On my own

When we arrived at the hotel in Qingdao I was taken aback with the excellent view of the bay and the city that the hotel room provided. I was first whisked into this huge room that was for all 6 of us. All the guys in one room and the one girl that was with us had her own separate room. Given that much of the experience of this trip I had been wading through with few things spoken in English for me I was getting prepared to stay up all night with the rest of my team. But then out of the blue, Liu Han suggested that she and I switch rooms since she would have to be up all night translating a document from English to Chinese with a few of the other team members. So given that I would be completely useless in this task, as with most things around work, I agreed. When I got down there I was completely ecstatic of the possibility to have not only my own huge room, but satellite TV complete with CNN and a few other English channels, and the bedroom opened up to an amazing view of the bay.



I was told to meet up in the group room at 8am so that we could get breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After breakfast I was told that I’d be on my own for the day since everyone else would have to work on the translation which I would not be able to help out with. I was fine with this prospect given that most of the previous day had been left out of much of all the conversations due to the lack of my Chinese skills.

This day was sunnier than the first day in Qingdao and the heat was absolutely unbearable. Well it wasn’t the heat so much as it was the intense penetrating rays of the sun, far more than in Beijing, I think partly because there was no layer of pollution to block the sun’s powerful rays.

So my walk down this coastal path from the hotel to where the Olympic Regatta would be held for the 2008 Olympics left me a sweaty mess. But at least it was a pleasant walk.