of a known Chinese protest of the French mega store (France's stance with respect to the Beijing Olympics is getting a bit out of control, in my opinion)... but the guy doesn't deserve to be attacked.  Also, clearly, you can tell the difference between a French person and an American?  :)

The Chinese elevator goes down as one of the marvels of this fascinating culture.  There's so many aspects to talk about with the elevator: as a resident of China, expect to spend a significant amount of time in an elevator; expect to spend it with your nose approximately 3 inches apart from the top of the head of at least 17 of your closest Chinese cohorts; expect to be rather frustrated.

Living in the city of Shanghai, a potential backdrop of Bladerunner 2 (the un-released, never made sequel), I am surrounded by a city of thousands of skyscrapers.  Each of the skyscrapers has a pleasant elevator that is continually tested to the maximum capacity.  First, I've yet to hear that buzzer go off when exceeding the capacity of the elevator.  Of course, maybe the capacities are determined and set by weighing the same number of Americans - knowing that this will prevent the elevator from ever exceeding the limits...but, there is no question that if a person can squeeze into a crowded elevator, they will. Occasionally, I feel so crowded and squeezed, that if I had a mouth full of sunflower seeds before the excess person boarded the elevator, their shoulder jamming into in my gut, I would force a nice shower of seeds across the top of the heads of the other riders.  Yes, their shoulder in my gut - one of the distinct advantages of being taller than the other passengers.

However, the most bizarre aspect of the Chinese elevator must be the logic behind the doors closing.  For example, I may enter an elevator at 9am with one or two other passengers.  The doors will close...nope.  The doors open!  The first teaser.  The new passenger jumps in, presses their floor, quickly presses the 'close door' button and the doors close...nope!  Open sesame.  The second teaser.  Another passenger slides in, the doors close...NOPE.  The doors open.  Rinse. Repeat.  This can last minutes.  If you press the up button on the outside of the elevator, and the elevator hasn't left the floor, the doors will open.  No matter how many times it has opened and closed.  By the time the elevator closes its door, I may just do a twirl and curtsy in celebration and acknowledgement that I can finally go up to my office!

I will say this, I'm optimistic that the elevators are inspected - as they typically ride smoother than American elevators.  But, when a person is getting off the elevator on the 9th floor, can someone kindly ask the oncoming passenger to wait until he exits, instead of shoving into the foreigner's gut with their shoulder to hurriedly onboard?

Interesting watching the Chinese media over the last several weeks - and how the news is handled.  In addition, by looking at the media over the last several months relative to American media: Western media seems to seek out the bad news and report on the bad news whenever it occurs as long as it is interesting.  Interesting good news is often ignored.  Contrast this with the Chinese media - in which only good news is reported unless there is bad news outside of China (ie. something embarrassing happens to the US government) or the media feels required to defend the mainland.  It's like the Chinese newspapers, owned by the government, are founding members and presidents of the local company, local municipality, and local citizen's fan clubs. It can also get a bit xeno-crazy (if that's a word).  Take for instance, this caption regarding the torch incident from the Shanghai Daily:

It's the heart of the matter ... Jin Jing, a disabled Chinese fencer and torchbearer, closes her eyes and holds tightly to the torch after an assault by a Western man who tried to snatch away her pride and joy.

Surface

I recently had the opportunity to play with the new Microsoft Surface table.  Damn, it's cool.  Yes, I am biased.  I often give biased praise - but only when it's well-earned and deserved.  Without embellishing, the Surface is similar to a cross between Minority Report and Ms. Pac Man (the bar version).  I played the piano, trying to strike the first few notes of Blackbird, then realizing that I should stick with the guitar; looked up a map - stretching it and spinning it; checked out some exclusive photos from my thumbdrive; watched a video, more... here's an example of the Surface on youtube: Surface.  I'm hopeful that this can come in cheap enough for consumers at some point - it's more fun than playing make believe with a small, furry stuffed animal - and is quite visionary.

At 16, my father took me to the Big&Tall store in suburban Detroit.  My feet had grown to an unwieldy size 13.  As the years went by, I had grown accustomed to shopping at Nordstrom Rack where the pickings were straight forward and the heartbreak was less severe (imagine seeing a cool pair of shoes, being assured by the salesperson that they have your size, and then having the salesperson come out of the back room empty handed - this is the usual experience shoe shopping in the US).  When I do find a pair of shoes I like that do fit?  It's like buying a new toy.

Now, fast forward and my shoe size is somewhere closer to size 14.  Then, move to China.  The most amusing part of shoes in China: the uber aggressive salesperson in the Chinese fake market that keeps chanting and yelling after you, "Good shoes for you!  Nike shoes for you! Cheap! Cheap! Quality! Special price!" I will turn to him, lift my shoes above his knee so that he can see, and make eye contact.  "Oh."  He is quiet.  He pauses.  He then says, "Good belts for you! All leather! Cheap! Good belts!"  It's like he has sent a photo to the wrong person. Needless to say, I have asked at well over 20 shoe stores/stalls/outlets for my size over the past 6 months.  None have responded positively except one generic pair of fake Timberlands that felt a little less comfortable than the cardboard boxes I use to put on my feet as a child running around, tripping.  The search continues...

It's quite interesting picking up a local newspaper in Shanghai - the China Daily or the Shanghai paper.  Read thru the articles, and you're bound to find an article about new project developments in the city, a political article about the EU, or America, and new advances jumpsuit and the like... but there's little to no bad news.  Rather than write an article about a semi-autonomous mountain region in the west, they'll write an article about a choral competition among some middle school girls.  No doubt that the winner of that competition will play a future role if not on American/Chinese Idol, will at minimum, thrill some friends in the Karaoke room with beautiful verses of pop favorites. The only bad news I've read in one of state sanctioned media outlets was about the weather (our recent winter).  Therefore, to find out 'bad' news or perhaps the whole truth (or parts of the whole truth), you need to go to the Internet.  Naturally, I don't have access to a few sites online from home: wikipedia, BBC, and Flickr. 

The weather, tho, seems to be free of the burden of controlling information... in fact, it's been about 60 degrees and sunny for the past 4 weeks - no wonder the government embraces the weather.  I've even heard reports of the government controlling the weather in Beijing with the use of rain rockets.  I wish them the very best.  It would be like putting a dazzling kimono over the city.  However, what happens when the Olympics are over?  Will the protests go away?  Will the government still invest millions into the infrastructure required to keep this fastpaced live moving at a fast clip?  I actually believe they will - just judging by the volume of activity in the unaffected Olympic parts of china - and the number of ceramic tiles installed on a daily basis.

I recognize that my American name of Kurt is not sufficient for use in China, and I've recently adopted the moniker 'Hong Long' = Red Dragon.  Such self-annointed nicknames rarely work out well - take my college experience of annointing myself Side Show Bob, and winding up with Krusty the Clown.  Krusty for short.  Yes - 4 years of Krusty - and many folks didn't even know my name after that.  Well, for now, I'm sticking with Hong Long.  Lets see how it lasts.  I definitely don't want this name to show up on that recent list of 'worst names' ever on MSN.  Cuz, they need to understand a bit more about 8 mile.

This past weekend, I hopped over to Bangkok for a visit with some friends.  I never thought I'd say, "yep, I'm just going to swing by Thailand for a few days, I'll be back in a bit."  But, there I was in Thailand after a 5 hour flight that went from 1st gear to a jet plane in 1.7 seconds it seemed.  I had been to Thailand about 7 years ago - a few days in Bangkok, then headed down to the islands.  Bangkok has changed, to say the least.  But, it's not too different from taking a weekend in Detroit -

- Well, perhaps the phad thai is a bit different from the Taco Bell on 13 mile road and Southfield.  Or, the heat at 95 degrees before humidity is a bit steamy compared to the light frost on the grass in March in Detroit, but the music of Motown singing songs of a soulmate is definitely similar to the traditional Thai opera.  And, according to 'Super Size Me', Detroit is one of the most obese cities in the US... and Bangkok, well, they specialize in petite dresses.  Other than these factors -

One particularly interesting aspect of Bangkok - it has grown into a mega shopping city trying to rival Shanghai.  The malls are all connected by skywalks that connect on the 3rd or 4th floors of the buildings.  To make it more interesting, you can travel from destination to destination without ever going down to the street level.  We walked for about 40 minutes at one point, traversing much of the downtown, by going thru malls and across skybridges.  

The malls are a mix of high end boutiques and pirate outlets for software, watches, and handbags...but they share one thing in common: rather than walk along the hot, steamy sidewalks with taxis and cars, you walk along sterilized elevated walkways crisscrossing thru shiny malls like a jaunt thru an expansive field of flowers, rising above a dirty alley.

One more note: the traffic in Bangkok is so bad that the traffic police are now trained to deliver babies.  One policeman has delivered 12 babies in the past 10 months...because the cars get so deadlocked in traffic (1-3 hours of standstill), that a pregnant mother has no chance of making it to the hospital when the time comes. 

One book I began reading shortly after Christmas, during a recent vacation traveling in China, and late night when I had trouble sleeping is "Oracle Bones" by Peter Hessler.  The book uses the study of ancient Chinese artifacts as the premise of studying the changes in modern China.  Hessler describes the artifacts while traveling through a variety of regions and towns in China.  He has some fascinating stories about how the Chinese will never ever betray.  In addition, he uses the artifacts to study why the Chinese language is still symbol-based.

I had never thought about the limitations of symbol-based written language before - other than trying to memorize 6000 characters - I mean, honestly - that's a lot of memorization.  But, he uses the example that because Chinese is logographic, it is incapable of picking up dialects and the like.  For example, a person's pronunciation of 'Pillow' can be described in latin language as "Peh-low".  Or a person from the south, like Forrest Gump, may say the phrase, "Ah Ca-yan't Quit Yeww".  In Chinese, there is no way of writing this dialect. 

This weekend, I attended my first Chinese wedding!  My coworker, Jiana (who looked very pretty in her 3 different dresses) had invited me to her wedding.  Yes, of the 200 plus attendees, I was the only Laowai.  Of course, I think of myself as Chinese these days - I don't get sick from eating the food, I speak the language (ok, that's an embellishment), I am a fan of the Olympics, I hang my clothes instead of using a dryer, I work hard, I prefer Tsing Tao, I am a bit more direct after learning how, I cut in line, and I continue to love ping pong.  So, I didn't feel out of place at all.  I had been briefed shortly before the wedding with some tips and pointers (like, when I should give my hongbao - envelope of money) by a lovely friend who had been to several weddings.  While I didn't see too many stunning Chinese dresses with high collars, I did see several guys wearing jeans or sweatshirts.  For the most part, the formal wear was very nice... Strange - a mix of people wearing suits or blazers and people wearing something they might consider wearing to the bowling alley.  I'm no fortune teller, but I believe I can predict that the bowlers will change their attitude after they have their own wedding.  And, they'll be happier in the future.

Just a few more notes on the wedding: a large banquet hall with spotlights, flashing lights, loud music, an emcee that shouted into the microphone like a large pickup truck was about to crash thru the walls and stomp all over the wedding cake, Roses everywhere, a slideshow of photos that adorned an entire wall, 8 Chinese songs or so that I could have sworn that I grew up with, and 1 white guy.  A few minutes after the ceremony (a non-religious exchange of vows and rings), the couple walked down the sweeping aisle to the other small stage.  The emcee shouted into the microphone.  My friends Jay and Eric suddenly grew animated.  They urged me to go to the stage.  "Go! Go! It's your turn!!"  I sat a bit bewildered - I had missed what the emcee had announced. Apparently, he had used Chinese that was above a 1st grade level. I looked around.  There were others that were getting up from the tables and approaching the stage. I hesitated.  I looked around.  "Why?" I asked.  "Because you're still single - you have to!!"  I looked around again.  There were others approaching the stage.  hmm.  I asked Eric to join me - after all, he was single, but not budging - only urging.  I told him, "OK, I'll go up there - if you do."  He readily accepted my bargain like it was a Happy New Years bargain special.  He grabbed my jacket and we got up and started walking down the main aisle.  I was approaching the couple when I saw the bride (my friend) look at me quizzically.  I again hesitated.  Eric was now in full laughter, hunched over.  I looked again at my surroundings - and realized that all of the other folks getting up from their tables were young women.  I had been suckered - I was about to attempt to catch the bouquet.  So, it wasn't like I was sticking out - here I was, a tallish white guy surrounded by Chinese girls getting ready to catch some flowers.  While I can pull off a Suzy Wong, I didn't feel comfortable at this time... and rather than elbow the smaller girls out of the way in my desire for the flowers (ala George Costanza), I hurried back to my table.  My table was laughing with a bit too much pleasure.

Overall, my first Chinese wedding was a blast.  Great fun - great people.  Granted, I occasionally felt like I was peeking out from a tunnel - looking to the left, looking to the right, before realizing that things were okay.  There would be another wedding - and it would be just as amazing.