Estoy aqui. Beijing ain't too bad.

This is a copy of the email I sent out after my first week in Beijing. If you've already read it, thanks.

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Good morning.

Circumstances have required that I temporarily nix the blog and go with a more traditional, old fashioned way of communicating...email. Access to any wordpress blog (the site I'm using to host it) is completely blocked in China, as are many blogs and other sites. It's really weird, but that's why they call it the Great Firewall. I'm going to create a new blog on a website that I can actually post to, then we can abandon this archaic medium of human communication.

So, I am here. This is day six, and it's been insane. Nonetheless, I'll do my best to be brief (yea right...Bennett?).

Olympics:

There are scalpers everywhere. With some persistence and international negotiating tactics (i.e. shaking your head and/or walking away), you can find your way into some great events. This city is 100% Olympicized (my word unless it actually exists). It's pretty intense and everything one would expect. There's no way for me to describe other than to say that it's everywhere.

My hostel is next to two of the Olympic venues. As soon as I got here, I put down my gear and went for a walk to see what I could find. Within 10 minutes I had bought tickets to the flyweight boxing prelims for $12 from some American. Incredibly easy. Then, with all the chatter around the area, I found out the USA-Spain basketball game was on the other side of town. I immediately jumped in a cab to try my luck. No one was outside the venue. Turns out the night was a double-header and everyone had already gone in to see China play Germany. No scalpers, no luck. However, things changed drastically when China lost. A really nice guy left and offered me his ticket to go back in for the USA game. I ended up six rows back. Out of control. Luck reversed.

Two nights ago I was walking past the soccer stadium next to the hostel. I saw tons of Brazilian jerseys and kept walking. I then saw Argentine jerseys and knew that this was a game I had to go to. Tickets had a face value of about $30, but were going for around $150. There was no way I was going to pay that much. I mean, the game sounds good, but I'm American, and I don't care THAT much. Still, I wanted to go. I found a student who had gotten his ticket for $1.50 from his university. I paid the $30 face value, he made a nice profit, and I enjoyed the game. Kobe was there and everyone freaked out. Argentina won 3-0. They've never won a medal (so I hear), so this is their big opportunity. They should win it against Nigeria.

Tonight I'm going to head over to the Bird's Nest and try and catch some of the track & field finals. Anyone see that crazy Jamaican Bolt set the world record in both the 100m and 200m sprint? Insane. Some say his celebration was excessive. I say he's having an awesome time, as he should.

I really want to see ping pong. Just to say I did. We'll see.

Everything Else:

Most importantly, I'm really happy. I'm meeting really incredible people every day, and I'm not having a difficult time traveling on my own at all. Then again, things might change once I get out of a big city like Beijing. Although it's very Chinese, it's still familiar enough for a fairly easy transition. I mean, not too easy. I'm definitely forced to butcher the Chinese language on a fairly consistent basis. We'll see what happens when I get to Mongolia and beyond.

I spent two days riding a bike around the city. Beijing is massive, but I orientated myself pretty well. A nice Chinese lady saw me as we were stopped at a light. She just started talking to me in English. Turns out that Helen lives in Toronto and loves giving advice. We rode and talked until I stumbled upon a basketball court. She rode off and I played a few games with the locals. I have to say I started out feeling as out of place as Woody Harrelson in White Men Can't Jump. I laughed about it and had a great time.

Haven't done too many of the touristy things yet. I'm planning on going to the Forbidden City tomorrow. It's an all-day thing from what I hear. I've just been getting lost, meeting people, getting advice, and eating very inexpensively. A few days ago I went to the art distrcit (798), a very cool area full of galleries in the north-east part of Beijing. Originally the gov't was going to tear it down, but I hear that they are really showcasing it now to highlight the cultural diversity in China. An American girl working at one of the galleries told me that more money is flowing in and out of there than any other city in the world. That's crazy.

Met up with a friend from Syracuse who is interning for NBC during the Olympics. Brian Greene and I went to the USA House (many of the countries have a hq), which I have to say, sucked. Very private. You had to have a guest pass to go in. We could only see the store. That night I went with some people from the hostel to Holland House. There, everyone is welcome, the party lasts all night, and it's sponsored by Heineken (of course). Why doesn't the US want people to party?

I'm going to see Beijing's biggest punk band, Brain Failure, on Friday. Haha.

In the midst of all the crazy things going on, I am still definitely finding time to sit and relax. With this (incredibly lucky) moment in time that I have, the moments I keep to myself are just as, if not more, important than the ones I take pictures of and recount to you all.

As such, I made a rule the first day I explored the city on bike - no pictures. I didn't want to get wrapped up in trying to capture everything I saw as a .jpeg. It was actually pretty liberating to not keep reaching for a camera. I could just ride around, keep my eyes open, and enjoy how absolutely ridiculous this place really is. I'll definitely do a lot more days like that. I'll have enough pictures as is.

It's actually pretty difficult to write this email, deciding what to leave out for the sake of brevity...and I know, this isn't brief. Still, I'll just wrap up by saying that even less than a week in, I know this is going to be the greatest experience of my life.

Thank you so much to the people who have helped me prepare for this trip in any way. Advice, contacts, support, love, all of it. And a special thanks to Adam and Eli, whose generosity has let me call their couch my own. Family - I love you all very much.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Sterling

NB: Email me anytime if you want me to say hi, tell me I write too much, change the email address I'm using, or remove you. If you're getting this email for the first time, then I went through my contacts and decided to reach out to see if you might be interested in what I'm up to. If you are unaware, I am traveling through Asia for five months before moving to NYC in February.