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We had been told by our China Daily hosts that the best time to go to the Olympic Sports Center was at night. The area, especially the Water Cube where American Michael Phelps won gold medal after gold medal, would be nicely lit.

The Cube and National Stadium (aka the Bird's Nest) were beautifully lit, still giving off that Olympic aura felt during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The sheer immensity and grandeur of the Sports Center really shows the pride the Chinese feel for their nation. The Olympics must have been another one of those instances were China "stood up," as Chairman Mao stated on October 1, 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China...

Erica Redline
5/28/2009 04:35:56 am

Hi, Brandon!

I heard about you through the grapevine from one of your parents. Apparently they used to work with Jeff James at Tamaqua HS; Jeff was my junior high school principle at Jim Thorpe and now works with my mom at the JT distric office. Anyway, I'm also a graduate of Penn State (MatSE '06) and now a graduate student at the University of Minnesota.

The reason I'm writing is because I'm actually heading to Beijing June 1 - July 13 for some research. I have no idea where I'm staying yet, but I thought it would be good to contact a fellow Penn Stater. I do know that I'll be somewhere near Beijing and Tsinghua Universities. I don't speak a word of Chinese so this should be interesting! (I couldn't turn down an all-expenses paid trip to China!) My boyfriend/fellow graduate student will be with me (also a PSU grad, MatSE '06). Perhaps we can meet up for a beer one night? I think you can get my email address from this comment, but if not I'm going to stalk you on PSU's website and shoot you an e-mail. Hopefully that's not too creepy!

Erica

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5/28/2009 10:31:46 am

Brandon:

I want you to know that this old China hand is enjoying your blog entries. Keep up the good work. The college of comm has linked to your blog so I'm hoping others are following your stories.

Erica: I taught at Tsinghua University in 2005. It's a nice area. You'll even find a Mexican restaurant nearby but I recommend you eat Chinese at Chinese restaurants. If you have questions about China, you can contact me at [email protected].

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dancingathalftime
5/29/2009 05:59:45 am

Damn homie. U gotta take more pictures.... and ur blog is much different from mine... urs is educational, hahahahaha

Did they let u inside of the place though?

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