My 2 days off

I had Monday and today off and it has been a great 2 days. I was able to get tickets to see wheelchair basketball and I was finally able to make it inside the Birds Nest.

During the day on Monday I went to Tiananmen Square. The square is directly across from Forbidden City. It really is a sight to see...it is huge. For the olympics they made these flower gardens that were really cool. I took a million pictures so you can see.

Monday night was the basketball game. All seats for paralympics are general admission which creates such a nightmare. Everyone pushes and shoves to begin with so just imagine a few thousand people trying to get the best seat. We got lucky and found 2 seats at center court. The game is pretty fun to watch. It is impressive how atheltic they are while being in a wheelchair. I also bought tickets for wheelchair rugby this Saturday night which should be interesting.

This morning I woke up pretty early because I bought a ticket to see athletics. I wasn't really interested in seeing any special event I just wanted to get inside the Birds Nest. Let me tell you, it is as cool as it looks on tv. It is such an awesome building. Walking into it I had the same feeling I get when I walk into Citizens Bank Park for Opening Day or the first time I ever went to Yankee Stadium. You walk in and get chills because the stadium is so huge and all the best athletes were under this roof for 2 weeks. I wandered around for about an hour or so and took some really cool pictures.

My two days off have been great but kind of ended on a bad note. I was told my last day of work would be the 22nd. Today I got an email that said I can't stop work on the 22nd. They said I could have off the 23-26th and then work the 27-30th. There isn't much I can do and because I have to work the last few days I won't be able to travel anywhere. The whole plan was to have 8 days off and spend 4 days in Beijing seeing the things I haven't seen yet and then 2 days in Shanghai and 2 days in a province just south of Shanghai. They also told me I need to work the 30th. I fly out the 30th so that does not make any sense. They claim I can't have time off because they really need my help with closing AV down. I can't see one person making all the difference...to say the least I am really pissed.

I updated my pictures just now. As promised I took a picture of the alley that the student claimed was so small and the wall he backed up itno.

For those of you keeping track..and I am sure there are a few of you....I will be home 3 weeks from today!