Joy - Day 4, Tennis

Day 4-Hanging out with the Sistahs
by Joy Dickson, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 9:35pm

It is not everyday you get to say that you risked sun stroke and heat exhaustion to watch Venus and Serena Williams compete in the Olympics, so I am going to take advantage of this opportunity and share my experience. Once again, I had no intention of going to see Tennis, but a friend of mine's brother was unable to go and I took his ticket.

I felt more confident with navigating the subway station after spending a good part of my day on it yesterday. I also learned that if your Olympic ticket does not match the venue that you are attempting to go to you are not allowed on subway 8. Those friendly volunteers that assisted me through the security check point yesterday FIRMLY told us to go get on the bus. Ironically there are no security check points before you get on the bus (didn't the officials see the movie the Interpreter?)- just signs that say don't bring on dangerous items. And unlike the subway, the bus was packed. Fortunately,the government informed the bus drivers that they are not allowed to slam on the brakes as hard as they can thus forcing passengers to fall onto of each other. One advantage of taking the bus was that it gave you the opportunity to see all of the Olympic Village venues and where the athletes are staying. For the first time in three years, I saw members of the Beijing SWAT team.

We had great tickets, centre court in the venue known as the Flower. When we arrived I was shocked to see how empty the stands were. Peng Shuai and Alize Cornet were competing. My friend, Auria, was disappointed because we had great seats but the people we were watching were duds. So she and I decided to go get refreshments and we noticed that there was a crowd standing around a smaller court and low and behold, there was Serena Williams. Auria and I snuck in until we were asked for our tickets.

Oh, on a side note one major criticism that I have to share and I know that this has not been talked about in the media yet, is the quality of the refreshments. We are not allowed to bring anything in from the outside. Coke and Mickey D's are the official sponsors, yet the snacks are horrible. Beverages are fine. IF you are hungry your choices are snickers bars (the original size not the American size), beef drippings flavored chinese style potato chips, chinese saltines, a hot dog bun without the hot dog, small individual packages of oreos, stale "kettle corn" flavored microwaveable popcorn, ice cream, and peach yogurt. There were also very few places that sold Olympic memorabilia. The Mickey D's that are available are not conveniently located near the actual venues.

Ok, back to the match. On our second run for beverages, Auria and I took a closer look at the schedule board and noticed that Venus was up next. We were so excited. And I must say Venus did not disappoint at all. She played a woman from Czchek. It was soooooo hot, I was beginning to get sick. Of course Venus won.

On the way back we were so surprised at how orderly people were when boarding the bus. A few folks tried to cut the line but were told to get in line. I don't know if I was more shocked that someone told them to get to the back of the line or the fact that someone actually did it. I spent six months riding public transportation in Beijing and politeness and consideration did not exist. It was first come first serve or you got left.

We had lunch at our favorite Persian restaurant, Rumi. When we arrived it was full of people from Kuwait, Iran and other Middle Eastern Countries. They were watching the shooting competitions. Ironically, the two people that we sat next to at the tennis match sat down next to us and we had a good time talking and exchanging Olympic and tennis stories. During that conversation, I learned that one of them was told that the Great Wall has been shut down to tourist until the 18th because the part of the route for the cyclist competition is either on or near the Wall. I felt for her because, this was the first time she has ever been to China and she won't get a chance to see the wall. We gave her some suggestions on other spots she could attempt to see it.

As I was walking home from the restaurant, I got caught up in foot traffic because I live down the street from one of the venues, Worker's Stadium, so a ten minute walk home turned into thirty. But at least I got a chance to see more people from various countries and experience the energy. When I finally got home I collapsed.

I have a lead on a ticket to boxing, if it works out I will go if not, I will be content with what I have experienced thus far. So stay tuned...