Olympic thoughts

Well, the Olympics is finally in its last month of hype.

When the IOC first announced that the Olympics has been awarded to Beijing a few years ago, I was still living in the NY. Even though I had never lived in China, I felt a feeling of pride that an event like that was finally to be held in China. My plan back then was that when 2008 rolled around that I would try to attend the Olympics somehow. This was before I ever visited China.

Now that I live in China and know how difficult things can get logistically, I shuddered at the thought of going to Beijing during the Olympics. The sea of humanity, trouble getting flights, troubles at the airport, trouble finding a hotel, trouble getting to the venues, etc. I was also becoming nauseated with the media bombardment here in China hyping up the games. How this is the such a showcase of the country that seems like everything being done is in the name of the Olympics.

I have felt almost a disdain for the Olympics until recently. Now there is a part of me that want to go to Beijing during the Olympics just to check out the festivities. I am interested in seeing how the local Chinese deal with so many foreigners in their country. This is not NY, where there are many foreigners living there. China is still a relatively homogeneous society. Will I see the local Chinese put up a facade? I suspect that they will.

I am also interested in seeing the dynamics of so many foreigners descending upon a city. Will the foreigners like what they see in China? I don't think I need to even attend an event, in fact I would prefer to avoid the events especially the large ones.

Well, I am going to have to convince my wife to go since she is not as interested as me in going to Beijing.