WE WERE THERE!!

Two words: Opening Ceremony! Much to our surprise, we were able to go and be a part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony! Tickets had been sold out for months and we had just accepted the fact that we weren't going to be two of the privileged 90,000 people that had tickets. Much to our surprise, on the afternoon of the ceremony, a friend called with two extra passes. Yes, we got to go... the chance of a lifetime.

At the Ceremony...

And some Olympic Events...

At least they give you free ponchos when an event is rained out!

It was an added bonus to get to see the US compete...here are two of the

women beach volleyball players

Cheerleaders during technical timeouts, who knew?

Nadal...

Federer...

...and Venis...not too bad for one night!!

We got to see first hand why Usain got nicknamed "Lightning" Bolt!

Even with nose bleed seats, we still managed to get Chase to come to town

Phil (friend), Chase (Hayley's brother), Beccy (friend and co-worker), Hayley, and Aaron in front of the all-lit-up Bird's Nest

Did someone say the Olympics were coming to town?!? There's been some news of it in these parts for sure! After much anticipation, we are now the proud owners of legit Olympic tickets! With the games less than a week away, we were beginning to worry and wonder if we would actually get to be a part of all the craziness going on around here. After standing in line (well, sort of a line) for some beach volleyball tickets just to find out they were sold out, we came to the realization that we were probably going to have to wait until the day of the event and possibly scalp tickets. Much to our excitement, Aaron got word of tickets that would only be available for a few hours, and sure enough, he got us some! We will be going to beach volleyball after all, as well as boxing, tennis, and the finals of the Track and Field 100m men's race...actually the same race I (Hayley) got to see at the 1996 games in Atlanta! To finish it off, we'll be at the Gold Metal Baseball game. We can't wait!!

Here are a few more pictures to update you on life here...

Making dumplings (jiaozi) with our Care for Children coworkers, which were great by the way!

Aaron and I had a really fun date in HouHai last weekend. It was nice walking around and then having dinner overlooking the lake. Definitely a place we will visit again.

The night view around HouHai Lake was nice as well.

Who knew you could get cotton candy in China...

and in "7 different smells" too (take a look at the sign)!!

It wouldn't have been right to have been in the same city as a Wal-mart Supercenter and not visit it soon after we got here! This was another experience of last weekend. Sam would have been proud!

I bought a bike last week, and all by myself :) Never having had bought a bike in China before, I thought waiting for Aaron sounded much more appealing, but once my teacher made writing about the experience homework for me, there was no turning back. I'm now the proud owner of Big Green!

We spent all day yesterday (Saturday) at the Botanical Gardens.

Having a picnic with friends at the Botanical Gardens

Visiting the Sleeping Buddha temple

Feeding a few fish...more like thousands of fish!! All in about 100 degree weather!!

Completing the day with a really nice meal of Muslim (XinJiang) food brought back some good memories for Aaron and just provided some good food for me!

It's always a nice surprise when something free is included during a meal, even if it's a concert!!

BICF (Beijing International C. Fellowship) is still a highlight of each week, and something we hope to continue to get more and more plugged into as we settle in.

Aaron enjoying some of our favorite things...gong bao ji ding (chicken and peanuts) and si ji dou (green beans). Yum!

Things I only wish I had gotten pictures of last week: finding, buying and cooking fried okra in China, and watching the Ayi (or helper) at Care for Children eat the Oreo crust of my grandmother's famous Black Bottom Pie with chopsticks! Priceless memories!

Thanks for keeping us updated on your lives and again for all the emails, calls, and prayers! We've been much busier than expected, so sorry for some of the long delays in getting back to you! As they say here in Beijing, things are supposed to slow down after the Olympics, yeah right!

We'll be in touch soon!