Beijing Bound

(Through the lingering haze we see the Bird's Nest, the central location of the Openning Ceremony)

This might be the last blog for a little while, as I am on my way to the Beijing and the Olympics today. My train, a soft seater, will take an entirety of 10 hours to crawl from Xuzhou to Beijing. I guess UCE didn't want me enjoying the niceties of an overnight sleeper, and instead wanted me bolt awake when the train pulls into the Beijing Station at 5 am on August 8th.

I am literally getting in on the day of the Olympics. Then, it's off to buy a new sim card and put money onto my phone, then hustle my bags into a cab, and then find the elusive location of Haiwen's apartment (who is being awesome and letting me crash). I forsee napping, then a trip to Geoff's apartment (which isn't ready yet)to scope it out. Then most likely more napping, and then...Openning Ceremony! The fireworks display is expected to be unreal, rain or shine, and I cannot wait. I was more excited than my students yesterday and today, when we discussed the Beijing Olympics in class. Maybe that's because I'm going, and they're stuck here in Xuzhou.

While I expect the next 12 hours of travel to suck immensely, I'm setting my expectations way low in hopes of being pleasantly suprised (the train isn't crowded, smelly, has AC and there's actually space to put my oversized bags), but knowing China, whatever can go wrong will most often make everything you do just that more difficult. Hey, at least I have friends, a familiar city and the biggest sporting event imaginable waiting for me 812 kilometers away. Yes, I checked the distance. On that note, I'm off. Peace, Xuzhou.