Beijing Olympics Live!
Okay, I finally got to see Olympic events this weekend. In my new job I have Sunday and Monday off. On Sunday, I went to Chaoyang Park and saw two quarterfinal matches of Women’s Beach Volleyball. Two tall, beautiful Chinese women in bikinis beat two tall beautiful American women in bikinis, setting up an all-Chinese semi-final. That guarantees a Chinese team will win at least a silver medal for the first time in the history of beach volleyball. After that match, I watched two tall, beautiful Brazilian women in bikinis defeat two tall Australian women in bikinis in the other quarterfinal match. I think I’m becoming a fan of women’s beach volleyball!
On Monday, I saw boxing quarterfinals in the Workers Gymnasium not too far from my apartment. I was surprised to find the stadium barely half full at the beginning. When the Chinese Super Heavyweight easily won his bout with a smaller Kazakhstan opponent, only about a third of the stadium was full. I think boxing is much more interesting on TV anyway. It’s so hard to see the punches as they happen. Olympic boxing now uses a computerized system so we can see the five judges points come up on the scoreboard as they make their decisions about what is a good hit and what is not. Unfortunately for the spectators, when they look up to see the scoreboard, to check if a punch was really a successful punch, they miss what comes next. On TV you not only get the commentators explanation, you can get instant replays, in slow motion even.
A friend of mine here in Beijing has a blog and wrote an interesting post on his Chinese students’ reaction to the Games. You can read Matt’s post here. He is a very thoughtful writer, so be sure to read to the very end of his post.
hanane Said,
August 22, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Hello Dear Teacher,
1st, Congratulations for the new job and I wish you are happy with it. But what do you mean by a new job? Are you doing something else apart from teaching or what? 2nd, really you made me laugh about you enjoying the women’s beach vollyball matches; I don’t believe you; i think you enjoyed something else since you insisted on it more than thrice. 3rd, I myself saw some boxing on TV and according to your description I agree with you about that seeing some olympic games on TV is interesting because your are always in touch with the minutest details about the partisipants and the scores as well as records. But, what about being there in Beijing, staying in one of the wonders that chinese architects did create and attending live competitions and seeing champions giving the best of there performances to be memorized in the history of the olympic games? I thik it is something great as well. is not it?
Best regards
teacherjoe Said,
August 27, 2008 @ 1:00 am
Hi Hinane,
By “new job” I don’t mean not teaching, just a different employer. I am now teaching adults instead of teaching in a high school. The Olympics went by so fast and there was little sign of anything special happening in Beijing. I enjoyed the games I went to and I collected some Olympic pins as souvenirs, but most of the time it was like being in any city in the world, watching the Games on TV.
Anyway, I am now looking forward to watching the Paralympic Games next week. One sport in particular, called goalball, interests me. It is a game for blind people where they throw a ball toward a goal, similar to handball. There are bells inside that allow the players to know where the ball is at all times. The spectators must remain silent during play so that the players can hear the ball moving. It must be amazing to have such great hearing that you can catch and throw a ball based only on the sound!
Nafis Said,
August 28, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
Hello,
I remember a day when I wanted to go to college. That day was named “blind’s day” and we had special ceremony for blind people in our college. When I wanted to step inside the college, one blind girl asked me to show her the hall that ceremony was held. I took her hand and I was really careful because I thought she was blind and I had to watch the path ahead us especially for her. As we continued going, she suddenly asked me if I saw a tall man passing by. I did and said yes. Shortly afterward, she asked me a lot of questions about people around us and plants and everyhing that I thought she was able to see everytging. That was amazing!