they "give a shit about the Olympics."

I met a guy and his father on the subway who had waited 3 days and 3 nights in line for swimming finals tickets. "China gives a shit about the Olympics," he said to me. He was so excited to be able to go to these finals. He and his father were from a different province in China and slept/lived on the concrete sidewalk in front of the ticket office for three whole days. When We had met them on the subway they were on their way to the history museum. It is amazing what people here will do for a simple swimming heat even if it is more than that.

The past week or so I have been consumed by Press Operations training. For some reason we have to come in every day and spend about half of the day doing nothing. I don't get it, but apparently that is how things work here. Training has gotten more relevant, however.

I actually ate lunch with a bunch of the volunteers today. We get free lunch, but we have to eat it in the cafeteria. I followed my group in and sat with them during lunch. I was the only person in the building that wasn't Chinese. I never thought it would feel like it did either. I completely know how foreigners feel like now. I was in a strange place all by myself with a language barrier separating me from comprehension. I could feel eyes all around me and there was no escaping it, so I talked to people. It was kind of like an awakening. It was good for me.

I have been talking to the Chinese volunteers a lot. I have gotten more of a culture shock from being at work and talking to them than any of the other places I have been thus far. I think it is because they really are just like us, only not like us. They are college students and all, but their perspective is so much different. They all know what they want to do in the future, how far they want to go in school, who they want to be. They DON'T (well, rarely) fail out of school, either. They seem to understand the concept of money far better than American students who can piss away so much money failing their college classes. They also do what they're told. They don't complain, and they make the best of things. Granted some of the reasoning for the obedience is fear, but a lot of it is cultural habit. They live so much differently here.

I want to say something to all of those people that said I dyed my hair to fit in to the culture here. I definitely DO NOT fit into the culture. People stare. All the time. There seems to be no decency rule for staring. People just do it and don't stop. I can have sunglasses on (to shield the blue eyes), be in my volunteer uniform (like the thousands of other Chinese volunteers), be completely confident in where I am going and people will still stare. I have started to smile back at them, wave, say hello and take pictures. It is getting quite ridiculous.