Yet again, I leave for China and miss my nephews' birthdays. As always, we celebrated it at Chuck-E-Cheese. Nehemiah turns 4 on August 25th & Zao turned 1 yesterday (August 18th). The manager at Chuck-E-Cheese asked, "Who's 5?" I guess he thought the kid in question was a math wiz (4 + 1 from the "cupcake cake" below). Enjoy the video and pics.

By my estimation, Beijing 2008 is somewhat of a bust. Here's my chance to rant and rave:

1) Tickets are being unused. For the five events I've gone to, there are a ton of seats open. I can literally choose to seat anywhere and no volunteer has ever said otherwise. It's scarily silent at times. The Beijing 2008 Committee has actually bused in workers to cheer for the teams to make the venues seem more packed and enjoyably awesome. Two words: weak sauce!

2) Lines can be insane. When the Olympics website said arrive 2 hours before an event, they weren't lying. For the non-eventful events at small venues, no problem. But for large venues, it takes a while. And avoid the snack stands because...

3) Food cannot be found. Unless you're near the Olympic Village, you'll be hard-pressed to find food (where the McDonald's menu is served at lightning speed). And since you can't bring any food in, it pretty much sucks. At the Baseball game yesterday, they had two small stands to feed two large stadiums of fans. Um, let's call this a cosmic blunder when organizing food for a MASS of people. Plus, they were out of my first two food choices.

4) VISA ain't accepted here. If you want the ticket, you gotta pay cold hard cash. Scalpers run amok outside venues and they (Chinese and foreigners) are raising the price of tickets to untold amounts. I read one MSN story where a spectator paid $475 to see the Women's Gymnastic finals. One website in the US I viewed had Basketball tickets going for $1,250 (and it was even for the Finals).

5) Where's the international flair? All I seem to see around these events is Chinese fans screaming "加油中国" (roughly translated "let's go, China") during events where no Chinese competitors are competing. It's strange from a spectator's view to see this...and annoying.

6) The Olympic Green is a bust. No one is there. Apparently, you have to have a ticket to get in, but no one tells you this. Only ticket holders of actual Olympics tickets seem to get in. And then there's nothing going on. I've read different news reports where Olympics sponsors are complaining about the lack of people coming to the Olympic Green - estimates say about 20% of the expectation is being met. But I guess because of security, people are just left outside staring in.

7) Some venues already show signs of wear and tear. At the Field Hockey stadium, large cracks (poorly covered up no less) appear right when you walk up the first set of stairs. The Water Cube for the Swimming events, though completely magnificent, has rust-like stains running over the "bubble effect".

Unless you came to Beijing with 1,000 of Dollars or ideal tickets previously to arrival, then you'll leave China having felt satisfied and at peace. However, for those of us who got screwed by ticketing dates, uniformed venue space, and general lack of specific knowledge of how the Beijing games would be organized, we'll there's no one to complain to. If I had the choice to do this all over again, I would have stayed home and watched from a cozy recliner. The only good thing from all this is the Beijing mascots, the Fuwa. At least I can sleep comfortably with my Beibei.

As I type this entry, I'm in beautiful Branson, MO at a Holiday Inn Express. Dad and I left from Wheaton, IL at around 1 PM yesterday and stopped here for the night around 10 PM. I DID NOT want to drive into the night after an absolutely EXHAUSTING month of Wheaton grad classes.

Yesterday was the "crown jewel" of three years' work: I completed my Master of Arts program from Wheaton College. I turned in my third comprehensive exam and left felt oh-so good. This summer's class time was actually the seventh set of classes I've had (1 summer in Beijing, 3 summers at Wheaton, and 3 winters in Thailand). And now I can think about...

...the Olympics! I'm so stoked. With all the news reports talking about China, I totally can't wait to get back. I have one week in the States until leaving, so I'll enjoy my last few days with the fam. But, since my brother is going with me, it'll be even cooler. Even with the whole year of teaching ahead, I'm even more stoked to see how China will change after having hosted the Olympics.

So for now, I'm eating biscuits and gravy, watching TV (which I wasn't able to do at Wheaton since my dorm room didn't have one), and relaxing before the last three hours of my trip to Oklahoma.