"I am feeling very Olympic today, how about you?" Sanka, Cool Runnings

I felt very Olympic today!

I began the day by showing Annie how easily I can get lost. I had to meet with a person at the downtown Beijing office to give my passport and registration to the woman in charge of Visas. Long story short, I had been only given an 11 month visa instead of a 12 month visa when I arrived last May. I still wanted to complete my 12 month contract and have actually asked to stay for an additional few weeks in order to enjoy more of the Spring here. Luckily, EF approved of it all and now it's up to the Chinese government to hopefully do the same! EF isn't worried, so neither am I. Anyway... I was trying to follow the picture directions from the subway that the main office had e-mailed me, but it looked completely different! I had to call and the Visa lady came and met us to pick up my materials. She told me that the pictures had been taken about two years ago and there has been lots of construction. No wonder I had gotten lost!

Then, it was back to the subway to get to the Olympic Park! Besides the Great Wall, I think Annie was most excited to see the park where the 2008 Games were held! We took the "tour" of the Bird's Nest! It was interesting to see it again because this time instead of the field it was a layer of icy snow from the snow park that had been running earlier in the Winter. We made the obligatory visit to the IOC Presidents Wax Museum! Still... so creepy.

We then made our way over to the Water Cube. However, in the official competition pool, there was a huge production going on. There was a big sound stage over the Olympic pool! People were practicing acrobatic moves and there was a choir. It looked like they were rehearsing for a big show. It was awesome. We walked around and toured the rest of the practice pools before having lunch and a nice little cafe that overlooked the big production. We had a nice lunch and got to watch more of the show!

The last time I was there, the museum had been closed, so I got to see it this time. It is a small museum that not only displays information about the history of swimming in the Olympics, but also the history of Chinese Swimming Olympians. It was such a proud display of how the sport has grown in China and how China hopes that it will continue to grow in the hearts of its people. As we were leaving, making our way around the gigantic gift tables (picked something out real nice for Maria) we were following a group of Japanese tourists! It was awesome. I wonder if any of them were from the flight from Tokyo that I saw yesterday?

We took the subway back to my apartment in the late afternoon. Annie is still amazed at the haze and she had made a comment to me about the air tasted gritty. The air was gritty. Beijing is starting it's sandstorm season! Today was pretty tame, but I guess it does get worse. Something to look forward to...? We started to watch a TV show called "White Collar" that Annie brought that is pretty fun and chilled for a bit before setting out again.

We met up with my friend Shei and one of her friends for a hot pot dinner. Annie loved it as much as I thought she would. Shei was so sweet and brought us both traditional purses! We had a great dinner and conversation! It was a great way to end a busy day.

Tomorrow we are off to explore some of the temples!