Opening Ceremonies, etc. etc.

By now you have all seen Opening Ceremonies! Wow! What a performance. I didn't get the chance to go to Opening Ceremonies and I know it's a once in a lifetime experience, but I will get to go to Closing Ceremonies.

I thought the drums at the beginning were amazing! I had a friend tivo it and I can't wait to watch it again.

I haven't been out of the hotel a ton because I've been working quite a bit. So I’ll give you a quick update on a few things:

Traffic in Beijing is insane, it truly is like playing a game of frogger….first there are the buses and big vehicles that have the right away and then it’s taxis and private cars and then it’s motorized bikes and then regular bikes and then people…..they tend to turn right from the 2nd to left hand lane yes that’s right turning right out of the left hand lane. People turn right in front of cabs, do u-turns in the middle of the street, bikes cut in front of buses and people stand in the middle of oncoming traffic like it’s no big thing. So the other day this guy and I decide to try it out like the locals. The next thing I know I’m standing in the middle of cross traffic….all of the sudden realizing that my butt and boobs are much bigger than the average Chinese and sticking out way further into on coming traffic than Ling Ling’s standing next to me. Clearly, I survived the trip across the street.

My colleague and I are starting a list of Chinese puns, the catch is we have to use it in a sentence: such as I’m on it like white on rice or What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? By the time I leave I’ll have a list and post it on my blog.

Yesterday I managed to get out of the hotel with our guests and accompany them on a trip to the Summer Palace. Basically some Emperor a couple of centuries ago built this amazing retreat outside of the city where he hung out with his concubines. That’s pretty much all I understood from our Chinese local tour guide. It was absolutely FABULOUS!
Gorgeous, such a wonderful place.

I believe I’ve mentioned how awesome our hotel staff is, but the head chef, main F&B guy and the Director of Ops are great! Today Jason (the head chef) with whom I’ve actually worked with before in Singapore was sitting in our office. Debbie- a colleague of mine was telling Jason to read something and he was holding it arms length and Debbie said “do you need glasses, it looks like you’re squinting”. I said “nah he’s just Chinese”. We all laughed our asses. It was soooo totally wrong and inappropriate, but that’s how comfortable we are with each other that it just came out.

More to come…..