Olympic Park (奥林匹克公园)

                                                                    大家好！

Over the past month, I've gone to the Olympic Park (奥林匹克公园) twice. The first time, I was only able to see the National Stadium more commonly referred to as the Bird's Nest (鸟巢). This second time that I went, I went to the just the park. Unfortunately the Water Cube (水立方) was closed. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to see the inside of the Water Cube, but that just means that I will have to come back to China in the future to see it. Right now, the Water Cube is getting ready to become the Ice Cube for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Since I've arrived in China, I've wanted to go to the Olympic Park. I really like watching the Olympics on TV every two years. It is so much fun, and I like seeing countries rallying together for the competitions. Even when things are not going so well between the countries in everyday life, the Olympics are a nice way to have competition in a non lethal way. It was a cool experience getting to go to the Olympic Park and being in a place that I remember seeing on TV so many years ago. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were the first games that I remember actually seeing. Maybe by watching those Olympic Games eleven years ago, I subconsciously decided that one day I would end up in China.

The Olympic Park was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics and in will also serve as the Olympic Park for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. I think that it is really cool that Beijing is reusing the facilities that they've already built for the winter games. Often times, Olympic Parks are abandoned which is a shame after so much money went into building them. So, I think that it is nice to see this Olympic Park getting more use. The Olympic Park is made up of several areas, the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, the National Indoor Stadium or the "Fan" (国家体育馆) the National Speed Skating Oval, (being built for the Winter Games) Olympic Green Convention Center, Olympic Green Hockey Field, Olympic Green Archery Field, Olympic Green Tennis Center, Promenade, Olympic Village, Digital Beijing Building, Ling Long Pagoda, and Beijing Olympic Tower. Like I said, this place is huge. I never thought about how big an Olympic Park would be, but it makes sense that it would be so big.

The Bird's Nest was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The stadium resembles a bird's nest hence the nickname. The opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games were held here and will again be held here in 2022. It was so cool to be sitting in the same seats were people were sitting during the 2008 Olympic Games. I could almost feel the same excitement that everyone who was there must have felt in 2008. Seeing it lit up at night was pretty cool too.

The Water Cube, or now the Ice Cube, hosted the swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming events. I was really sad that I wasn't able to go inside it this time. Not only can you usually go in and see where the events took place but they also converted a part of it into a water park. It would have been so cool to go inside. If I would have went earlier the first time I was there, I would have been able to go in since it wasn't closed yet. That's life I guess. I should be better at planning things by now. The Water Cube will be used for curling in 2022.

The Fan held the handball, artistic gymnastics, and trampoline events. It is called "the Fan" because it resembles a traditional Chinese folding fan. After the 2008 Olympic Games it was used for sports competitions as well as cultural and entertaining purposes. In 2022, it will be used for ice hockey.

In addition to all of the buildings you can visit, there is also a park. I ventured to the park the second time I went to the Olympic Park. This park is also huge. Unfortunately we weren't able to see very much at this park since we got side-track by going kayaking. It was totally worth it though. The Olympic Park has more courts for basketball, tennis, table tennis and so on. It was interesting to see so many people at this park with tents. I'm not entirely sure why they had tents and if you are allowed to camp there. I think that would be pretty cool if you were allowed to camp at the Olympic Park.

I'm really happy that I got to go. I didn't get to see everything but it's pretty hard to see everything. Definitely need to make another trip out there if possible but the semester is winding down. There is so much to do and see in Beijing. I think it's amazing that the Olympic Park still gets use everyday whether that be from tourism or people using the Water Cube for recreational purposes. It's also nice to see it being reused for the Winter Games. It would be cool if other countries took note of this and kept their parks in use and reused them in the future if they were to host the Olympics again. It's such a waste to not have them being used.

That's it for now. And I'll be seeing some of you sooner rather than later.

Until next time!
再见！
郎马乐

Host Family

                                                                        大家好！

So, my first semester in China has ended, but my time in China has only just begun. I moved from 北京 to Shijiazhuang (石家庄) for my winter break. 石家庄 is the capital and largest city of Hebei Province. I am so happy to get the chance to stay with a host family during my winter break. My Chinese friend was kind enough to ask her family if I could stay with them and now here I am living with a Chinese family. It’s been a time. Most times, I’m really confused by what’s going on and I don’t understand everything that’s been said to me. However, I’m really looking forward to improving my Chinese. 

I stayed with my host family for about a month. The first couple of days were very overwhelming as I met everyone. There was 阿姨 (ayi)，叔叔 (shushu)，二姨 (eryi)，小姨 (xiao yi)，姥爷 (laoye)，姥姥 (laolao) and those were just the people that I met on the first day. It felt like every other day I was meeting a new family member. Family is really important in China, and I experienced that first on with my family. They all wanted to talk to me and show me things. At times it was hard because they didn't speak English and I didn't know what to say in Chinese. Another thing that confused me was that I had to change houses three times. They explained why in Chinese but I didn't really understand. It was funny because they would ask me if it was okay that we were going to a different house. Of course it was okay. I just didn't know why. After the first week, we went to one house and we stayed there for the remainder of my stay with them. 

I went to a couple of places in 石家庄. I visited Xi Jinping's old workplace, an ancient town in 石家庄 and a the Hebei Museum. I didn't visit too many places but it was nice to just enjoy a slower pace of life after traveling for a couple of weeks and having school. It was nice to have family meals again and I learned a lot about Chinese lifestyle. After lunch, everyone would take a nap. I quite like this change. I've noticed this at my internship too. After everyone finishes lunch, they have about a half hour to take a quick nap. We would also go for walks after dinner which was nice too. I think we should start to implement these into our lives in America. 

One thing that we did every night was watch the national swimming finals in Hangzhou. My family would always put it on because they knew I could understand it even though it was in Chinese. It was a good way to hang out at the end of the night and we were all able to understand what was going on. Also it was a competition so there was a lot of cheering going for China and the United States (加油!). 

All in all, I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to live with a host family. I can now say that I have a family in China and I hope that one day they can visit me in America. 

Until next time!

再见！
郎马乐