Becoming Chinese.

After seven months, I think I have become immersed into the Chinese culture. I have purchased….A BIKE. Yes, it may be very 1970’s, I’m picturing a scene from the movie “Now and Then,” but in reality, it’s the way to travel in China. You don’t spend money on cab fares, you try to save the environment a little (if that’s even possible in this polluted, smog-filled sky) and you get killer quads. And when you live 8 kilometers from the city, it’s a great work-out! (just don’t go during a sand-storm-when I returned, I looked like I had just spent the entire day in a tanning bed. I was covered in sand!)




But this wouldn’t be a story worth telling you all if there wasn’t something bizarre that occurred during the process of purchasing my god forsaken bike. On a lovely little Sunday afternoon, myself, Kim, Julianne and A.J. ventured into the city on a hunt for this miraculous two-wheeled invention when we walked into a woman overly excited about the prospect of us purchasing one of her bicycles.




We walked around the store admiring the beautiful new bikes with shiny wheels, squishy seats, and sweet sounding bells when we came to four “sad-looking” bikes sitting in the corner. Obviously on a budget, we tried to bargain with the nice woman but she didn’t budge. When we told her our goal price she nodded and walked towards the four bikes in the corner. The tires were flat, the seats used, and the sweet sounding bells—nonexistent. After pointing out these imperfections and a few others, the saleswoman went to work. She replaced these parts on all four bikes and we were left with almost-new bikes to ride home! (AND WE HAD BASKETS!!!)

What a deal, we thought. Mike and Ian had paid twice as much a week earlier on brand new bikes. We thought we were smarter and more clever than Bill Gates until halfway home when the first glitch occurred in our plan. I was peddling amongst other Chinese bikers, thinking to myself, “Wow I’m so Chinese now,” when I lost control of my pedals and landed in a bush. The chain on my bike came loose and we were unable to tighten it. We were still about six kilometers away from our apartments so we tried everything that came to our minds. First, I sat on my bike and held onto A.J.’s to my left and Kim’s to my right. Failure. Then I sat on the back of A.J.’s and held onto mine. Failure. Finally, dressed in a cute jean skirt and Uggs, I decided that there was nothing more I could do but to run alongside my new favorite purchase.





Funny story right? It gets better. After watching and having to listen to Julianne, Kim and A.J. laugh at me as I ran my bike home, I hear, “ohhhh nooooo.” To my right, I see pedals on the ground and A.J. having a minor temper tantrum in the middle of Inner Mongolia. Disaster strikes again. The pedals were on loose and consequently fell off the bike. But hey, I was happy. Now I had a running partner! Two days later, Kim got a flat tire and my bike tire followed after that. Now we’re just waiting to see what happens to Julianne. I’ve got my money on her handlebars falling off, but we’ll see!




Moral of the story...if you want a little more laughter in your life, and maybe a headache or two, buy a used Chinese bike!

Landing the Dream Job.

Okay, so I haven’t secured a job when I come home yet (still working on that one), but I have the greatest six week job in the world. I signed my contract and it is official so now I can talk about it!!! In July, I will be moving to Beijing and working at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games! I still don’t really know how it happened but I’m realizing that it’s all about who you know.

So the fun part…I will be working for Framboise Catering of New York. They have been selected as the official caterer for the US Olympic Committee and athletes for the games. Catering? I know. I have zero experience in the field of food (except eating it). But how hard can it be?

A few weeks ago, I traveled down to Beijing to meet my new boss and sign my contract! He gave me a tour of the two project venues where I’ll be working. I will begin at the USOC High Performance Training Center. The food here is custom-designed to mimic the menus the athletes have eaten throughout their years of training and every single dish will have a calorie count and nutritional information close by. My boss joked that I’ll see the weight lifters eating 8,000 calories for breakfast and the gymnasts will be eating a piece of lettuce.

The second project is the USA House. It is the U.S. Olympic Committee’s hospitality and business center for the games. It will host the US Olympic Committee’s guests as well as the guests of team sponsors and of the national governing bodies of the various teams. This is the place where all the “important” people will be. The president will make an appearance (if he chooses not to boycott) and many celebrities, and big-wigs.

I think I’m going to meet some amazing people and maybe touch a gold medal or two! I still can’t believe I got this job. If you want any autographs, let me know!

My credentials will allow me access to both houses in addition to the Canada house and RUSSIA (if you know me well, you know my slight obsession). During the weekend I met the head of the Olympic committee (she is quite the stress case right now) and the head designers who are transforming these two venues from China to America-I’m not kidding, the entire house is going to be red, white and blue. He said that when you walk in, it will feel like you’re in America. (I guess I won’t have much reverse-culture shock when I come home!)

I don’t know if you all know this little fact but I was in shock. The U.S. Olympic team is the only team in the world that is not funded by our government. Everything is funded by sponsors (Budweiser, Panasonic, Coca Cola etc.) BUT. The U.S. government fully funds both the Afghani Olympic team and the Iraqi team. I was a little surprised!!!

So there’s a brief synopsis of my plans after Tongliao. Phewww, I have six weeks planned out. Now I need the rest of my life!! AHHH. I’ll keep you updated on that! I hope all is well in America. We’ve been keeping track on the torch and reading about the protests (well as much as we’re allowed to see. Many sites are blocked here) and it sounds a little crazy.

I miss you all and hope you are well. Thank you so much for all your emails. I love reading them! Talk to you all so soon.

P.S. To all my fellow PC grads...I wrote an article for the Providence Digest about my year in China. So definitely check it out. (You all obviously have the inside scoop, but there will be pictures!) It should be out in late April or early May.