olympic curve

My view of the Olympic opening ceremony was at 140 degrees to a giant LCD screen partially blocked by rigging and lighting equipment. Yes, I was in Beijing, and no, I didn't even see so much as fireworks overhead that night.
I had returned to the hotel that week at the Chinese University of Mining Technology. It took some effort to find it at this point since I had been using all the construction sites as landmarks back in June and I was disoriented when I alit from the metro. No sun was in the sky that week to help either; the night of the ceremony swirled around in a haze the color of oyster flesh as my comrades and I schlepped back from a plaza on the southeast end of town.
The idea- I suppose it had started as one - was to take one of the brand spanking new subway lines to this area which boasted the largest television screen in all of Asia. The ceremony was starting just as we got on the train in freaking Wudaokou and Jacob would poke his head out the doors at every station to see how it was progressing. I'm still blaming him for this though I couldn't let my irritation show as he, his Lebanese girlfriend and Scottish labmate were all good company. It took us well over an hour to arrive at our stop, and perhaps thirty minutes of wandering before we discovered the Herculean display proudly scrolling nothing more than a Coca Cola ad the size of a football field. At the other end of the screen were more smaller screens that were clearly aimed at people who had paid money to sit in front of them. All the songs, acts and pageantry were over and we had to content ourselves standing on the outskirts watching the countries file into the Bird's Nest whilst drinking eight dollar Coronas.

As underwhelming as that experience had been there were plenty of adventures that occupied the other students. Three of them recounted their electric bicycle trip that past Sunday through the Olympic village. They successfully evaded four checkpoints by claiming over their shoulders that they were local residents and made it as far as the new six star hotel a caber toss from the Bird's Nest. That's where they stopped for lunch.
These students were blessed with an inordinate amount of luck to complement their chutzpah. The hotel hadn't really opened yet but was left with a sizeable staff puttering out in the lobby who were more than happy to show the American tourists up to the penthouse restaurant. That far into the building of course had been constructed right up until when the government threw the no-building switch and thus many features were missing. Like wiring and walls and so forth.
The hoteliers didn't have the menu prepared yet so the Americans guessed at dishes until they got lucky with dim sum and broccoli.

When I heard about this escapade on that Thursday I was glad that I had just eaten and that any jealousy-producing enzymes were concerned instead with digesting my vegetarian entrees. Lucky bastards.