Sit or squat?

Somehow I have made it this long without covering the subject, but the time
has come. My hotel has a normal, American potty. Sit down, get comfortable,
pull out the morning newspaper, normal.

And thank god for the American toilet. Because when people start reading
their news on a laptop on the toilet, my job will be IN the toilet!

Apparently the Chinese don’t read on the toilet. That, or they are acrobats.
The public toilets are essentially a hole in the ground. The good news, you
can still flush them, and sometimes, there’s even toilet paper there!. At the swimming venue, there is a choice in the bathroom.

Sit or squat.

There are a couple of each.

Us Americans have it easy. We don’t have to think about it.

I can’t really wrap my head around it, but I am going to guess bad knees are a factor.

So is your aim.

Suprise medal for men’s gymnastics, then outdoor table tennis

I started the morning at men’s team gymnastics finals. I was just there to babysit. After losing all the Hamm’s, we had no right winning a medal with a team full of alternates. So, I thought, after they bomb, i’d leave and go shoot something else.

So much for that plan.

USA’s Jonathan Horton (above) clapped his hands after a heck of a high bar routine (not like I’d know.) The team did well on their first 4 events, and at one point, they had the lead. So I had to stay.

It was worth it, there were a few great pictures to make.

Anyway, I am glad I have this blog. None of these photos made it into the paper.

I’ll move on.

This is a happy blog.

After lunch, Politi and I went to find a park that had 20 outdoor table tennis tables. Or is it courts? Who knows, it’s not like I’ve seen anything like it before. There were 8 tables going while we were there. It was pretty cool, and for the first time since we’ve been here, there was sunlight. I actually saw a shadow today!

We showed up with no translator, just hope that someone could help. We were there for 20 minutes, then we saw a reporter and photographer from the NY Times show up.

With a translator.

We can’t win.

On the plus side, it was kinda fun watching Politi ask everyone who walked by if they spoke English. Let’s just say, he had a tough time.

But in the end, he found a kid who happened to work for the US Embassy who spoke Mandarin and English.

He saved our bacon.

Here’s the video we did.

HOLY CRAP!

Today I witnessed one hell of a race. If you own a television, I am sure NBC is ramming the men’s 4×100 relay race down your throat. They have been banking on Phelps winning 8 golds to break the record by Mark Spitz. In order to do that, he needs to win 3 relay golds. A lot of pressure considering he only has control over 1 leg of each relay. He almost lost one today because NJ native Cullen Jones got toasted on the 3rd leg. I’ll bet NBC executives were ready to jump off a bridge after that split.

I got to the pool 2 hours before the race. I went to each photo position to scout out how the relay photo could look. In the end, I shot sitting on the pool deck, about 35m from the finish. There wasn’t a clock in front of me, so I had to turn around to see who was leading. After every leg, I would turn to see where the US was. I did notice that when Cullen dove in, Phelps and Weber-Gale had the US in the lead. When Cullen got out, they were half a body length behind. In swimming terms, that’s like a football field. If you saw the race, you know what happened. Lezak swam a world record split to beat the French, who coincidentally were talking about how they were going to “smash” the US in this race.  From my seat, with 35 meters to go Lezak trailed. But he was popping out of the water on every stroke. I thought they were done. I looked to shoot the team at the finish line. Phelps was rooting Lezak on. Every second you could see Phelps getting more and more excited. The reaction above is pretty crazy. This photo would have looked great in the paper, except it’s missing one key element.

Cullen Jones.

He was sulking in the water after his leg of the race and he took forever to get out of the water.
He came up small, but I guess it’s a lot of pressure knowing you could have cost the greatest swimmer ever a chance at that record.

Cullen’s mother Debra was sitting right behind my photo position. He ran up the bleachers that the photogs sit on and hugged her. The look on her face is pretty awesome.

After the race, we ended up having lunch with NJ native Scott Goldblatt, who won a swimming relay gold in Athens. After leaving swimming, he’s come to the dark side, ours.  It was pretty cool hearing his take on things. He says Phelps winning the 8 golds is a ‘foregone conclusion.’

I have to sign off. Politi is waving a beer in front of me.

I’ll leave you with a cool pic from badminton today. Still can’t believe they’re giving medals for this!

No duck.

Today Michael Phelps won his first gold medal. I got about 5 hours of sleep last night. I guess I am past the jet lag. Today was the first day that I wasn’t already awake when the alarm went off. I got to swimming for about 8am, then grabbed a quick lunch, went to gymnastics, then back to swimming, then back to gymnastics, now, I’m back at swimming. I am pretty beat. Tomorrow, back to swimming. I need to find me some badminton!

This is what the start/finish photo position looks like. A friend shot the photo of me in the back row. I can only hope he had a little more room than I had!

Politi emailed me after the morning session of swimming. He and a colleague were going out for lunch at a place that specializes in Peking duck. I’ve been dying to get out for some duck. Politi, for some reason (slacker?) doesnt have anything to do for 8 hours before the China/USA basketball game tonight. I needed to go to gymnastics. After giving me crap for actually working here in China, he then sends me a one-word email.

QUACK!

Apparently the duck was good.

I hate him.

But you should read his blog linked above.

It finally rained here, tonight. I think that’s a good thing, since it was about 120% humidity today. I broke a sweat just thinking.

The Main Press Center or MPC as they call it, is starting to stink. The basement, where the cafeteria is, as well as the photographers area, has got this stench lingering that is hard to explain. I think it’s the smell of some sort of chinese condiment. It’s really hard to describe.

But, I am here for you, so i will try.

It reminds me of the way the tunnels of Madison Square Garden smell after the circus was in town. I can only guess that’s the elephant poop. I don’t know why the chinese people would put a condiment that smells like elephant poop on their food.

Don’t make me leave!

Four hours in the Chengdu Shangri-La Hotel was not enough. This was easily one one the top 5 hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Knowing the Super 8 was waiting made it worse. But It’s ok, I got a parting gift. I stole a washcloth! There were none at the Super 8. If I could have fit the towels and the robe in my computer bag, I would have. Politi stole the body lotion. Then, he snuck it past Chinese airport security. It was quite a risk.

I am moving on. Today, a 17 hour day. The highlight, lunch. We ate lunch in the Beijing airport at a thai restaurant. The best green curry I’ve ever had. Then, 7 hours later, I had McDonalds. Just didn’t have time to stop for real food. Big surprise, it tastes like crap here, too. Manish, one of the other Ledger writers here has made McD’s a staple. He ate McD’s 3 times today.

I shot women’s fencing tonight. The US swept the medals. I love shooting fencing. Great backgrounds. Great reactions. I am really beat. I have to get back here in 8 hours to camp out for a photo position for swimming, where Michael Phelps will likely win his first of many gold medals here.

I just hope I don’t get stuck behind this photographer.

Opening Ceremonies? Not this time.

Politi and I decided to skip the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing. Instead, we went to the area where the big earthquake happened in May. We wanted to be able to tell the story of people from this area who despite losing everything, they would watch the ceremonies. We flew into a city called Chengdu. Steve arranged for a fixer and a driver, so along with a friend of his from the Baltimore Sun, we had a plan. I write this from room 2717 of the Shangri La Hotel. I am watching the end of the Ceremonies on TV, in Chinese. I’ve opened a bottle of wine out of the mini bar. This could get ugly!

Let’s start in Beijing. Had a cab waiting for us at 6:30am. The smog was just awful this morning. Couldn’t see 100 yards. Looking out the window at the airport, Politi asked if it was snowing. If it wasn’t 85 degeees, I’d think it was snowing. We copped out for breakfast at the airport, went to Starbucks. They really are everywhere. Food=awful, tea=awesome.

Then, we went through security.

This was memorable. All seemed normal… x-ray machine, metal detector, take your laptop out, etc. So I pass all my crap thru the x-ray and walk thru the metal detector, which does not beep, so I assume I’m home free.

HA.

Apparently everyone gets the cavity search. The pretty young chinese TSA agent wanded me, then started patting me down. Check that, feeling me up! Seriously. She touched parts of my body I’m not sure my wife has even touched. (honey, I didn’t enjoy it…) At one point, she looked at me, smiled, and said “I am just checking your belt,” then proceded to run her hands under my belt. All the way around. I could have just taken it off!

We’re married now.

Just kidding.

In the end, I lost my toothpaste. The guard explained that it was too big to take on a plane. It wasn’t,  I am guessing he just wanted lemony fresh breath.

Rick from the Baltimore Sun asked if I lost anything at the checkpoint, so I told him how pissed I was to lose my toothpaste. He said the only thing he lost was his virginity.

Flight was uneventful. They served breakfast. They shouldn’t have.

Politi made arrangements ahead of time, they assured us we’d have no problems seeing whatever we wanted to see. Even got cool credentials. So, we’re off to the earthquake area, a city called Dujiangyan, capital of the Sichuan province of China. We had a nice lunch at a local place. Despite the photos showing chicken on the bone, Politi really just wanted boneless chicken. After a couple minutes watching him try to explain this, I begged him, PLEASE JUST EAT IT OFF THE BONE! They don’t speak english. They don’t do boneless chicken here. Move on!

Long story, short… the afternoon was a nightmare. Our fixer, Alex, got spooked. We think he got threatened. We never made it to the site of the collapsed school. We had to be very forceful with him just to get the driver to pull over so I could shoot some photos. Clearly, there was no way any police were going to detain 3 American journalists on the day of the Opening Ceremonies, so we had no worries. What I guess we didn’t think about was what could happen to Alex after we leave.

We stopped for some food. A bowl of noodles with beef. I don’t want to tell you how cheap this huge bowl was, just in case the expense police are watching. Let’s just say, you can buy a can of coke in NJ for what we paid for dinner. The noodles were just awesome. Alex showed us how to roll the noodles with chopsticks. I think Politi went with the 2-handed method.

We’re staying in Chengdu tonight. The Shangri La Hotel is a step or 20 above the Super 8 in Beijing. I’m never leaving.

Ever.

Wine in Beijing? Absolutely.

So, while our other photographer Andy Mills and reporter Kevin Manahan treked out to Qinhuangdao for the US women’s soccer match, which was a 5 hour bus ride, each way, Politi and I had a little less on our plates. I spent the day tearing apart the schedule, trying to plan our coverage, then checked out the swimming/diving venue. After that, we were able to hit the Kodak/Nikon party. Who woulda thunk you could get a great glass of wine in China? Politi and I were relaxing on shiny orange leather couches with some of the best (free) wine I’ve had in a long time. We do both feel guilty. Especially since when they finally got back to Beijing, there were no busses to get them to the hotel! I can’t imagine they are going to excited to see the photo above. I heard they were getting back to the hotel as we were waking up.

One thing I’ve noticed, there are paramilitary everywhere. They stand at attention all day long. They are spaced along the outer perimeter of the fencing outside the venues. As if the fence was not enough to hold someone back.  The guy above, he was guarding nothing.

Day 4, finally made it to a venue.

Wow, been here four days already. Feels like I’ve been here a month. We finally made it over to the aquatic center. They have an underwater window in the pool, so I shot a few frames of some synchronized swimming practice. The water cube is a kick ass building. We unfortunately got to see the outside last night, when our cab driver dropped us off 2 miles from the Main Press Center. Traffic was just brutal. Our cabbie spoke no english, we speak no chinese, so despite the taxi card I had, which had the address written in chinese, he got lost. We should have known better when he looked at the taxi card for the 10th time. He kept turning it sideways and upside down. Steve was trying to communicate with him. He thought if he spoke slower and louder, that somehow our driver would suddenly understand english. We had to walk back. It was about 8:00, so it was dark, but it was still probably 85 degrees. As if climbing the Great Wall wasn’t enough exercise in the morning, we got another workout in.

We were coming back from shooting a video of Politi at the DongHuaMen Night Market, where he consumed some snake, fried silk worms and a fried cicada. I tried the snake, which could have been worse. But it was pretty strange, and I could have done without. Check out the video. I think he’s still tasting the cicada.

And if you haven’t seen Andy’s video of our trip to the wall, check it out.

Charlie Wenzelburg of the NY Post shot this cool photo of me near that window in the pool. He shot it with the Nikon D3 to show me how amazing the low light quality is. Let me tell you, it was dark in there. The detail in this photo is just mind blowing.

Great Wall and chicken.

The wall was great. Five of us hired a tour to take us on the 70km trip to Mutianyu. Once you get to the wall, there’s a pretty steep walk, probably half a mile, straight up hill. There’s a cable car from there to the wall, or you could walk. Before we got there, I swore I would walk it.

I changed my mind.

Manahan and Mills walked up with a video camera. Manish, Politi and I took the cable car. Clearly, we made the better decision. Here’s why. Once you actually get to the wall, it’s still a heck of a hike. Up and down hills on rocky terrain. Sprained ankle territory. We walked a good distance from the cable car, maybe a mile. The other two guys just made it to where the cable car dropped us off. Maybe they walked a little farther than us, but if you asked them, you’d think they scaled Everest.

The wall was pretty cool, but the walk down was even better. The steep slope is lined with little tents that act as shops. You can’t walk 2 feet without being harassed “t-shirt, one dollar!” Shirts that said “I climbed the Great Wall” But they were lying. I didn’t buy a t-shirt, but I did buy a set of chopsticks. Hand carved, she said. Probably BS, but they were cool. I should win a medal for bartering. I paid 20CNY (about $3) for the 5 pairs of chopsticks. The woman was trying to sell them for 280CNY ($42USD) but I wasn’t crazy. I kept walking away, she kept lowering the price, 140, 100, 50, 30. So I showed her a 20CNY bill. She looked defeated, but took the money and handed me the box of sticks. Uncle Eddie would be proud. But I know if he were here, he probably would have got them for 10. I felt better when our guide Steven agreed that I got a good deal

We stopped at a roadside restaurant on the way back to Beijing. Stephen ordered. Quite the ordeal. He ran some suggestions by us. Beef with five flavors, chicken stewed in mushrooms, spicy green beans, Chairman Mao’s favorite pork, and some sort of lamb dish. Oh, and fish. A local fish that he struggled to find an english translation for, but compared it to cod. Oh, and plain white rice for Manish. I think it’s the only thing he’s eaten in 3 days. So we place the order. Minutes later, our waitress walks across the parking lot. She had a big 3 pound fish hanging from a hook in her hands. Seriously, she walked across the parking lot, caught our lunch, then walked it to the kitchen right in front of us. I wish I had a photo of it.

The food was great. By far the best meal we’ve had here, and I think the food has been pretty good. The lamb and the green beans were just awesome. The chicken, tasty. I dug in for what looked like a hunk of the leg, so I moved it to my bowl. I repositioned it in my chopsticks, and looked for a way to attack it, then I noticed something.

It was not a leg.

How do you say taxi in Chinese?

Rough night of sleep. My bed is, well, firm. Imagine putting a sheet over your granite countertop. The room was an ice box. But that’s not my fault, the remote for the air conditioner is Chinese. Didn’t think I’d need an interpreter to use the A/C.

So, breakfast. From an American standpoint, it didn’t look like breakfast. An egg, with what might have been bacon and what they called “chicken sausage.” Looked more like raw hot dogs to me. Bread with no crust, because even the people of China knows white bread is better with no crusts. I am afraid they haven’t embraced the toaster like we Americans have. I tried it all, figuring worst case, there would be an incident that would require me to tap into the bag full of imodium that I brought. Better to figure that out while there’s no events going on. So far, so good. After checking in at the press center, buying internet access, (which is still blocking sites, like this one!) and trying to decipher the transportation guide, we grabbed lunch. Mills and I went Chinese. Noodles and some beef. Some condiments that didn’t look that appetizing, but tasted pretty good. Though, we thought it smart to not eat what appeared to be some sort of seasoned worms or grubs. Whatever it was, we passed. The food was quite good. Our colleagues, not as adventurous. They got McDonalds.

Apparently, tastes the same as it does in NJ. I hope to not find out.

Next, we went to the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. That, according to our friends at the transportation desk required us to take Olympic Bus #2. We thought about taking a cab, but there are 5 of us, so we’d need two cabs. And we speak zero Chinese, so we went with the bus. Today, we learned how they fit all those people on the train …

It looked like a hike on the map, but it seems to take longer when you’re sandwiched between 2000 Chinese people. The driver was an angry woman.

Even though the bus was totally full, she’d try to sandwich another 20 people on. Then she’d yell at them for being in front of the yellow line. Seriously. Not taking the public buses ever again.

Tianamen was pretty awesome. It was just huge. Must have walked 10 miles. I totally brought too much crap, but since I had to shoot video, too, didn’t have much choice.

There’s just something about seeing the portrait of Mao on the front of the Tianamen Gate. This was clearly a special place. But after a while, I noticed people staring at us. It was clear they were wondering about the strange white people. We were posing for pictures with people all over the place. I think they thought Politi was Bruce Jenner. I think he even signed an autograph. A local Chinese TV station even interviewed him today. Tomorrow, we conquer the Great Wall.