Last night was the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I'm sure a lot of people are blogging about it, so I won't waste too much space here, but I'd like to tell my "opening ceremony story". I went to the Heineken House, Holland's hospitality party center which was set up at the Agriculture Exhibition Center. Thousands of orange shirted and mostly tall Dutch people swilled Heineken, at fries with mayo, and watched the ceremony on many huge flat screen TVs. It was too festive for me; I wasn't in the mood. So just after the ceremony started, I headed back to my neighborhood, had a quick snack at a local restaurant staffed only with guys from Gansu, and then watched the remainder of the ceremony at my local foot massage place with the boss and foot massage girls, all provincial chicks from out in the sticks.
The contrast between rich partying Dutch people and most likely undocumented working Chinese people actually wasn't that great. Everyone just wanted to chill out and enjoy the show last night. No one wanted to work (despite being on duty, even the boss didn't force anyone to deal with customers and the TV was on in all the massage rooms).
A morbid curiosity on my part made me wonder what would happen if it rained. It's been a rainy Summer, and everyone says the Chinese government has been carrying out a massive weather manipulation program aimed at keeping the skies rain-free during the ceremony. Did it work? Well, all I can report (the program has been secretive) is that within 10 minutes of the close of the ceremony, the skies in my neighborhood opened up and the rain started falling.
So the Chinese government appears to be able to control everything, including the weather. If one of the goals of this Olympics is to re-enforce the legitimacy of the government then the rain thing was pretty convincing. But if all anyone ever cared about was having a dry ceremony, I guess it was worth it. I still have my doubts about weather manipulation, though, and I'm half inclined to believe it was all just dumb luck.
That's my report from Beijing the morning after the opening ceremony. I just woke up at a nice late mid-morning time and I'm ready to head off to the gym for some serious Olympic style training.
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1 comment:
Good life Ton,
Beer Halls, masage Parlors, Snack Shops, The Gym, and you got a maid.
The other day I joked with Ji-young that if she married me, I would publish my books, sell my art, get more movie deals (knock on wood, I have not acted in my first one yet...here comes September), and get a maid.
Since she knows what i told her about your maid, she joked, "a Chinese maid?"
Later Dude,
Carl
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