Barsanti In Beijing

Ciao Beijing!

Well, we leave for the airport in just over 24 hours...hard to believe we've been here almost two full weeks.  This is definitely the experience of a lifetime.

A lot has happened over the last 12 or so days - met Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists from all over the world, as well as a ton of athletes who are just happy to be here.  I'm going to miss it - it's a lot of fun talk to them, whether it was for 2 minutes or 20 - the standard questions, of course, being: "What sport do you play? How did you do?"  I shook the hand of every medallist I met - and we met a lot. I even got to hold Malcom Howard's (CAN) Gold medal for Rowing (Mens' Eights).  Got a picture of that one.  At the risk of sounding like a completely biased homer, the Canadian athletes were by far the coolest.  A special thanks to Erin McLean from the Canadian Women's Softball Team - she's from Whitby too and saved me from working in the kitchen for about 10 mins...your next Big Mac is on me! :)

We've seen and done a lot over the last several days.  Tianneman Square.  The Forbidden City.  The Great Wall.  We went shopping at the Ya Show market.  We visited Hough Hai (pronounced Ho-Hi), which is a cool little "entertainment" district - shops, bars & restaurants surrounding a little lake in the middle of Beijing.  We had a Tai-Chi lesson in the middle of a park at the Temple of Heaven.  We were treated to some excellent food, hospitality and entertainment here at the Loong Palace.  And to top it off, tonight I'm off to the finals for Athletics.  I'm hoping for something exciting - some of our group went last night and got to see several new World and Olympic records.

And finally, some of the quirkiness of life in China.  The light switches are backward - up is off, down is on.  All of the drains in the showers at the hotel fill up to your ankles before they drain - I thought it was just our room, but apparently not.  Cabbies are crazy all over the world - 3 cars in 2 lanes is almost the norm here.  I'm sick of bottled water and buses - the tap water is not potable, so you get bottled water everywhere.  And buses - I can't wait to get home, hop in my car and zip along at the posted limit on the 401... ;)

Ciao from Beijing!

Lovin' Beijing

Hi Everyone,

It's been a hectic few days since I last wrote, and to be honest, I can't access my own blog from here, so I don't remember what I've shared already.  We worked our first two shifts - one in the Media Press Centre (MPC) and one in the Athlete's Village (OLV).  I have another OLV shift starting in about 2 hours.  I got to work in the front counter area and ended up meeting a lot of people - some more famous than others - Elliott Friedman from CBC, people from NBC and a member of the US Olympic Committee.  Kobe Bryant and the US Men's Basketball team were a few tills down from me, and overall we served probably a few thousand athletes and coaches from around the world.  Evander Holyfield was even staying in our hotel.  Oh yeah, did I mention we got our pictures taken with Michael Phelps, too?  Have to love working for McDonald's.

Yesterday we went to the Great Wall - it was an amazing experience!  We went to a section that's about 1.5 hours by bus and runs along the top of a mountain range.  There is definitely some breathtaking scenery here.  Our guide told us that there is approximately 100,000 km of wall overall stretching from one side of the country to the other. Interestingly enough, it's not all made of the stone you see in pictures. Apparently local resources were used extensively, so in forested areas, the wall is wooden, while in other areas it’s made of clay bricks or stone.  You learn something new every day.

On the way back, we stopped at a little village for lunch at a restaurant called Grandma's House.  The daughter of the people who own it just graduated from the University of British Columbia as a Theatre and Asian Studies major.  She was as excited to talk to Canadians as we were to talk to someone with a Canadian connection.

Anways, breakfast now awaits me, and then my 12-6 shift at the OLV.  More to come in a few days!  Ciao from Beijing!

Greetings from Beijing!

We arrived today in Beijing at the new Terminal 3 - apparently it's something like 1 million square metres in size and could fit 5 of Heathrow's terminals in it.  It's a pretty amazing facility.  Absolutely no problems getting through customs/immigration...there are people everywhere to help out.

As I said before, I'll be working for McDonald's in one of the four restaurants that are operating here in Beijing, including the largest in the world - 28 cash registers and 2 kitchens!  But I'm also being a tourist and will pass on some of the sights and experiences.

The airport is about a 45-50 min drive from the hotel, so on our way we were taken on a bit of a tour - got to pass by the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest (which are pretty much right beside each other).  One of the things I really noticed was how clean the city is - there's no garbage dumped on the side of the roads.  It's also really green - I mean GREEN. There are trees and shrubs and green spaces everywhere - you'd never know that you were in one of the world's largest cities.

The Canadian group got here a day early, so tomorrow we have a free day to do some sightseeing.  I think we're going to try to get to Tiananman Square and the Forbidden City.  Should be pretty fun.  More to come in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Anthony

Anthony’s Beijing Adventures

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? You might think I’m an athlete or with the media. I’m not.  I’m going there to work. You see, I work for McDonald’s (in Whitby) and I was one of six Canadian Managers selected to go and work at the restaurants that are set up at the Olympics through the McDonald’s Olympic Champion Crew program.

So my perspective will be slightly different – I’ll be there as a fan primarily. One of the perks of working for a worldwide Olympic sponsor is that we get tickets to one of the events. I’ve been asked which event I’d like to see – it’s a bit of a no-brainer that I want to go to one involving Canadians. Beyond that, I’m not picky. I’ve got all sorts of Canada-themed t-shirts that people have been giving me over the last few months – I want to use them to cheer on the Canadian athletes.

We fly out on August 12th, so it will be pretty exciting to watch the opening ceremonies and know that I’ll be there a few days later. I really should start packing now, come to think of it.

I’m going to try to update regularly as time permits – we will be working six hour shifts with a couple of days off to go sightseeing and exploring. Looking forward to the opportunity to check out The Great Wall and The Forbidden City.

Next update from Beijing!