A day of disappointments

Day 2 in Beijing

This has been one of the worst days of my life that did not include death or serious illness. I seriously wish that I had cancelled this trip back a few months ago when some house repair bills were threatening to put it in jeopardy. I am so angry with my chilren right now that I don't even think I can sit down to breakfast with them in the morning.

It started out okay. All the kids got a good nights sleep. They awoke at their normal times. We had breakfast at the buffet. Our guide picked us up at 9. Our first stop was the Temple of Heavan. So beautiful. The site is huge, bigger than the Forbidden City but with fewer buildings. The parkland is a popular gathering spot for the people of Beijing. There were performers, groups of singers gathered, groups of performers, people playing ping pong and their version of hackey sack (it has feathers) just a place of community. The temple itself was originally built for the emporer to use twice per year to talk to God, to give a report on things here on earth and to give thanks. the main temple is constructed completely of wood. There are no nails used anywhere in its construction. What a marvel. The chilren seemed to enjoy it, but kept asking, "when are we going to the olympics?" "Soon," we told them, "after we are done with our tour." We expressed at this point to our guide that we would like to abreviate the tour and get over to the olympics. She agreed, but there was traffic and a local tour guide who wanted to get in everything that she wanted to say.

After the Temple of Heaven we visitd a hutong - a traditional Chinese neighborhood. We had a separate guide to this, supplied by the hutong association. Our guide was with us, but basically kept in the background. Over the last few decades the hutong neighborhoods were disappearing and the Chinese gov't has begun trying to preserve them. They are self-contained neighborhoods, built around a square. Everything the community needs is available within the hutong. It sounds so ideal on paper, but it was kind of sad. The homes are small and dingy and barely mor than shacks. Peoples underwear and bedsheets are hung out to dry in front of each dwelling. The smell was not pleasant. Included in the tour was lunch with a local family. Well, local family members cooked and served the food, and some would pop in and out to tell us about their lives, but we did not truely have lunch "with" them. We ate, they did not. Our translator picked a little, but we were served first. The children were quite adventurous after a few reminders that they had to try each thing. Devlin found quite a few things that she liked and Liam enjoyed the duck and the chicken with beans and garlic. they served Coke with lunch, which was a first experience for my children. Liam, who likes Sprite was so-so on it. Mac who does not like carbonated beverages liked the flavor, but not the drink, and Devlin claimed to love it, but did not drink much. I think she just wanted to love something we told her she would not have more of once we returned home. After lunch we were pulled through the streets by rickshaw. I found I could not bring meself to take pictures. I know that our touring the hutong brought income to the local people, but at the same time I could not help to feel complicit in their exploitation.

Finally, the tour was complete and we departed for the olympics. We were a little disoriented when we arrived as we were on the opposite side of the complex from where we were yesterday. We got our bearings and began to try to find tickets. Tickets were plentiful but finding 5 together was a challenge. It was fun though - for me at least. Trying to keep track of the children while negotiating the crowd was an anxious experience, so finally Bill picked a shady spot to wait and I struck off alone. I finally found someone with 5 tickets to last night's diving. It was the men's 3 meter springboard finals. I was so excited. Not only would I get to see an event, but because it was a finals I would get to see a medal ceremony live.

I remember being a little kid and watching the olympics with my family, especially my father. He and I both loved watching the games - and we watched everything - gymnastics and diving and swimming and weightlifting, track and field - we loved it all. I remember watching Olga Korbet and Mark Spitz and the men's bastketball team. Four years later I remember Nadia. My father would rail against the unfairness of the Soviet and Chinese athletes being paid by their government while our athletes were true amaturs. I wonder what he would think of the NBA players out there today? We would watch the medal ceremonies and listen to the anthems. I would tell my father how I wanted to go see the olympics live.

So, here I was, tickets in hand, kids in tow. I had worried how they would behave. We have not taken them to a lot of sporting events. Bill is not a big watcher of sports on tv. I miss it, but there always seems to be something else to do. We live far from my home teams and it is not as interesting to watch teams that I am not rooting for. Yes, I was worried how our children would behave at these events, but I wanted them to love it the way I did. We had it on constantly the week before we left - during the first week of the games. They watched sporadicly and not with the same kind of interest I had. I worked hard to get them excited about Michael Phelps and Matt Grevers. I had the gymnastics on and talked them through the events trying to instill in them an appreciation of the strength and the grace. Yes, I was worried. I mentioned it to a friend and she told me, "yes, but being there is different. My son doesn't watch baseball on tv, but loves to go to the games." I hung tight to that reassurance.

So, tickets in hand, we entered the olympic complex. We went through security, and tossed away our water bottles. The complex was huge - we were at the end with the stadium and pool. But we had hours until the diving and the shopping and parade route and everything, were at the opposite end. We took off - I don't know how far, a couple of miles probably. Devlin whined about being hot and tired. I bought ice cream cones trying to get everybody into the spirit. We got to the superstore and waited on line - yes, a line to go shop. It was a zoo inside. The children made their choices and I did as well and as we made our way to the checkout Mac realizes that he has dropped his wallet somewhere. He was carrying it in his hand, not his pocket and now he had his souveniers but not the wallet. We tried looking around. We tried asking for help. We checked lost and found. One little boy's wallet, gone. Bill and I consulted.

The money in the wallet was his and ours. The kids had been saving for weeks for spending money for this trip. Originally they were saving for Nintendo ds games, but in the interest of a peaceful flight and wanting them to have saved for their trip themselves we told them we would buy each of them a new ds game and they could save their allowance money for the trip. The day before the trip we gave them the three weeks allowance that they would be due over the duration of the trip. At that point they each had between $30-40. We had them give the money to us with an agreement to give them the equivilant in RMB when we arrived in China. We then gave them the equivilant of $20 more than they had saved. We have found over the years that this works better on vacation than them asking us constantly for things. So, what do we do? Do we replace the money? He would be happy. Do we let him learn the hard lesson about being more mindful of his things? A tough lesson to be sure, but an important one. We looked at the items he had chosen - a baseball cap and a 2 foot long pencil. We made our decison, "We are sorry, Mac, we know it is awful to loose your money, but you should have been more careful." Maybe the rest of the day was bad karma for not being more sympathetic to a careless little boy.

We started back towards the pool. I was so excited just to be getting inside that building. It was so beautiful and an engineering marvel. the pool was built to be fast - 10 lanes, only 8 used, 3 meters deep instead of the usual 2. Last week Michael Phelps made history in that pool - 8 gold medals, 7 world records. I so wished I had been there for some of the swimming, but since I missed it, just to get inside, to see where that had been done. I couldn't wait. We walked, we stopped, we watched the parade - beautiful and cute at the same time. We got some food and sat down to eat and Devlin fell asleep - the first bad sign. But I held onto hope that this would be just a short nap. We got to the pool early and found our seats. We were in the cheap seats, but had a pretty good view of things. Devlin continued to sleep. Warm-ups were going on and all the divers were out. Not just the athletes competing that evening, but the platform divers as well. They were amazing. My chilren saw none of it. Devlin was asleep and Mac and Liam had their heads buried in those damn Ninetendo ds things. A savior on a long airplane ride, I was hoping at the pool they would not have them, but would be caught up in the time and the place and the amazing things the divers were doing. I wanted to say no when they asked to have them, but figured if their attention could only be held for a short time better it be during the competition rather than warm ups.

As the crowds began to arrive Devlin could no longer lie across two seats. We tried to wake her up. I took her for a walk. I bought her snacks. The boys' batteries died and they began to squire. "This is boring," they said, "I don't like this." Back in our seats Devlin fell back to sleep. The boys checked out and with nothing to hold their attention drifted off to sleep as well. They squirmed, they kept keeling towards their seatmates, we had to support them too keep them from falling against strangers or onto the floor. They whined. I could not take a picture bacause i could not hold them and my camera. I missed half the dives and half the scores. We finally left after the 3rd of three rounds.

We walked out of the pool and my fury was building. Bill advised me to talk to them in the morning when they were not half asleep. Ever my sensible husband - but his childhood wish had not just been snatched from him. We had a horrible time finding a cab and when we did it was not good. The driver smelled - I know, i was in the front seat with him. And no matter what the Chinese say about getting ready for the games by having so many learn English, including the cab drivers, this has not been our experience. Not only did this one know not a single word of English (which I can live with, it is his country afterall) he could not seem to read Chinese when I gave him the card from the hotel. I showed him the map - he identified the Temple of Heaven but then pointed to the airport. I said no and pointed to the Holiday Inn sign two blocks from the temple. Off we went. I am not convinced we did not drive in a few circles. We finally arrive and with three sleeping kids in the car at 10pm he tries to drop us at the corner. No, I point to the entrance. He takes us to the entrance sign and tries to let us out there. No, I point to the circular driveway with the doormen.

I sent everybody to bed. I turned on the tv. Diving is already over. I have no idea who even won. Sportcenter here is the enlish version. They are obsessed with soccer. Hardly anything else gets a mention. I tried to sleep. I woke at 2:30 and here I am.