There's no place like home...

It's 10 a.m.-- In 15 minutes, I'm headed downstairs to check out! Hope all goes well, except I packed my room card!!! I'll have to mail it back!

I'm all packed, I know one suitcase is overweight, another one filled to the brim! I have a HUGE carry-on that is jammed with fragile souvenirs!

We're leaving the hotel at noon--headed for Beijing's Capital Airport. We're on United Fight 850--leaves Beijing @ 4:10 p.m. and arrives back in Chicago at 4:04 p.m.-- We're traveling back in time six minutes!!!

We have a 3 hour layover in Chicago, but most of that time will be dedicated to U.S. Customs and rechecking our bags. We have a 7pm flight (United 7909) to St. Louis. THEN a 2-hour bus ride back to Columbia!

I can't wait to sleep this weekend--and recover from jet lag.

I have a jam-packed week ahead, including a Sunday live shot from St. Louis. John McCain is campaigning ahead of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

See you all back on the other side of the planet! Please keep up with this blog over the next week, I still have a few more stories and reflections to write about my summer in Beijing!!


Mark

Updated Picture Albums!

I updated my Beijing Picture Albums. Feel free to look through them!

Mark

We didn't start the fire...

Hi guys!

I can't believe it's over! You wait 11 months for something, and next thing you know it's gone! That's right, 11 months. It was late September 2007 when I received an email titled something like "Study Abroad during the Olympics!" My first impression was..."China, really? I've never wanted to go to Asia before." It took a little bit of convincing, but I went to the information meeting. Of the 300+ students in attendance, Fritz told us they were only taking 50. That's one in every 6...NOT reassuring! But the numbers dwindled as applications were turned in...it seemed to be a surreal prospect: I may be going to work for the Beijing Olympic Games!

Whoa! Fast-forward to last night. We decided to go grab a few pizzas before heading over to "Tun" bar in Sanlitun, the expat district. The Olympic News Service hosted a party for all the news service volunteers, the first half of the night, we watched the closing ceremony...the second half of the night, we had a party to celebrate the END! I didn't stay the whole time, a group of us wandered bar to bar finding the best drink specials, stopping to have a drink at each! We eventually made it back to "Tun"--it was over 100* inside and the dance floor was crazy! I lasted for 45 minutes...then had to head outside. There was a party of its own forming outside--and it had cheaper drinks! It was a great night!

Because I was moving from bar to bar, I caught bits and pieces of the closing. The most memorable part for me was seeing the torch extinguishing.

I wish I could explain this better, but I think there aren't enough words or experiences to adequately share what happened here over the past two weeks.

The Olympic Flame was in my face for two straight weeks. I wish you could all feel how inspiring it is to watch the torch burn atop the Bird's Nest. In the worst of times, you always have hope--and that is what the Olympics have taught me.

I can't express how grateful I am to everyone who helped me get here. From the Missouri school of Journalism to BOCOG and most importantly my family and Kristin-- I am so indebted to you all for supporting me this summer. I know it's not easy having someone you love 14,000 miles away, but we got through it. I also need to thank everyone who reads this blog! I still have so much to talk about---and TONS of pictures to post!

I had to pinch myself last night to realize what I had just lived through. I met people from almost every country in the world. Whether we were trading pins or talking on a bus, everyone I met was so eager to know about me and my culture as I was eager to learn about them and their culture.

Before I arrived, I was worried about fitting in. In the last two weeks, I realized that (and as cheezy as it sounds, it's true) we're all just one huge family. The biggest difference between us is our spoken language. I stopped one morning and smiled at an old Chinese lady playing with her (I assume) great-grandchild on the bench. I smiled at her, although I'm not sure why, and got a beaming smile in return. It shows how emotions are universal.

Although I'm not an athlete, I still walked away with the Gold. I have changed so much over the past two and a half weeks, both professionally and personally. I owe the people of China a great deal of thanks for their hospitality. "Xie Xie Zhongguo"

Mark

Silver for Simon!

It's currently 1:20, and I'm just getting back from lunch. I woke up late today (11:30-ish) because I was out late last night at a Beijing Acrobat performace and a VERY late dinner. Sleeping in late also means that I'm not working today--Triathlon is OVER! It's bittersweet. I loved the work, but hated the commute!

The two days were great, I would love to share all the fun of working at the Olympic Games, but I can't. It would violate my contract (and maybe saying so violates it too?). It was a great experience that I won't ever forget.

After work on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet one of Canada's coolest Olympians. Simon WHITFIELD (CAN) won the first triathlon Gold when the sport debuted in the Sydney 2000 games. He was a medal favorite in Athens 2004, but finished 14th. In Beijing 2008, Simon came back from behind to win the Silver medal! I was so excited to be at the finish line and watch him spring and come in second. After Simon went through Doping Control, he emerged and made his way towards the awaiting CBC TV crew. He was with his coach and saw me making my way over towards him, so he stopped and said "Hi!" I congratulated him and told him I was from Montreal, and he stopped to chat about the city for a bit. Simon grew up in Kingston, Ontario but now lives in Vancouver. Meanwhile, I had Simon autograph my volunteer shirt! What an awesome souvenir! A silver medalist signed my Beijing 2008 volunteer shirt!...and he's a Canadian silver medalist too! :)

I also touched his Silver medal. (You can kinda see it in the picture). I just have to find a Bronze medal and I can brag about touching the trifecta of Beijing Olympic medals!

A few hours earlier, I was at the post-event press conference. Simon was being asked a ton of questions, more than Gold medalist Jan FRODENO (GER) and Bronze Medalist Bevan DOCHERTY (NZL). The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, CBC and a TON of other Canadian media asked him questions--it was awesome being in the same room as a lot of those great journalists. Simon said something about his last sprint towards the finish line that I will never forget:

"I wrote on my handlebars 'Sing like Adam Kreek'. It flashed in my head 'sing like Kreek,' buddy, and I thought let's take off, let's go."

Adam KREEK (CAN) won a Gold medal for Canada in the Men's Eight Rowing on Sunday. (See previous blog post). During "Oh Canada" Adam was so excited and proud about the win for Canada that he bellowed the National Anthem. It was a really emotional event that will be be "one of those moments" that represents Team Canada. Anyways, Simon wrote "Sing like Adam Kreek" to give himself the strength and inspiration to win Gold. Unfortunately, Simon didn't win Gold, but did get Silver-- still an AWESOME accomplishment.

Sometimes it takes little events like this to remind me why I LOVE being a Canadian! :)
Mark

C-A-N-A-D-A!

Today I went two hours northeast of Beijing to the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. The bus ride was long, but we had some fun Canadians (Toronto) to chat with along the way. After chatting with Joey, I found out he knew my friend Allie from Toronto! They met earlier this summer on the subway.

There were several event, most included Team Canada. I saw the Canadian flag raised for the bronze 4-man rowing team!

The Canadian 8-man rowing team was favored to win Gold...so we were all excited to see the event. It has been the talk of the town among Canadians because we didn't have ANY medals before yesterday rolled around.

I met some more Canucks from Toronto. They were really nice and we all unfurled our Canadian flags over the fence...and in the air! Team Canada took off and had a great lead time. They were almost a full 3/4 boat length ahead of the Americans. The Great Britain team was coming in a close second, but Canada stayed strong. We were cheering so loud...but for 5 minutes and 2000 meters, we couldn't keep up. As the team got closer to the finish line, the Americans got a second wind and hauled forward...we all had our eyes glued to the scoreboard and television monitors. We were determined that nobody could take away the Canadians' Gold medal like in Athens. The race was done, in the distance, the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and the Maple Leaf were all being waved back and forth. We knew which teams were going to get medals...but who was first??? Did we pull it off??? Then silence.....the time was flashed up on the scoreboard....5:23:89....


...then a ROAR from the Canadian cheering section... THEY DID IT! GOLD FOR CANADA!!!

We jumped up and down, hugged and ran around with our Canadian flags flying behind us. It was a surreal and unique moment for each of us. Although some were in their 60's and some as young 6 years old, none of us had ever witnessed Canada win a Gold medal! It was so exciting... I can't imagine what it's like for the Rowers!!!

We decided to run towards the flag poles and medal podiums. We had to see it all up close! We waited for almost 30 minutes, but our time came. In Women's 8-person rowing, the Americans won Gold. I sang 95% of their anthem right, but get confused with some verses....I had actually never sung it before! Earlier in the day, Great Britain won a Gold, so I also was able to sing "God Save the Queen." Some lady saw me sing all three and asked how many more anthems I knew... I laughed and told her those were the only three I knew. I lucked out!!!

But after the American anthem... the stage was all for Canada! We were so excited for the moment we could all sing "Oh Canada!" The medals for the men's event were awarded and the flags were brought out. The music started and we all burst out in song! It will be one of the most memorable moments in my life. It was on my "bucket list." I always wanted to sing the Canadian National Anthem at an Olympic event. I got my chance. That is what the Olympics are all about!

I highly suggest you all try it sometime. WOW! Still excited about it!

Mark

P.S. Canada is ranked 17th for medals. Total: 7; Gold: 2, Silver: 1; Bronze:4.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a good singer, nor claim to be one... so Canadians, please enjoy the following clip with that in mind!

Today Show!

Extra-Special thanks to Jen Reeves @ KOMU for cutting this video for me!

We had a great time and got to meet all the hosts (except Hoda Kotb). They were all so nice to us and posed with pictures. Meredith and Al spent the most time going around, I shook Al's hand twice, to which he replied "There's enough Al to go around!"

Mark

Wow! What a couple of days!

The Opening Ceremony was amazing. I couldn't have imagined anything more elaborate! The night started off well, until we discovered the HUGE TV that was supposed to show the opening wasn't going to show the opening! We found a local hotel that was showing the Opening. The hotel was packed, but we were able to go into the basement restaurant and see it on a large TV. It was really interesting to sit with Chinese and hear their cheers and roars of applause for Hong Kong, Chinese Taipai (Taiwan), Iraq, North Korea and the Russian Federation. When Team Canada came out, Allie and I had the crowd cheering....but not so much when Team USA appeared. It took a few awkward seconds to get the Chinese to clap. When team USA appeared, I was able to see someone I went to high school with in the parade of nations. Ricky Berens is competing tonight in the 4x200 men's freestyle relay! I can't wait to watch it LIVE! GO TEAM USA!!!

I left the hotel early so I could see the torch lighting with my own eyes. After a 15 minute wait, I could hear the crowd roaring, then a minute or two later, Li Ning (Gymnast from 1984 Olympics) lit the torch! It was amazing! The fireworks started, and by the video I posted the other day, you can tell they were amazing! I hope you were able to get the same feeling from watching them on TV. While I was waiting for the fireworks to start, I saw President Bush and a lot of other world leaders leaving at the gate 30 feet away from me! It was really cool!

The next morning, Matt and I raided several newsstands in the area and bought a few copies of the local papers with pictures of the Opening Ceremony. Most of the papers are Chinese, only 1-2 are English.

One of the neatest parts of the Olympics has nothing to do with sports at all! When we arrived in Beijing, the University of Missouri provided each of us with 150 "University of Missouri Journalism centennial" pins. The pins are really nice, big too! I've traded 30-40 pins so far, and got a TON of cool ones. I'm focusing on collected NOC pins (National Olympic Committees) and International media pins. I don't have any NBC or CBC pins yet, but I'd LOVE to get my hands on them! I have a cool CCTV (China), RCI (Radio China) and SABC (South Africa) and a Columbia NOC pin. I have a ton of other Olympic pins....Matt and I are competing to get the coolest pins, but I think he's winning. He got a Samsung flip phone pin! It's actually slides up and down! If you're reading this in Beijing and have cool pins to trade! Lemme know!

On Sunday night, I was given a free ticket to men's volleyball. Allie's friend Max got 8 tickets to the game. His brother is competing in Wrestling, so he has the ticket hookup! I wasn't expecting to have too much fun, because I wasn't "in" to Bulgaria, Poland, China or Germany. Well...I was so wrong!!! The first match was between Bulgaria and China-- my bet was on Bulgaria. During the match, we befriended the Polish people behind us and really hit it off. Next thing we knew, there was beer coming at us in every direction. Each of the Polish fans bought us a round of beer! It was SO much fun! I had a Polish flag painted on my face and took over as their main cheer leader. I started a couple of chants for Polska! and they taught us a lot of Polish chants! I had so much fun! The game strung on past midnight and we all had to get up early..so we thought we could sneak out! The Polish fans got so nervous that they would lose if we left, although they were ahead by a ton of points! We decided to stay until the end of the game and it was worth it...the Polish fans made us "Honorary Polish" for the day.

On Monday morning, BOCOG gave us free tickets for Beach Volleyball. Although it was raining a bit, it was so worth it. We watched three matches (Latvia v Argentina), (Angola v Australia) and (Belgium v China). I have an odd way of determining who I root for, but it payed of until Belgium lost to China in the last minute!

I always root for Team Canada, followed behind by any Commonwealth country, the US, then any country that has fun fans!

Sorry for the long post, I'll try to update again in the next few days!

Mark