the opening ceremonies

The big day is finally here. The 2008 Olympics are starting! We're going over to Erin Ashley and Andy's to watch the opening ceremonies on television later tonight. One Chinese friend told me that she thinks all 1.3 billion Chinese people will be watching tonight... and she's probably just about right.

Matt and I spend our free time scheming about how to get more event tickets. Our friends Josh and Danielle decided to go to Beijing too, and Josh found Women's Field Hockey tickets - and bought 4, so we are all going together! The tickets include two matches, and one of the teams is the USA, so we're pretty excited to see the USA in a team sporting event. And, my mom sent me a link to an article about the 20-some UNC alumni and students in the olympics - 6 of whom are on the field hockey team. Seeing as I do not have a USA flag t-shirt, I think I'm going to wear some of my UNC gear to the game!

The BIG EVENT that I REALLY want to see is artistic gymnastics on the evening of August 17th - women's floor and vault finals. But, tickets are proving pretty hard to come by... we've checked ebay (1500 USD for a pair) and craigslist with no success, so our current plan is just to wait until we get to Beijing and investigate the situation a little more there.

I'm also starting to plan for our time away from the girls - this is the longest I have ever left either of them, and I'm definitely going to miss them big-time. Every now and then I have a sneaking little doubt that maybe I shouldn't be leaving them for 4 days, but I am so excited about the Olympics, so that balances my doubts a bit. They are staying with Xiao Li, who is great with them, so I don't have a single worry that they will be well taken care of! In fact, they both seem to prefer Chinese food, so I know they'll eat well with her cooking every meal :)