Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Fun Isn't Over

Sadly, things are winding down here in Beijing, but the fun isn't over. I'm still having a blast. Since my trip to the Wall, I've gotten to be a VIP at the Volkswagon showcase, see Steven Lopez win his quarterfinal Taekwondo match, eat a free meal at McDonald's, go out for dinner with Dr. Owens and friends, shop at the Olympics superstore, and get my pic with the USA Beach Volleyball Gold Medalists, Dalhausser and Rogers. There's a lot of little stuff inbetween, but those are the major highlights over the past few days.

The VW sponsorship day was great. Adam had nothing to do, so he tagged along and I think he's glad he did. Our contact at the VW showcase was Stephan (pronounced like 'steffen' not 'steven'). He's from Germany but speaks very good English. He's a really cool guy. We pretty much hung out with him all day. He got us VIP passes for the showcase, so we got to hang out for a couple hours in the VIP lounge. We got free drinks, food, and internet. We shot some crowd stuff, as well as some of the "higher-ups" at VW who were there. It was awesome.


The next day we went out to shoot McDonald's sponsorship. It took us an hour of walking in the rain to finally meet up with our contact from McD's because our producer couldn't just tell us to meet her at McD's or the Bird's Nest. Instead, we were supposed to meet her at some random parking lot, but she had no idea where it was and neither did we, so we ended up walking around the Green for an hour in the rain. Our ponchos were good for 5 minutes and then became useless. Anyway, we finally met up with our contact, Jackie. We followed a multi-cultural group of kids around and did some interview with them as well. The plus is that we got to go inside the Olympic Village and see athletes. Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone I recognized. There was one USA girl I saw that I was pretty sure was Lolo Jones, but I couldn't remember her first name exactly (I was thinking "Lulo") and I didn't want to look like an idiot by asking her for a picture and not knowing her name, so I froze and missed out. Oh well. That night, a good group of us (Asbury students) went out to eat with Dr. Owens at the Great Wall restaurant. It was really good. Then we did some shopping in that area, but I didn't buy anything. Wasn't in the bargaining mood because I was tired and my feet were still soaked from earlier. Good times. My shoes smell awful, but I'm wearing them on the plan anyway because they're the heaviest pair of shoes I have and I don't want to pack them.



Last night, Tim and I hit up the Olympic Superstore. It was crazy packed and overwhelming but we survived. The best part is that we had to wait in line to get inside. I'm happy with my results though. I think I've pretty much finished my shopping. Good deal. After that, we met up with some fellow Asburians and Dr. Owens and got a group picture on the Green. Chinese people kept jumping in with the group and getting their own pics. It was hilarious. We were like celebrities. I mean, I already get my pic taken randomly while I'm walking around by myself, and so do the others, so when you put us all together in one spot for a pic you can imagine what would happen.

The biggest highlight of yesterday though is definitely me and Marian getting our picture with Dalhausser and Rogers. If I hadn't waited behind for Marian to grab her bag while everyone else headed towards the Green, it would have never happened. Good thing I'm a good friend. She's the one the saw them too, so lucky me. They had their gold medals around their necks too.

Pics from all these events are posted in my gallery. Check em out: http://picasaweb.google.com/andywpeters

No comments: